Description
Book SynopsisA comprehensive review of the wide and varied range of window tracery designs that emerged during the medieval period. While the terms used to describe the tracery of medieval church windows are familiar (Early English, Decorated, Perpendicular), there has been no really detailed attempt to examine it as a distinct, stylistic architectural form, agap which this book seeks to address. Based upon a visual catalogue of over 250 images of surviving types and styles from churches throughout England, it traces the progression of ideas and the continuity of motifs and themes intracery patterns from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries, showing how different themes emerged within the main architectural styles; it also looks at the distinction between a window's architectural form and its tracery style, and describes the several different tracery techniques. The volume is completed with a detailed glossary. Stephen Hart is a retired architect, and the author of numerous works, including Flint Flushwork.
Trade ReviewA comprehensive, sophisticated and long overdue survey of the development of Gothic church window tracery. * CHURCH MONUMENTS *
It will be a most useful vade mecum for the enthusiastic church visitor. [...] A comprehensive overview of English parochial tracery design. * ECCLESIOLOGY TODAY *
Anyone interested in medieval windows will enjoy the great range of examples put forward and discussed by Hart, whose book is a timely reminder of the ingenuity and creativity of England's medieval masons. * JOURNAL OF THE INSTITUTE OF HISTORIC BUILDING CONSERVATION *
A perceptive, informative, beautifully written, and well-illustrated study of the topic. * SOCIETY OF ARCHITECTURAL HISTORIANS NEWSLETTER *
In a methodical, clear and notably well-illustrated fashion (there are good plates of some 300 windows) it traces the evolution of tracery through the Lancet, Geometric, Curvilinear and Perpendicular styles. * BRITISH ARCHAEOLOGY *
The varieties of such stonework are splendidly analysed and illustrated. -- Christopher Howse * DAILY TELEGRAPH *
