History of Design 2 : Gothic Architecture

History of Interior Design II

03 Gothic Architecture Tutor : Amal Shah Spring 2021 Faculty of Design, CEPT University

Origin of Gothic Style: Socio-Political Landscape

Goth, amember of a Germanic people whose two branches, the Ostrogoths and the Visigoths, for centuries harassed the Roman Empire. So along with the increasing migration and kingdoms of Goths, the Roman empire declined and states began to experience more and more freedom from traditional feudal authority.

Other major political events that inuenced the origin of Gothic and the architectural style were: The Hundred years war, Long conicts between England and France and claims by the English kings to the French throne.

City-states and feudal kingdoms dotted Europe, and the power of the Catholic church continued to grow during the Gothic era. With increasing prosperity and more stable governments, cultural changes included the early formations of universities

Major Inuences on Gothic Architecture

Romanesque architecture had a major inuence and many architectural features associated with Gothic style were derived from Romanesques. Like, ribbed vaults, buttresses, clustered columns, ambulatories, wheel windows, spires, stained glass windows, and richly carved door tympana. These were already features of ecclesiastical architecture before the development of the Gothic style, and all were to develop in increasingly elaborate ways.

It was also inuenced by theological doctrines which called for more interior light as a symbol of divinity, and by the practical necessity of many churches to accommodate large numbers of pilgrims. Hence larger openings, more use of glass was incorporated.

It was especially by technical improvements in vaulting and buttresses which allowed much greater height and larger windows.

Types of Gothic Architecture Early Gothic (1120-1200)

Laon Cathedral

Key features: Increased exaltation of light, Opening of walls, Use of stained glass, Flying Buttress (Increased and elaborate) Pinnacles and spires Removal of tribune To achieve a new monumental appearance Full of balance and harmony

High Gothic (1200-80) "Rayonnant"

Reims Cathedral

Key features: New radiating window designs, Piercing of Rose windows, Monumentality was abandoned, series of supports increased in height without the depth in treatment of surfaces.

Late Gothic (1280-1500) "Flamboyant"

Prague Cathedral

Key features: Embellishment of technical and decorative elements, Incorporation of Plant forms, Exuberant freedom curving, Twisting lines, Pointed tracery, Richest and most imaginative decorative themes

Gothic Architecture-Styles Gothic Architecture is a pan-European style and French excelled in it throughout this period. Major characteristics included : Rib vaults, Flying buttresses, Pointed Gothic arches, Stained glass windows were also common.

The British, Spanish and Germans would follow suit and develop their own variations on the general Gothic theme led by the French.

However, Italian variations on Gothic Architecture would stand out from the rest of Europe by its use of brick and marble rather than the stone of other nations. The Late Gothic Period (15th Century onwards) would reach its peak in Germany with their magnificent vaulted hall churches.

French Gothic

Italian Gothic architecture which differed in terms of materiality and form.

German Gothic influence

The Chartres Cathedral, France

Partly built starting in 1145, and then reconstructed over a 26-year period after the ďŹ re of 1194, Chartres Cathedral marks the high point of French Gothic art.

The vast nave, in pure ogival style, the porches adorned with ďŹ ne sculptures from the middle of the 12th century, and the magniďŹ cent 12th- and 13th-century stained-glass windows, all in remarkable condition, combine to make it a masterpiece.

Architecture Character of Gothic Style : Spatial Composition Space

Ambulatory Apse

Choir

Transept Crossing

Nave

Aisle

Tower

Amiens Cathedral

Externally, towers and spires are characteristic of Gothic churches.

These cathedrals were the skyscrapers of that day and would have been the largest buildings by far that Europeans would ever have seen.

A pointed arch, the ribbed vault, and the buttress were the deďŹ ning features of the architecture.

Gothic Architecture The structural parts of the building ceased to be its solid walls, and became a stone skeleton due to developed architectural features like pointed arches.

The slender columns and lighter systems of thrust allowed for larger windows and more light compared to Romanesque architecture.

Amiens Cathedral

Architecture Character of Gothic Style : Constructive Features

Ribbed Vault : Complex intersection of 2 or 3 vaults decorated with piped masonry

Flying Buttress : External arched support system facilitating thin walls

Fan Vault :Predominant in English Gothic churches,the ribs are of equal curvature and rotated around a central (vertical) axis,

Pointed Arches : Relieving diagonal thrust, it allowed thinner walls and an emphasis of verticality

Architecture Character of Gothic Style : Roofs

Architectural Character of Gothic Style : Geometry Wells Cathedral

Peterborough Cathedral

Peterborough Cathedral

References : Peterborough Cathedral - The Complete Geometry 1100 - 1500

Architectural Character of Gothic Style : Ornamentation and Technique

Tracery is an architectural device by which windows are divided into sections of various proportions by stone bars or ribs of moulding.

The special ornaments of the period are the Tudor rose, the portcullis, and the eur-de-lis. Rose windows were a characteristic of the Gothic facade with tinted painted glass.

Romanesque

Gothic

Chapels and apse:

Separate compartments.

Unified, unbroken space.

Vault

Mostly barrel-vaults, some groin-vaults.

Ribbed vaults, Fan vaults

Arch type

Rounded arches.

Pointed arches.

Main vault support Thick walls, buttresses. Exterior flying buttresses.

Gothic

Romanesque

Difference from the Romanesque Style

The verticality of the Gothic architecture is achieved through flying buttresses compared to Romanesque.

Technology of construction allowed larger windows facilitating light-filled and visually lighter spaces

Clerestory

Small windows.

Large stained-glass windows.

Elevation

Horizontal, modest height.

Vertical, soaring.

Exterior

Plain, little decoration, solid.

Ornate, delicate, lots of sculpture.

Sculptural decoration

Thin, elongated, abstract figures.

More realistic proportions and individualized features.

Mood

Dark, gloomy.

Tall, light-filled.

Dierence from the Romanesque Style

Early Romanesque - Barrel Vaults

Late Romanesque - Groin Vaults

Late Romanesque and early Gothic- Ribbed Vaults

Romanesque Portal : Round Arch leading to thick walls

Romanesque : Buttress

Gothic- Fan Vaults

Small windows in Romanesque vs large stained glass windows with elaborate tracery in Gothic

Gothic Portal : Pointed Arch and thin walls

Gothic : Flying Buttress

Features for Sacredness in Gothic Architecture : Verticality

A characteristic of Gothic church architecture is its height, both absolute and in proportion to its width, the verticality suggesting an aspiration to Heaven. A section of the main body of a Gothic church usually shows the nave as considerably taller than it is wide.

The pointed arch lends itself to a suggestion of height. In many Gothic churches, the treatment of vertical elements in gallery and window tracery creates a strongly unifying feature that counteracts the horizontal divisions of the interior structure.

On the exterior, the verticality is emphasised in a major way by the towers and spires and in a lesser way by strongly projecting vertical buttresses.

Features for Sacredness in Gothic Architecture : Light Light as a way of transporting us to the Divine in Gothic architecture Suger expresses the correspondence between the physical space of the church and its spiritual aim–to conduct the soul towards the contemplation of the divine.

He took the notion of light as divinity and applied it in the architectural setting.

Suger * an abbot and advisor to the French royal family.

To express the growing power of the monarchy, churches were developed.

Glass windows incorporated along the ambulatory, ďŹ rst at Basilica of St. Denise that holds relics of the French Royal Family, by Suger.

Features of the Gothic Style : Light and Colour

The technology of pointed arch and ying buttresses enabled larger and longer windows.

Colour and Development of painted glass. : Resulting in the brilliancy and the many-tinted splendours of the transparent walls of a Gothic cathedral

Features of the Gothic Style: Materiality Introduction of Iron: Gothic architecture, which ourished from the middle of the twelfth century around Paris, included considerable amounts of iron or steel reinforcements, as shown by historical and archeological investigation.

Features of the Gothic Style : Elegance, lightness and openness A stark evolution away from the heaviness of Romanesque architecture, brought about by the pointed arch, thin columns, vaulting that can cover larger distances, all resulting in a sense of physical and visual lightness

Features for Sacredness in Gothic Architecture : Sculpture Gothic art was a style that developed concurrently with Gothic architecture during the mid-12th century. Primary media in the Gothic period included sculpture, panel painting, stained glass fresco , and illuminated manuscripts . The earliest Gothic art existed as monumental sculpture on the walls of cathedrals and abbeys .

Elaborate sculpture was used extensively to decorate the facades of these buildings.

Features for Sacredness in Gothic Architecture : Art Gothic art was a style that developed concurrently with Gothic architecture during the mid-12th century. The pinnacle of Gothic art is represented by the combining of sculpture, stained glass, and architecture.

Process: Once the wood had been coated with layers of gesso (a primer), the design was sketched in pencil and the layers of gold leaf were painted as a background. Duccio then under-painted a terre verde (green earth) pigment on the panel. The actual image was deposited layer upon layer, with great care since corrections were nearly impossible.

Features for Sacredness in Gothic Architecture: Furniture The furniture of the Gothic period, with its characteristic contour and ornaments, derived from the Gothic Art which originated in France at the beginning of the 12th century. In its early stages, the furniture was quite simple, than it evolved towards an architectural character. The decorations were done by painting and, later, mainly carving, with tracery as principal element.

The Gothic period furniture, similar to the Gothic architecture, had local particularities, one of them being the wood used for its construction. In England, Germany, and the Low Countries it was mainly oak, in France, chestnut, in Italy and Spain walnut.

Features for Sacredness in Gothic Architecture: Tapestry Tapestry, woven decorative fabric, the design of which is built up in the course of weaving. Broadly, the name has been used for almost any heavy material, handwoven, machine woven, or even embroidered, used to cover furniture, walls, or floors or for the decoration of clothing.

Since the 18th and 19th centuries, however, the technical definition of tapestry has been narrowed to include only heavy, reversible, patterned or figured handwoven textiles, usually in the form of hangings or upholstery fabric.

Features for Sacredness in Gothic Architecture: Furniture In these early tapestries, isolated figures or compact groups stood out against a background that was generally plain or embellished with plant motifs or flowers, those are called “mille fleurs” tapestries meaning, thousand flowers.

Tapestry became beside painting, sculpture and architectures one of the major visual art forms.

They were used by powerful secular and religious rulers to broadcast their wealth and might.

Characteristic features of Gothic Architecture Ornating the function: Gothic architecture tried to solve some of these unpleasant problems, and created light, pleasant and airy buildings. The style emphasized on adding a character to the functional space-making elements to make it unique and help it stand out.

Linearity: New building techniques (such as the flying buttress) enabled to spread the weight of taller walls and loftier towers.

Flying Buttress: The flying buttresses act to spread the weight of the tall walls. They support the structure by transferring force directly to the ground.The flying buttress was not just practical, though. It was also decorative.

Characteristic features of Gothic Architecture Pointed Arch: The introduction of the pointed arch was both practical and decorative. Its form distributed the force of heavier ceilings and bulky wall. It could support much more weight than previous, simple, spindly pillars.

Vaulted Ceiling: The distribution of force within the vaulted ceiling enabled vaults to be built in dierent shapes and sizes.

Previously, vaults could only have been small, and circular or rectangular.The introduction of the pointed arch lead to this development of vaults that gave the impression of height, grandeur and elegance.

Light: Castles, in particular, were damp and mouldy. Most castle walls were too weak to support slate or stone rooďŹ ng.

As a result, many fortresses had wooden roofs. Typically, these let in the rain.Gothic architecture strove to be the anthesis of this older Medieval style of building.It emphasised light, bright windows and airy interiors, transforming castles and churches into more pleasant and majestic environments.

Critical points and Lack of Spread of Gothic Architecture The term Gothic was not meant as praise. The phrase was originally meant to describe the “barbarous German style” of the huge new churches that were being erected in France. Some of the most famous Churches in the world are considered Gothic.

Source: https://medium.com/@kylegavintaylor /the-spread-of-gothic-architecture-5f37 b8cd2b8f

The spread of Gothic architecture was a little bit different than the spread of other types of culture.

This was a direct cause of the Stonemason guilds that operated throughout the medieval time period. Only a small number of highly skilled stone masons could create these examples of architecture, and only a small number of patrons could afford to build something of this size.

Gothic architecture was limited to Europe through out its 400 year popularity. Its greatest patron was the catholic church, which at this time period was mostly limited to the European sphere of influence.