To finish our survey, let’s look at the very high point of church building in the
Middle Ages, Gothic cathedrals:
Focus: Gothic Churches – “the jeweled houses of God”
What does “Gothic” mean?
 A style of architecture, originating in France in the middle of the 12th century and
existing in the western half of Europe through the middle of the 16th century,
 characterized by the use of the pointed arch and the ribbed vault, by the use of fine
woodwork and stonework, by a progressive lightening of structure, and by the
use of such features as flying buttresses
 Term first used in the 16th century!! Seen by Vasari as anti-classical and therefore
to be derided; Gothic = “of the Goths” ie. Old-fashioned and barbarian
Why was this period called “The Age of Cathedrals”?
 Like the American race to build skyscrapers in the early 20th century, there was a
desire to build ever-higher
 Like icons, reliquaries and illuminated manuscripts, stained glass had the power to
transfix the pilgrim’s gaze and the devotion of the congregation
 Gothic deisgn was aesthetically pleasing, but also practical in terms of cultivating
Christian faith through the power of art
 Christian art of this period, as before, served a didactic function as well as a
spiritual one
 Emerges as a style in mid-12th century France and within 100 years over 2700
churches in this style have been built in France alone.
 Townspeople often revolt against some of these building campaigns as they often
bear the brunt of taxation and fundraising (compare to Nika Riots & Haiga
Sophia)
Slides:
1) Bishop Suger & the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis
 Site of the tomb of S. Denis, early Christian martyr and first bishop of Paris in 5 th C;
burial place of French kings from 10th – 18th C.
 Marks transformation to Gothic under Abbot Suger (abbot 1122-1151 AD)
 Plan retains key elements of Romanesque church
 Tall thin capitals with foliate capitals
 Pointed arches and ribbed vaults
 Less clear divisions between parts in favour of a unified interior space
 The Romanesque was built using heavy walls that divided the space; Gothic
architecture is more open, with more wall space given over to stained glass
 Suger – “Light coming though the windows becomes divine light, a revelation of
the spirit of God.”
 Flying buttresses take the weight of roof and vaults off the roof and transfer it to
the ground, allowing walls to be used for stained glass windows
 Suger is influential, this building is the template for others pursuing “an architecture
of space and light”; however, powerful, urban bishops gradually replace more
isolated monasteries such as S. Denis as major patrons of art and architecture
2) The Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Chartres (exterior & interior & stained glass)
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[p496-505]
 Exceptional state of preservation. The majority of the original stained glass
windows survive intact, while the architecture has seen only minor changes since
the early 13th century.
 Begun construction in 1163, finished late 13th C.
 Architectural structure has been adapted to meet the needs of stained glass.
 Exterior is dominated by heavy flying buttresses, which allowed the architects to
increase the window size significantly
 The west end is dominated by two contrasting spires — one, a 349 ft plain pyramid
dating from the 1140s, and the other a 377 ft tall early 16th century Flamboyant
spire on top of an older tower.
 Since 12th century an important destination for travelers, attracting large numbers
of Christian pilgrims to venerate its famous relic, the Sancta Camisa, the tunic
worn by the Virgin Mary at Christ's birth
 Socio-economic role of the cathedral: functioned as a kind of market place, with
different commercial activities centered around the different portals. Textiles were
sold around the north transept; meat, vegetables and fuel sellers congregated
around the south porch.
 the area immediately surrounding the cathedral was in effect a free-trade zone
governed by the church authorities, who were entitled to the taxes from all
commercial activity taking place there
a) Exterior & plan [Elements of the Gothic church, p499]
Call attention to the following elements:
 Rose window (Chartres has three, one ded. to Christ, one to Last Judgment, one
to Virgin)
 Portal
 Flying buttresses
 Radiating/apsidal chapels (contain relics)
 Nave & Transept
 Apse
 Pointed arches
 Ribbed groin vaults
 Larger clerestory windows, now in stained glass with “easy to read” large figures
 Focus on height, not just on central altar and apse chapels
b) Royal Portal, West Façade
 The cathedral has three great facades, each equipped with three portals, opening
into the nave from the west and into the transepts from north and south.
 In each facade the central portal is particularly large and was only used for special
ceremonies, while the smaller side portals allowed everyday access for the
different communities that used the cathedral
 Fire destroys most of the previous cathedral in 1194, sparing the earlier,
Romanesque Royal Portal
 The three portals each focus on a different aspect of Christ's role; his earthly
incarnation on the right, his second coming on the left and his eternal aspect in
the centre
 Above the right portal, the lintel is carved in two registers with (lower) the
Annunciation, Visitation, Nativity, Annunciation to the Shepherds and (upper) the
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Presentation in the Temple
 The left either the Ascension of Christ or Second Coming of Christ (debated)
 Central portal depicts the End of Time as described in the Book of Revelation. In
the centre of the tympanum is Christ within mandorla, surrounded by the four
symbols of the evangelists. The lintel shows the Twelve Apostles while the
archivolts show the 24 Elders of the Apocalypse.
 The jamb figures at St Denis are understood to be representations of the royal
lineage of Christ in the Kings and Queens of the Old Testament. This theme of
kingship was central to Abbot Suger's ideology. These Old Testament Kings and
Queens were not only understood as ancestors of Christ but important
precursors for the Kings and Queens of France.
 The logic of the portal design clearly connects these jamb figures to the figures
above, clearly defining the Divine source of Royal power in the image of Christ in
Majesty. These jamb figures also serve for us entering the church as
intermediaries to the figures above. This thus places us in relationship to this
hierarchy of power descending from Christ above to the symbols of earthly
kingship below.
c) Good Samaritan Window
 Reading from the bottom up, the Chartres window tells the story of the good
Samaritan in the bottom half of the window. The top half shows scenes from the
Creation and the Fall.
 The story is a parable told by Jesus when asked to define "neighbor."
 The panels illustrate the story in a sequence from bottom left to top right.
 They tell the story of a man who was traveling from Jerusalem to Jericho,
who was robbed and attacked by two thieves. They left him naked,
stabbed, and alone on the side of the road, half dead.
 A priest came by, and crossed to the other side of the road when he saw the man.
Next, came a Levite, another religious person, passed by the stranded and hurt
man. A third man came along that was a traveler, a man from a different city, a
Samaritan. When the Samaritan saw the man he felt compassion for him, he
cared for him, bandaged his wounds, gave him his own animal, took him to an
inn, and took care of his bills, gave the innkeeper money, and told him that he
would pay for any other expenses when he returned. After telling the parable,
Jesus, this time, asks the lawyer, who he believes his neighbor to be. The
lawyers says, "He who showed mercy."
 The stained glass panels illustrate the stories lesson, and instruction in the final
verse of the Luke 10-25:37 story, as Jesus instructs to "Go and do likewise."
Like exterior sculptures on façade, didactic intention. Would you have been able to see
the story as a contemporary viewer in the dark interior.
Salisbury Cathedral
 Salisbury is unique amongst medieval English cathedrals having been built in just
38 years (1220 - 1258) in a single architectural style, early English Gothic. The
tower and spire (Britain’s tallest) were added about 50 years later.
 The cathedral has been mentioned[11] by the author Ken Follett as one of two
models for the fictional Kingsbridge Cathedral in his historical novel, The Pillars
of the Earth. It was also used for some external shots in the 2010 miniseries based
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on Follett's book and was shown as it is today in the final scene.
 Constable and Turner drawings
Shrine of the Three Kings. Relics brought to Cologne in 1164.
BIG PILGRAM SITE
 The Shrine of the Three Kings (German Dreikönigsschrein) is a reliquary said to
contain the bones of the Biblical Magi, also known as the Three Kings or the
Three Wise Men.
 The shrine is a large gilded and decorated triple sarcophagus placed above and
behind the high altar of Cologne Cathedral
 largest reliquary in the western world.
 Construction of the present Cologne Cathedral was begun in 1248 to house these
important relics. The cathedral took 632 years to complete and is now the largest
Gothic church in northern Europe
 The Shrine of the Three Kings is approximately 43 inches (110 cm) wide,
60 inches (153 cm) high, and 87 inches (220 cm) long.
 It is shaped like a basilica: two sarcophagi stand next to each other, with the third
sarcophagus resting on their roof ridges.
 The ends are completely covered, so there is no space visible between the
sarcophagi.
 The basic structure is made of wood, with gold and silver overlay decorated with
filigree, enamel, and over 1000 jewels and beads.
 On the sides, images of the prophets decorate the lower part, while images of the
apostles and evangelists decorate the upper part.
 On one end, there are (across the bottom, from left to right) images of the
Adoration of the Magi, Mary enthroned with the infant Jesus, and the Baptism of
Christ, and above, Christ enthroned at the Last Judgement. The other end shows
scenes of the Passion: the scourging of Christ (lower left) and his crucifixion
(lower left) with the resurrected Christ above.
3) Sainte-Chapelle, Paris
Important as this is a private royal chapel, so not a pilgrimage site in the same
sense as our other examples. The building also functioned as a very large
architectural reliquary.
 Date when building work started is unknown (some time between 1239 and 1243)
but the chapel was largely complete at the time of its consecration on the 26th of
April 1248
 Built to house precious relics: Christ's crown of thorns, the Image of Edessa and
thirty other relics of Christ in the possession of Louis IX
 Unlike many devout aristocrats who stole relics, the saintly Louis bought his
precious relics of the Passion, purchased from Baldwin II, the Latin emperor at
Constantinople, for the exorbitant sum of 135,000 livres. The entire chapel, by
contrast, cost 40,000 livres to build
 Thus the building in Paris, consecrated 26 April 1248, was like a precious
reliquary: even the stonework was painted with medallions of saints and martyrs
in the quatrefoils of the dado arcade, which was hung with rich textiles
 it reveals Louis' political and cultural ambition to be the central monarch of western
Christendom. Just as the Emperor could pass privately from his palace into the
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Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, so now Louis could pass directly from his palace
into the Sainte-Chapelle.
 The royal chapel was a prime exemplar of the developing culminating phase of
Gothic architectural style called "Rayonnant" that achieved a sense of
weightlessness.
Queen Blanche of Castile and Louis IX, Moralized Bible
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, Ms M.240, Paris, around 1230
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The sumptuous Bible made for Louis IX has been known for centuries under the
name of Biblia rica (”rich Bible”) for its luxury decoration.
It was transferred to Toledo during the lifetime of the King (1226–1270) where 8
folios were taken out for unknown reasons in the 16th century and rebound
separately in leather. They have been kept in the Pierpont Library in New York
since 1906..
The overall impression of this Bible manuscript is that of a lavishly decorated
picture book, which is accessible even without reading the accompanying text.
A type of manuscripts unique to the early 13th century, the so-called Moralized
Bibles.
A characteristic feature of the Moralized Bibles of the early 13th century resides
in the fact that both picture and text are always well balanced.
Bible text and Bible commentary, Bible illustration and commentary illustration,
appear side by side in a common context.
As every text passage is explained by its own commentary, every Bible
illustration is complete with a second, explanatory, moralizing illustration.
Eight miniatures are thus displayed on each page, executed in bright colours on
a gilded ground and all composed into medallions, forming blocks on artistically
patterned grounds, and each flanked with four text sections in Latin on either
side.
The first seven leaves of the manuscript now in New York show and explain 56
selected biblical scenes from the last Book of the Bible, the Revelation according
to Saint John.
The last folio of the New York fragment (fol. 8r) presents a special picture.
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the royal couple in the upper half might be presumed to be the
commissioners of the Bible, Blanche of Castile and her son Saint Louis.
A cleric in the lower half, probably the iconographer of the work, gives the
scribe the necessary instructions.
This illustration reveals the true accomplishment of the masters of
illumination. Each detail in the faces of the figures is discernible, the noble
pale complexion of the queen, the juvenile, fresh and red cheeks of the king,
even the newly grown hair of the tonsured priest and the beard of the scribe.
Their clothing is also depicted in the minutest detail. The imitation of the
antique style is accomplished in the design of the clothing, the poses and
gestures of the figures, making this dedication picture a classic example of
this style of painting
The expensive decoration of this illustrated Bible leads us to assume that the
manuscript was made for a high-ranking personality and might have served
as a textbook for the young King Louis.
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The Windmill Psalter
 A psalter is a volume containing the Book of Psalms, often with other devotional
material bound in as well, such as a liturgical calendar and litany of the Saints.
 Until the later medieval emergence of the book of hours, psalters were the books
most widely owned by wealthy lay persons and were commonly used for learning
to read.
 Many Psalters were richly illuminated and they include some of the most
spectacular surviving examples of medieval book art.
Initial E, from he first E in Beatus from Pslam One
“Beatus vir qui non abiit in consilio impiorum et in via peccatorum non stetit et in
cathedra pestilentiae non sedit”
(Latin)
“Blessed is the man who hath not walked in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stood in
the way of sinners, nor sat in the chair of pestilence.” (translation)
 Solomon: Judgment of Solomon -- Solomon, crowned, sits with his legs crossed
and holds sword in his left hand. He points with his right hand to soldier, in mail,
wearing cap and scabbard at waist.
 He grasps infant with his right hand and wields sword in his left hand, beside one of
two veiled mothers. One raises her hands toward Solomon, and the other, below,
raises her right hand.
 Above the king is post-windmill; below him is nimbed angel, as personification of
wind, swooping down with inscribed scroll from Psalm 1:1, [BE] AT(US) VIR
Q(UI) NON ABIIT.
 Scene with pen flourished background of leaves, some furled, within initial E
decorated with four vine-like leaves.
 Initial E, possibly cipher for the king, Edward I of England
It was customary in manuscript procedure for the scribe to complete the text before the
artist started the decoration. In beginning the text on the present second folio, the Morgan
scribe wrote near the bottom to allow room above for decoration of the initial.
5) Video: Gothic
http://vimeo.com/16977550
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