Decorated style
The Decorated Style is a phase in English Gothic architecture that, according to Nikolaus Pevsner, lasted from 1250 to 1370. In England itself this phase is called The Decorated Period , Decorated Gothic or simply Decorated .
The term was originally created by Thomas Rickman in his work "An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of Architecture in England" (1812–1815) and is still in use today. Rickman dated the Decorated from 1307 to 1377, but, as is so often the case with architectural styles, there is overlap between the individual periods, especially in large buildings such as churches and cathedrals, the long construction periods of which could by themselves ensure that different ideals of style in the the same building were expressed.
Style features
In the late 13th century, sacred buildings changed from Early English to Decorated Style. Crucial for this was the introduction of the tracery adopted from the French Gothic, which first appeared in Binham Priory and Westminster Abbey in England. In the early days of the Decorated Style, simpler geometric circular shapes prevailed (Geometric), later convex-concave-curved shapes (Curvilinear) emerged.
A second important stylistic feature is the abundance of decoration, which covers as many surfaces, arches and eyelashes as possible - for example as a leaf pattern. In this need for jewelry one can see a resumption of Anglo-Saxon art traditions. These leaf shapes are not a reproduction of nature, but clearly stylized and are often reminiscent of seaweed . When creating space, the decorated style prefers the unexpected view, especially in diagonal directions.
On the European mainland at the same time the trend towards the rayonnant style , the "ray-shaped style", which lasted from approx. 1260 to 1370, could be observed. He first appeared in the 1230s on the new construction of St. Denis and the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. The English Gothic does not follow this model, but develops decorative elements independently.
The main works of Decorated are the choirs of the cathedral of Bristol (from 1298) and Wells (around 1290-1340), the Lady Chapel and the Vierungs octagon of Ely (1321-1353), The Chapter House , Southwell (end 13 Century), as well as the choir screens in Lincoln and the choir stalls in Exeter.
The star and fan vaulting of Lincoln Cathedral had indeed already left the original cross rib pattern and thus breached the restriction to purely constructive elements that were in use of its resources but still relatively frugal and "classic". In the decorated style - according to the name - this tendency is increased enormously and with the introduction of the Lierne ribs ( secondary ribs neither from the warrior nor from the keystone) at the beginning of the 14th century vault patterns are created that have almost exclusively a decorative function In a continuous chain of rhombuses, the architectural clarity is covered (pattern vaults or mesh vaults). The really load-bearing ribs can often only be recognized by the larger profile thickness or by the size of the keystone at which they end. It was an “experiment without a scheme”, the attempt was made to make the vaults richer, even if it was by using the light and shadow effect of strongly profiled ribs .
The view was no longer directed from yoke to yoke, but rather followed the "origin" of the pattern and went from fighter to fighter. These were the new pivots of the vault design. That doesn't mean that the decorative game got lost in details. On the contrary, one can speak of a tendency towards the merging of individual rooms, which is particularly evident in St. Peter's Cathedral (Exeter) in the absence of a crossing tower and thus an uninterrupted nave (in contrast to the later Perpendicular ).
See also
literature
- Luise Behling: Shape and history of the tracery . Hall 1944.
- Henning Bock : The Decorated Style. Investigations into the English cathedral architecture of the first half of the 14th century . Heidelberg 1962.
- Hans J. Böker: English sacred architecture of the Middle Ages . Darmstadt 1984.
- Francis Bond: Gothic Church Architecture . London 1905.
- Jean Bony: The English Decorated Style. Gothic Architecture Transformed 1250-1350 . New York 1979.
- Alec Clifton-Taylor: The Cathedrals of England . London 1967.
- Nicola Coldstream: The Decorated Style. Architecture and Ornament, 1240-1360 . British Museum Press 1999, ISBN 0-7141-2734-5 .
- Paul Frankl: Gothic Architecture . Harmondsworth 1963.
- Günter Kowa: Architecture of the English Gothic . Cologne 1990.
- Geoffrey Webb: The Decorated Character of Westminster Abbey. In: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. XII, 1949, pp. 16-20.
swell
- ↑ Nikolaus Pevsner , John Fleming, Hugh Honor (ed.): Lexikon der Weltarchitektur. Prestel, Munich 1971, ISBN 3-7913-0319-8 , p. 222.
- ↑ Henning Bock: The Decorated Style. Investigations into the English cathedral architecture of the first half of the 14th century . Heidelberg 1962.