Early Renaissance Architecture in England: A Historical & Descriptive Account of the Tudor, Elizabethan, & Jacobean Periods, 1500-1625Gotch, J. Alfred (John Alfred)
History
Early Renaissance Architecture in England: A Historical & Descriptive Account of the Tudor, Elizabethan, & Jacobean Periods, 1500-1625
use of the foreign forms had progressed during the thirty years that
had elapsed since Fox's time. Even here, however, the pinnacle at the
corner--the head of a heraldic animal on a pedestal--shows how the
designer was unwilling or unable to shake off all the trammels of his
native style.
[Illustration: 21.--CANOPY OF STALLS, HENRY VII.'S CHAPEL,
WESTMINSTER.]
At Basing Church, in Hampshire, there is yet another example of the
same limited use of Italian detail in the Paulet tombs, which are
constructed in the thickness of the side-walls of the chancel (Plate
VII.). The arches over the tombs and the doorway in the wall are all
flat-pointed, and the spandrils are filled with Renaissance carving,
which, in the case of the large arches, surrounds the arms of the
founder. Except for these touches, and for the cresting along the top,
which recalls that at Winchester, the detail is all Gothic. The large
panel in the wall over the doorway seems to be of later date.
[Illustration: PLATE VII.
PART OF SCREEN, ST. CROSS, WINCHESTER (PROBABLY DUE TO BISHOP FOX, WHO
DIED 1528.)
PAULET TOMB, BASING CHURCH, HAMPSHIRE.]
Another interesting piece of work of this period is found in the stalls
of Henry VII.'s chapel at Westminster. The canopies (Fig. 21) are quite
Gothic in character, but of a rather florid description, and although
there is no actual Renaissance detail, there is a tendency towards
it. The caps of the pilasters are also Late Gothic, while the columns
are of that honeycomb pattern which is a sign of change towards the new
fashion (Fig. 22). There is woodwork of a somewhat similar character at
Winchester in Langton's chapel, and in Prior Silkstede's pulpit (1520).
The Spring pew in Lavenham Church, Suffolk, is another instance of the
late treatment of woodwork. There are niches, canopies, fan-vaulting,
and cusped tracery (Fig. 23), but a closer inspection shows that the
tracery has completely departed from the simple lines of Gothic work,
and has assumed fantastic forms combined of twisted strands and foliage
(Fig. 24), while the columns are honeycombed or twisted into spirals.
[Illustration: 22.--DETAIL FROM STALLS, HENRY VII.'S CHAPEL,
WESTMINSTER.]
[Illustration: 23.--THE SPRING PEW, LAVENHAM CHURCH, SUFFOLK.]
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