Oohoo! One of my favorite architectural styles of all time!
Working from the 12th century through to the 16th, we see the dawn of a brand new style of architecture. Coming hot off the tail of the Romanesque style with its distinctive rounded arches and wooden roof structures (notorious for how often they caught fire, interestingly enough), we have the a new aesthetic making its way through northern Europe. Rounded arches give way to grand pointed ones, as seen in the vaulting windows of early Gothic cathedrals such as Notre-Dame de Paris (Our Lady of Paris). Gothic architecture moved away from the darkness of Romanesque churches and focused on moving upwards, incorporating enormous swathes of decorated windows, allowing as much natural light as possible. Ceilings were grand, sweeping affairs, drawing the eye up into their ribbed recesses where images of saints and heavenly hosts were often painted.
What’s most important in this particular post is identifying what made these grandiose structural features possible, for without the architectural breakthroughs of the 12th and 13th centuries this style of building would never have happened. Out of northern France came the idea of vaulting through use of crossing arches, allowing the ceilings to climb much high higher than previous Norman buildings. Through this technique, load-bearing interior walls became less important, as the building turned into something akin to a giant decorative scaffolding or haughty skeleton. Self-supported and bearing all weight on inner vaulted and outer structural elements as opposed to converging on heavy interior stone. Almost more akin to a greenhouse than a traditional building of the time.
An important note on this is that these vaulted ceilings did not just exert pressure downwards; weight went out to the sides as the delicate stonework leaned in to form these arches. The answer to this was to provide framing in the form of the flying buttress, one of the most distinct elements of this architectural style. These outer ribs allowed the construction of colossal naves, ceilings that were unimaginable high for their time period. In this sense, the cathedral is almost constructed as a bicycle wheel: a heavy central load with many delicate supports or spokes streaming off the sides, supporting and dispersing the weight of the building. This would form the basis of all Gothic and High Gothic moving forward until the early 15th century as the Renaissance began to flourish in Italy, bringing on an entirely new architectural style across much of Western Europe.
Lecture Reflection and Summary
Today we covered the transition from the birth of the written language as mentioned last week, to the refinement of printing and human communication through those means. This is a period I actually really love on a personal level, and birthed much of the art and technology I’m very drawn towards. Of particular interest was our segments on illuminated manuscripts, hand lettering and codices. I’ve tried doing manuscript-style work in the past and am actively learning calligraphy, so these were so cool to get more information on and I found a ton of inspiration to work off of in the form of manuscripts I’d never heard of before. This time period has some of my favourite buildings of all time, so landing in the architecture group and getting to explore that more deeply was super exciting.
Sources:
E.H. Gombrich, The Story of Art, 16th edition, Phaidon Press Limited, 1950, New York, NY
https://www.britannica.com/art/Gothic-art#ref132368
https://quatr.us/medieval/early-gothic-architecture.htm
Photo sources:
http://gotickysloh.euweb.cz/fotogalerie.html
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