Gothic architecture in France, England, and Italy . part of the vaulting of a church was the new vaultingsystem of construction with rib and panel found more pkJ|convenient than in the circular ambulatory that sur-rounded the apse and in the apsidal chapels openingfrom it. On this irregular plan, where no two arches inthe circular walls of the bay were equal, and no two setsof vaulting surfaces were alike, the intersecting lines of1 Illustrated in my Byz. and Romanesque Architecture % vol. 1. plate XLIV. on circular 44 THE GOTHIC VAULT [CH. Ill Brioude unequal cylindrical and sometimes conoid
Gothic architecture in France, England, and Italy . part of the vaulting of a church was the new vaultingsystem of construction with rib and panel found more pkJ|convenient than in the circular ambulatory that sur-rounded the apse and in the apsidal chapels openingfrom it. On this irregular plan, where no two arches inthe circular walls of the bay were equal, and no two setsof vaulting surfaces were alike, the intersecting lines of1 Illustrated in my Byz. and Romanesque Architecture % vol. 1. plate XLIV. on circular 44 THE GOTHIC VAULT [CH. Ill Brioude unequal cylindrical and sometimes conoid surfaces weredistorted and twisted so much as to be not only unsightlybut insecure. Fig. 15 shows the effect of these inter-penetrations in the vaulting of the ambulatory at Brioudein Auvergne, which could only be made safe by verycareful masonry at the groining lines involving difficultgeometrical problems, for every stone had to be accuratelyshaped to a different winding plane. This difficultydisappeared when ribs of a true arch form were turned. Aislevaults atS. Denis Fig. 15 from from point to point, and the irregular winding of thepanels between them was not only disguised by theregular curve of the ribs, but became of little consequence;for the panels being relieved of any structural duty, hadonly to carry themselves, and could repose securely onthe skeleton of the ribs. In Fig. 16 is shown the plan of one bay of theambulatory with its apsidal chapel at S. Denis, where CH. Ill] THE GOTHIC VAULT 45
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Keywords: ., bookauthorjacksont, bookcentury1900, bookdecade1910, bookyear1915
