Gothic Architecture Motif

Trefoil

It given to the ornamental foliation or cusping introduced in the heads of window-lights, tracery, panel lights, etc., in which the center takes the form of a three-lobed leaf.

Trefoil describes a layout or floor plan consisting of three apses in clover-leaf shape. Particularly in church architecture, such a layout may be called a "triconchos".

Quatrefoil

The quatrefoil is a type of decorative framework consisting of a symmetrical shape which forms the overall outline of four partially overlapping circles of the same diameter.

The quatrefoil enjoyed its peak popularity during the Gothic and Renaissance eras. It is most commonly found as tracery, sometimes filled with stained glass.

Rosette

The rosette derives from the natural shape of the botanical rosette. A rosette is a round, stylized flower design, used extensively in sculptural objects from antiquity.

It appeared in Mesopotamia and used to decorate the funeral stele in Ancient Greece. It was adopted later in Romaneseque and Renaissance. In India, it is used as a decorative motif in Greco-Buddhist art.

Tracery

In architecture, tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window. There are two main types, plate tracery and the later bar tracery.

GroinVault

A groin vault or groined vault is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. In comparison with a barrel vault, a groin vault provides good economies of material and labour. Vault need only be abutted at its four corners.

Flying Buttress

The flying buttress is a specific form of buttress composed of an arched structure that extends from the upper portion of a wall to a pier of great mass, in order to convey to the ground the lateral forces that push a wall outwards.