GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
The Gothic style first emerged in a new choir (no longer existing) at the church of St. Denis, just north of Paris, built in 1140 onwards. Abbott Suger was head of the building project of this church, and talked of making the whole church “shine with a wonderful and uninterrupted light of the most luminous windows”. The choir combined in a new synthesis three features that had already existed here and there in Romanesque churches, namely pointed arches, rib-vaults and flying buttresses. This is what we call Gothic Style.
From 1140 to 1220 many new cathedrals and churches were built in this Gothic style. Architects seem to have been in competition with each other to develop rapid technical advances. They achieved increasingly light walls, lofty heights in the interior, and more stunning stained glass windows.
GOTHIC CATHEDRALS FROM THE 12TH AND 13TH CENTURIES
These cathedrals are the dominant and characteristic examples of medieval architecture in Europe. The process of building took a long time, sometimes 100 years; therefore cathedrals show changes and developments in the Gothic styles over the period, for example Early Gothic to High Gothic.
This ability to accommodate change and additions over a period of time makes Gothic architecture different to Classical and Renaissance buildings, which were designed to adhere to a harmonious design based on geometry and mathematics that was finalised in advance.
Social Context
The cathedrals were built in large, prosperous, independent towns that had grown rich through increasing commerce. They were financed through donations, taxes, rents, sale of indulgences, revenue from pilgrims visiting the shrines and relics. They were large enough to accommodate all of the inhabitants of the town.
Cathedrals were often set amidst a cluster of dwellings, workshops and narrow streets over which they towered. Buying and selling sometimes took place in the nave, which was the area used by the community. In Chartres for example, the transepts were used by labourers seeking hire, while the crypt sheltered pilgrims and the sick. The choir was the area reserved for the bishops and the clergy.
The cathedral provided protection, guidance, and inspiration to the clergy and the ordinary people (the laity). The stained glass windows and the sculptures had to convey the message of Christianity and the teachings of the church.
Principle Characteristics of Gothic Architecture
Gothic was the dominant style of the great cathedrals, churches and chapels built during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in Europe.
1. Rib vaults
2. Pointed arches
3. Buttresses
4. Flying buttresses
5. Wall area reduced to a minimum by large windows, arcades and galleries.
· The first four structures overcame the technical problems of how to build higher while at the same time reducing the thickness of the walls and enlarging the windows. The combination of these five architectural features created a new aesthetic effect of soaring height, lightness and grace.
6. Strong vertical lines emphasizing height to symbolise man’s spiritual striving upwards towards God.
7. Stained glass windows in rich jewel-like colours.
8. Ornamentation consisting of lines, curves, and lace-like patterns as found in the tracery in the upper part of the windows and arches.
CHARTRES CATHEDRAL
Chartres was begun about 1194 and marked the beginning of the High Gothic Style.
The thrust of the elevations is more vertical, more daring. It has a small triforium between tall arcades below and tall clerestory windows above. The piers are circular with attached shafts (not columns as at Notre Dame), running all the way up to the rib-vault. The west façade is enriched with clearly organised sculptural decoration. It was designed to have eight towers. The first Gothic spire appeared here.
At the cathedrals at Rheims (1211 onwards) and Amiens (1220 onwards) further verticality is achieved. The interior of Amiens is even taller than that of Rheims. The upward drive is even greater, due to the slenderness of the architectural members. Now towers were designed to carry spires, emphasising the heavenwards movement.
At the Sainte Chapelle in Paris and at Cologne Cathedral almost all of the wall space of the interior is taken up by huge glass sheets, subdivided by shafts and tracery. Linear patterning is an important feature of the Gothic Style.
In England, Gothic architecture is divided into three styles, Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular.
1. Early English corresponds to Early Gothic in Europe. Examples are Lincoln Cathedral (1192 onwards), and Salisbury Cathedral (1220 onwards).
2. Decorated Style corresponds to High Gothic in Europe. Examples are Ely Cathedral and Exeter Cathedral.
3. Perpendicular Style corresponds to Late Gothic in Europe. Examples are Kings College Chapel, Cambridge (1446 onwards), with an ornate fan-vault, stained glass windows, and a simplified plan with no side aisles or pillars; and King Henry VII Chapel, Westminster Abbey (1503-1519).
The Craftsmen who built the Cathedrals.
1) The Master-mason was the medieval equivalent of an architect. His training was not theoretical but acquired by the practical experience in the workshop. He would draw up the general dimensions for the building based on a few simple mathematical and geometrical rules handed down within a craft tradition. The details of the building were worked out during the construction. No accurate scale drawings were made in advance. The master mason supervised the labour on the site.
2) The masons, the stonecutters and stone layers, lived in lean-to huts or lodges while the cathedral was being built. The stonecutters also worked in lodges.
3) The Master-carpenter provided scaffolding, crane, roofs, furnishing etc.
4) Glass-painters and glaziers created the stained glass windows.