ARCHITECTURE - Karatunov.net

CH. xxvni] ENGLANDNORMAN PERIOD 239a magnificent Norman arch of many orders decorated, ass. Peter's,are all the others in the church, with the zigzag. Another amptonrichly decorated arch of four rings and a label in thewest wall once probably surmounted a west doorway(Fig. 137) but these rings are now merely inserted flat:into the wall over a perpendicular window. Originallythey would probably have been recessed as orders.The two western angles of the tower are buttressed eachby a group of three round columns running up to thetop stage which is of the i6th century. These buttress Columnarcolumns can hardly have been invented in the i6th centurywhen the tower was pulled down and re-built, and inall probability they formed part of the original Normanstructure ;but they are so far as I know unique inEngland, and remind one of those of Notre Dame atPoitiers, and Civray in Poitou (v. sup. Plates C, CI).The clerestory on both sides ishandsomely arcadedoutside, and the arcades are carried on to the east endwhich has been reconstructed on the old foundations(Fig. 138) and on a design more or less conjectural 1 .The sculptured capitals of this church are interestingexamples of what the early Norman artists could achieve.They are well proportioned, of a convex or cubical shape,and the carving takes the form of surface ornament asit dfd in Byzantine work. Some of them have figures ofanimals ;others simple attempts at foliage, quite inartisticallyarranged ; the best are covered with ornamenthalf-way between foliage and strap-work. They havevery little ordered arrangement such as classic exampleNorman61History of the Church of S, Peter^ Northampton, by the Rev. R. M.Serjeantson. His book contains in an appendix Sir Gilbert Scott's reportand account of the various stages of construction and reconstruction. Thechurch is illustrated in Sharpe's Churches of the Nene Valley.