Chapter 18 Study guide: The Age of Great Cathedrals: Gothic ART
Alicia.agatone@rtsd.org
Text Pages 478-519 Gardner’s Art Through the Ages, 12th Edition
1. What did a Gothic Cathedral symbolize to its contemporaries?
2. When and where did the Gothic style originate?
French Gothic
Define or identify the following terms:
Abbot Suger:
Crenellations:
Keep:
Ramparts:
Saint Thomas Aquinas:
Scholasticism:
Vincent of Beauvais:
Chapter 18 Study guide: The Age of Great Cathedrals: Gothic ART
3. List three of the features of the new choir at St. Denis as described by Abbot Suger that are
characteristic of the new Gothic style:
a.
b.
c.
4. List the three structural and/or design features that characterize a Gothic vault:
a.
b.
c.
What are the advantages of the pointed arch over the round arch?
5. The new spirit of the Gothic period that replaced the severity of Romanesque themes of judgment and
damnation could be symbolized by the dedication of cathedrals to ____________________. Her
iconography can be seen in the Royal Portals of Chartres Cathedral, the earliest and most complete
surviving Early Gothic sculptural complex.
6. The following scenes are represented on the tympana:
a. Right:
b. Left:
c. Central:
The figures carved on the jambs are thought to represent:
7. In what ways do these jamb figures differ significantly from Romanesque figures?
a.
b.
c.
Chapter 18 Study guide: The Age of Great Cathedrals: Gothic ART
8. List three Romanesque features retained in Laon Cathedral:
a.
b.
c.
9. List three new Gothic features found in the Cathedral:
a.
b.
c.
10. Draw a diagram of an Early Gothic elevation. Label the characteristic four stories: Nave arcade, vaulted
gallery, triforium, and clerestory
Chapter 18 Study guide: The Age of Great Cathedrals: Gothic ART
11. What was the function of the flying buttress?
Why was it an essential element of the Gothic architectural vocabulary?
12. Label the following parts of a Gothic church on the diagram below: clerestory, flying buttress, nave
arcade, pinnacle or finial, triforium, vaults (see attached)
Is this an Early Gothic or High Gothic church? Why?
13. Describe or draw the new bay structure of Chartres that was to become the norm for High Gothic
buildings:
What spatial effect did this create?
14. What segment of an Early Gothic elevation was eliminated in High Gothic buildings?
What technical development made this possible?
Chapter 18 Study guide: The Age of Great Cathedrals: Gothic ART
15. What was the theological significance of stained glass windows?
What is the difference between a rose window and a lancet? Draw and label them:
What is the difference between plate tracery and bar tracery?
16. How do the figures of St. Martin, St. Jerome, and St. Gregory from the Porch of the Confessors (fig 1815) and the jamb figures from the Royal Portals of Chartres Cathedral (fig 18-6) illustrate the
development of Gothic sculpture?
17. The skeletal structure and the high vaults of Amiens Cathedral were possible because of the masterful
use of the High Gothic structural elements. List the four basic elements:
a.
b.
c.
d.
18. What are the similarities in the façades of Chartres (fig. 18-4) and Amiens (fig 18-19)?
What are the differences?
What major change do you see in the façade of Reims (fig 18-21)?
Chapter 18 Study guide: The Age of Great Cathedrals: Gothic ART
19. The Rayonnant (Radiant style that developed in the second half of the 13 th century was associated with
the court of _____________________.
20. What was the purpose of the Sainte Chapelle in Paris?
How did its structure reflect that purpose?
21. Describe the pose of the virgin of Paris (fig 18-24) that was typical of much later Gothic sculpture.
22. From what did the Late Gothic Flamboyant style derive its name?
Give an example of the style:
23. How do the guild hall shown on fig. 18-27 and the House of Jacques Coeur shown on fig. 18-28 reflect
the new economic conditions of Northern Europe in the Late Gothic period?
24. Who was Villard de Honnecourt and what did he use as the basis for drawing many of his figures?
25. In what way do the manuscript illuminations illustrated on figs 18-30 to 18-32 reflect the influence of
the arts of architecture or stained glass?
Chapter 18 Study guide: The Age of Great Cathedrals: Gothic ART
26. List three characteristics of the style of Master Honore as seen in the illumination of David and Goliath
shown in fig. 18-33:
a.
b.
c.
27. What features of the graceful image of the Virgin seen in fig. 18-35 link her to the French court?
28. What is the meaning of the scene portrayed on the ivory casket shown in fig. 18-36 and how does it
relate to the concerns of the leisure class?
Gothic Art Outside France
Define or identify the following terms:
Fan vaulting:
Ogee arch:
Mappamundi:
1. List five features of Salisbury Cathedral that distinguish it from French Gothic:
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Chapter 18 Study guide: The Age of Great Cathedrals: Gothic ART
2. The last English Gothic style, seen at Gloucester, is called ______________________________.
It is characterized by the following features:
a.
b.
3. What is at the center of the Hereford map on fig 18-43 and what does that tell us about medieval ways
of thinking?
4. The German Cathedral of ________________________________ was finished in the nineteenth
century when the original thirteenth century plan was discovered. In what way was its Gothic
construction significant for its survival of the severe bombings of World War II?
5. The church of St. Elizabeth at Marburg is an early example of a favorite German type of Gothic
structure known as a _________________________________________.
6. How does it differ from the standard basilican tpe of church and what is the reason for the difference?
7. Briefly describe the style used in the depiction of the Death of the Virgin on Strasbourg Cathedral (fig.
18-48):
8. Who were Ekkehard and Uta and what is significant about their appearance in a cathedral?
9. What is a Pieta?
What mood is created by the 14th century example shown in fig 18-51?
10. What art form was practiced by Nicholas of Verdun?
Chapter 18 Study guide: The Age of Great Cathedrals: Gothic ART
11. How is the façade of Orvieto Cathedral (fig. 18-55) related to those of French gothic churches?
In what major way does it differ?
12. What features of the Doge’s Palace in Venice can be considered to be Gothic?
Discussion Questions: Choose any four to answer, write or type your answer on a separate page.
1. Discuss the change in the role of women during the Gothic period and how it relates to the cult of the
Virgin Mary. What effect did these changes have on art?
2. What effect did the changing philosophical conception of the relation between the soul and the body
have on Gothic sculpture?
3. Select a typical Early Gothic and a High Gothic cathedral and explain the factors that differentiate one
from another.
4. What are the major changes in Medieval architectural sculpture in relation to its structural setting as
seen in St. Sernin at Toulouse (fig. 17-21) , the Royal Portal (fig. 18-5) and Porch of the Confessors (Fig.
18-15)?
5. What are the major changes in Medieval architectural sculpture in relation to its structural setting as
seen in St. Pierre at Moissac (fig. 17-23), Saint Theodore from at Chartres (fig. 18-16) , and the
Visitation figures from Reims Cathedral (fig. 18-22)?
6. What similarity do you see between the S-curve of The Virgin of Paris (fig. 18-35) and that used by the
Greek artist Praxiteles for the Hermes (fig 5-62)? In what ways are the two figures different?
7. In what ways has the classic French High Gothic structure as typified by Amiens Cathedral (figs. 18-9d
and 18-17) been modified in the English and Italian buildings like Salisbury Cathedral (figs. 18-37 to 1839) and the cathedrals of Orvieto and Milan (figs 18-55 and 18-57)?
8. Compare the figures of Ekkehard and Uta from Naumburg (fig 18-49) with the figures from Amiens (fig
18-20) and Reims (fig 18-22). How are the German figures related to the French prototypes? How do
they differ?
9. The equestrian figure of the Bamberg Rider (fig. 18-50) is reminiscent of that of the Roman emperor
Marcus Aurelius (fig. 10-59) and the Equestrian portrait of Charlemagne or Charles the Bald (fig 16-11).
Compare the stylistic treatment of horse and rider as well as the relation of each figure to the space
surrounding it.
10. Discuss patronage in the medieval period, including the roles played by clerics, guilds, merchants, and
royal patrons, noting specific examples of each.
Chapter 18 Study guide: The Age of Great Cathedrals: Gothic ART
Summary of Gothic Art:
Using the timeline on page 519 of the text, enter the dates for the following periods.
Early Gothic Period:_____________ to _____________
High Gothic Period:_____________ to _____________
Late Gothic Period:_____________ to _____________
Summary of Gothic Sculpture:
List a typical example of French Early Gothic Sculpture and their stylistic characteristics:
List a typical example of French High Gothic Sculpture and their stylistic characteristics:
List a typical example of German Gothic sculpture and their stylistic characteristics:
List a typical example of Gothic metalwork and their stylistic characteristics:
Chapter 18 Study guide: The Age of Great Cathedrals: Gothic ART
Summary of Gothic Architecture: Provide one example of each and list stylistic
characteristics
French Early Gothic:
French High Gothic:
French Rayonnant:
French Late Gothic:
English:
German:
Italian: