Gothic Europe

KEY IDEAS

• Built on ideas from the Romanesque period: rib vaults, pointed arches, bay system and clerestories
• Wanted to reach new heights (quest for HEIGHT and LIGHT)! Cities competed to build the grandest, tallest churches
• Light is manifestation of God known as lux nova (new light)
• Portal decoration within tympanum project more from walls (detaching from the wall): wanted to emphasize verticality
• Cult of the Virgin (as heavenly queen) replaced a previous veneration of Eve, the great sinner
• Illuminated manuscripts influenced by stained glass windows of Cathedrals
• Saint-Denis is first fully Gothic structure in France, ambulatory is new focus

HISTORY to REMEMBER
Early Gothic

1. Increase in centralized monarchy: between 987-1328 Paris was was a place of peace
2. Sales of charters = growth and wealth = increase of wealth to the king
3. Shift from agriculture to goods/services
4. Increase in schools: scholars and teachers transformed western thinking.

Late Gothic

1. Hundred Years' War (France vs. England 1337-1453) = decrease in economy and social growth
2. The Great Schism (1054 division between Eastern Orthodox Church and Catholic Church) not resolved until 1409
3. Black Death of 1348: 1/4-1/3 of population died! = architecture halted, artist depicted Black Death as a punishment from God = more conservation, reverted to earlier styles

Gothic CHARACTERISTICS
Early Gothic: 1140-1194 (France)

• Characterized by round columns in interior
• Rib vaults start at ceiling but travel down only to top of columns

High Gothic, Rayonnant Gothic: 1194-1300 (France)

• Rayonnant = "radiating"
• Articulated columns in interior
• Rib vaults travel from ceiling to floor
• larger window space, choirs and chevets
• Dissolution of wall space with use of stained glass windows

Late Gothic, Flamboyant Gothic: After 1300 (France)

• Flamboyant = "flaming"
• High decorative
• A mass of pinnacles and tracery
• Ogee arches

Perpendicular Gothic: After 1350 (England)

• Constructed in a garden-like setting (inspired by cloisters)
• Extremely pronounced central spires
• Smaller flying buttresses and portals
• Lower towers and wide screen-like facades (full of sculpture)
• ENORMOUS window spaces interlaced with decorative vertical patterns of stone tracery 

CHECK OUT THIS INFORMATIVE VIDEOS!!

BIRTH of the Gothic, Saint-Denis

 

Chartres Cathedral and Stained Glass

 Amiens Cathedral, "A Bible carved in stone"