Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is any of the styles of
architecture, particularly associated with cathedrals and other churches, in use throughout
Europe during the high and late
medieval period, from the 12th century onwards. It was succeeded by
Renaissance architecture, a revival of Roman formulas, at varying times in Europe, beginning in
Florence in the
15th century.
The term
Gothic architecture has nothing to do with the historical Goths. It was a pejorative term that came to be used as early as the 1530s to describe culture that was considered rude and barbaric. François Rabelais imagines an inscription over the door of his Utopian Abbey of Theleme, "Here enter no hypocrites, bigots..." slipping in a slighting reference to 'Gotz' (rendered as 'Huns' in Thomas Urquhart's English translation) and 'Ostrogotz.' In English 17th century usage, 'Goth' was an equivalent of 'vandal,' a savage despoiler, with a sense of 'Germanic' and so came to be applied to the architectural styles of northern Europe before the revival of antiquity, thus 'Gothic' architecture.
Origins
The historical style itself originated at the abbey church of \nSaint-Denis in Saint-Denis, near Paris, where it exemplified the vision of Abbot Suger. The first truly Gothic construction was the choir of the church, consecrated in 1144. The style was adopted first in northern France and by the English, and spread throughout France, the Low Countries and parts of Germany and also to Spain and northern Italy.
Characteristics
The style emphasizes verticality and features almost skeletal stone structures with great expanses of glass, sharply pointed spires, cluster columns, flying buttresses, ribbed vaults, pointed arches using the ogee shape, and inventive sculptural detail. These features are all the consequence of a focus on large stained glass windows that allowed more light to enter than was possible with older styles. In order to do achieve this flying buttresses were used to enable higher ceilings and slender columns.
Gothic cathedrals could be highly decorated with statues on the outside and painting on the inside. Both usually told Biblical stories, emphasizing Old Testament prophecy and the New Testament (see Christian theology).
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Important Gothic churches could also be severely simple. At the Basilica of Mary Magdalene in Saint-Maximin, Provence (illustration, right), the local traditions of a sober massive Romanesque architecture were strong. The basilica, begun in the 13th century under the patronage of Charles of Anjou, was laid out on an ambitious scale (it was never completed all the way to the western entrance front) to accommodate pilgrims that came to venerate relics. Building in the Gothic style continued at the basilica until 1532.
In Gothic architecture new technology stands behind the new building style. The Gothic cathedral was supposed to be a microcosm representing the world, and each architectural concept, mainly the loftiness and huge dimensions of the structure, were intended to pass a theological message: the great glory of God versus the smallness and insignificence of the mortal being.
Gothic architecture in England
, for the Bishop of Ely, 1497]]
Fewer examples of secular structures in Gothic style survive. The "Old Palace" at Hatfield, 1497, (illustration, right) is the entrance wing, with its imposing gatehouse, which gave access to the protected inner court. This is an example of the last phase of Gothic design in England, still untouched by the Renaissance under way in central Italy. Local building traditions informed a vernacular style that was as important as Gothic in the final appearance. The roofs are tiled in the East Anglian vernacular tradition. Substantial roofs enclose essential storage area in the spacious attics: the sight of such an expanse of roof evoked a sense of well-being and security. Gothic elements are the paired lancet windows joined under a single molding that threw rainwater awar from their sills, and the buttresses between each pier and on the angles of the gatehouse tower, with its fortification references.
Sequence of Gothic styles: France
Sequence of Gothic styles: England
The designations of styles in English architecture still follows conventions of labels given them by antiquaries in the 18th century:\n* Early English (ca 1180 - 1275)\n* Decorated (ca 1275 - 1380 )\n* Perpendicular (ca 1380 - 1520 ).
Early English:\n* Salisbury Cathedral\n* Wells Cathedral\n* Westminster Abbey
Decorated or "Flamboyant":\n*Exeter Cathedral
Perpendicular:\n* King's College Chapel, Cambridge
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Neo-Gothic Sacred Heart Cathedral in Newark is the fifth largest cathedral in the United States.\n
Gothic revival
In England, some discrete Gothic details appear on new construction at Oxford and Cambridge in the late 17th century, and at the archbishop of Canterbury's residence Lambeth Palace, a gothic hammerbeam roof was built in 1663 to replace a building that had been sacked during the
English Civil War. It is not easy to decide whether these instances were
Gothic survival or early appearances of
Gothic revival, Gothic features clearly seemed appropriate to the English, in contexts of learning and religion, and these have been centers of neo-Gothic architecture too.
In England in the mid-18th century, the Gothic style was more widely revived, first as a decorative, whimsical alternative to
Rococo that is still conventionally termed 'Gothick', of which
Horace Walpole's Twickenham villa "
Strawberry Hill" is the familiar example. Then, especially after the 1830s, Gothic was treated more seriously in a series of
Gothic revivals (sometimes termed
Victorian Gothic or
Neo-Gothic). The
Houses of Parliament in London are an example of this Gothic revival style, designed by a major exponent of the early Gothic Revival,
Augustus Pugin. Another example is the main building of the
University of Glasgow designed by Sir
George Gilbert Scott. Neo-Gothic continued to be considered appropriate for college buildings (such as at
Chicago,
Yale, or
Princeton) well into the 20th century, and was used, perhaps less appropriately, for early skyscrapers, such as the
Woolworth Building, New York.
Some famous Gothic structures
For a list of all Early Gothic buildings in the Paris Basin, http://www.johnjames.com.au/medievaldatabase-parischurches-A-B.shtml
Some famous Neo-Gothic structures
See also
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Category:Medieval architecture