buttress. Pier-like projection of brick,
masonry, or other material, built either in close connection with a wall needing extra stability, or standing isolated, to counter the outward thrust of an arch,
vault, or other elements. Types of buttress are:angle-buttress
(3): one of a pair of buttresses at the corner of a building set at an angle of 90° to each other and to the walls to which they are attached;Anglo-Saxon: not really a buttress at all, but more a thin freestone
lesene or
pilaster-strip dividing a wall-surface into
rubble panels that were originally intended to be rendered; See
anglo-saxon architecture.arch-buttress: known as an
arc-boutant. See
flying buttress;buttress-tower: tower seeming to function as a buttress, as on either side of a gateway, but mostly for defence;clasping buttress
(2): massive buttress, square on plan, at the corner of a building, usually of the
Romanesque or
First Pointed period;Decorated buttress: see
Second Pointed buttress;diagonal buttress
(5): set at the corner of a building, forming an angle of 135° with the walls, and usually of the
Second Pointed period of
Gothic;Early English buttress: see
First Pointed buttress;First Pointed or Early English buttress: C13 type, often of formidable depth, frequently chamfered, and staged, each
stage being defined by
off-sets, and the whole structure surmounted with steep triangular
gables;flying buttress, also called arc-boutant or arch-buttress
(6): consists of an arched structure extending from the upper part of a wall to a massive pier in order to convey the outward thrust of (usually) the stone
vault safely to the ground;hanging buttress: type of slender support, carried on a
corbel;lateral buttress: attached to a corner of a structure, seeming to be a continuation of one of the walls;Perpendicular or Third Pointed buttress: late-Gothic type with elaborately panelled faces, and, often, crocketed
finials of great elegance;pier-buttress
(6): detached external pier by which an arch or vault is prevented from spreading, as in the
chapter-house of Lincoln Cathedral, where
flying buttresses are used. Pier-buttresses are often constructed with a heavy superstructure rising higher than the springing of the flying-buttress arch;Romanesque buttress
(1): C11 and C12 wide lesene of little projection, it defines
bays;Second Pointed or Decorated buttress: C14 type constructed in stages, frequently elaborately enriched, and surmounted by crocketed gables, pinnacles, finials, and even crocketed spirelets. Many were further embellished with canopied
niches for statuary;set-back buttress: resembling an
angle-buttress, but not built immediately at the corner, so does not touch the set-back buttress on the return-wall, thus the quoin of the building remains visible. See also
Spire.
