ARCHITECTURE - Karatunov.net

CH. xxvin] ENGLAND NORMAN PERIOD 235One of the most remarkable features of the Normanwork at Christchurch is the round staircase turret(Plate CLIII) at the N.E. angle of the north transept,which is richly decorated not only with arcading, but withroll mouldings in relief, forming a reticulated pattern onthe surface, a feature of rare interest, which occurs alsoat Le Mans in France (v. sup. p. 1 60, Plate CXXI X). Theof the arcades on this buttress form an instructivecapitalsseries of early Norman carving. They have the squareabacus and preserve the tradition of the classic volute.The nave of ROCHESTER (Plate CLIV) which, in its Rochesterpresent form, dates from 1115 and onwards, shows anadvanced stage of Norman Romanesque byits clusteredpiers, in which the shafts correspond to the members ofthe arch they carry, and by the graceful enrichments ofthe spandrils of the triforium, or rather the arch whichrepresents the triforium, for it has the peculiarity of beingopen to the aisle, so that both the lower arch of thenave arcade and that which should belong to a triforiumlook into the same side aisle.Professor Willis observes that originally the samepeculiarity existed in the Abbaye aux Hommes, at Caen,though the aisles were subsequently vaulted at the levelof the lower arches. He suggests that the samearrangement may have been adopted in Lanfranc'scathedral at Canterbury. At Rochester, there beingno floor to the triforium, a passage wayis formedthrough the piersat that level.The chapel of S. Mary at GLASTONBURY (Plate CLV), oiastonwhichused to be known as S. Joseph's, represents the s. Mprimitive church supposed to have been built by Joseph cof Arimathea 1 . It stands at some distance west of the1 -z/.sup. p, 177.ape