Looking at Buildings

Styles & Traditions

Surfaces

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St Kyneburgh, Castor, Hunts

When a particularly splendid result was desired, ornament could be extended to provide surface decoration on both exteriors and interiors, either through sculpture or through painting.

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Exeter Cathedral, Devon

GothicGlossary Term decoration was often much more three dimensional, incorporating figure sculpture within canopied niches.

Glossary

Gothic

The style of the Middle Ages from the later 12th century to the Renaissance, with which it co-existed in certain forms into the 17th century. Characterized in its full development by the pointed arch, the rib-vault and an often skeletal masonry structure for churches, combined with large glazed windows. The term was originally associated with the concept of the barbarian Goths as assailants of classical civilization.