ROMANESQUE

KEY FEATURES
Churches mostly dedicated to the
saint whose relics were kept there eg
Ste Foy, St Lazare

Ste Foy, France completed 1120

Semi-circular shape

round pillars

Semi-circular chapels
Bulging semi-conical roofs

Ambulatories

Blind arches often interlaced

on interior and exterior

Round arches and vaults over

square bays

Geometrical clarity

Relatively simple plans

Exterior reflects interior

Barrel vaults and massive
stone walls

Semi-defensive

–Massive thick
Massive thick masonry
masonry

Closely spaced columns / piers

Relatively few windows

Clerestory round-headed
windows, but generally dark
interiors
Carving
Portals carved tynpanum and
jamb figures

Decorated capitals (not orders)

Decorated arches and piers

Exterior decoration – blind

arcades, diapering

INFLUENCES
Pilgrimages

Crusades
Abbeys
Castles and towns
 EARLY GOTHIC
•Early Gothic 1140s – 1190s

East end of St Denis, Notre Dame, Paris, Laon

Cathedral

flying buttresses

pointed arches

rib vaults

slender columns (bundles)

pointed arches could be placed at
varying spacing and shape of
bays. Quadripartite vaults most
common

space re-organised opened up

choir (St Denis) church rebuilding
consecrated 1144, established
new style
pointed arches mean vaults can
rise higher - great height is main
feature of Gothic

structural support moved to

outside flying buttresses

large windows

clerestory filled with stained glass

windows
jamb figures

simple capitals often uniting

bundles of columns
little decoration on arches

population growth
development of universities towns
grew up around them, Oxford
Cambridge and Chartres
 Chartres

Chartres 1134, burnt 1194 - 1220

vaulting shafts rise from ground to

spring across the vault half way
up the clerestory
quadripartite vaults

Chartres (relatively wide) follows

foundations of original
Romanesque cathedral burnt
down in 1194
clerestory and arcade same
height divided by low triforium
(replaces Romanesque gallery)

resisting buttresses
(Romanesque) on west front,
Gothic flying buttresses transfer
weight of vault and high nave and
chancel

original glass in clerestory, much

sponsored by guilds
Jamb figures on Royal West door
more decorative and other worldy
than those on North portal (later)
where figures break away from
column and interact with each
other

North and south portals break

forward to form deep recesses
with pinnacles above
West portal 1145-55

North portal 1200-1215

 HIGH GOTHIC
•High Gothic 1190s – 1230s

Chartres, Reims, Amiens, Beauvais

Cathedrals mostly dedicated to Mary (Our

Lady, Notre Dame)
Reims 1211-75

Reims much narrower, which

contributes to feeling of great height
Chartres 37m, Reims 38 m,
highestest is Beauvais 48 m high x
15.5 m wide (ie height more than 3
times the width) (collapsed)

Beauvais choir only 1255-72

At Reims tympanum replaced with
stained glass. Jamb figures more
narrative, break away from columns.
Some aware of Roman sculpture
 ENGLISH GOTHIC
•Early English late 12 and much of
13th century

Salisbury (spire later)

style spread to England at an early stage,

often much longer,
so developed but lower than French
differently
cathedrals. Dark purbeck marble and
string courses at Salsibury lead eye along
rather than up

horizontal emphasis rather than vertical

(French) in nave

less need for dramatic structural devices

like flying buttresses

lack of height set off with tall towers and

spires (Salsibury 123m)
two western towers and crossing tower a
common pattern
developed stone rib vaulting and
complex timber roofing

frequently built two transepts (Salisbury)

single axial chapel to east (cf French

rounded apse with one transept and
several radiating chapels)

East end often square, flat east window

became important for stained glass
tracery and vaulting developed complex
decorative patterns
English cathedrals tend to have high
spires rather than naves eg Salisbury is
123m high

Salisbury 1220-58
English cathedrals tend to have wide west fronts
with horizontal bands of sculpture eg Salisbury
and small, west portals

Salisbury West front 1265