GOTHIC STYLE

Nova video: Building the Great Cathedrals

What is "Gothic"?

    • Visual art style that emerged from Ile-de-France around the middle of the 12th century
    • Originally called "French style"
    • The Italians thought the Gothic barbaric and identified it with the barbarian Goths
    • So, like the term ‘Romanesque’ –‘Gothic’ was originally a derogatory term

 

Building Projects

 

        • In Egypt, China, Greece, Rome show the power of a strong central government
        • Organization, Management, People, Money, [Professional skills?]  
        • But Europe, up to 1200s, had not had a strong central government
        • Philip Augustus seeks to establish Paris as a northern urban center Ile-de-France

 

    • Gothic cathedrals would "crystallize" expressions of community effort (people), religious exaltation, intellectual capability (organization and management).

 

Romanesque vs. Gothic

    • Romanesque
    • 1) Structurally broad and massive
    • 2) Semi-circular arches
    • 3) relatively closely spaced columns and supports- security in an insecure world?
    • 4) Weight is supported by walls and columns
    • 5) Small windows


Left: Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, Romanesque Pilgrimage Church, c. 1080-1120 Right: Notre-Dame, Amiens, French Gothic Cathedral, begun 1220

from:http://www.owlnet.rice.edu/~hart205/Cathedrals/Plan/plan.html

 

Fontevraud Abbey (1010-1119)

 

 

 
    • Gothic
    • 1)Even greater emphasis on the vertical
    • 2) Thin walls
    • 3) Generally, Gothic cathedrals may be taller because pointed arches exert less lateral thrust

 

 

    • 4) Flying buttresses support the weight of the arches and vaults

  (EL)

        • 5) Large stained glass windows; one could not see the massive weight bearing buttresses from the inside of the church (EL) from Prague Gothic Cathedral

 

Abbey Church at St. Denis

    • Prototype of Gothic cathedral
    • Abbot Suger      
    • -regards the Church as symbolic of the kingdom of God (light, height, majesty)
    •  (EL from St. Denis)

o        “...when - out of my delight in the beauty of the house of God - the loveliness of the many-colored gems...has called me away from eternal cares....then it seems to me that I see myself dwelling, as it were, in some strange region of the universe which neither exists entirely in the slime of the earth nor entirely in the purity of Heaven; and that, by the grace of God, I can be transported from this inferior to that higher world...” --Suger

o        Must we be content with mere symbols of the kingdom of God?

 

o        -Giving up on the ideal of establishing a real kingdom of God on earth?

Chartres Cathedral

    • History
    • Said to contain a piece of cloth worn by Mary during the birth of Christ
    • Fire destroys cathedral in 1020; cloth was undamaged
    • Rebuilding begins in 1024 leading to a Romanesque cathedral
    • That cathedral is destroyed damaged in fire in 1034
    • 1194; yet another fire greatly damages structure; Mary’s cloth remains intact (EL)
    • A sign from Mary?
    • All tiers of social hierarchy commit time and money for new cathedral
    • 1260- new Chartres cathedral is dedicated

 

    • Architecture at Chartres
    • First cathedral planned with flying buttresses
    • Interior
    • Romanesque weight-bearing walls function now, in Gothic Chartres, to hold glass
    • transverse section of nave
    • Exterior
    • From round arch to pointed arch
    • Flying buttresses, buttresses

o        Thinner walls, thinner columns, more space for interior

    • Sculpture at Chartres
    • Where was the sculpture found?
    • Life of the Virgin Mary

-From left to right; bottom to top

    • North porch- dedicated to in depth, detailed sculpture of 1) Mary’s life, 2) Mary’s death and assumption, 3) Coronation as queen of heaven
    • South porch- architecturally different: portal arches are more pointed
    • Stained Glass at Chartres

 

 Music-
7.1 Mira Lege (12th century descant)

7.2 Organum Duplum (c. 1175 in Leonin's style)

7.3 Triplum (13th century in Perotin's style)

 

Gothic Ideas

 1) Dualism:

    • Soul vs. body dualism of early monastic movement is transformed into a host of different conflicts
      • 1) traditional Church authority vs. rising secular authority
      • 2) internationalism of Church vs. secular nationalism
      • 3) aristocrats vs. urban peasants
      • 4) monastic orders vs. secular clergy
      • 5) Church extravagance vs. common person’s poverty
      • 6) The idealism of Paradise vs. the realities of this life

            2) Scholasticism: resolution of Gothic dualisms?

        • God is approachable through reason

 

A) Peter Abelard- his Sic et Non (Pro and Con) reflected Gothic dualism but unlike other Scholastics, did not reconcile his oppositions.

                                                 

B) Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)

 

          • Summa Theologiae (Summation of Theology)
            • A sophisticated attempt to reconcile Aristotle, Christianity, Scriptural truth, rational learning, and faith.

o        (EL) Traini (1345): Altar-piece

 

§         E.g., -The famous "Five Ways" to prove God’s existence (Thomas Aquinas)

 

-What effects did Aquinas have on the Church?

§         Contemporary Church catechism: Aquinas is footnoted many times

§         Francis Schaeffer’s criticism of Aquinas (Humanism in the Church):

 

"At its core...the Reformation was the removing of the humanistic distortions which had entered the church."
(Francis A. Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live?, Ch. 4)

Aquinas-  trust in human reason-  exaltation of human being  -   renaissance humanism (14th 15th centuries)   -  need for reform (1517 forward)

 

            3)     Aesthetics and Number Theory

    • Human reason can ascertain order
    • Numbers are reflected in architecture and music
      • Male number was considered odd
      • Female number was considered even
      • Thus, three was their unity
      • Three is also the 1 + 2 (octave) combination
      • 3 at Chartres: 3 entrance portals, three levels of interior (nave arcade, triforium gallery, clerestory windows)
      • Three divisions of ground space (nave, transept, choir)
      • Three semi-circular apsidal chapels
      • 3 stands for spirit; 4 stands for matter:
      • As you might imagine, their sum,7, is significant for it stands for the union of spirit and body
      • And their product, 12, represents 12 tribes, 12 apostles, …

o        Can one find order in anything?

o        The Bible Code

                                                    http://cs.anu.edu.au/~bdm/dilugim/drosninII.html

                                                 Video: Bible Code

            4) The Feminine in Gothic Thought

                        The Cult of the Virgin parellels increasing stature of women in seculer circles and finds full expression in code of chivalry

 

            5) Some Broader Resolutions

 To bridge the impossible gaps

    • Matter and spirit; mass and void; natural and supernatural; inspiration and aspiration; finite and infinite
    • No Gothic cathedral is completed

 To bridge the impossible gaps

    • Matter and spirit; mass and void; natural and supernatural; inspiration and aspiration; finite and infinite
    • No Gothic cathedral is completed