Hello. This next lecture will be about the Gothic style
and period. And we're starting off with a slide just to give you a sense of what
the Gothic
looks like. I'm sure many of you have seen Gothic structures
before -- looking at examples architecture, but also sculpture here.
So things to notice: things like the strong vertical
pull, or vertical emphasis that we see in churches. We tend to see a lot of pointed
arches.
We can see a lot of fairly ornate vaulting. You can just get a little peek
at the vaulting
here, which is that covering of the church structure with a curved
form. We see a lot of gables -- these trianguler
forms. A lot triangular forms and also those pointed arches.
More of those gables here with little crocketts sticking out.
Large rose windows; thin lancet windows, which
are these long pointy windows.
Here you can just see a really large rose window, as well. So
emphasis on windows and on light, but not just bright light -- more like colored
light, and
how to modify the light to increase the spiritual experience of the visitor
at the church. So in our minds Gothic
often means something beautiful and light-filled,
beautiful stone work, but in fact, Gothic was very much a derogatory term
used by sixteenth-century Italian to describe this style popular in Northern
Europe -- this idea that it was more of a barbaric style by the barbarians
up in Northern Europe -- seems kind of silly to us now,
but for the Italians when they were entering into the Renaissance and new styles of
art were becoming popular, the Gothic style became
very much out of fashion and so it received this more derogatory
name. But today when we say "Gothic" we don't necessarily mean something
bad. We can mean something beautiful with stained glass and beautiful stone work
and things like that.
So it dominated especially northern Europe from the middle of the 12th century until
the 15th century
-- plus or minus a few years depending on what region you were in.
And it continued -- it return as a Neo-Gothic style later on,
so it stays very popular for a long period. Some people refer to it as
"French work" or
the "French style" or "modern work" at the time when it was being produced because
France was really seen
as the starting point for the Gothic style. And Gothic Art tended to be more
popular in cities, rather than
rural monasteries. So in the Romanesque period we were focused on
pilgrimage churches -- churches that people would go to that were in
difficult areas to get to, that were hard to get to. But these [Gothic] churches tend to be in
more
urban areas. So we will see more of an idea about
urban flourishing associated with the Gothic style. So we'll start of with Abbot
Suger,
and his church of St. Denis, which is just outside Paris.
So, St. Denis was the church where the French monarchs were buried -- so very
important,
royal church, and he wanted to increase the prestige
of the monastery, and also his own abbey, his own prestige, by rebuilding the
original Carolingian
basilica -- so enlarging the Basilica that was there
previously. He was definitely of at the top in terms of the people he interacted
with. He was an adviser to both King Louis
VI and King Louis VII and even served as regent
when Louis VII went away on a crusade.
So Suger talks about the light that he's introducing into the
church in his writing -- in the "Book of Suger",
but also talks about the sculpture work that he's incorporating, the metalwork that he's
incorporating.
So most books really emphasize the stained glass,
but in his writing he does talk about the entire --
you know, what he wants to do to change his church,
which incorporates a lot of different elements. It emphasizes that churches
are not just stained glass -- that they have many different elements and that it took
a lot of work to build these churches.
So we start off by looking at the ambulatory where things really got started at his
church of St. Denis.
So right around 1140 CE, you see
this ambulatory become much more open -- almost looking like a spider web in terms
of all the complex
vaulting systems that are going on here. So you can see that it is being supported by
structures that look almost like arrows pointing inward -- a system of
buttressing, where the support is really put outside the structure,
this allows for larger windows to be introduced also for complex systems
of masonry vaulting. If we look at the ambulatory, you can
see that it's a much more open style -- much more open and airy style than we saw in
the Romanesque period,
where I mentioned things tended to be a little heavier, more dungeon-like
in the Romanesque period. Remember they were scared about cutting windows into
those structures
because they were using so much masonry. They were worried about the weight.
Well now, they're gaining more confidence and gaining more
ability in terms of their engineering. So by having more of these
pointed arches, you get more of a vertical emphasis, and also they're learning how
to put some of the buttressing on the
outside of the church, so this allows for larger windows
so mostly of these windows are now replacements -- all these light ones are now
replacements.
The original windows would have been more of a rich blue or red --
having almost a deep sapphire color to it or
really rich redness to it. So the idea that I get you're, again, not
making these churches super bright, but you're really changing the light you're making
it very spiritual and
very different for people to go into these spaces -- really heavenly experience.
So Abbot Suger describes it as "that elegant and praiseworthy extension in the form of a circular
string of chapels
by virtue of which the whole church would shine with the wonderful and
uninterrupted light of most sacred windows", so there's a reference to those important
windows,
but also there were other elements of the church that were important.
Here's just a wide angle view where you can see some of the monarchs burial
sites,
and get a sense of how open this ambulatory was. So in the Romanesque period,
it really was very much closed off -- if you want to visit those
little radiating chapels. Here the ambulatory is much more open,
so you can see it behind altar.
You also have the presence of important windows, as we said, and these windows were relatively
complex.
They were similar to some of the iconography that we saw
on the a column capitals [at Vézelay],
so stories like the Mystic Mill or stories about
revelation one might see, and also
this idea of the Old Testament Scriptures
being more complex and then refined through Christianity --
through Christianity in the offer of salvation through Christianity.
So you were meant to follow some of the stories going up and down.
These are quite complex in their storytelling
When we get to places like Chartres, it's much more straightforward. So
a lot of people emphasize that these are things the illiterate could look at and
understand the stories.
Some of them are a bit more complex, but some of them are quite straightfoward in telling
the stories that people -- like Christ or the life of the Virgin,
things like that. If we do move over to the Cathedral of Chartres, we see
a form of early Gothic when we look at the facade -- so the front at the church.
So they were building the church in this new Gothic style
that Abbott Suger had initiated at St. Denis; the abbot of Chartres wants to
incorporate into his new church.
This church is very important for the Virgin
because they have some relics that are very important for her. So
they have her tunic -- they have this shirt
or garment that she was said to have worn at the time of Christ
Nativity, and then later on they're going to get the head of
St. Anne, which is another important Marian relic --
St. Anne is the mother of the Virgin Mary. So
this is an earlier spire [here]; later spire [here].
But the church, when it was being built in the early Gothic style, did burn down.
Only the facade survived, and a little bit the eastern crypt,
but they kept this facade, but decided "oh, the Virgin must want us to build an even
grander church,
let's get back to work", and so they did, and, in fact, if we look at the nave,
you'll see or we'll see that it's a much grander,
open space. But first, if we focus in right here
on the portal, what's called "The Royal Portal",
we'll see some changes that are happening in terms of the sculpture.
So we'll see that some of the forms become more naturalistic. The body of Christ,
while still at large,
is a little bit more naturalistic in its overall form. We had this scene
of the "Second Coming [of Christ]" at the center, but a little less scary than we've seen previously.
And over here, we have "The Ascension of Christ" probably,
and then "Christ and the Virgin Mary" with the Virgin Mary functioning as a
throne and then stories from the early life Christ. You also have symbols of
learning over here.
And then also symbols relating to labors, so
you getting a little bit more of learning and
work -- some more practical elements being incorporated here
in these more urban churches. So maybe
relating more to your everyday man who's visiting this church.
And also the Gothic period is seen as a mini Renaissance in terms of
learning, cultural renewal, artistic renewal,
things like that. And just like we've seen in other structures --
although these figures are not particularly naturalistic -- the faces are a little natural.
The bodies are clearly very columnar, These are the supports
for the New Testament. So you have these Old Testament figures down below
and then Christianity or Christian figures up above, so if we go back to
the portal very briefly,
we'll see that these figures really function as the foundation, and then
the Christian figures
are right above, so this is very common in a lot of different types of Christian artwork.
If we go inside, we'll see some of the stained glass window. So we have
windows with scene of the life of Christ. So these are more of those straightforward
stories that would have been understandable for those who were
visiting the churches --
maybe were illiterate, and were interested in
seeing these stories brought to life through the windows, through the glass,
And so here, I'm just showing two stories -- one is the massacre of the innocents, which
is a story from the
early life of Christ, where Mary and Joseph had brought
Christ out in the city to avoid this. This is where a
number of the young male children were killed
early in Christ's life. And then down below, you see the scene of the Nativity, which
would have been especially relevant at Chartres
because they were said to have had the garment
that the Virgin had worn -- very, very important relic.
Another important window would have been "Notre Dame de la Belle Verrière",
which would be
"Our Lady of the Beautiful Window", so
very important to note that these Gothic churches were very much dedicated or
often dedicated to
the Virgin. The Virgin really took precedence
in a way in some of these churches, and, of course, because Chartres had all of these relics,
the Virgin was especially important, so many in the windows are dedicated to the
Virgin.
She heavily featured in the sculptural decoration.
But we do see this kind of dedication at a lot of other churches, so "Notre Dame" is
a very common
name for cathedrals and churches at this time
and so that's just something very important to keep in mind.
If we look into the church, you see that mention about the
the relic of the tunic in the notes there, and also the note
about St. Anne's head arriving in 1204, and this just really demonstrates the
strength of the dedication to the Virgin Mary,
and this new emphasis of "Divine Love", so moving away
from that apocalyptic imagery -- that emphasis on death,
and moving towards an emphasis on "Divine Love".
There you can see just a system for the plan -- the vaulting system that went through the church.
And on the outside, we can see the system of what we call flying buttresses,
which provided for extra support, so that the church should be taller,
protected from the wind, and could incorporate large windows along the
outside.
Gothic architecture lot names to it, a lot of terms,
so if you're interested in going through all of them, you can go through some of these different
terms and words, but it's just important that you know
things like these lancet windows, these pinnacles, flying buttresses --
things like that. But a lot of the same
terms like side aisles and nave and things like that are very similar, so
you go through and become familiar with some of the terms here.
Moving on tom move of that High Gothic Style, you can see how the Rose windows are starting to become
dominant. More and more ornate sculptural decoration --
becoming almost lace-like or very prickly with some of
the crocketts and pinnacles that are being added to the decoration.
And this is the cathedral of Reims, and so Reims
was the coronation cathedral for the French kings. And it's
taller -- all these churches are becoming taller and taller,
more of the vertical emphasis. This dates to the 13th century,
so we're moving later. A lot of these churches, the construction halted due to civil
unrest
because people would get really mad aboutl the taxes they had to pay, how expensive these
churches were,
so there was a period when construction here stopped, but eventually it
was finished. We can see it's a very grand
example of the High Gothic style. If we zoom in
on one in the portals --- zooming in on one of the jambs here
along the side of the portal -- you can see the kind of different hands,
the different sculptors that would contribute here.
So we have presumably one sculptor who did the "Visitation" scene, where the Virgin
Mary
visits her cousin St. Elizabeth. St. Elizabeth of course is
pregnant with John the Baptist.
The Virgin is pregnant with Christ -- there's this moment of recognition
and excitement. And then also you have this scene of the "Annunciation", and this
seems to be two separate sculptors. This sculptor who sculpted the angel Gabriel
seems to be very used to sculpting in more of a
courtly Gothic style, which tends to emphasize
very delicate features, thin bodies, the of Gothic "S curve", where you
have this kind of sloping
to the body or this gentle curve to the body.
And then body the Virgin seems very humble and simple
with less emphasis on drapery than, for example, what we see over here
in the Visitation scene. And the Annunciation scene, of course, is
when the angel Gabriel is telling the Virgin that she is pregnant with Christ,
so this is also called the "Incarnation", where Christ become
incarnate in her womb.
So you have this very friendly looking angel -- probably an angel that was
sculpted for somewhere else in the church, and then they needed an angel Gabriel, so they
used it over here on the door jamb, but just showing how this is a bit of a communal
activity.
Next week see the "Demon gargoyle" here. You can see
this figure. Gargoyles often were featured on the outside of
these churches, as a way to get rid the filth.
So you have this system of drainage, and then drainage would go through the mouths of
the gargoyle
and spit out the filth, and so this is a way of keeping dirt away from the
churches. So, you can see
that this gargoyle will is more ornamental. This
one is probably just warding off evil, but a lot of these gargoyles were functional and
actually would have
water coming out of their mouths when it was raining to clean -- this idea of cleaning the
church
and keeping dirt away from the church. But also, of course, warding off evil,
warding off bad things, keeping people wary of bad things,
that can also be the function of the gargoyle.