Inside the resemblance to Batalha is less noticeable. The ribs of the
chancel vault are well moulded, as are the arches of the lantern, but in
the nave, which cannot have been finished till the end of the fifteenth
century, the design is quite different. The piers are all a hollow
square set diagonally with a large round shaft at each corner. In the
aisle arches the hollows of the diagonal sides are carried round without
capitals, with which the round shafts alone are provided; while the
shaft in front runs up to a round Manoelino capital with octagonal
abacus from which springs the vaulting at a level higher than the sills
of the clerestory windows.[83] The most unusual part of the nave is the
vaulting of all three aisles, where all the ribs, diagonal as well as
transverse, are of exactly the same section and size as is the round
shaft from which they spring, even the wall rib being of the same shape
though a little smaller. At the crossing there are triple shafts on each
side, those of the nave being twisted, which is another Manoelino
feature. The nave then must be about a hundred years later than the
eastern parts of the church, where the capitals are rather long and are
carved with foliage and have square abaci, while those of the nave are
all of the time of King João II. or of King Manoel. At about the same
time some small and picturesque windows were inserted above the smaller
apses on the east side of the transept, and rather later was built the
chapel to the north-east of the nave, which is entered through a
segmental arch whose jambs and head are well carved with early
renaissance foliage and figures, and which contains the simple tomb of a
bishop. The pulpits, organs, and stalls, both in the chancel and in the
western choir gallery, are fantastic and late, but the great reredos
which rises in three divisions to the springing of the vault is the
largest and one of the finest in the country, but belonging as it does
to a totally different period and school must be left for another
chapter.
[Sidenote: Nossa Senhora do Vencimento do Monte do Carmo, Lisbon.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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