What is a mouchette?

A mouchette is an ornamental motif in tracery shaped like a fish bladder: a teardrop or flame-like opening with a rounded head and a curved, pointed tail. In Dutch it is called a visblaasmotief. In German the motif is known as Fischblase. It is found above all in the heads of late Gothic church windows. Tracery built up from this motif is known in Dutch as visblaastracering.

Characteristics

• Shape: a circular head that runs into a curved, pointed tip. Several mouchettes together look like swirling flames.
• Style: the motif is typical of the Flamboyant style, the “flaming” style of late Gothic.
• Symbolism: the fish bladder is regarded as an old symbol of Christ.
• Variants: the mouchette is asymmetrical and curved; its symmetrical counterpart is the soufflet. The Dutch and German terms cover both.
• Driesnuit: in Dutch, three mouchettes that together, seen from a certain angle, form a trefoil. The Dutch also call the fish bladder a “snout” (snuit).

Application

• Church windows: in the tracery above pointed-arch windows, between the mullions.
• Rose windows: in Flamboyant rose windows, mouchettes often fill the entire wheel.
• Blind tracery: on walls, towers, balustrades and choir stalls as a relief motif.
• Gothic Revival: the motif returns in nineteenth-century churches.

Tips

• Recognising it: if you see curved, teardrop-shaped openings in a window instead of round foils, you are looking at mouchettes and probably at late Gothic or Gothic Revival work.
• Do not confuse it with herringbone: that is a zigzag pattern in brickwork or floors, an entirely different motif.
• Restoration: stone tracery is slender and fragile. Leave the repair or replacement of missing parts to a specialist stonemason, and record the original shape beforehand with photographs and measurements.
• Leaded glass: the glass in mouchette tracery follows the irregular shape. When repairing, the lead must fit the rebate of the tracery exactly.

Related terms

• Tracery
• Trefoil
• Quatrefoil
• Flamboyant style
• Gothic architecture
• Rose window
• Leaded glass

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