THE RENAISSANCE IN EUROPE

While architects of the stamp of Donato Bramante were designing neoclassical churches and public buildings in Rome, Milan, Florence and other Italian cities, in the north, Gothic style reached its apogee in the High Gothic. The magnificent, graceful cathedrals, abbeys and parish churches built throughout northern Europe were, for the most part, ongoing projects, the work of generations of master masons rather than individual architects, working to preconceived designs. Between 1100 and 1550, these buildings grew in response to new needs and fresh ideas.

It was in England that the potential of Gothic architecture was ultimately achieved in the Perpendicular style. Increased wealth based largely on the wool trade enabled new churches and chapels to be built with breathtaking daring. Between 1450 and 1550, several ecclesiastical buildings were conceived in toto, as complete, unified works of art. Windows became much wider, the glass supported almost miraculously by slender stone columns. Pillars,