Editing Gothic architecture (section)

=== Tracery ===
[[File:Beauvais (60), cathédrale Saint-Pierre, croisillon sud, parties hautes 2.jpg|thumb|[[Beauvais Cathedral]], south transept (consecrated 1272)]]
{{main|Tracery}}
Tracery is an architectural solution by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided into sections of various proportions by stone ''bars'' or ''ribs'' of moulding.<ref name=":5">{{Citation|title=tracery|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001/acref-9780199674985-e-4762|work=A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture|year=2015|editor-last=Curl|editor-first=James Stevens|edition=3rd|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-967498-5|access-date=2020-05-26|editor2-last=Wilson|editor2-first=Susan|archive-date=7 April 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407040747/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001/acref-9780199674985-e-4762|url-status=live|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Pointed arch windows of Gothic buildings were initially (late 12th–late 13th centuries) [[lancet window]]s, a solution typical of the ''Early Gothic'' or ''First Pointed'' style and of the ''Early English'' Gothic.<ref name=":5" /><ref name=":04" /> Plate tracery was the first type of tracery to be developed, emerging in the later phase of ''Early Gothic'' or ''First Pointed''.<ref name=":5" /> ''Second Pointed'' is distinguished from ''First'' by the appearance of ''bar–tracery'', allowing the construction of much larger window openings, and the development of ''Curvilinear'', ''Flowing'', and ''Reticulated'' tracery, ultimately contributing to the ''Flamboyant'' style.<ref name=":04" /> ''Late Gothic'' in most of Europe saw tracery patterns resembling [[lace]] develop, while in England ''Perpendicular Gothic'' or ''Third Pointed'' preferred plainer vertical mullions and transoms.<ref name=":04" /> Tracery is practical as well as decorative, because the increasingly large windows of Gothic buildings needed maximum support against the wind.<ref name=EBTracery>{{Britannica |601424 |Tracery}}</ref>

Plate tracery, in which lights were pierced in a thin wall of ashlar, allowed a window arch to have more than one light – typically two side by side and separated by flat stone [[spandrel]]s.<ref name=":5" /> The spandrels were then sculpted into figures like a [[Roundel (heraldry)|roundel]] or a [[quatrefoil]].<ref name=":5" /> Plate tracery reached the height of its sophistication with the 12th century windows of Chartres Cathedral and in the "Dean's Eye" rose window at Lincoln Cathedral.<ref name=EBTracery/>

At the beginning of the 13th century, plate tracery was superseded by bar-tracery.<ref name=":5" /> Bar-tracery divides the large lights from one another with moulded [[mullion]]s.<ref name=":5" /> Stone bar-tracery, an important decorative element of Gothic styles, first was used at [[Reims Cathedral]] shortly after 1211, in the chevet built by Jean D'Orbais.{{Sfn|Harvey|1974|p=132}} It was employed in England around 1240.<ref name=":5" /> After 1220, master builders in England had begun to treat the window openings as a series of openings divided by thin stone bars, while before 1230 the apse chapels of Reims Cathedral were decorated with bar-tracery with cusped circles (with bars radiating from the centre).<ref name=EBTracery/> Bar-tracery became common after {{circa|1240}}, with increasing complexity and decreasing weight.<ref name=EBTracery/> The lines of the mullions continued beyond the tops of the window lights and subdivided the open spandrels above the lights into a variety of decorative shapes.<ref name=":5" /> ''Rayonnant'' style ({{circa|1230|1350}}) was enabled by the development of bar-tracery in [[Continental Europe]] and is named for the radiation of lights around a central point in circular rose windows.<ref name=":5" /> ''Rayonnant'' also deployed mouldings of two different types in tracery, where earlier styles had used moulding of a single size, with different sizes of mullions.<ref name=EBTracery/> The rose windows of Notre-Dame de Paris (c.1270) are typical.<ref name=EBTracery/>
[[File:Lincoln Cathedral, Deans eye window (38137302184).jpg|thumb|''Plate tracery'', [[Lincoln Cathedral]] "Dean's Eye" rose window (c.1225)]]

The early phase of ''Middle Pointed'' style (late 13th century) is characterized by ''Geometrical'' tracery – simple bar-tracery forming patterns of [[Foil (architecture)|foiled]] arches and circles interspersed with triangular lights.<ref name=":5" /> The mullions of ''Geometrical'' style typically had [[Capital (architecture)|capitals]] with curved bars emerging from them. ''Intersecting'' bar-tracery (c.1300) deployed mullions without capitals which branched off equidistant to the window-head.<ref name=":5" /> The window-heads themselves were formed of equal curves forming a pointed arch and the tracery-bars were curved by drawing curves with differing [[Radius|radii]] from the same [[Centre (geometry)|centres]] as the window-heads.<ref name=":5" /> The mullions were in consequence branched into Y-shaped designs further ornamented with cusps. The intersecting branches produced an array of [[Lozenge (shape)|lozenge]]-shaped lights in between numerous lancet arched lights.''Y-tracery'' was often employed in two-light windows c.1300.<ref name=":5" />

''Second Pointed'' (14th century) saw ''Intersecting'' tracery elaborated with [[ogee]]s, creating a complex reticular (net-like) design known as ''Reticulated'' tracery.<ref name=":5" /> ''Second Pointed'' architecture deployed tracery in highly decorated fashion known as ''Curvilinear'' and ''Flowing'' (''Undulating'').<ref name=":5" /> These types of bar-tracery were developed further throughout Europe in the 15th century into the ''Flamboyant'' style, named for the characteristic flame-shaped spaces between the tracery-bars.<ref name=":5" /> These shapes are known as ''daggers'', ''fish-bladders'', or ''mouchettes''.<ref name=":5" />

''Third Pointed'' or ''Perpendicular Gothic'' developed in England from the later 14th century and is typified by ''Rectilinear'' tracery (''panel''-tracery).<ref name=":5" /> The mullions are often joined together by [[Transom (architecture)|transoms]] and continue up their straight vertical lines to the top of the window's main arch, some branching off into lesser arches, and creating a series of panel-like lights.<ref name=":5" /> ''Perpendicular'' strove for verticality and dispensed with the ''Curvilinear'' style's sinuous lines in favour of unbroken straight mullions from top to bottom, transected by horizontal transoms and bars.<ref name=EBTracery/> [[Four-centred arch]]es were used in the 15th and 16th centuries to create windows of increasing size with flatter window-heads, often filling the entire wall of the bay between each buttress.<ref name=":5" /> The windows were themselves divided into panels of lights topped by pointed arches struck from four centres.<ref name=":5" /> The transoms were often topped by miniature [[crenellations]].<ref name=":5" /> The windows at Cambridge of King's College Chapel (1446–1515) represent the heights of ''Perpendicular'' tracery.<ref name=EBTracery/>

Tracery was used on both the interior and exterior of buildings. It frequently covered the façades, and the interior walls of the nave and choir were covered with blind arcades. It also often picked up and repeated the designs in the stained glass windows. [[Strasbourg Cathedral]] has a west front lavishly ornamented with bar tracery matching the windows.<ref name=EBTracery/>

<gallery mode="nolines" heights="150">
File:Ripon Cathedral - central part of main facade.jpg|''Lancet Gothic'', [[Ripon Minster]] west front (begun 1160)
File:Chartres Cathedral clerestory exterior.jpg|''Plate tracery'', [[Chartres Cathedral]] clerestory (1194–1220)
File:Ripon Cathedral (7557362580) crop.jpg|''Geometrical'' ''Decorated Gothic'', [[Ripon Minster]] east window
File:Straßburger Münster, Große Fensterrose.jpg|''Rayonnant'' rose window, [[Strasbourg Cathedral]] west front
File:Amiens France Cathédrale-Notre-Dame-d-Amiens-03d.jpg|''Flamboyant'' rose window, [[Amiens Cathedral]] west front
File:Limoges curvilinear tracery.JPG|''Curvilinear'' window, [[Limoges Cathedral]] nave
File:Kings College Chapel Cambridge west window.jpg|''Perpendicular'' four-centred arch, King's College Chapel, Cambridge west front
File:Cathédrale de Tours - détail de la tour nord.jpg|Blind tracery, [[Tours Cathedral]] (16th century)
File:Neupfarrkirche - panoramio (1).jpg|''Post-Gothic'' tracery, [[Regensburg, Neupfarrkirche]] (16th century)
</gallery>