Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of York: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Archi-Episcopal SeeClutton-Brock, A. (Arthur)
History
Bell's Cathedrals: The Cathedral Church of York: A Description of Its Fabric and A Brief History of the Archi-Episcopal See
Clutton-Brock, A. (Arthur)
York Minster
#The Choir.#--The exterior of the north side of the choir is almost
identical with that of the south; but there are some points of
difference between the four earlier bays east of the transept and the
four later ones west of it. In particular, in the four eastern bays the
triforium passage runs outside instead of inside the building. The
clerestory windows are recessed, and in front of them, running flush
with the buttresses, is a screen of three divisions to each bay (see
illustration, p. 62). The triforium passage, hidden by the roof of the
aisle, runs below the screen and the windows, and between the two. The
mullions dividing the screen run straight up to the battlement. The tops
of the divisions are ornamented with cusped arches of open stonework.
There is a transom crossing the mullions of the screen about one-third
of the way up. It is difficult to say what was the object of this
screen. It must have been included in the original design, and so cannot
have been added afterwards to strengthen the walls. Whether it was a
merely decorative experiment or an architectural device for the purpose
of allowing the walls to be pierced with very large windows for the
display of glass cannot now be decided. The effect from the outside is
not good. The mullions break the surface into too many vertical lines,
and, with the transom, take away from the dignity and purity of outline
of the exterior. Inside, whether by a lucky chance or not, this screen,
by darkening the clerestory windows, has greatly added to the effect of
the wall of glass at the east end. There are also slight points of
difference in the clerestory windows, showing the transitional character
of those in the four eastern bays. The windows of the aisle are
delicately moulded with capitals to their shafts, and are ornamented
with a crocketed gable, ogee-shaped and topped with a prominent finial
rising just above the battlements of the aisle. These battlements are
pierced with cusped circles, below them is a cornice ornamented with
foliage. The buttresses of the aisles are decorated with gargoyles and
crowned with pinnacles of a considerable size with crocketed spires and
finials. The front of these pinnacles is ornamented with characteristic
Perpendicular panelling. The buttresses of the main wall are thin and
plain, and, with the pinnacles, much resemble those of the nave. The
battlements are of pierced stonework of a common Perpendicular pattern.
The eastern transepts do not project beyond the aisles. Their fronts
contain very long windows of five lights, each with three transoms. The
southern one has strong buttresses ornamented with panelling, and
gargoyles at the corners. The northern is much plainer. Their side
windows are like those of the clerestory. Britton conjectures that the
unfinished state of the stonework on the north side of the choir beneath
the window shows that a cloister or other low building was intended in
this part, which was never executed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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