Day 1
The Lecture
The power and influence of
the church had reached
extreme heights and so to
reflect that power and
devotion the churches were
designed and build the reflect
the greatness of God and stood
as symbols of the local
communities devotion
L
HE I GHT
G
H
T
Communities strove for
higher and higher
buildings, and to solve
the issues of light made
many innovations in
building in order to flood
interiors with
“Heavenly” light.
What does it mean?
The term “Gothic” was used by
Giorgio Vasari, (the father of art
history) in 1550
He lived at the height of the
Renaissance
He used it to describe late
medieval art/architecture
It was meant to be derisive
He thought that Gothic art was
monstrous and barbarous,
invented by the Goths- the
barbarians
When did it happen?
1140-1500
The dates are not exact and this
style was the not rule
everywhere
It mostly existed in France,
England, Germany and
Northern Italy
War
The Black Plague
The Hundred Year War
1337 to 1453 between the
Kingdom of England and the
Kingdom of France and their
various allies
The Great Schism
a split within the Catholic Church from
1378 to 1417. Two men simultaneously
claimed to be the true pope. Driven by
politics rather than any theological
disagreement, the schism was ended by
the Council of Constance (1414–1418). The
simultaneous claims to the papal chair of
two different men hurt the reputation of
the office.
one of the most devastating
pandemics in human history,
peaking in Europe between
1348 and 1350. ¼- 1/3 of the
population of Europe died as a
result
The centers of religious/intellectual life shifted
from the monasteries to the cities.
Catholic Church was at the height of its power
Modern nations begin to take shape
– Rib vaults – pointed
arches
– Flying buttresses
– Rectangular bay system
– Extreme height
– Interior flooded with
light
• Stained glass
– Rose window
– Space and soaring
verticality
– Sculptural
• Decoration/building
punctured on the outside
to achieve open space
Flying buttress
Rib Vault
Clerestory
Triforium
Aisle
Nave
Early= round columns in the interior. Rib vaults start at the
ceiling but travel down only to the top of the column capitals.
Note dame and Saint –Denis are Early Gothic
High=articulated columns in the interior. Rib vaults travel from
the ceiling and down to the floor; larger windows and choirs;
compound piers are common; more sculpture on the façade.
Amiens and the interior of Charters are High Gothic.
Rayonnant= (meaning radiating) a dissolution of the wall space
with great sheets of glass like rose windows; thin groups of
column shafts; refined tracery is used throughout. SaintChapelle is Rayonnant Gothic.
Late/Flamboyant= (meaning flaming) is highly decorative. A
mass of panicles and tracery. The decoration acts as a seethrough screen in which the forms are reveled. Ogee (very
pointed) arches are used. Saint-Maclou is a flamboyant Gothic.
First gothic building
-Abbot Suger, the patron,
wanted light filtered by stained
glass to saturate the inside of
the building
-Rib vaults start at the ceiling
and travel down to the capitals,
the columns are round and
unarticulated
-Pointed arches
-Moves away form the
demarcation of spaces in the
Romanesque period and
embraces a more organic feel,
which creates a continuous
space as the spaces flow into
each other.
-minimizes mass and weight on
the interior
Suger believed that art is made for the
honor of God and the saints
In addition, Suger felt that there is a
reciprocal relationship between the
celestial and the terrestrial in art.
Essentially, the theory is based on the idea
of returning to God a part of what God has
already given (thus, through the use of
precious materials, stone, etc; the materials
themselves possess sacred virtues).
Suger supported the idea that a material
representation had the ability to raise one's
senses to a vision of the eternal ideal,
"urging us onward from the material to the
immaterial"
• the spiritual nature of light.
• The lightening of the structure
allowed for larger stained glass
windows to flood the interior with
mystical light.
• New architectural innovations
–
–
–
–
–
Flying buttress
Pointed arch
Stain Glass
Rib vaults
Rectangular bays
-Flying buttresses first used on a
large scale here
-early gothic building; rib vaults
start at the ceiling and go down as
far as the capitals on the columns
-Sexparte or six part vaults
-Vaults span two bays
-Façade
First floor portal sculpture
Second floor a “kings” gallery with
28 kings form the Old Testament
Third floor rose window 30 feet
across
Fourth floor hanging space for bells
(and hunchbacks )
Fifth floor bell towers
Sexpartite vault
Retained some Romanesque
features
Combined them with the Gothic
Rib vault on pointed arches
Triforium- 4 story interior
elevation
Huge rose window
Deep porches in front of
doorways
Open towers
• Round columns
• Rib vaults travel
from vault to
capitals
• Beginning to add
heavy decoration
to exterior
• Gallery above
aisles (in some
still)
Notre Dame
Laon
-Begun as a Romanesque
cathedral
it burned down and was
rebuilt in part as Gothic
-High Gothic nave
-Each vault spans only
one bay
-Large windows
-Legendary stained glass
-Façade; south tower
(right) from 1160 and the
north tower (left) is form
1507-1513
-Four part rib vaults
-Vaults very high 148 feet
-larger expanse of
windows
-Façade; more
extravagant use of
sculpture
muscular concentration
of dark and light
architectural projection
-Sculpture above the
doors and in the arches
-narrowing of the nave
enhances verticality
-Merchant creates Gothic
house
-Banker, Merchant, and finical
advisor to French King and a
Pope
-Broad façade with a tightly
pitched roof
-Pointed arches stained glass
-False windows hold life sized
servants who look down onto
the street
-Triumph of the city and
merchants
Rib vaults travel from vaults to floor
Larger choirs
More sculpture
3 part nave elevation
Sculpture is more complex and decorative
High Gothic
Formula
Rectangular bay system
Four part rib vault
Buttressing system
Amiens
Chartres
-dissolution of the walls ¾ of wall is
glass
-slender columns
-sheets of glass
-built to house king Louis IX relics
including the crown of thorns
-symbolizes a giant reliquary
-Adjoins the royal palace
Lots of Tracery
In architecture, Tracery is the
stonework elements that support
the glass in a Gothic window
• May also be called Court style due to
its association with Paris and the
royal court of Louis IX (This
continues into the High Gothic)
• The style dominated the second half
of the century
• Gets name from its radiating bar
tracery
• Dissolve walls w/stained glass
• Less stone work- almost none
• Tracery throughout
-Mostly French
-It is small as the French were
running out of money and Gothic
was becoming less popular
-The ribbing and “tracery” create
places where light unencumbered
by glass fly’s through the exterior of
the building
-Overlapping organic stonework
create a bewildering complex view
• “Flame like” tracery
• Extreme decoration –
pointed tracery
– Ogee arch
Smaller in size- Gothic was
becoming less popular
and they were running
out of $
• In sculpture there is a
body under the drapery,
secular persons are
depicted
• Suffering is shown
– Black Death
-English Gothic style
-Not so high
-Double transept
-Emphasis on the soaring
tower
-Long nave, short
transept
-Fan vaults
-Organic
-English desire for knotting
references the Celtic
knotting form the early
medieval period
-Linked to the Flamboyant
style in France
-Perpendicular gothic
(unique to England)
• Decorated Style
• Perpendicular Style
• Fan Vaulting
• horizontal emphasis
in a long rectilinear
plan
• more emphasis on
the cross tower than
the façade
• less interest in
height
• Nave ends with a flat
wall rather than in a
round apse