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Gothic Architecture: History of Architecture-IV

Gothic architecture originated in 12th century France and lasted until the 16th century. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was known for its pointed arches, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, and extensive use of stained glass windows, which allowed more light into buildings and emphasized verticality. A key example is St. Denis, completed in 1144, which was the first cathedral to make full use of Gothic architectural elements and set the standard for later Gothic cathedrals. Other characteristics include an emphasis on height and light, vertical tracery, rose windows, intricate stonework, and majestic facades. Famous Gothic cathedrals include Notre Dame, Sainte-Chappelle, and Salisbury

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Vanshika Dogra
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60 views39 pages

Gothic Architecture: History of Architecture-IV

Gothic architecture originated in 12th century France and lasted until the 16th century. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was known for its pointed arches, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, and extensive use of stained glass windows, which allowed more light into buildings and emphasized verticality. A key example is St. Denis, completed in 1144, which was the first cathedral to make full use of Gothic architectural elements and set the standard for later Gothic cathedrals. Other characteristics include an emphasis on height and light, vertical tracery, rose windows, intricate stonework, and majestic facades. Famous Gothic cathedrals include Notre Dame, Sainte-Chappelle, and Salisbury

Uploaded by

Vanshika Dogra
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History of Architecture-IV

Gothic Architecture

Semester-IV
Varish Panchal
Assistant Professor
30.01.2019
Amity School of Architecture and Planning
Gothic

• Term Gothic in architecture originated as a derogatory description.


• Was termed as ‘barbarous German’ style referring to the invasion of barbarians in Rome
from the north, destroying the ancient art and architecture and replacing it with their own
culture.
Gothic Architecture

• Architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period.
• Originated in 12th-century France and lasted till the 16th century.
• It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture.
• Gothic architecture was known during the period as Opus Francigenum("French work").
• Developed primarily in ecclesiastical architecture but can be observed in many castles,
palaces, town halls, guild halls, universities and to a less prominent extent, private dwellings,
such as dorms and rooms.
Difference from the Romanesque Style

Many architectural features that are associated with Gothic architecture


had been developed and used by the architects of Romanesque buildings.
These include ribbed vaults, buttresses, clustered columns, ambulatories,
wheel windows, spires 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 principally the widespread introduction of a single feature, the
pointed arch, which was to bring about the change that separates Gothic
from Romanesque. The technological change permitted a stylistic change
which broke the tradition of massive masonry and solid walls penetrated
by small openings, replacing it with a style where light appears to
triumph over substance.
With its use came the development of many other architectural devices,
previously put to the test in scattered buildings and then called into
service to meet the structural, aesthetic and ideological needs of the new
style. These include the flying buttresses, pinnacles and traceries in
windows which typify Gothic ecclesiastical architecture.

Romanesque Gothic
Difference from the Romanesque Style
Difference from the Romanesque Style
Difference from the Romanesque Style

In terms of Vaults and windows

Gothic
Romanesque
A quick revision of Vaults from Romans Gothic improvisation

Barrel Vault

Groin Vault Fan Vault & sexpartite Vault

Ribbed Vault
Fan Vault
Gloucester Cathedral
St. Denis
St. Denis

• Completed in 1144.
• Located in northern suburb of Paris
• First example in terms of use of all Gothic elements in a single cathedral
both stylistically and structurally.
• The basilica measures 108 meters long, and its width is 39 meters.
• The church is a large cruciform building of "basilica" form; that is, it has
a central nave with lower aisles and clerestory windows.
• It has an additional aisle on the northern side formed of a row of
chapels.
• The west front has three portals, a rose window and one tower, on the
southern side.
• The eastern end, which is built over a crypt, is apsidal, surrounded by an
ambulatory and a chevet of nine radiating chapels.
St. Denis
St. Denis
Roofs
Rose Windows and Tracery
• Tracery is a decorative system of slender,
intersecting stone bars which form a geometrical or
flowing pattern in Gothic windows.
• Tracery in window consists of a crown which is
supported by mullions.

• Originally developed only for dividing the crown of


large windows, it became increasingly intricate and
was later used not only on windows but also on wall
surfaces, gables, etc.
• The basic form of tracery is the foil, which can be
trefoil, quatrefoil or even multifoil.
• Other basic form of tracery is the vesical, which is an
oval shape with a pointed head and foot, observed
more in late gothic examples.
Rose Windows and Tracery
Rose Windows and Tracery
Facades

Interior façade,
Salisbury Cathedral
Portals

Romanesque Gothic
Arches

• Pointed Arches
• Lancet Arches
• Equilateral Arches
• Flamboyant Arches
• Depressed Arches
Gothic Architecture characteristics

• Light and open in structure.


• Pointed arches.
• Use of fine materials
• Masonry reduced to skeletal minimum
• Dispense of galleries from previous styles
• Increase of overall size of cathedral
• Importance to visual arts and importance of light within the structure
• Symbolic scholasticism in terms of translation of real events in to stone
and glass
• Two rows of prominent windows with stained glass.
• Focus on verticality
• Ornaments and spires/pinnacles
• Buttresses
Gothic Architecture characteristics

Height:
• A characteristic of Gothic church architecture is its height, both absolute
and in proportion to its width.
• A section of the main body of a Gothic church usually shows the nave as
considerably taller than it is wide.
• In England the proportion is sometimes greater than 2:1, while the
greatest proportional difference achieved is at Cologne Cathedral with a
ratio of 3.6:1.
• Externally, towers and spires are characteristic of Gothic churches, the
number and positioning being one of the greatest variables in Gothic
architecture.
Gothic Architecture characteristics

Verticality:
• The verticality suggests an aspiration to Heaven.
• The pointed arch lends itself to a suggestion of height. This appearance
is characteristically further enhanced by both the architectural features
and the decoration of the building.
• On the exterior, the verticality is emphasised in a major way by the
towers and spires, terminating pinnacles, narrow half-columns called
attached shafts and also by long narrow windows, vertical mouldings
around doors.
Gothic Architecture characteristics

Light:
• Expansive interior light has been a feature of Gothic cathedrals. The
metaphysics of light in the Middle Ages led to clerical belief in its
divinity and the importance of its display in holy settings.
• Even light reflected from metals or streamed through windows, was
divine.
• Gothic architecture has featured expansive windows. The increase in
size between windows of the Romanesque and Gothic periods is related
to the use of the ribbed vault, and in particular, the pointed ribbed vault
which channelled the weight to a supporting shaft with less outward
thrust than a semi-circular vault.
• Walls did not need to be so weighty.
• A further development was the flying buttress which arched externally
from the springing of the vault across the roof of the aisle to a large
buttress pier projecting well beyond the line of the external wall.
• The internal columns of the arcade with their attached shafts, the ribs of
the vault and the flying buttresses, with their associated vertical
buttresses jutting at right-angles to the building, created a stone skeleton.
Gothic Architecture characteristics

Majesty:
• The façade of a large church or cathedral, often referred to as the West
Front, is generally designed to create a powerful impression on the
approaching worshipper, demonstrating both the might of God and the
might of the institution that it represents.
• Central to the façade is the main portal, often flanked by additional
doors. There may be much other carving, often of figures in niches set
into the mouldings around the portals, or in sculptural screens extending
across the façade.
• The West Front would generally have two towers, which, particularly in
France, express an enormous diversity of form and decoration..
Notre Dame, Paris
Notre Dame, Paris
Notre Dame, Paris
Notre Dame, Paris
Notre Dame, Paris
Sainte Chappelle
Sainte Chappelle
Sainte Chappelle
Sainte Chappelle
Sainte Chappelle
Salisbury Cathedral
Salisbury Cathedral

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