Pendant vault

[3] This “shell form” differed from earlier versions of Gothic vaulting primarily in its structural character.

[6]  A variety of building methods were employed as builders of the vaults were more concerned with keeping to the aesthetic aggregate of the finished product rather than technical particulars.

As Salter states, “Unlike the Gothic vault, where the expression of forces is described by ribs and spandrels, the blocks of the fan vault conoid are free to be carved to the reticulated design of the enclosure.”[8]  A 1901 pamphlet on English fan vaults furthers this notion, calling this period the “apogee of Gothic art” and stating, “The sturdy vigor and rational construction necessitated by the struggle to overcome physical difficulties were giving place to the fanciful refinements of the designer and craftsman who no longer feared that his building might not stand, but, with accumulated knowledge and experience, could play with his materials, and work out unfettered the creations of his imagination.”[9] The development of decoration in fan vaults is notable in later forms, such as pendant vaulting.

[11] The application of vaulting at the Divinity School at Oxford visually separates the arch from the conoids.

According to Jacques Heyman, the vaulting at the divinity school intended to “astonish and delight” and possibly makes reference to “Villard’s lodge-book of c.1235; when the arch under construction has been completed, the tree trunk may be removed to leave a hanging voussoir.”[12] At Henry VII’s chapel, the development of ornamentation and design in pendant vaulting is furthered as the arch is concealed within the conoid.