Pendant Fan Vault
The Henry VII Chapel is best known for its combination of pendant fan vault ceiling. Andrew Reynolds refers to the vault as “the most perfect example of a pendant fan vault, the most ambitious kind of vaulting current in the perpendicular period.” Notably, this ceiling was also the first to combine pendants with fan vaulting.
The fan vault is created by first dividing the ceiling into groin vaulted compartments. These groin vaults are created by the combination of arches along the wall and larger, transverse arches bridging the nave of the chapel. In the fan vault at the Henry VII Chapel, the compartments are nearly square in shape. The compartments are then ribbed and paneled. Ribs, of the same curve and size, are cut from single pieces of stone and rebated so to best fit with the panels. The curved ribs, extending from the same point on the wall, are spaced equidistant from each other, forming conoid shapes. The resulting conoids, however, require great compressive forces to keep shape.
Spandrels usually provide pressure along the upper edge of the conoids. In the Henry VII Chapel, these spandrels are replaced with hanging pendants. The pendants still provide the compression necessary to support the conoids and add complexity to the aesthetics of the room.
The pendants serve an additional structural purpose. The pendants are cut from single stones and inserted as wedge stones in the transverse arches. By combining with the transverse arches, the pendants do not require additional structural support.
At the time of the construction of the chapel, pendant vaults were very new; they were first seen in the Divinity School at Oxford.
Read more about this topic: Henry VII Chapel
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