the.com/tracery
Stone lace — where Gothic windows learned to stop holding up roofs and start showing off.
means The ornamental stonework that branches and curves within a window frame, forming patterns that hold glass in place — structural support reimagined as decoration.
from From 'trace,' meaning to draw or outline — ultimately from Latin 'trahere,' to draw or pull. Masons who designed these stone ribs worked from drawn patterns, tracing the curves on a floor or board before cutting stone to match, and by the 18th century the word had shifted from the act of drawing to the branching stonework itself.
- origin
- term coined centuries after the style itself
- structural trick
- ribs distribute weight so walls can vanish into glass
- peak era
- 13th-14th century French and English cathedrals
- two flavors
- plate tracery came first, bar tracery got fancier