of Rayonnant was the use of carved stone decorative elements on the exterior and interior. These included the fleuron, the pinnacle, and the finial, which gave greater height to everything from doorways to buttress. These elements usually also had a practical purpose; they were often added to external structures, such as buttresses, to give them additional weight. These elements included the crocket, in the form of a stylized carving of curled leaves, buds or flowers which are used at regular intervals to decorate the sloping edges of spires, finials, pinnacles, and wimpergs. Transition The transition (in France) from Rayonnant to Flamboyant Gothic was gradual, marked primarily by a shift towards new tracery patterns based on S-shaped curves (these curves resemble flickering flames, from which the new style got its name). However, amidst the chaos of the Hundred Years War and the various other misfortunes experienced by Europe during the 14th century, relatively little large-scale construction occurred and certain elements of the Rayonnant style remained in vogue well into the next century. See also Gothic architecture French Gothic architecture French architecture List of architectural styles Gothic cathedrals and churches Notes and citations Bibliography Robert Branner, Paris and the Origins of Rayonnant Gothic Architecture down to 1240 ; The Art Bulletin, Vol. 44, No. 1 (Mar., 1962), pp. 39-51; JSTOR Gothic Architecture, Paul Frankl (revised by Paul Crossley), Yale, 2000 Smith, A. Freeman, English Church Architecture of the Middle Ages - an Elementary Handbook (1922), T. Fisher Unwin, Ltd., London (1922) (Full text available on Project Gutenberg) The Gothic Cathedral, Christopher Wilson, London, 1990, especially p. 120ff External links Rayonnant Gothic gallery in Flickr Gothic architecture Church architecture History of glass Windows Stained glass