Page:History of Architecture in All Countries Vol 1.djvu/595

 Bk. II. Ch. X. PILLAKS. 563 CHAPTER X. CONTENTS. Gothic details — Pillars — Windows — Circular windows — Bays — Vaults — But- tresses — Pinnacles — Spires — Decoration — Construction — Furniture of churches — Domestic architecture. ALTHOUGH in the preceding pages, in describing the principal churches of France, mention has been made of the various changes of detail which took place from the time of the introduction of the pointed style till its abandonment in favor of the revived classical, still it seems necessary to recapitulate the leading changes that were introduced. This will be most fitly done before we leave the subject of French architecture, that being on the whole the most complete and harmonious of all the pointed styles, as well as the earliest. Pillars. Of these details, the first that arrests the attention of the inqiiirer is the form of the pillars or piers used in the Middle Ages, inasmuch as it is the feature that bears the most immediate resemblance to the typical forms of preceding styles. Indeed, the early pillars in the Tound-arched style were virtually rude imitations of Roman originals, made so thick and heavy as to bear without apparent stress the whole weiglit of the arches they supported, and of the supexincumbent wall. This increase of the weight laid upon the pillars, and consequently in their strength and heaviness, was the great change introduced into the art of building in the early round Gothic style. With the same requirements the classic architects either must have thickened their ]iil]ars immensely, or coupled them in some way. Indeed, the Romans, in such buildings as the Colosseum, placed the pillars in front and a pier behind, which last was the virtual support of the wall. The Gothic architects improved on this by adding a pillar, or rather a half pillar, on each side, to receive the pier arches, and carrying ud those behind and in front to su])port the springing of the vault or roof, instead of the useless entablature of the Romans. By this means the pier became in plan what is represented in Figs. 1 and 2 in the diagram (Woodcut No. 414). Sometimes it was varied, as represented in Fig. 3, where the angle-shafts were only used to lighten the apparent heaviness of the central mass ; in other examples both these modes are combined, as in Fig. 4, which not only construct-