Gothic Architecture and Cathedrals, Week Three

So, we've finally made it to Gothic architecture. Last week, you were introduced to Romanesque architecture with Durham Cathedral with its rounded arches, lower ceilings, and a heavier, darker feel. The purpose of Romanesque was to hold the structure up. It was also a crash course in relics and reliquary.

Like any period of history, the proceeding generation thinks it is better than the last, smugly naming things regarding the previous generation, and unfortunately over time, the names stick. That's how we get the term gothic. The "enlightened" thinkers of the Renaissance looked down upon the art and architecture of the Gothic period and liked to refer to it as gothic, meaning barbaric, lacking in the higher art forms the Renaissance created.

The Gothic Period now refers to the block of time between the Romanesque Period (there is debate on when it began, but for this class, I'm going with the 6th century and overlapping a bit into the Gothic period, ending in the 12th century) and the Renaissance Period (roughly the 14th to 17th centuries). Unlike the Renaissance Period, whose art was encouraged and supported by patrons of individual talent (like Botticelli and da Vinci), artists of the Gothic Period tended to be nameless because artists of this time period were considered little better than other manual laborers. The value of their art was only in how well it expressed the Christian faith and the relationship between God and man.

So what makes Gothic architecture gothic?  This link shows the following:

• Pointed arches
•  ribbed vaulted ceilings
•  slender columns
•  the flying buttress
•  stained glass windows
•  ornamentation
•  gargoyles 
•  rose window

The purpose of Gothic architecture was to aid the pilgrim or church goer in experiencing a New Jerusalem on earth. It was light and airy, and its design was to be just as beautiful as it was functional-- a complete departure from the Romanesque. This new design was predominantly concerned with height.

When looking at Gothic architecture and art, you can't just look at one piece or one thing. It was meant to be viewed as a whole in relation to where it's placed to other items and where it's located within a cathedral. Gothic architecture aims to be a complete and comprehensive in its design. Walking through a Gothic cathedral is taking a physical walk through the Bible. An aerial view of a cathedral shows a cross, known as a cruciform or cruciformity. 

Amiens Cathedral:

Chartres Cathedral:

York Cathedral:

The Gothic cathedral is situated like a compass. The chapels and apse (seen below) are on the east end, where the sun rises. The art and ornamentation here are the Creation. As you walk toward the transept (the north to south cross piece) the Biblical story continues through Old Testament history and prophecy. Further on toward the western end, the story moves on to the Incarnation, the Passion, and the Resurrection of Christ. As the sun sets on the western end, the sunlight filters through the Rose Window, the representation of the Final Judgment.

St. Denis was the first cathedral to leave the Romanesque behind and become the model for future Gothic cathedrals. The architecture here is known as Early Gothic of French Style/French Gothic because it originated in France. England, Germanic states, and Italy kept to the basic model of Gothic architecture but the ornamentation differed based on their own cultures.

Abbot Suger, of St. Denis, hoped to prove that France was the spiritual home of Christianity in the West. He wanted a strong partnership between the Papacy and the French monarchy. His goal was to unite the social, spiritual, and political realms in one building, this Gothic Cathedral, specifically by being the burial place for royalty. What better way to ensure importance and wealth than to offer an illustrious crypt? The St. Denis link explains more about the cathedral itself and how it tied all facets of society together.

Over the doors of St. Denis, Abbot Suger had inscribed:
Marvel not at the gold and the expense but at the craftsmanship of the work; Bright is the noble work, but, being nobly bright, the work should brighten minds, so that they may travel through the true lights, to the True Light where Christ is the true door. In what manner it be inherent in this world the golden door defines: the dull mind rises to truth through that which is material, and, in seeing this light, is resurrected from its former submersion.

This class stalled out a few times and was best shown to a bunch of 6th-8th graders by a time-lapse Minecraft video of the building of a Gothic Cathedral.