ClipArt ETC

The Buttresses ClipArt gallery provides 11 examples of architectural structures designed to reinforce the walls of a building. The illustrations include ordinary buttresses, flying buttresses, and hanging buttresses.

Groined arch and a flying buttress; both are common architectural elements.

Arch

Groined arch and a flying buttress; both are common architectural elements.

A buttress is a mass of masonry or brickwork serving to support the side of a wall that is of great height, or to assist it in sustaining any great strain or pressure upon it from the opposite side.

Buttress

A buttress is a mass of masonry or brickwork serving to support the side of a wall that is of great…

"An external brick or stone support to the wall of a building, or to a simple wall." — Williams, 1889

Buttress

"An external brick or stone support to the wall of a building, or to a simple wall." — Williams,…

Buttress and Flying Buttress.

Buttress

Buttress and Flying Buttress.

Buttress pinnacle from Notre Dame, Paris.

Buttress Pinnacle

Buttress pinnacle from Notre Dame, Paris.

Flying Buttress, St. Ouen.

Buttress, Flying

Flying Buttress, St. Ouen.

A flying buttress, or arc-boutant, is a specific type of buttress usually found on a religious building such as a cathedral. They are used to transmit the horizontal thrust of a vault across an intervening space (which might be an aisle, chapel or cloister), to a buttress outside the building. The employment of the flying buttress means that the load bearing walls can contain cut-outs, such as for large windows, that would otherwise seriously weaken them. Flying buttresses are often found in Gothic architecture.

Early Gothic Flying Buttress

A flying buttress, or arc-boutant, is a specific type of buttress usually found on a religious building…

Flying arches from Sta. Barbara, Kuttenberg, Germany.

Flying Arches

Flying arches from Sta. Barbara, Kuttenberg, Germany.

"Flying Buttress of Flank." — Encyclopedia Britanica, 1893

Flying Buttress

"Flying Buttress of Flank." — Encyclopedia Britanica, 1893

The flying buttresses of Notre Dame in Paris, France.

Flying Buttresses

The flying buttresses of Notre Dame in Paris, France.

In architecture, not standing on a foundation, but supported on a corbel. It is applied chiefly as a decoration.

Hanging Buttress

In architecture, not standing on a foundation, but supported on a corbel. It is applied chiefly as a…