PINNACLE, in architecture, any vertical, decorative motive serving as the upper termination of a building or other form ; hence, metaphorically, a summit or topmost limit. The word is distinguished from finial (q.v.) as signifying a larger motive, sometimes of considerable complexity, whereas a finial is a single ornament, and from tower or turret by the fact that a pinnacle is always a strictly subsidiary motive. Thus a Gothic tower and spire may be decorated with pinnacles, each one of which is capped by a finial. The chief architectural development of the pinnacle was in connection with buttresses (q.v.) of late Roman esque and Gothic buildings, as the addition of a pinnacle to a buttress not only added to the stability by increasing the weight, but also gave a decorative termi nation to the vertical line. Earlier pinnacles are simple square or rectangular structures capped with gable roofs or small spires, as in St. Remi at Reims (middle 12th century), and in the west front of Rochester cathedral (1130). With the develop ment of the flying buttress (q.v.) pinnacles were increased greatly in size, and especially in France, in richness, and usually decorated with colonnettes on the outer corners and arches and crocketted gables above, sometimes with the addition of slender crocketted spires. Those of Notre Dame at Paris (end of 12th and be
ginning of 13th centuries) are typical. The most beautiful of the developed Gothic buttress pinnacles are those of the choir of Reims cathedral (c. 1240), in which the solid portion is preceded by an open shrine with a statue of an angel. In England, pinnacles were especially developed during the Decorated Period (q.v.) and play an important part in the tower designs in which they serve to soften the transition between a square tower and a spire above. Characteristic examples are those of Beverley min ster (c. 1350) and the tower of St. Mary's at Oxford (c. 130o).
The modern emphasis on vertical lines, resulting from steel construction, has led to a recrudescence of the use of pinnacles, and, especially in the tall buildings of America, they are common decorations of the sky line and of the various set-backs.