Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/90

Rh advances forward of the other, is caused by the thickening of the arcade spandrel on that side in order to reinforce the great piers of the western tower. The adjustment of this compound abacus to its load could hardly be improved; there is even less unoccupied space here than in the square abacus of the choir already noticed. The form of the compound capital, as shown in the perspective view, is also admirable, the lesser heights of the smaller members being well proportioned to their lesser diameters, and these again harmonising well with the central mass. The entire group is one of the most beautiful, as it is also one of the grandest, in the whole range of Gothic design.

Another mode of reinforcing the lower pier is that which occurs in the nave of Laon (section, Fig. 33), as an exception to the plain round columns which form the prevailing support. In this case five detached monolithic shafts are grouped with the great cylinder, four of them being placed so as to support the angles of the abacus, and the fifth sustaining the central member of the group of vaulting shafts. This is certainly, in many respects, a fine pier, but it is not so compact, nor so consonant with Gothic principles, as that of Paris. It was, therefore, not so well worthy of adoption, and in fact it was not employed elsewhere.

The lower piers (A, Fig. 34) of the choir of Soissons are interesting as being designed on the same general principle as the sixth pier of Paris (B, in the same figure), while exhibiting a marked improvement upon it. Here the engaged column is more slender than at Paris, and instead of an independent abacus to its capital, the octagonal abacus of the great capital is made to project so as to cover it. The engaged column being a part of the original design and not an experimental interpolation, as at Paris, the whole lower pier is so adjusted to the superstructure as to bring this smaller column fairly under the vaulting system to be sustained.