Page:Charles Moore--Development and Character of Gothic Architecture.djvu/68

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GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
CHAP.

of the great vaulting group ascend without interruption to the springing of the high vaults; and the whole pier is built up of coursed masonry, admirably cut and closely jointed. The intermediate pier consists, on the ground-story, of a plain round column, from whose capital rise three slender vaulting shafts to support the intermediate transverse rib and the two clerestory ribs, the two ground-story archivolts and the transverse and diagonal ribs of the aisle vaults.

FIG. 17.

The arches of the great arcade are pointed and of one order. The triforium arches are also pointed, and are of two orders—the one not concentric with the other, an unusual arrangement, but one which occurs also in the apse of St. Denis. These triforium arches are carried by monolithic shafts, compactly grouped with the pier, and are not divided. Figures 18 and 19, an elevation and a section of one double bay, will afford a clearer idea than words can do of the character of this structure. And the perspective view (Fig. 20) of the opposite bay [1] will convey some impression of the

  1. These illustrations include only what remains of the original construction. The clerestory piers and vaulting are, therefore, wanting, and the wall is left incomplete in the section because subsequent alterations have obliterated the old design in the parts omitted.