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ECCLESIASTICAL ARCHITECTURE 469
a network. Good early examples are to be found in the eastern
parts of Wells, dating from just before 1300. The builders of
the second half ofthe thirteenth and first half of the fourteenth
centuries show an extraordinary fecundity ofinvention both in
the geometrical tradition and in the freer/flowing patterns. The
development of these large windows gave a new character to
the whole ofthe architecture ofthis period, as the complicated
linear
patterns of these traceried designs were concentrated in
the areas ofthe window heads and so tended towards a general
conception ofa design ofcontrasting areas enriched with linear
pattern and plain areas of stonework to set them off. This is
very noticeable in early fburteentlvcentury compositions such
as the exterior of the choir of Selby abbey in Yorkshire. This
seems to be a development of that change from the all-over
linear pattern which characterizes the architecture of the first
halfofthe thirteenth century and is
anticipated by the attention
given to surface textures in the design at Westminster. With
the growth of this feeling
for surface textures and the
greater
amount of light admitted to the buildings by the new large
windows came a change in the mouldings and eventually also
in the character ofthe carved decorations, such as
capitals. The
early thirteentlvcentury system ofpronounced roll mouldings
and deep/cut hollows a device suitable for the linear treat'
ment then in vogue is superseded in the latter
part of the
century by broader mouldings with shallower hollows and less/*
pronounced projections, sometimes even broad mouldings of
double curvature employing the new fashionable ogee curve.
These later thirteenth' and fourteenth/century mouldings are
subtler in effect than the earlier type and also more suited to
show off the colour, and especially
the gold, with which they
were often enriched. The change in the nature of the foliage
carving on capitals seems to follow a similar course. From Westx
minster onwards one finds examples ofthe extreme naturalism
in foliage carving which appears rather earlier in France; but
about the end ofthe century a new stylization sets in in which
the surface ofthe leaves is given a rippling effect calculated to
make the most ofthe gilding and colour with which they were