3. “ The insipid taste of gothic ornamentation, these odious monstruosities of an ignorant age, produced by the torments of barbarism” -La Gloire du Val Grace (1669)
17. “ Everything is a function of structure, the gallery, the triforium passage, the pinnacle, and the gable; no Gothic architectural form is the result of flights of fancy” -Viollet-le-Duc
Gothic Architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late Medieval Period. Originating in 12th century France and lasting into the 16th century, Gothic architecture was known during the period as "the French Style," ( Opus Francigenum ), with the term Gothic first appearing during the latter part of the Renaissance. Gothic architecture is most familiar as the architecture of many of the great cathedrals , abbeys and churches of Europe. It is also the architecture of many castles , palaces , town halls , guild halls , universities and to a less prominent extent, private dwellings. " Gothic architecture" does not imply the architecture of the historical Goths . The term originated as a pejorative description: it came to be used as early as the 1530s by Giorgio Vasari to describe culture that was considered rude and barbaric. [1] At the time in which Vasari was writing, Italy had experienced a century of building in the Classical architectural vocabulary revived in the Renaissance and seen as the finite evidence of a new Golden Age of learning and refinement.
Gothic Architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late Medieval Period. Originating in 12th century France and lasting into the 16th century, Gothic architecture was known during the period as "the French Style," ( Opus Francigenum ), with the term Gothic first appearing during the latter part of the Renaissance. Gothic architecture is most familiar as the architecture of many of the great cathedrals , abbeys and churches of Europe. It is also the architecture of many castles , palaces , town halls , guild halls , universities and to a less prominent extent, private dwellings. " Gothic architecture" does not imply the architecture of the historical Goths . The term originated as a pejorative description: it came to be used as early as the 1530s by Giorgio Vasari to describe culture that was considered rude and barbaric. [1] At the time in which Vasari was writing, Italy had experienced a century of building in the Classical architectural vocabulary revived in the Renaissance and seen as the finite evidence of a new Golden Age of learning and refinement.
Regional At the end of the 12th century Europe was divided into a multitude of city states and kingdoms. The area encompassing modern Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, eastern France and much of northern Italy, excluding Venice , was nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire , but local rulers exercised considerable autonomy. France , Portugal , Scotland , Castile , Aragon , Navarre , Sicily and Cyprus were independent kingdoms, as was England , whose Plantagenet kings ruled large domains in France. [6] Norway came under the influence of England, while the other Scandinavian countries and Poland were influenced by trading contacts with the Hanseatic League. Angevin kings brought the Gothic tradition from France to Southern Italy, while Lusignan kings introduced French Gothic architecture to Cyprus. Possible Eastern influence While so-called 'pitched' brick vaulting, which could be constructed without centering, may date back in the Ancient Near East to the 2nd millennium BC, [11] the earliest evidence of the pointed masonry arch appears in late Roman and Sassanian architecture, mostly evidenced in early church building in Syria and Mesopotamia , but occasionally also in secular structures like the Karamagara Bridge . [12] After the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, it became gradually a standard feature of Islamic architecture . [ According to one theory, increasing military and cultural contacts with the Muslim world, as Norman conquest of Islamic Sicily in 1090, the Crusades which began in 1096 and the Islamic presence in Spain brought the knowledge of pointed arches to Medieval Europe. According to another theory, it is believed that the pointed arch evolved naturally in Western Europe as a structural solution to a purely technical problem, concurrent with its introduction and early use as a stylistic feature in French and English churches.
Regional At the end of the 12th century Europe was divided into a multitude of city states and kingdoms. The area encompassing modern Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, eastern France and much of northern Italy, excluding Venice , was nominally part of the Holy Roman Empire , but local rulers exercised considerable autonomy. France , Portugal , Scotland , Castile , Aragon , Navarre , Sicily and Cyprus were independent kingdoms, as was England , whose Plantagenet kings ruled large domains in France. [6] Norway came under the influence of England, while the other Scandinavian countries and Poland were influenced by trading contacts with the Hanseatic League. Angevin kings brought the Gothic tradition from France to Southern Italy, while Lusignan kings introduced French Gothic architecture to Cyprus. Possible Eastern influence While so-called 'pitched' brick vaulting, which could be constructed without centering, may date back in the Ancient Near East to the 2nd millennium BC, [11] the earliest evidence of the pointed masonry arch appears in late Roman and Sassanian architecture, mostly evidenced in early church building in Syria and Mesopotamia , but occasionally also in secular structures like the Karamagara Bridge . [12] After the Muslim conquests of the 7th century, it became gradually a standard feature of Islamic architecture . [ According to one theory, increasing military and cultural contacts with the Muslim world, as Norman conquest of Islamic Sicily in 1090, the Crusades which began in 1096 and the Islamic presence in Spain brought the knowledge of pointed arches to Medieval Europe. According to another theory, it is believed that the pointed arch evolved naturally in Western Europe as a structural solution to a purely technical problem, concurrent with its introduction and early use as a stylistic feature in French and English churches.
The High Middle Ages were characterized by the urbanization of Europe, military expansion, and intellectual revival that historians identify between the 11th century and the end of the 13th century. A further regional influence was the availability of materials. In France, limestone was readily available in several grades, the very fine white limestone of Caen being favoured for sculptural decoration. England had coarse limestone and red sandstone as well as dark green Purbeck marble which was often used for architectural features. In Northern Germany, Netherlands, northern Poland, Scandinavia, and the Baltic countries local building stone was unavailable but there was a strong tradition of building in brick. The resultant style, Brick Gothic , is called "Backsteingotik" in Germany and Scandinavia and is associated with the Hanseatic League. In Italy, stone was used for fortifications, but brick was preferred for other buildings. Because of the extensive and varied deposits of marble, many buildings were faced in marble, or were left with undecorated façade so that this might be achieved at a later date.
The High Middle Ages were characterized by the urbanization of Europe, military expansion, and intellectual revival that historians identify between the 11th century and the end of the 13th century. A further regional influence was the availability of materials. In France, limestone was readily available in several grades, the very fine white limestone of Caen being favoured for sculptural decoration. England had coarse limestone and red sandstone as well as dark green Purbeck marble which was often used for architectural features. In Northern Germany, Netherlands, northern Poland, Scandinavia, and the Baltic countries local building stone was unavailable but there was a strong tradition of building in brick. The resultant style, Brick Gothic , is called "Backsteingotik" in Germany and Scandinavia and is associated with the Hanseatic League. In Italy, stone was used for fortifications, but brick was preferred for other buildings. Because of the extensive and varied deposits of marble, many buildings were faced in marble, or were left with undecorated façade so that this might be achieved at a later date.
The Crusades were holy wars or armed pilgrimages intended to liberate Jerusalem from Muslim control. Jerusalem was part of the Muslim possessions won during a rapid military expansion in the 7th century through the Near East, Northern Africa, and Anatolia (in modern Turkey). By the end of the Middle Ages, the Christian Crusaders had captured all the Islamic territories in modern Spain, Portugal, and Southern Italy. Meanwhile, Islamic counter-attacks had retaken all the Crusader possessions on the Asian mainland, leaving a de facto boundary between Islam and Western Christianity that continued until modern times.
The early Medieval periods had seen a rapid growth in monasticism, with several different orders being prevalent and spreading their influence widely. Foremost were the Benedictines whose great abbey churches vastly outnumbered any others in England. A part of their influence was that they tended to build within towns, unlike the Cistercians whose ruined abbeys are seen in the remote countryside. In the 13th century St. Francis of Assisi established the Franciscans , or so-called "Grey Friars", a mendicant order. The Dominicans , another mendicant order founded during the same period but by St. Dominic in Toulouse and Bologna , were particularly influential in the building of Italy's Gothic churches.
The Late Middle Ages were a period initiated by calamities and upheavals. During this time, agriculture was affected by a climate change that has been documented by climate historians, and was felt by contemporaries in the form of periodic famines, including the Great Famine of 1315–1317 .
The Late Middle Ages also witnessed the rise of strong, royalty-based nation-states , particularly the Kingdom of England , the Kingdom of France , and the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula ( Aragon , Castile , Navarre , and Portugal ). The long conflicts of this time, such as the Hundred Years' War fought between England and France, strengthened royal control over the kingdoms, even though they were extremely hard on the peasantry. Kings profited from warfare by gaining land. The Hundred Years' War was a conflict between France and England lasting 116 years, from 1337 to 1453. It was fought primarily over claims by the English kings to the French throne and was punctuated by several brief and two extended periods of peace before it finally ended in the expulsion of the English from France, except for the Calais Pale.
The Late Middle Ages also witnessed the rise of strong, royalty-based nation-states , particularly the Kingdom of England , the Kingdom of France , and the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula ( Aragon , Castile , Navarre , and Portugal ). The long conflicts of this time, such as the Hundred Years' War fought between England and France, strengthened royal control over the kingdoms, even though they were extremely hard on the peasantry. Kings profited from warfare by gaining land. The Hundred Years' War was a conflict between France and England lasting 116 years, from 1337 to 1453. It was fought primarily over claims by the English kings to the French throne and was punctuated by several brief and two extended periods of peace before it finally ended in the expulsion of the English from France, except for the Calais Pale.
Most Gothic churches, unless they are entitled chapels, are of the Latin cross (or "cruciform") plan, with a long nave making the body of the church, a transverse arm called the transept and, beyond it, an extension which may be called the choir , chancel or presbytery. There are several regional variations on this plan.
Gothic architects did not invent the pointed arch. It had been used much earlier in the Near East. It was used by Muslim artists in Asia, Africa, and even in parts of southern Europe. The use of the pointed arch in Europe started very soon after the First Crusade (1099), when Jerusalem was captured from the Muslims. Thousands of crusaders from Western Europe saw buildings and works of art entirely different from those that they were used to. Though they did not believe in the Muslim religion, there was no reason why they should not imitate the art that pleased them. This explains the arrival of the pointed arch in Europe. The Europeans used the pointed arch in a new way. Medieval buildings were constructed with vaults--ceilings made by continuous arches of heavy columns. Architects of the late Romanesque period had experimented with the ribbed vault, which allowed them to build much higher churches. The plan of the church was divided into square sections called bays. At each corner a pier (large pillar) was built. Diagonally from corner pier to corner pier, round arches were built. Because the diagonal of a square is longer than its side, round arches on the sides of a bay would not be as high as the round arches that spanned the bay diagonally. It was found that pointed arches at the sides and round arches at the diagonals would all reach the same height. This system of building is called ribbed vaulting.
Gothic architects did not invent the pointed arch. It had been used much earlier in the Near East. It was used by Muslim artists in Asia, Africa, and even in parts of southern Europe. The use of the pointed arch in Europe started very soon after the First Crusade (1099), when Jerusalem was captured from the Muslims. Thousands of crusaders from Western Europe saw buildings and works of art entirely different from those that they were used to. Though they did not believe in the Muslim religion, there was no reason why they should not imitate the art that pleased them. This explains the arrival of the pointed arch in Europe. The Europeans used the pointed arch in a new way. Medieval buildings were constructed with vaults--ceilings made by continuous arches of heavy columns. Architects of the late Romanesque period had experimented with the ribbed vault, which allowed them to build much higher churches. The plan of the church was divided into square sections called bays. At each corner a pier (large pillar) was built. Diagonally from corner pier to corner pier, round arches were built. Because the diagonal of a square is longer than its side, round arches on the sides of a bay would not be as high as the round arches that spanned the bay diagonally. It was found that pointed arches at the sides and round arches at the diagonals would all reach the same height. This system of building is called ribbed vaulting.
The simplest shape is the long opening with a pointed arch known in England as the lancet. Lancet openings are often grouped, usually as a cluster of three or five. Lancet openings may be very narrow and steeply pointed. Lancet arches are typically defined as two-centered arches whose radii are larger than the arch's span
The Equilateral Arch gives a wide opening of satisfying proportion useful for doorways, decorative arcades and large windows. The Equilateral Arch lends itself to filling with tracery of simple equilateral, circular and semi-circular forms.
The Flamboyant Arch is one that is drafted from four points, the upper part of each main arc turning upwards into a smaller arc and meeting at a sharp, flame-like point. These arches create a rich and lively effect when used for window tracery and surface decoration.
The Depressed or four-centred arch is much wider than its height and gives the visual effect of having been flattened under pressure Its structure is achieved by drafting two arcs which rise steeply from each springing point on a small radius and then turn into two arches with a wide radius and much lower springing point
The weight of the vaults on the walls tended to force the walls outward. This is called thrust. To support the walls, structures called buttresses were built against the outside of the walls. As ribbed vaulting enabled the construction of higher buildings, it became more difficult to resist the thrust from the arches. To support the additional weight of a higher building, buttresses had to be taller and to project more and more from the wall. Architects discovered that a fairly low buttress could be used to support the taller walls by means of a sloping arch, reaching up from the buttress and pressing against the outside of a higher wall. This kind of buttress is called a flying buttress.
When the flying buttress had been added to the ribbed vault and the pointed arch, all the main parts of Gothic architecture were there. As far as we know, all three were first used together at Durham Cathedral, in the north of England, about the year 1093. In spite of this, Durham Cathedral was not yet Gothic in style, for round arches were still used in the cathedral. The use of flying buttresses made it possible to increase the height of the nave to the maximum technically possible without haveing
As a result of the curvature of the vaults and arches, the weight of the roofing is thrown out as localized oblique thrusts, which Gothic architects counterbalanced either by opposing thrusts (flying buttresses) or calculated vertical pressures (pinnacles). The gothic structural system thus allowed for a lightenening of mass and afforded greater ease of vertical construction; the overall result was a clear distribution of components.
Baroque and Neoclassical architecture, ninetheenth century critics found it shocking, admirable, or simply noteworthy that buildings from the 1200s and 1300s especially naves of such large churches as the cathedrals of Beauvais, Cologne and York were erected vertically of high and narrow proportions and were much longer than they were wide. Furthermore, these proportions are accentuated by the linear arrangement of the piers and colonnetes that support the vaulting. Several of these systems, though innovative were based on the equilateral triangle, the square, the circle, and parts of the circle; they were not destined to be retained by the Reinassance.
From its beginnings at St Denis, the manipulation of light, glass and reflective surfaces was a hallmark of the new Gothic style. Abbot Suger, instigator of Gothic style, had strong views about the value and meaning of light, part religious, part philosophical.
The decorative schemes usually incorporated Biblical stories, emphasizing visual typological allegories between Old Testament prophecy and theNew Testament.
Buildings in Gothic times supplied the framework into which all other arts fitted. Leaves, flowers, conventional patterns, and large statues were carved into the stonework of buildings. These statues were usually of saints or persons from the Bible: the prophets of the Old Testament and kings of Judah, Christ and the Twelve Apostles, the story of the Crucifixion, Christ seated in judgment. Many of the architects who designed the buildings were also sculptors and carved the most important statues themselves. Others--and this became more common as time went on--only drew the general design of the statues and had sculptors carve them. The statues were not made just to stand on pedestals and be admired as fine art. They were always an important part of the design of the building. Sculpture was used everywhere on Gothic churches. Figures of saints stood around the piers; scenes from the old and new testaments were carved above doorways. People were depicted more realistically during the Gothic period than during the Romanesque. The folds and wrinkles of garments were shown falling in a natural way. The faces of the statues had expressions, and their almond-shaped eyes seemed to look in one direction or another. This was unlike Romanesque sculpture, which was stiff and not naturalistic. Gothic carvers often combined beautiful, natural-looking, and saintly figures with imaginary demons, imps, or other invented creatures. Sometimes these creatures were grotesque and sometimes they were funny. The Middle Ages was a time when the church had absolute authority, but that did not stop people from remembering the old legends and superstitions that had been passed down from their ancestors.
Tracery may have been introduced to England by an architect called Master Henry, who had worked at Reims and who became the chief architect to King Henry III. He used tracery for the windows of Westminster Abbey, which he designed in 1245. Here the kings of England were to be crowned and buried. The new fashion was approved by the English king and was quickly adopted across the country. In France traceried windows like those at Reims were called the style rayonnant ("radiant style"). This term was used to describe a style of decorative art that was based on tracery. It referred, however, to decorative objects as well as to windows. Many people think that it represents the highest development of Gothic style. To this flowering of the Gothic belong the famous French cathedrals of Reims, Amiens, and Beauvais, in the north, while the same style was carried down to the south, through Limoges and Rodez to Narbonne.
The spires, pinnacles, and towers of the facade – arranged according to the principles of the golden section – accentuate the prevalence of the vertical,symbolic of the tension toward the divine
Increased exaltation of light Opening of walls Use of stained glass Flying Buttresses (Increased and Elaborate) (Topped by ) pinnacles and spires Removal of the tribune uncomfortable and hardly functional – were exploited to achieve a new monumental appearance full of balance and harmony
The new design applied to the windows at Reims and Amiens marked the beginning of an innovation in the Gothic style that is called rayonnant on the basis of radiating design of the piercing of the rose windows. The expression of monumentality by way of ponderous masses was abandoned in favour of an incorporeal approach that reduced forms to the interweaving of lines on planes and in space without transforming in any radical way the structure of the Gothic Church which continued to follow the model set by Chartres in terms of both layout and elevation What changed was the series of supports that compose the interior view, the vertical tension is brought to extremes everything becomes more linear, without depth in the treatment of surfaces and visually without height. Once again the cathedral of St. Denis was among the Avant Garde The Rayonnant formula spread with surprising speed until around 1340, when it was interrupted by the recurrent outbreaks of the plague and the darker monuments of the Hundred Years War.
The fundamental characteristic of Flamboyant Gothic is the embellishment of technical and decorative elements, for in fact it involved no important structural inventions. The decorative interweaving of ornate tracery forms, already identifiable in the upper part of the west facade of Rouen Cathedral, datable to 1370. With patterns of double curving, undulating lines that immitate flames (Old French: Flambe) give the style its name Preferance was now given to plant forms or similar shapes, along with similar naturalistic motifs drawn from the French Art of the period. The flamboyant language found its most successful expression in facades on which it released with exuberant freedom curving and twisting lines, swirling curvilinear and pointed tracery, canopied niches, richly decorated splayed portals, steep gables and crockets. A dense multilayered language that lets pass no opportunity to present the richest and most imaginative decorative themes
12 th century Cistercian architecture has been definesd as “reduced Gothic” meaning reduced to the technical procedures and to the beginning of new luminous spatial definition that borrows decorative forms from other nonmastic buildings
Some of the buildings made in England around the end of the 12 th century reveal great originality in the interpreation of French models. In fact, one group of churches makes use of the elevation on three levels configured as longitudinal sections superimposed for the entire length of the nave without any vertical attachment prefiguring the tendency to horizontality that was to be typical of England’s Early Gothic style
Between the end of the 13 th and beginning of the 14 th century, English builders remained faithful, for the most part, to earlier models, meaning the church typology with a very elongated layout, projecting transept, and crossing towers. Heights that were not excessive and primarly horizontal developments also in terms of the facades.They were conservative in terms of building technique, using thick walls and making only likmited use of flying buttresses. The result was that there was less focus on the definition of the bays in favour of the unitary effects of the treatment of the surfaces of the vaults, which were given complicated designs through the addition of supplementary ribbing. From the repertory of Rayonnant Gothic the English architects selected only the motif of the great rose window, but the application of this design had a drastic effect on the overall organization of English Churches. English artchitects introduced new approaches to space, making use of multiple visual directions and new applications of perspective. An outstanding example is the crossing tower at Ely, rebuilt in the form of an octagon.
Between the end of the 13 th and beginning of the 14 th century, English builders remained faithful, for the most part, to earlier models, meaning the church typology with a very elongated layout, projecting transept, and crossing towers. Heights that were not excessive and primarly horizontal developments also in terms of the facades.They were conservative in terms of building technique, using thick walls and making only likmited use of flying buttresses. The result was that there was less focus on the definition of the bays in favour of the unitary effects of the treatment of the surfaces of the vaults, which were given complicated designs through the addition of supplementary ribbing. From the repertory of Rayonnant Gothic the English architects selected only the motif of the great rose window, but the application of this design had a drastic effect on the overall organization of English Churches. English artchitects introduced new approaches to space, making use of multiple visual directions and new applications of perspective. An outstanding example is the crossing tower at Ely, rebuilt in the form of an octagon.
The acceptance of the Gothic by the empire’s architects shows up most clearly in their adoptation of Gothic structural supports; in the diocese of Trier the influence of French architecture appeared in the use of the engaged column and the Reims-style tall windows. (To be elaborated)
Emperor Charles IV called Peter Parler to Prague to continue work on the cathedral. Charles IV, an admirer of France, made Prague the capital of the empire and determined that it should be the greatest city in Northern Europe. He established an archbishopric, a cathedral in 1344, began the New Town and founded the university at Prague in 1348, the first in Garmany. Prague became an important cultural and artistic centre assuming the fascinating and thoroughly particular face that still distinguished it. Important architectural undertaking had already begun, the most important of which was the beginning of construction of the new cathedral of St. Vitus in the part of the city within the walls of the castle Hradcany. It was laid out by Mathias of Arras on the basis of a traditional arrangement and using traditional building methods, but it became the first clear example in Europe of a new ay of seeing architecture when its direction passed into the hands of the twenty-three-year-old Pter Parler. Peter Parler quite casually changed the design by Mathias of Arras altering the layout with the additions of the sacristy and the Wenceslas Chapel. The innovative system of the vaults-some stellar and triangular,others with the insertion of flying ribs, or with hanging arches,pendant bosses-creates an arrangement of English origin styles. Equally innovative is the treatment of thew all which is completely changed the original scheme by giving strong accentuation to the geometric rectangular components that frame the minor elements. The crietria of articulation becomes more complex through the use of inclined surfaces that produce the visual effect of an undulating space, deeper in the area of the windows which become the protagonists in the search for continuity that characterizes the whole.
Enourmous vitality and geographic variety had distinguished the architectural culture of Italy since the early 13 th century, with some areas showing the effects of the French-Burgundian ideas brought to Italy by the Cistercians, and others holding trye to the Romanesque and classical traditions. As a result, there were but few signs of Gothic forms and techniques in Italy. The absence of a strong central government prevented the adoption of a unitary style and made possible the persistence of local building traditions, which were looked upon with civic pride. New constructions were relatiely rare in many Italian cities, most of the building work involving instead the completion of works already started, and although these might include modern accents, no efforts were made to alter the original sense of space and, indead the goal was to maintain characteristic compact and balanced atmosphere. The acceptance of the purely superficial value of the thin wall led Italy toward a design concept parallel to that of the French Gothic but alternative to it with particular emphasis on the sense of perspective depth. With the exceptions of the cathedral of Milan and S Franesco in Bologna, the distinctive characteristic of Gothic in Italy was the rejection of the external flying buttress. What prevailed instead, in both religious and secular structures was the theme of the vaulted and ribbed covering over more or less square bays with naves and aisles of more or less the same height.
Venetian Gothic is a term given to an architectural style combining use of the Gothic lancet arch with Byzantine and Moorish architecture influences. The style originated in 14th century Venice with the confluence of Byzantine styles from Constantinople , Arab influences from Moorish Spain and early Gothic forms from mainland Italy. Spanish Gothic The introduction of Gothic forms to the Iberian peninsula occurred during the ongoing process of the military and political reconquest of that reguion by the Christian kingdoms; it met resistance from the strong Romanesque tradition, which had become blended with elements from Islamic art to form a highly original synthesis. By the last years of the 12 th century howeer Spain was coming into contact with architectural ideas from northern France by way of the pilgrimage routes leading over the Pyrenees. This contact did not lead to the adoption of the ribbed vault and was reflected instead in the iconographic programmes involving sculptural cycles and the adoption of the Burgundian ambulatory choir. Inspiration from early French cathedral Gothic appeared histantly around the year 1200 in aspects of the plans and elevations of the cathedrals of Avila, Tarragona, Cuence and Lerida. However, Spanish Gothic or rather French Gothic in Spain really beings in the 1220s with the two great cathedrals of Burgos and Toledo..
In the midst of the growth of cities in the medieval world,mendicant – Augustinians, Dominicans, Franciscans – drew attention to the less pleasant aspects of the new social system, promoting reforms to mitigate the inequalities in wealth and also highlighting the dissolute style of life generated by wealth. The urban convent although in many sense indebted to Benedictine monasteries, developed an L-shaped layout in which the church and monastic areas flanked a square, used for preaching. The single nave church was chosen as the best type to meet these requirements since it combined simplicity, economy, rapid construction, and the constructive severity. It was also large, big enough for crowds of the faithful to assemble in an area ithout divisions and without obstacles to acoustics.
A new period began at the end of the 15 th century with the ascent to the Portuguese throne of Manuel I, known as Manuel the Fortunate. His reign (1495-1521) was a period of great expansion and splendour, with the creation of the Portuguese commercial empire including new settlements in the Far East and teh New World. During this period a new style of Portuguese architecture, known as the Manueline began to take form. This was a composite style that came to have influence on works made in other areas of Europe and even outside Europe, in Megico and India. A primary aspect of this and one that makes it different from the styles developed in other areas of the Iberian peninsula, is the absence of any linguistic or morphological references to Mudejar Stles. Between the 15 th and 16 th century, new decorative schemes and languages were elaborated all of them increasingly influenced by naturalistic or organic forms or those drawn from the marine world, such as knots and twisted rope. These elements were emblematic of the Portuguese world and were thus both European and Oceanic; they also allude to developents in the field of navigation and to the geographic discoveries of the Portuguese. The manueline style is an ecelectic style, and as such it has been interpreted as a pssing phase in the movement toward the arrival in Portugal of the new Reinaissance culture.
The later Gothic was less fresh and less individual than it had been in the 12th and 13th centuries. There was less chance for invention. The rules for the design and proportions of every part of the building became too difficult for one man to master. In the 15th century the clear rules for the proportions of architecture laid down by the Roman architect Vitruvius Pollio in the 1st century B.C. were again studied. It was natural that these simple rules should have been preferred by many people to the Gothic system, which required years of practice and study and which few but the architects themselves could understand at all. Gothic architecture and Gothic art had spread all over the western and northern parts of Europe. Gothic art even influenced the quite different forms of art of the Byzantine world to the east and the world of Islam to the south. But the Gothic style had never really taken root in Italy, the home of Roman architecture. There the round arch and the ancient orders of architecture were never altogether abandoned. The people of the Renaissance, reading the ancient manuscripts of Latin literature and looking at the ruins of Roman buildings, started a new fashion for imitating the classical style. The Gothic style was changed little by little. Architects had to learn the rules of Roman architecture and put aside the principles of the Gothic. So it was that Gothic art slowly passed away. But in the years between 1100 and 1600, it produced the greatest number of large buildings that the Western world had ever seen. Almost all the cathedrals of Western Europe were built in the Gothic period. Before revolution, war, and fires did their damage, Gothic cathedrals had contained the greatest quantity of art of one kind ever made. Structures
Within a very few years, probably between 1132 and 1144, a new church was built at the abbey of St. Denis, near Paris. This church is the first existing example of the Gothic style. It was a royal abbey, where the kings of France were buried in tombs that can still be seen. At that time the abbey was ruled by a great abbot named Suger, who was greatly interested in art of every kind. Suger wanted to make his church the finest and the most beautifully decorated in the Christian world. Although Abbot Suger was a monk dedicated to a life of holiness, he did not believe that God's house should look bare and poor. Suger was fond of people--from the king to the beggar--and wanted them all to come to the services at his church. He insisted on rebuilding the much older St. Denis Church, which was small and old-fashioned. Suger would not let any difficulty stand in his way. He arranged for the stone to be quarried--dug from the ground. He needed long wooden beams for the roof but was told such great timbers were not to be had; so he went out himself and searched in the forests until he found trees big enough to supply the beams he wanted. In the end he succeeded in getting the church built. It was dedicated in the presence of King Louis VII, on July 11, 1144.
Within a very few years, probably between 1132 and 1144, a new church was built at the abbey of St. Denis, near Paris. This church is the first existing example of the Gothic style. It was a royal abbey, where the kings of France were buried in tombs that can still be seen. At that time the abbey was ruled by a great abbot named Suger, who was greatly interested in art of every kind. Suger wanted to make his church the finest and the most beautifully decorated in the Christian world. Although Abbot Suger was a monk dedicated to a life of holiness, he did not believe that God's house should look bare and poor. Suger was fond of people--from the king to the beggar--and wanted them all to come to the services at his church. He insisted on rebuilding the much older St. Denis Church, which was small and old-fashioned. Suger would not let any difficulty stand in his way. He arranged for the stone to be quarried--dug from the ground. He needed long wooden beams for the roof but was told such great timbers were not to be had; so he went out himself and searched in the forests until he found trees big enough to supply the beams he wanted. In the end he succeeded in getting the church built. It was dedicated in the presence of King Louis VII, on July 11, 1144.
King Louis liked what he saw, and his approval must have been one of the chief reasons for the rapid spread of the new fashion in building. Within five years after the dedication of St. Denis, an addition was made to the old west front of the cathedral of Chartres, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) from Paris. The work must have been done by the same artists who had worked for Abbot Suger. One of them even signed his name, Rogerus, behind one of the carved statues at Chartres. He was probably the chief of the masons, or stonecutters. Today we would call him the architect of the cathedral. He is the earliest Gothic architect whose name we know. Chartres well express the changefulness and dynamic energy of the creators of the Gothic style.
Within a few years great churches in the new style were being built all over northeastern France. In Paris the Cathedral of Notre Dame was begun in 1163. It was completed around 1250. During the second half of the 12th century, the abbey at Pontoise and the abbeys of St. Martin-des-Champs, in Paris, and St. Remi, in Reims (Rheims), and the cathedrals of Sens, Noyon, Laon, Senlis, and Soissons were built. These early Gothic buildings still looked Romanesque in many ways.
Tracery, a typically Gothic form, was used at Reims (Rheims) Cathedral in 1211 or 1212 by the mason Jean d'Orbais. Reims Cathedral was the church where the coronations of French kings took place. It was this important royal connection that gave the new window tracery of Reims its great prestige.While Reims Cathedral was being built it was visited by many architects. Impressed by the beauty of the new Gothic tracery, they made sketches of it. Among these architects was Villard de Honnecourt, whose sketchbook can still be seen in the National Library in Paris. Honnecourt thought that the Reims windows were the most beautiful he had seen anywhere--and he had traveled across Europe through Switzerland and Germany and as far as Hungary. Other architects at the time were making sketches too, and the idea of tracery spread to many distant places.
Sens Cathedral of 1140 survives as an example of the earliest Gothic style in the Ile de France.
Noyon represents the early Gothic balance between the verticality of the pointed arch and the horizontal effect of multiple storeys.
The cathedrals of Laon and Paris, built at the same time from 116- onwards, represent strikingly different interpretations of early Gothic: Laon has an ebullient and picturesque gaiety; Notre Dame a serene gravity.
Amiens is regarded as representing the classic moment of High Gothic. Designed in 1220 by Robert de Luzarches following the destruction by fire two years earlier of the Romanesque church, the nave Amiens is closely modelled on Reims. Its vaults soar even higher: nearly 140 feet (42.5m) as compared with 125 (38) at Reims and 120 (36.5) at Chartres.
What was perhaps the worst accident involving Gothic architecture took place in 1284 when the choir of Beauvais Cathedral begun 1225 and completed in 1272 gave in to a strong wind and collapsed. Put simply, the structure was too tall. This mishap marked the end of an epoch, and from then on builders and patrons alike abandoned the aspiration for ever higher structures, which had been the oustanding characteristic of Gothic architecture. Beauvais is considered the final development of the style established at Chartres and Reims, a point beyond which no one could go.
It was not until near the year 1200 that Gothic architecture became completely different from Romanesque. The pure Gothic can be seen in France at Bourges Cathedral, begun about 1192, and in England at Lincoln Cathedral, built from 1192 to 1350. Slender piers (pillars) and buttresses were used, and great windows were decorated with stained glass to color the light as it poured into the churches.
Lincoln cathedral rebuilt from 1192 by the mater mason Geoffrey de Noiers, is another masterpiece which is innovative in a way unparalleled in France. St. Hugh’s Choir known after Geoffrey de Noire’s patron, the French born Carthusian monk St. Hugh of Lincoln is roofed with what is known as the ‘crazy vault’ of Lincoln. It is perhaps the earliest instance in Gothic Europe of deliberate emphasis on the decorative as opposed to the functional role of ribs.
The Jewel of the Court Style (a.k.a Rayonnant Gothic) is the Sainte-Chapelle at the royal palace in Paris, built for St. Louis in 1242-8 as a national shrine to house a fragment of the True Cross, which he bought from the emperor of Byzantium, and another sacred relic believed to be the Crown of Thorns. The presence of this relic led Pope Innocent IV to proclaim that it meant that Christ has crowned Louis with his own Crown. The chapel was thus a sumbol of the French achievement at its most royal and most Catholic.
In Germany, Cologne Cathedral was begun in 1245, but it was not finished for more than 600 years. French masons, under the architect Étienne de Bonneuil, were called far away to Uppsala, in Sweden, to design the cathedral that was built between 1270 and 1315.
The result of fan ambition to dissolve solid mass into a diagonal polyphony of pinnacled ornament, disappearing imperceptibly in the air like a shimmering heat hare.
In French secular architecture from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries the outstanding monuments are the fortified castles and cities which were erected all over the country, particularly towards the end of this period during the Hudnred Years War. Many castles were destroyed in the seventeenth century as a result of the order of the Cardinal Richelieu that feudal fortresses should be dismantled. One of the finest survivals is the Palace of the Popes at Avignon, a vast fortified complex surrounded by towers and high walls.
The Flamboyant style was equally successful in the context of civic architecture, as can be seen in one of the most magnificent public buildings of late Medieval France, the Palais de Justice of 1499.
At Canterbury Cathedral in 1174 a leading English ecclesiastical patron decided to follow the fashion in architecture newly set in the Ile-de-France: the resulting choir at Canterbury is one of earliest major Gothic buildings in the country. Just as we have fascinating documents by Abbot Sugar describing the construction of the first Gothic building in France in the 1140s, so, by a remarkable coincidence, we have a contemporary account by one of the monks of Canterbury, Gervase, of the ten year building process following the great fire of September 1174 which had largely destroyed the Romanesque choir. After this disaster leading master masons from England and France were invited to give their advice on how to rebuild this prestigious metropolitan cathedral, seat of the primate of England and of a flourishing Benedictine monastery and the centre of a growing cult of devotion to St. Thomas a Becket who was murdered in the cathedral in 1170.
With its fame increased by the paintings of John Constable, the cathedral of Salisbury shows all its beauty in the high crossing tower topped by a soaring spire. Like most English Gothic cathedrals, it is developed primarily in width adopting a screen facade juxtaposed to the interior of the structure which is particularly rich in chiaroscular effects thanks to the articulation of superimposed registers of pointed arcades creating niches for scultpural decoration. In comparison, the doors seem to have been given little importance.
English architects introduced new approaches to space, making use of multiple visual directions and new applications of perspective. An outstanding example is the crossing tower at Ely, rebuilt in the form of an octagon, a design attributed to the sacristan Alan of Walsingham. The fantastic visual effects it achieves with its dimensions expanded in width and heigh through the use of a special technologuy, locate the octagon lantern of Ely in the avant garde of contemporary European architecture.
Westminster Abbey, begun for Henry III in 1245, made that style immediately out of date by presenting in the most national context a blend of English traditions with the latest French developments. It was intended to combine the functions of three buildings associated with Henry’s brother in law Louis IX: the coronation church of Reims, the royal mausoleum at St- Denis and the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris. French features at West-minster include the chevet and ambulatory; the tall narrow proportions of the nave higher than any so far built in England; the thin upper wall technique with flying buttresses and no clerestory passage; the springing of the vaults from single tas-des-charges (springing stones); the uninterreupted descent of shafts from the vaults to the pier bases; and especially the window tracery, including bar tracery from Reims, windows in spherical triangles from the Sainte-Chapelle, and rose windows from the north transept at Notre-Dame. It must be said that
The finest of the towers in the late style (sometimes called Sondergotik) are those at Strasbour and Ulm and are related to the circle of the four leading German architects working the thirty-year period from 1390 all of whom were indebted to the school of the Parlers. The yare Ulrichvon Ensingen, Wentzel Roriczer, Hinrich von Brunsberg and Hans von Burghausen (sometimes wrongly called Stethaimer) The story of the building of Stras bourg’s cathedral presents the progressive evolution of Gothic forms from their initial rejection by Rhine builders to their full acceptance. The adoption of the great windows of the Chartres type met with immediate success, and from then on Strasbourg became one of the leading centres for the diffusion and elaboration of Rayonnant Gothic.
The reliance on brickwork in the northern regions of the empire led to a style that given the compact nature of its forms, seemed in open constrast with the extreme lightness that is the goal of Gothic architecture. German architects overcame this and succeeded in expressing the new language through the use of brick architecture creating a special style of Gothic. Backsteingotik. The structure of churches made in this style from Lubeck to Chorin to Prenzlau, clearly reveals the desire to simplfiy the Gothic of the Great cathedrals. It is a simplicity dictated in part by the materials used which led to the elvation of flat wall surfaces of great formal and pictorial qualities.
The architect of the Wiesenkirche made a perfect Hallenkirche in the proportions between the aisles and the nave, based on the golden section.
Milan’s cathedral reflects ideas drawn from the international world of late 14 th century Gothic, presenting in fact a summation as well as hybridization, of different currents and trends, with a preference given to those of the French Flamboyant style and the German. All of this was probably a result of the Visconti family’s desire to see itself ranked among the major ruling families in Europe.
The support structures arranged along the southern side of the cathedral based on a system of buttresses and double rampant arches with the addition of masonry walls followed a route already well known to French Gothic architecture. Here, however, the dense rows of buttresses are transformed into a massive stone wall cut by the dark grooves of shadow achieving strong visual effects. Palma rejects every aspect of the opening of walls so typical of the French Rayonnant style and the architectural mass looks much like a fortified structure overlooking the sea.
The desire for open, expanding spaces, the hugner for breathtaking scale, the desire to rework the ways of joining architectural volumes are displayed in the radical solutions of S Eulalia.
Burgos seems like a simplification of the French Gothic, perhaps a result of financial limitations or perhaps a reflection of the fact that the giant scale of the cathedrals of northern Europe remained substantially foreign to environments still tied to Romanesque traditions. Standing on the northern slope of a steep hill, the cathedral is best known for its 15 th century eastern towers. The extraorderinary scultpural decoration on the Portada del Sarmental follows the model of Gothic scultpure with its strong charge of realism and extraordinarily vigorous modeling.
As a whole, the complex of S Maria da Vitoria represents not only the most important work of Portuguese architecture but also a masterpiece of art of the 14 th -15 th century. Batalha is perhaps the monument that best incarnates the drive for the renewal of teh artistic spirit during the Gothic period. It should not be forgotten, however, that the monastery is the result of a highly singular set of circumstances. It is the product of a king who wanted its architecture to affirm a principle of political legitimization and thus its messsage was directed for the most part outside the country in which it was made. For this reason its style is not a synthesis of the varieties of Portuguese architecture. Instead, it makes use of international components, most of all French and English, to express and to symbolize the ideas and the political policies of the sovereign and his relationship with the monarchies with more long standing traditions.
Of the architectural works in Spain that make use of elements from France and England, none is of greater importance than the cathedral of Seville. Work on the cathedral began in 1401, atop the ruins of the city’s main mosque, of which only the great tower of the minaret survives, transformed into a bell tower and known as the Giralda because of its bronze weathervane, a figure of faith made during the Renaissance. The construction lasted more than a century and came to involve contributions from numerous local and foreign masters, among them the Netherlandish Ysambert and the French Carlin, and many foreign artists made the stained glass, the sculputres, and the architectural and decorative elements.
