Gothic Art mid 12th c. - 1400 CE
1150 onwards, in the mid 12th century the Gothic style dominated Europe for approx. 400 years, developing in French monasteries initially.
Specifically emerges in Ile-de-France, the French king’s domain from Paris. Within 100 years an estimated 2,700 Gothic churches in the Ile-de-France region alone. (263)
Specifically emerges in Ile-de-France, the French king’s domain from Paris. Within 100 years an estimated 2,700 Gothic churches in the Ile-de-France region alone. (263)
The term “Gothic” was introduced by historian Vasari in the 14th c. CE — who attributed the ‘old’ fashioned style to the Germanic Goths who invaded and ‘destroyed’ the Classical civilization of the Roman Empire.
However, during the period, the style was known simply as “modern art” or the “French style.”
However, during the period, the style was known simply as “modern art” or the “French style.”
12th and 13th c. the style was celebrated in centers of growth and prosperity. Towns grew into artistic and intellectual life. Moving from cathedral schools as centers of learning, urban universities grew such as-- Bologna, Paris, and Oxford.
Advances in building technology, increased trade and material resources combined with new intellectual and spiritual aspirations. Religious encouragement to lead a faithful life by following in the footsteps of the saints whose lives were subject in many of the windows.
New building technologies allowed for larger windows, higher vaults and streamlined buttressing. Ribbed vaulting supported heavyweight. When the temporary forms were removed, the ribs left provided great physical strength at the intersections. Rib vaults developed over time into extremely intricate masonry “skeletons” filled with increasingly lightweight masonry “skins.” (267)
Bishops and abbots prided themselves in building the largest and most elaborate churches with taller naves, stained glass windows, and beautiful interiors and exteriors.
Two new religious orders arose to serve expanding urban populations: the Franciscans and the Dominicans. Friars wandered the world preaching and ministering those in need instead of living cloistered lives as the monks during the Medieval period.
Light captured stained glass windows illuminating the interior of the church. Gothic churches truly became the “glorious jeweled houses of God” that glowed with the Christian doctrine.
The stained glass becomes the major medium - not painting. Windows were seen as illuminating the soul and uniting it with God.
Good Samaritan Window at Chartres Cathedral from early 13th c. visualizes the scenes from Genesis - sequential art, many roundels. Windows acted visually as glowing walls of color and light, most importantly they preached sermons central to Christian themes.
Crusades and pilgrimages continued bringing increased awareness of the Islamic world and the world at large.
The writings of Aristotle spoke of rational inquiry instead of unquestioning faith. 13th c. scholar Tomas Aquinas integrated faith with reason in his philosophical teachings.
Artists and architects liked Aquinas’ way of thinking and expressed order / balance / symmetry relationships into their art. Thus, more lifelike forms came to the fore. Gothic imagery adopted total Christian belief as well as a wider range of natural subject matter — inspired by the natural world.
The writings of Aristotle spoke of rational inquiry instead of unquestioning faith. 13th c. scholar Tomas Aquinas integrated faith with reason in his philosophical teachings.
Artists and architects liked Aquinas’ way of thinking and expressed order / balance / symmetry relationships into their art. Thus, more lifelike forms came to the fore. Gothic imagery adopted total Christian belief as well as a wider range of natural subject matter — inspired by the natural world.
Gothic cathedrals were thought of as the Heavenly Jerusalem on Earth; radiant in light and embellishment.
Plan of Choirs planned into semicircular apse, where often chapels radiated off the main area.
Pointed arches, groin vaults, etc., were designed in Ancient Rome — but reached extreme lightness in their visual, dramatic visual effects and loftiness.
“A circular string of chapels by virtue of which the whole would shine with the wonderful and uninterrupted light of most luminous winds, pervading the interior beauty.”
This is a quote from Abott Suger (abbot 1122 - 1151) at Saint Denis Cathedral outside of Paris. (263) below...
This is a quote from Abott Suger (abbot 1122 - 1151) at Saint Denis Cathedral outside of Paris. (263) below...
Who made the stained glass?
On order of some of the Abbotts, artists were called in from various countries.
Bringing sand and ash to the molten state and “staining” it with color with the addition of metallic oxides. The molten material (much like boiling sugar) was then blown and flattened into sheets. Artists used a simple drawing (like a cartoon) on a board as a guide they would cut sheets of glass to fit. Tight spots were fixed into perfected shapes with hot irons. Some of the painted faces you see in these early churches are brownish in color. This was created with the use of iron filings and ground glass suspended in wine or urine. Once painted, these detailed features would be fired in a kiln fusing the material to the glass surface.
Strips of lead called cames, held all the pieces together like a puzzle within an iron framework. Lead, as a material is extremely malleable, however extremely strong to hold all the pieces in place. The metal also assisted in absorbing high impacts with gusts of wind, rain, etc, preventing the glass itself to crack under such pressure. Glass as a molten medium, continues to move.
Flying Buttresses - external to the church, architecturally relieves stress on tall walls, while makes the building 'look' thinner, lighter
p. 263
Abbot Suger achieved some dramatic features in the building of the churches he commissioned in France. He saw the contemplation of colored light as a "means of illuminating the soul and uniting it with God, he was providing his monks with an environment especially conducive to their primary vocation of prayer and meditation." p. 264
The churches he had built emphasized:
1. open and flowing interiors
2. spaces enclosed by non-load-bearing walls
3. stained glass served as 'walls' of colored light
Saint-Denis stained glass was almost lost during the French Revolution. Some of the windows were removed from their windows and protected until after the Revolution to then be returned to the abbey.
12th - 14th Century developments in France
Saint-Denis Became the prototype for other churches to be built.
The new architecture of space and light was based within a skeletal framework supported by rib vaulting.
The building was reinforced with external buttresses.
Chartres Cathedral is distinctive of all the French Gothic buildings as more than 22,000 square feet of stained glass installed between 1200 and 1250 CE still survives there. Earlier, a great deal of Chartres was destroyed by fire and reconstructed after 1194.
Rose window in Chartres expresses the complexity of Gothic narrative art.
The Good Samaritan window rescues humanity (the traveler) from sin (the thieves) and ministers to them within the Church.
Narrative figures are slender and 'willowy'
They become active in their gestures, dancing throughout the window scenes
This style spreads across Europe.
Notre-Dame de Paris p. 270
Our Lady of Paris (20 years of construction)
1163 on order of Abbot Suger's abbey of Saint-Denis and the 13th-century cathedral of Chartres.
The nave soars at 115 feet high
Notre Dame may have had the first true flying buttresses (still not confirmed)
Napolean crowns himself emperor at its altar in 1804.Parisians gathered there to celebrate the liberation of Paris from Nazi Germany in August, 1944.
The Church remains there to worship within and visit, on the Left Bank in Paris, where the traditional students' live and artists' quarters.
Beyond the place of worship, and a work of art, it is a symbol of Paris itself.
Notre Dame de Paris ad Reims, two cathedrals that served as the coronation church of French kings and other important events.
Virgin and Child from the abbey church of Saint-Denis c. 1324-1339 CE
silver gilt and enamel
27" high
13th c - 14th-century Gothic art and architecture of England and Germanic lands
p. 277 - 280
Mullions are the thin stone bars that form the lacy framework for the glass inside the church. Mullions were inspired by Armenian, Saxon and Islamic architecture prior to the 10th c. They became a common and fashionable architectural feature across Europe in Gothic architecture. A single arched with paired windows were divided by a mullion.
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| Jamb statues from central portal, west facade, Reims Cathedral |
Stone sculpture found in many of the churches drew inspiration on Roman sources - heavily draped bodies, Hellenistic, contrapposto pose, bodies are tall and graceful. Some later cathedrals, like that of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, architects pushed stained glass to its limit -- almost completely obliterating stone walls. p. 272
Sainte Chapelle in Paris 1239 - 1248 held King Louis IX's prized collection of relics -- it resembles a jeweled box.
Hemicycle - semicircular area surrounding the altar
Paris becomes renown in the 13th century for architecture, stained glass and sculpture --- but also for illustrated manuscripts. These small books were used by university students, wealthy patrons as devotional objects.
3-volume set called "Moralized Bible" from circa 1230 - combines selected scipture are paired with allegorical -- The dedication page below illustrates the teenage King Louis IX and his mother, Queen Blanche of Castle --with a gold-leaf background. Clergical scholars sit below them who dictates to a scribe.
The scribe seems to be working on a page of this actual book! In the background, we see exterior archtectural buidlings of Paris in clumsy linear perspective.
Stacked Medallions (circular forms) in some book's pages, are derived from stained-glass lancets with columns and images.
Some pages combine text (Latin) with image -- summarizing a scriptural passage or contemporary allegorical interpretation.
By the late part of the 13th century, private devotional prayer books became popular among wealthy patrons. They are called "Books of Hours" containing special prayers to be recited on an 8 hour cycle - between morning and night.
14th & 15th Century Book of Hours, sample pages
Sometimes the created books were personalized for individual patrons by including prayers to favorite saints, or focusing on personal devotional practice.
14th century Book of Hours, given by King Charles IV of France (r. 1322-1328) to his wife, Queen Jeanne d'Evreux at the time of their marriage. Below...
It is the work of the renown painter Jean Pucelle, who abandons intense color.
Pucelle worked in "grisaille" paintings excuted in only shades of gray.
Queen Jeanne appears in the initial "D" below the Annunciation. Words written on the page:
"Domine labia mea aperies" ("O Lord open thou my lips" - Psalm 51:15)
Combining a patron's portrait in the manuscripts and sculpture are found throughout the 14th and 15th centuries. This conveyed the concept that the visual works were not illustrations of a particular biblical story, but rather a personal vision inspired by a particular meditiation.
14th Century religious subject matter becomes more emotionally expressive, especially in small objects that demand close observation by the viewer.
Not all Gothic art was made for churches. Small ivory carved chests from Paris, were coveted secular items for woman to store their precious jewelery in. In many cases they seem to be courtship gifts, or wedding gifts.
Jousting and Attack on the Castle of Love
Note the various panels on this side. The last panel -- woman duals a male - battling with long stemmed roses (which symbolizes sexual surrender) and an oak bough (symbolizing fertility)
Panel to the Left - knights use crossbows and a catapult to hurl roses at the Castle of Love, while Cupid returns fire. Recall Ancient Roman mythology?
On one end, a female figure welcomes 'her man' home from his travels.
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Gothic Art in England and Germanic Lands
Gothic art and architecture spreads outside France and into Europe, making it an international style across Europe in the 13th and 14th Centuries.
Some characteristics did change.
England - instead of being extremely high, they focused on long, broad naves.
Salisbury Cathedral, the nave, for instance, is not as high - but nave and transepts wider.
The English also created books.
Book of Windmill Psalter, 1270-1280. The letter B is the first letter of the Psalm I, which begins the words:
"Beatus vir qui non abit in consilio impiorum"
("Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked.")
Two Page opening with Psalm 1 from The Windmill Psalter,
1270 - 1280 CE
ink, pigments and gold on vellum 12" x 8"
The English were also known for exquisite needle work - using colored silk and gold thread to create images as detailed as the painters who produced the manuscripts. They were exquisite embroiders.
Scenes from the Life of the Virgin
Embroidery, silk, gold thread
Back of the Chichester-Constable Chasuble
from a set of vestments
c. 1330 - 1350 CE
Germanic Lands
New type of Gothic architecture developed in the 13th Century. These are called "Hall Churches," featuring a nave and side aisles with vaults of equal height. An excellent example of one of these is the existing The Old-New Synagogue at Altneuschul in Prague, is based on this type.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-_niqAmzWQ 1:50 (duration)
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