What are dying mouldings?
Dying mouldings are the mouldings of vault ribs, arcade arches or transverse arches that run directly into the supporting pier or column without a capital in between. The moulding “dies” into the pier: it disappears smoothly into it or continues down it without interruption. In Dutch this Late Gothic motif is called tenietlopend; in German, kämpferlose Profile.
What it looks like
In Early and High Gothic, a rib or arch usually rests on a capital that clearly marks the transition from the vertical pier to the vault. In Late Gothic (15th and early 16th centuries) this horizontal break was increasingly omitted. The arch mouldings then continue as lines into the pier, or the pier itself seems to consist of bundled mouldings that fan out into ribs at the top.
The effect is a strong verticality: the eye follows the lines uninterrupted from floor to vault.
Example
A well-known Dutch example is the arcade arches that run into the piers of St John’s Cathedral (Sint-Janskathedraal) in ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
How to recognise them
- Is there no thickening or foliage where the arch meets the pier? Then you are looking at dying mouldings.
- The impost is the zone where an arch or vault springs; with dying mouldings this zone is not emphasised by a separate element.
Related terms
- Capital in architecture
- Impost
- Compound pier
- Gothic architecture
- Rib vault
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