Gardners Art through the Ages A Global History

the three-part division of the interior (nave and two aisles). Differ-
ent too is the emphasis on the great crossing tower (added about
1320–1330), which dominates the silhouette. Salisbury’s height is
modest compared with that of Amiens and Reims. And because
height is not a decisive factor in the English building, the architect
used the flying buttress sparingly and as a rigid prop, rather than as

18-39Aerial view of Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury, England,
1220–1258; west facade completed 1265; spire ca. 1320–1330.

Exhibiting the distinctive regional features of English Gothic archi-
tecture, Salisbury Cathedral has a squat facade that is wider than the
building behind it. The architects used flying buttresses sparingly.

18-40Plan of Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury, England, 1220–1258.

The long rectilinear plan of Salisbury Cathedral, with its double transept
and flat eastern end, is typically English. The four-part rib vaults of the
nave follow the Chartres model (FIG. 18-14).

0 25 7550 1 00 feet

0 10 20 30 meters

N

Square

east end

Crossing

tower

Double transept

18-41Interior of Salisbury Cathedral (looking east), Salisbury,

England, 1220–1258.

Salisbury Cathedral’s interior differs from contemporaneous French

Gothic designs in the strong horizontal emphasis of its three-story

elevation and the use of dark Purbeck marble for moldings.

Gothic Outside of France 487

an integral part of the vaulting system within the church. In short, the

English builders adopted some of the superficial motifs of French

Gothic architecture but did not embrace its structural logic or em-

phasis on height.

Equally distinctive is the long rectilinear plan (FIG. 18-40) with

its double transept and flat eastern end. The latter feature was char-

acteristic of Cistercian (FIG. 17-14) and English churches since Ro-

manesque times. The interior (FIG. 18-41), although Gothic in its

three-story elevation, pointed arches, four-part rib vaults, com-

pound piers, and the tracery of the triforium, conspicuously departs

from the French Gothic style. The pier colonnettes stop at the

springing of the nave arches and do not connect with the vault ribs

(compare FIGS. 18-19and 18-20). Instead, the vault ribs rise from

corbels in the triforium, producing a strong horizontal emphasis.

Underscoring this horizontality is the rich color contrast between

the light stone of the walls and vaults and the dark Purbeck marble

used for the triforium moldings and corbels, compound pier re-

sponds, and other details.

GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL Early on, English architec-

ture found its native language in the elaboration of architectural pat-

tern for its own sake (for example, the decorative patterning of the

Romanesque piers of Durham Cathedral;FIG. 17-33,left). The pier,

wall, and vault elements, still relatively simple at Salisbury, became

increasingly complex and decorative in the 14th century, culminat-

ing in what architectural historians call the Perpendicularstyle. This