Looking at Buildings

, printed from the Looking at Buildings website on Saturday 15th March 2025

Detail: Norman to Gothic

RomanesqueGlossary Term [1] (or NormanGlossary Term [2]) architecture made use of distinctive mouldings to decorate the recessed ordersGlossary Term [3] around the round-headedGlossary Term [4] archGlossary Term [5]. BilletGlossary Term [6] mouldingGlossary Term [7], a series of little rolls like a dotted line, and chevronGlossary Term [8], or zigzagGlossary Term [9] mouldingGlossary Term [10] were widely used.

RomanesqueGlossary Term [11] ornament gave way to more fluid and lively carving.

For a brief period around 1300, English sculptors, imitating French precedent, became interested in depicting naturalistic plant forms.

'BallflowerGlossary Term [12]' was a fashion of the earlier C14, expecially in the western counties.

Openwork filigree decoration and delicate carved detail, is found in some of the most lavish PerpendicularGlossary Term [13] work of the early C16.

Southwell Minster, Notts. Chapter house.
St Lawrence, Ludlow, Shropshire
London, Westminster Abbey, Henry VII Chapel

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Last updated: Monday, 26th January 2009