st seems to be a kind of reticulated tracery.
But on looking closer it is found to be built up of leaf-covered curves
and of buds very like those forming the cresting in the Capellas
Imperfeitas. In the corner bays--except where stands the lavatory--there
is another form of reticulated tracery, where the larger curves are
formed by branches, whose leaves make the cusps, while filling in the
larger spaces are budlike growths like those in the first-mentioned
windows.

On either side of the central openings the tracery is more naturalistic
than elsewhere; here the whole is formed of interlacing and intertwining
branches, with leaves and large fruit-like poppy heads, and in the
centre the Cross of the Order of Christ. But of all, the most successful
is in the lavatory; there the two bays which form each side are high and
narrow,

[Illustration: FIG. 58.

BATALHA.

WINDOW OF PATEO.]

[Illustration: FIG. 59.

BATALHA.

CAPELLAS IMPERFEITAS.

UPPER PART.

_From a photograph by E. Biel & Co., Oporto._]

with richly cusped pointed arches. Instead of cutting out the cusps and
filling the upper part with tracery, Matheus Fernandes has with
extraordinary skill thrown a crested transome across the opening and
below it woven together a veil of exquisitely carved branches, which,
resting on a central shaft, half hide and half reveal the large marble
fountain within. (Fig. 61.)

At first, perhaps, accustomed to the ordinary forms of Gothic tracery,
these windows seem strange, to some even unpleasing. Soon, however, when
they have been studied more closely, when it has been recognised that
the brilliant sunshine needs closer tracery and smaller openings than
does the cooler North, and that indeed the aim of the designer is to
keep out rather than to let in the direct rays of light, no one can be
anything but thankful that Matheus Fernandes, instead of trying to adapt
Gothic forms to new requirements, as was done by his predecessors in the
church, boldly invented new forms for himself; forms which are entirely
suited to the sun, the clear air and sky, and which with their creamy
lace make a fitting background to the roses and flowers with which the
cloister is now planted.

Now the question arises, from whence did Matheus Fernandes draw his
inspiration? We have seen that windows with good Gothic tracery are
almost unknown in Portugal, for even in the church here at Batalha the
larger windows nearly all show a want of k