Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/262

Rh The practically endless variations of arch profiles which characterise this style need not be examined further, as they consist merely in unessential changes of details. They are, for the most part, merely fanciful, and rarely show any fine artistic qualities. The minute subdivisions and the frequent introduction of narrow fillets, which became constant by the middle of the thirteenth century, produce a hard and linear effect unpleasing to an eye that has become accustomed to the simple and appropriate profiles of the Continent. The greater simplicity of the mouldings in Bishop Hugh's choir at Lincoln is in agreeable contrast with the subdivided contours of the mouldings in the presbytery of the same church; with which the comparison is easily made, since both may be viewed from the same position.

The profiles of vault ribs are not materially different from those of other arches. In the choir of Lincoln the principal ribs of the aisle vaults are almost identical in section with the sub-orders of the pier arches. In this same choir, however, another profile (Fig. 156) occurs which, if it be a part of the original construction, is of curious interest, as exhibiting a character much like that of the vault ribs of Amiens and Beauvais. The likeness to these French ribs is in the large round and filleted lower member. This member does not, I believe, appear in France before 1220, and if the rib of Lincoln be a part of the original construction it furnishes an instance of its earlier use in this building. If this be so, it is not impossible that the corresponding profiles in France were derived from England. Indeed, it is altogether probable that there was after the twelfth century, in matters of detail, more or less reaction of the art of the island upon that of the Continent. As the French appear to have derived their first ideas of sexpartite vaulting from the Normans, they would naturally continue to profit by whatever new features might be devised in either