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strengthening by an elaborate system of iron bars, and
the effect of the great bare circle is far from satisfactory.
At Chartres (early thirteenth century) where they possessed
a hard stone easily split into thin slabs, this circle becomes
a thing of beauty by being partly filled up by slabs pierced
with quatrefoils and forming round the centre a circle of
great cusps holding the iron ring which carries the glass.
In this case the wall arch is made semicircular, to enable
the rose to be exactly fitted under it. Beneath the rose are
two pointed lights placed side by side. Other places, like
Reims and Amiens, which had not
the advantage of the Chartres stone,
had to build up their windows with
small materials, but adopted thence
the system of cusping round the
circle, which henceforth became one
of the chief characteristics of Gothic
window-tracery, and did away with
the need for the elaborate iron bars
of Notre Dame. At Reims, where
they first appear after Chartres, the
cusps are inserted into a groove in
the great circle, and have blunt ends
into which the iron ring which sup-
ports the glass is screwed. At
Amiens, the circle cuspings are still
separate and fixed in a groove, but
they are trefoiled, so as to diminish
the ring, and the lower lights have
cusps taken, like the English ones,
from the solid. Even these had a
useful origin in strengthening the little arch of the win-
dow-light. This is very thin and liable to break, especi-
ally in French work of the late thirteenth century, such as
St. Nazaire of Carcassonne; but the cusp underneath it
converted this slender bar into a strong triangle, even when
the cusp was itself pierced.


WINDOW, CHARTRES

But even thus, the glazing spaces of windows of this size
were felt to be still too large. Far more was this the case
when spaces so enormous had to be filled as those under
the high vaults in the clerestory of Amiens. Their truthful

-128-

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Publication Information: Book Title: Gothic Architecture in England & France. Contributors: George Herbert West - author. Publisher: G. Bell & Sons. Place of Publication: London. Publication Year: 1911. Page Number: 128.
    
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