GOTHIC QUESTIONS!
1. How did social systems change in the Gothic period?
2. What’s happening with education in the Gothic period?
3. What influence did the Crusades have on the period?
4. Is there any hope for women in the Gothic period?
5. What’s the big deal about cathedrals?
6. How are Gothic churches different from the churches of the Romanesque?
7. What are the best Gothic cathedrals?
8. Are any other arts important in the Gothic era?
9. What are some big ideas to come out of the Gothic period?
10. How does Gothic change as it moves from Ile de France?
11. Who are the late Gothic artists of merit?
12. What’s so great about fresco?
13. What changes do we see in art now?
14. How does the plague affect late medieval culture?
15. What major ideas arrive later in the Gothic period?
16. Why is The Canterbury Tales such an important piece of literature?
THE GOTHIC PERIOD 1150 – 1400
1. How did social systems change in the Gothic period?
 Feudalism in decline as peasants move to towns
 Paris, population 150,000, is the first city of the Gothic age
 Why the move to towns?
City charters
Trade: peddlers --> merchants
Merchant class
Social mobility
Guilds: regulate price and quality, “insurance”
Independence/ power, social opportunities
 Urban life offers the stability needed for CATHEDRAL building
- time, effort, money
2. What’s happening with education in the Gothic period?
Only source of education until now is the _________________
UNIVERSITIES RISE!
79 Universities from 1100 to 1500
Bologna, Paris, Cambridge, Oxford, Padua, Heidelburg
What did you study at University in the Gothic period?
Aristotle and Aquinas
1. Reconciles science with the church
2. Christianizes beauty
3. “There is no good use without art.”
3. What influence did Crusades have on the time period?
Why were the Crusades undertaken?
First Crusade is successful
1100 – 1200 Jerusalem is under Christian rule
1200 -- Saladin (ruler of Egypt and Syria)
Results:
4. Is there any hope for women in the Gothic era?
A. Mary
B. Chivalry and Courtly Love
C. Effects spread
“feminine” qualities are appreciated
5. What’s the big deal about Cathedrals?
Gothic period = Ile de France
Shift from abbey church to cathedral
Shift from monasticism to community
A city’s greatest product
A city’s center
A city’s participants:
Construction takes generations despite 12 hour summer and 9 hour winter shifts
A. Gothic floor plan
B. Interior and Exterior Walls
Bundled piers
Cross vaulting
Triforium Gallery
Buttresses
Flying Buttresses
C. Stained Glass
Leading
Tracery
Colors
Enamel
Rose window
Lancet window
Large rose windows
Guild participation
D. Spires
Towers vs. spires
Important Gothic element
Complete set of 7
E. Portal
F. Sculpture
In buttresses
In portals
In trumeau
In gargoyles and grotesques
G. Height wars
Chartres 122
Amiens 140
Beauvais 157
6. How are Gothic cathedrals different from churches of the Romanesque?
7. What are “the coolest” Gothic structures in France?
A. St. Denis
1136
part Romanesque and Gothic
Abbot Suger
1st Gothic Cathedral/ 1st with stained glass
B. Chartres
1260
“Best” Gothic cathedral
Holy site, Sancta Camisia
Numerology, labyrinth
Stained glass windows
C. Saint Chapelle
1243
reliquary for crown of thorns
D. Mont Saint Michel
1400, Merveille
Island 1 km in diameter, 80 m. high
Swing of 15 meters between high and low tides
Quicksand fields, salt grass
Causeway in 1879
E. Notre Dame
1250
Ile de la Cite in the Seine
Bishop of Paris
During Revolution, damaged and dedicated to “Reason”
8. Are any other arts important in the Gothic period?
MUSIC!
 Ile de France also center of musical innovation
 Polyphony and monophony
 “Part” singing begins with ___________________
 Magnus Liber Organi, Leonin, 1168
 Brings polyphony together = ‘cyclical’
 Sacred melody = _________________ = cantus firmus
 Other parts added on top of it
 Tenor might be choir with soloists having other parts
 Tenor might be organ with singers having the other parts
 Most popular polyphony = counterpoint
 Another popular form = three part motet
 Vernacular enters music
 Let’s learn a three part motet!
9. What are two big ideas to come out of the Gothic period?
A. Gothic Dualism -- not the existence of two separate worlds
at once, but all mixed together-- merchant, noble, clergy; secular
and liturgical music together, knowledge of the university and
the power of faith.
B. Numerology -- see book!
10. How does Gothic change as it moves from Ile de France?
A. England -- less sculpture, more architectural
Blends with “Norman” to become “English”
Salisbury Cathedral
B. Germany -- spires and height
Ulm Cathedral
Cologne Cathedral
Sculpture shows “distinctive, national character”
C. Italy--
VERY DIFFERENT
Gothic doesn’t “suit” Italy
Not focused on buttresses, spires, stained glass
Church of Saint Francis of Assisi
Frescoes
11. Who are the late Gothic artists of merit?
a. Nicola Pisano (1205-1278) Annunciation and Nativity
reemergence of classical influence
echoes Trajan’s column
b. Giovanni Pisano (1250- 1317) Nativity and Annunciation to Shepherds
son
c. Cimabue (1240-1302) Madonna Enthroned
renews art of painting
established Florence’s reputation for art
buried at the Duomo
AND. . .
d. Giotto! (1267-1336)
Miracle of the Spring
Pieta
St. Francis Renouncing His Father
Madonna Enthroned
Joachim Returning to the Sheepfold
Farmer’s son (Bondone)
Cimabue’s apprentice
Works in fresco
Best of this group!
In his work we see:
Focus
Balance
Emotion
Color/shade to begin to show depth
Directness of stories / real v. symbolic
Scene/ action in foreground
12. What’s so great about fresco?
The Ancient Art of Fresco Video
a. Vocabulary:
Cartoon
Intonaco
Giornata / Day Section
b. How is the cartoon transferred to the fresco surface?
c. Why is fresco so permanent?
d. How are mistakes corrected?
e. What are some special difficulties in design that Giotto would not have struggled
with?
f. List special difficulties in undertaking fresco as an art form.
13. What changes do we see in art now?
a. Christ as infant not as king
b. Painting’s “break” from symbol
c. Survival of classicism and the university influence
14. How does the plague affect late medieval culture?
Black Plague begins in 1348 in Italy
Methods of avoidance/ prevention
In 1348, ¾ of Florence is dead!
Across Europe, 20 million dead, deserted towns
Two reactions: self denial or live it up!
15. JUST ONE MORE MAJOR IDEA. . .
The Franciscan Movement!
St. Francis of Assisi -- granted his order in 1210
Uncloistered
Humanitarian = “We are all God’s creatures”
Undoes feudalism, Undoes strict hierarchy
Golden Rule
Buried in Assisi, Basilica of St. Francis
16.
Why is The Canterbury Tales such a famous work of literature?
First!
Gives status
Shows scope of Gothic life
Satirical
Compiled 24 tales out of 30, out of 120
What’s Canterbury Cathedral look like?