Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/481

 THE MEDIEVAL CATHEDRALS 431 ciows instead of one large aperture. Inside the church the ribs bearing the vaults are not always carried straight up I from the supporting columns, but spring out of the wall at J points high above the floor, and often more ribs are used 1 than are needed, giving a fanlike appearance to the vaulting. i The flying buttress is not employed on so great a scale or with such structural skill. Wooden roofs are still employed I in many cases, although they no longer appear flat, but are ! built in imitation of vaults. For these structural deficiencies ior idiosyncrasies the Early English in part atones by the I beauty of its details, its sharply pointed lancet windows and I blind arcades, its slender shafts and comely capitals, its j intricate mouldings and carvings. Later varieties of English I Gothic are called the ' ' Decorated ' ' and the ' ' Perpendicular ' ' 'styles, respectively. The Romanesque held its own on German soil well into {the thirteenth century. East of the Rhine church edifices ■were as a rule on a humbler scale and in less German • perfect taste than were the great Rhenish ca- an <l Italian thedrals which followed French models more I closely. More wall space is left bare both within and with- jout; the transepts are less distinct, and there is seldom j an ambulatory about the choir; the aisles and nave are sometimes of the same height. In Italy the Gothic style •took the least hold. The apsidal aisle was even more un- 1 common than in Germany and the facade had as little relation to the building behind it as in Early English. The flying buttress was almost never employed, the windows remained small, and in general little constructive genius iwas shown. There was no arched triforium within and a bare expanse of wall appeared in the clear-story. The piers supporting the simple vaulting of the interior were them- selves usually plain and square. The towers continued to be detached campaniles and were not very different from their Romanesque predecessors. North of the Alps, however, the Gothic towers both of France and other lands deserve especial recognition by their height, open arches, and detail of ornamentation. It is diffi-