GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

INFLUENCES

HISTORY
• 12th – 13th centuries: Holy Roman Empire was reduced to the area of Germany
• Only 3 great kingdoms were left: France, England and Castile in Spain

• Prosperous years in terms of agriculture - warm weather and invention of the

windmill and water-mill increased the amount of food produced

• Most Europeans were Catholics

• Church under the Pope brought Christians together
• Entire Christianity was united against Muslims
• The rulers, the church and townspeople spent wealth on building more castles,
cathedrals and monasteries
• Towns competed with each other to produce the best architecture
• Some 4000 new towns were built to accommodate the rising
population
• Towns became centers of trade – Paris, Milan, Florence, Venice, Naples

• Mixture of lands ruled by nobles

• Feudal system - landlords ruled with tyranny

• There was restlessness among the people

• Towns became crowded and dirty - disease was rife
• Black Death struck Europe from 1347 to 1351 and killed half the
population - spread by rats and fleas, could kill a person within 3 days
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER

DESCRIPTION
• "Gothic" is a term used in reproach to this
style
• a departure from classic lines
• Can be identified by the general use of
pointed arch
• Also called “Medieval Architecture”
10 Defining Characteristics of Gothic
Architecture

Spires
These are tapering architectural elements
that often replaced the steeple to lend an
impression of loftiness. Gothic cathedrals
often feature profuse spiring, giving the
impression of battlements - symbolic of a
religious fortress protecting the faith.
Openwork spires are perhaps the most
common; this elaborate spire consisted of
stone tracery held together by metal clamps.
It had the ability to achieve radical heights
while lending a feeling of lightness through
its skeletal structure.
 Flying Buttress
Spider-leg like in appearance, a flying buttress was originally
instated as an aesthetic device. Later, they were converted into
ingenious structural devices that transferred the dead-load of
the vaulted roof to the ground. To add a degree of stiffness to the
structure, they were stepped back from the main wall and connected
to the roof via arching supports. The buttress now ‘carried’ the vault,
freeing the walls of their load-bearing function. This allowed the
walls to become thinner or almost completely replaced by glass
windows, unlike in the Romanesque where walls were massive
affairs with very less glazing. The buttresses enabled Gothic
architecture to become lighter, taller and afford a greater aesthetic
experience than before.
 Gargoyles
The gargoyle (derived from the French word gargouille, meaning gargle) is a sculptural waterspout,
placed to prevent rainwater from running down masonry walls. These numerous grimacing
sculptures divided the flow among them, minimizing potential water damage. Gargoyles were
sculpted on the ground and placed as the building neared completion. St. Romanus is often
associated with the gargoyle; legend speaks of him saving Rouen from a snarling dragon that struck
terror even in the heart of spirits. Known as La Gargouille, the beast was vanquished and its head
mounted on a newly built church, as an example and warning. While the gargoyle has been around
since Egyptian times, prolific use of the element in Europe is attributed to the Gothic era. Profusely
grouped upon several cathedrals, it heightens a sense of allegory and the fantastic.
 Pinnacles
Unlike the flying buttress, the pinnacle started out as a structural element meant to deflect
the pressures of the vaulted roof downward. They were imbued with lead, literally
‘pinning down’ the sideways pressures of the vault, served as counterweights to
extended gargoyles and overhanging corbels and stabilized flying buttresses. As their
aesthetic possibilities began to be known, pinnacles were lightened and the flying
buttress was structurally developed to handle the vaulted roof. Pinnacles are profusely
used to break the abrupt change in slenderness, as the church building gives way to the
mounted spire, lending the building a distinctively Gothic, tapering appearance.
 Pointed Arch
Recorded for the first time in Christian architecture during the Gothic era, the pointed
arch was used to direct the weight of the vaulted roof downward along its ribs. Unlike
the earlier Romanesque churches which depended solely on the walls to carry the
immense weight of the roof, the pointed arches helped restrict and selectively
transfer the load onto columns and other load-bearing supports, thereby freeing up
the walls. It no longer mattered what the walls were made of, since (between the
flying buttress and the pointed arch) they were no longer carrying any loads - thus the
walls of Gothic cathedrals began to be replaced by large stained-glass windows and
tracery.
 Tracery
Tracery refers to a series of thin stone frames, inlaid in window openings to support
the glass. Bar tracery found expression in the Gothic period, with its lancet-and-
oculus pattern that aimed at conveying a slenderness of design, and increasing the
amount of glass paneling. Unlike in plate tracery, thin stone mullions were used to
divide the window opening into two or more lancets. Y tracery was a specific
variety of bar tracery that separated the window head using thin bars of stone,
splitting in the shape of a Y. These delicate web-like tracings helped increase the
glass-to-stone ratio and grew into florid detail as Gothic architecture developed
further.
 The Oculus
Two specific window designs were established during the Gothic period - the narrowly
pointed lancet reinforced height, while the circular oculus held stained-glass. As
height grew less of an objective with Gothic builders, the latter half of the
Rayonnant Gothic saw structures reduced to an almost-skeletal, diaphanous frame.
Windows were expanded and walls replaced by traceried glass. An immense oculus
on the triforium wall of churches formed a rose window, the largest of which is
found at St. Denis. Divided by stone mullions and bars, it held radiating stone spokes
like a wheel and was placed below a pointed arch.
 Ribbed Vault
Gothic architecture replaced Romanesque groin vaults with ribbed vaults to counteract
complexities of construction and limitations that allowed it to only span square
rooms. Also known as ogival vaulting, ribbed vaulting developed with the need to
transfer roof-loads better, while freeing up inner walls for tracery and glass. More
ribs were added to the basic Romanesque barrel vault to increase the transfer of
loads to the ground. As the Gothic era achieved its zenith, complex vaulting systems
such as the quadripartite and sexpartite vaulting techniques were developed. The
development of ribbed vaulting reduced the need for inner load-bearing walls,
thereby opening up the inner space and providing visual and aesthetic unity.
 Fan Vault
One of the most obvious distinctions between the English and French Gothic
styles, fan vaulting was used exclusively in English cathedrals. The ribs of the
fan vault are curved equally and equidistantly spaced, giving it the appearance
of an open fan. The fan vault was also applied during the reconstruction of
Norman churches in England, doing away with the need for flying buttresses.
Fan vaulting was used profusely in ecclesiastical buildings and chantry chapels.
 Statue Column
The Early Gothic era showcases some of the most detailed sculpture of the period. It was not
uncommon to find statues that were of ‘structural’ nature, carved from the same stone as the
column that held up the roof. Often depicting patriarchs, prophets, and kings, they were
placed in the porches of later Gothic churches to lend an element of verticality. These larger-
than-life depictions may also be spotted in the embrasures on either side of cathedral
entrances. In France, column-statues often depicted rows of finely-dressed courtiers,
reflecting the prosperity of the kingdom.
Amiens Cathedral Reims Cathedral
Notre Dame, Paris
• One of the oldest French cathedrals
• Begun by Bishop Maurice de Sully

• Façade features successive tiers of niches with statues: Christ and French kings
• Central wheel window
• Two western towers with high pointed louvred openings
CASTLES
• Built on mounds above rivers
• Thick walls and small windows to resist attack

• Many were adapted to make convenient residences in later periods

Carcassone
• built in 13th Century AD
• double wall, inner one made in 600 AD
• 50 towers and moat
• two gateways guarded by machicolations, draw
ENGLAND

NORMAN (1066 to 1154 AD)

• Includes the raising of most of major Romanesque churches and castles

TRANSITIONAL (1154 to 1189 AD)

• Pointed arches in Romanesque structures

EARLY ENGLISH (1189 to 1307 AD)

• Equivalent to High Gothic in France
• Also called "Lancet" or "First Pointed" style, from long narrow pointed windows

DECORATED (1307 to 1377 AD)

• Window tracery is "Geometrical" in form, and later, flowing tracery patterns and curvilinear
surface pattern
• Also called "Second Pointed", equivalent to French "Flamboyant" style

PERPENDICULAR (1377 to 1485 AD)

• Also called "Rectilinear“ or "Third Pointed"

TUDOR (1495 to 1558 AD)

• Increasing application of Renaissance detail

ELIZABETHAN (1558 to 1603 AD)

• Renaissance ideas take strong hold
CATHEDRALS
• May have been attached to monasteries or to collegiate institutions
• Found in precincts with dormitories, infirmary, guest houses, cloisters, refrectory,
other buildings

Salisbury Cathedral
Westminster Abbey
• Complex of church, royal palace and
burial grounds
• Most important medieval building in
Britain
• widest (32 m) and highest vault in
England (102 ft)

Other examples:
Wells Cathedral
York Cathedral - largest medieval
cathedral in England and in Northern
Europe
Winchester Cathedral - longest medieval
cathedral in England
MANOR HOUSES
• Erected by new and wealthy trading families

Parts:
• great hall, room with solar room, chapel, latrine chamber, service rooms, kitchens,
central hearth

Later, in Tudor Manor Houses

• increased rooms, quadrangular court, battlement parapets, and gateways, chimneys,
buttery (butler’s pantry), oven, pantry, serving area and storage, larder (food storage),
wardrobe, oratory-study, private chapel with altar and crucifix, scullery, brew house

Penhurst Place, Kent

GERMANY, BELGIUM AND THE NETHERLANDS
• In Germany, the chief influence came from France, not from German Romanesque
• In Belgium and The Netherlands, it was based on French Gothic, developing the
Brabantine style

HALL CHURCHES
• Had a different look:
• Nave and aisle of same height
• One or two immense and ornate western towers or apse, in place of sculptured doorway
• Brick-work and simplified ornamentation

Ulm Cathedral St. Elizabeth, Marburg

(Typical Hall Church
SPAIN
• Strong Moorish influences: the use of horseshoe arches and rich surface decoration of
intricate geometrical and flowing patterns
• Churches had flat exterior appearance, due to chapels inserted between buttresses
• Excessive ornament, without regard to constructive character

Burgos Cathedral (1221 - 1457 AD)

• Irregular in plan
• Most beautiful and poetic of all Spanish cathedrals

Seville Cathedral (1402 to 1520 AD)

• Largest Medieval church in Europe
• Second largest church in the world, next to St. Peter's, Rome
ITALY
• Led the way in Europe, in terms of art, learning and commerce
• Cultural revival was taking place in Italy in advance of northern Europe
• Roman tradition remained strong
• This arrested the development of Gothic architecture in Italy
• Verticality of Gothic is generally neutralized by horizontal cornices and string courses
• Absence of pinnacles and flying buttresses
• Small windows without tracery
• Projecting entrance porches with columns on lion-like beasts

Florence Cathedral or S. Maria del Fiore

• Designed by Arnolfo di Cambio
• Essentially Italian in character, without the vertical features of Gothic
• Peculiar latin cross plan with campanile and baptistery
Siena Cathedral
• One of most stupendous undertakings since the building of the Pisa cathedral
• Outcome of civic pride - all artists in Siena contributed their works to its building and
adornment
• Cruciform plan
• Zebra marble striping on wall and pier

Other cathedrals:

Milan Cathedral
• Largest Medieval cathedral in Italy
• 3rd largest cathedral in Europe
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