This document provides an overview of Gothic art and architecture from the 12th-16th centuries in France, Germany, and Italy. It discusses key cathedrals such as Notre Dame, Chartres, Cologne, and Salisbury cathedrals. It highlights innovations in Gothic architecture including rib vaulting, flying buttresses, rose windows, and stained glass windows. The document also provides historical context about the time period including the Hundred Years' War and the Black Plague. Important artistic works from the period are also mentioned such as the Bamberg Rider statue.

1. Snapshot Quiz 11/08/12

2. Gothic Art and
Architecture
12-16th Centuries
France, Germany, Italy

3. Highlights from
Lecture:
• Pisa
• St Denis and Abbot Sugur
• Notre Dame
• Chartres Cathedral
• Amiens
• St. Urbain
• Rouen Cathedral
• Salisbury
• Florence Cathedral
• Ghiberti and Pisano
Baptistry Door
• Gothic Classicism
• Claus Sluter Moses Well
• Roettgen Pieta
• Martini. The Road to
Calvary
• Giotto Madonna
Enthroned

4. Romanesque to Gothic:
Transition
• Almost all the same
Romanesque building
innovations exist to create
Gothic architecture
• The goal is to create work that is
innovative in combination
towards a new purpose.
• Transitional elements can be
seen in Romanesque Building,
such as Pisa Baptristry and
Campanile (1152-1363) by
Pisano
Cathedral complex, Pisa, Italy; cathedral begun 1063; baptistery
begun 1153; campanile begun 1174.

9. Gothic Context
• Vasari – a writer during the Renaissance described
Gothic Art was monstrous and barbarous invented by
Goths
• Downfall of Rome? – Ugly and Crude
• Downfall of Art? 13 and 14th Centuries all the rage
was Goth Art!
• Started in France in 1140 then Prague and Czech
Republic- Islamic and Byzantine Art still popular at
this time

10. What was going on during
this time?
• 100 year war- 1137 shattered peace between
France and England
• 14th Century- great plague-quarter of its
people dead
• Great Schism- opposing popes resided in
Rome and in Avignon ( southern France)
• Time for knights, maidens, Crusades, Kings,
Queens

11. Gothic Origins
• Abbot Suger in Paris
created an alliance
between the monarchy
and the Church
• Church of St. Denis
housed the martryr relic
and the Carolingian line of
Charlemagne, Pepin the
Short, and Charles the
Hammer

12. St. Denis France 1140
• Symbol of Royalty
• Longer nave arcade
• Ambulatory & Radiating
chapels

13. Gothic Origins
• Suger wanted to put Paris in the
Piligramage tour book, and created
several new architectural developments
along the way:
1. Chapels merge into a single area which
creates a double ambulatory for the
pilgramage choir.
• Resulting in a less bottom heavy structure.
2. Flying buttressing that creates an exo-
skeleton that takes most of the lateral
thrust out from interior view. Windows
now equal walls.
• Light is now equal to porportion,
harmony and rationality (i.e. The word
and purpose of God)

14. Abbot Suger:
Inscription over Portal
“Whoever thou mayest be, who art
minded to praise this door,
Wonder not at the gold, nor at its
cost, but at the work.
The work shines in its nobility; by
shining nobly,
May it illumine the spirit, so that,
through its trusty lights,
The spirit may reach the true Light in
which Christ is the Door.
The golden door proclaims the
nature of the Inward:
Through sensible things, the heavy
spirit is raised to the Truth;
From the depths, it rises to the
Light”

15. What is man that you
are Mindful?
• Man is conceived of blood
made rotten by the heat of
lust; and in the end worms,
like mourners, stand about
his corpse. In life he
produced lice and
tapeworms; in death he will
produce worms and flies. In
life he produced dung and
vomit; in death he produces
rottenness and stench. In life
he fattened one man; in
death he fattens a multitude
of worms. Pope Innocent III,
1200

17. • Cutaway view of a typical
French Gothic cathedral
(John Burge). (1) pinnacle,
• (2) flying buttress, (3)
vaulting web, (4) diagonal
rib,
• (5) transverse rib, (6)
springing, (7) clerestory,
• (8) oculus, (9) lancet, (10)
triforium, (11) nave
• arcade, (12) compound
pier with responds.
• Sketch the follow ing3-d
cutout of a typical Gothic
cathedral.
• Attempt to name all the 12
parts specified by the
diagram (blue lines)
• Do your best!

19. Rib vaulting- crossed- diagonal arches under its
groins, shaping of the vault is easy, less buttressing
needed, vaults taller= higher churches and open
walls leave room for stained glass.

21. Abbot Gothic Style
• The interaction of harmony, proportion,
mathematics, with light and the new “Gothic”
formulations, creates a mystical quality:
– “it transports us into some strange region of the
universe which neither exists entirely in the slime
of earth nor entirely in the purity of Heaven.”
• His designs become wildly popular, and begin
an immitation transfusion across Europe.

22. Building Light: Notre
Dame
• Features
– 110 ft. high
– features magnificent stained glass,
sculptures and flying buttresses (arched
exterior supports).
• Time Frame
– Construction of Notre Dame Cathedral
began in 1163 during the reign of Louis
VII, and was completed around 1345.
• History
– In 1793, during the French Revolution,
Notre Dame Cathedral was looted and
damaged, and images of the Virgin Mary
were replaced by those of Lady Liberty.
Restoration work began in 1845 and
lasted 25 years.

23. Notre Dame: Dimensions
• The twin campanile
culminate at 69 meters (387
steps…I have counted). The
south tower houses the 13
ton Emmanuel bell.
• Notre Dame is 130 meters
long, 48 meters wide, 35
meters high. Its pillars have a
diameter of 5 meters. The
rose windows have a
diameter of 10 meters.

24. Hunchback?
• Significance
– Notre Dame Cathedral is the most
popular monument in France,
even more popular than the Eiffel
Tower. Thirteen million people, a
mixture of tourists and
worshippers, visit every year.
• Famous Ties
– Victor Hugo wrote his 1831 novel
"The Hunchback of Notre Dame"
with the aim of raising awareness
and appreciation of Notre Dame
cathedral, which at the time was in
a state of disrepair, and its Gothic
architectural style considered
vulgar.

25. Notre Dame

26. Vaulting
• Notre- Dame –
Louis the VI (aka
The Fat) 1130
Moved to Paris
• Building Boom
• Sexpartite –
ribvaulting covered
nave

37. 11/7 Warm-Up
• Looking back through
your notes and art
snapshots, identify the
most interesting
cathedral and why.
• Copy down its MARCS,
and KNOW THEM.

38. Warm-Up 11/13-14
• What seems striking
about this painting in
contrast to previous
Christian depictions
of God? Why is the
theme expressed
important to the
influx of Cathedrals in
Europe during the
Late Middle Ages?
Write one page.

40. • In place of triforiums
(produced earlier by
Laon Cathedral), a
stained-glass occuli
pattern opens up the
wall below the
clerestory lancets.
• Also, first time flying
buttresses are used

44. Laon Cathedral Laon
France 1190

45. • Provides a comprehensive
picture of French church
architecture of the
second half o the 12th
century (1190)
• Infusion of romanesque
nave bays with large
sexpartite rib vaults
• One nave crossing bay =
two vaultes aisle squares.
• Introduction of the
triforium

46. • The triforium occupies
the space corresponding
to the exterior strip of
wall covered by the
sloping timer roof above
the gallieries.
• New Gothic Formula:
– Nave, arcade, vaulted
gallery, triforium and
clerestory with single
lancets

47. Chartes Cathedral -1194

48. Flying Buttresses- to hold thiner & taller walls
slender fingers holding walls up

49. • In the Chartes Plan, a
single square in each aisle
flanks a single rectangular
unit in the nave with four-
part vaults
• Becomes characteristic of
“High Gothic”
architecture (1194-1500)
• Always is planned with
flying buttressing

51. Royal Portal, west façade, Chartres
Cathedral, Chartres Franc, ca. 1145-1155

52. Chartes Jamb sculptures

53. 11/08 Warm-up
Describe the
differences in how
contrapposto is
being
administered.
Label and fully
identify both
works. (6 sent.)

54. Rose Windows in
Chartes

55. Stained Glass
• Abbot Suger’s thesis on the
“lux-nova” or “new light”
• Stained glass isn’t to allow
all outside light in (so as to
brightly illuminate the
interior)
• Rather, it is to transform the
light into scripture (God’s
incarnation=Jesus)

57. Late Gothic
• St. Denis, Laon, Chartre,
Notre Dame, and Amien
represent the early to High
Gothic Period.
• With the advent of 100
years war, building fervency
declines
• Emphasis shifts from
monumental verticality to
intense tracery known as
the Rayonnant or
“flamboyant” style.

58. San Chapelle(1239)
• Commissioned by Louis
IX as a personal and
royal chapel connected
to the palace.
• Held the crown of
thorns
• 6450 square feet of
stained glass (more
glass than wall by 3/4’s)

61. The Catholic Church, how
was money raised for these
churches?
• Indulgances– pardons for
sins committed
• Chartes cathedral burnt
down in 1194(27 years to
rebuild)
• Townspeople drove the
Bishop into exile

62. Warm-up 11/09:
put in chronological order, label

63. Non-French Gothic
• stylistic variations because of blending with
local traditions
• » encouraged by prestige of French
architects and respect for French centers of
learning, as well as by intense spirituality of
style
•
• ENGLAND
• - typified by small villages and busy market
towns; Oxford and Cambridge
• Universities were established by the
13th century
• - architecture shows less emphasis on height
and lighting than French
• - little use of architectural sculpture

64. Salisbury Cathedral
• SALISBURY CATHEDRAL (Early English style)
• – FOUNDED (BY BISHOP RICHARD POORE) CA. 1220
• – IDYLLIC AREA NEAR RIVER AVON
• - typical of English Gothic
• o park-like setting (close) and attached cloister
• o double projecting transepts, square apse, spacious
sanctuary
• – * NAVE INTERIOR - Purbeck marble accents, 80’ high, less
light than French, longer and lower than French; decorative
elaboration of ribs of vaulting = an English feature
• » * CHAPEL OF HENRY VII, WESTMINSTER ABBEY
• - fan vaulting
• - abbey = burial place of kings, locale of Head of St. Benedict
and vestments of St. Peter
• - “Perpendicular Style” or “English Late Gothic”
• » OTHER IMPORTANT ENGLISH EXAMPLES: WELLS
CATHEDRAL, AND KINGS COLLEGE CHAPEL, CAMBRIDGE

65. • aisles). Different
• too is the emphasis on the great
crossing tower
– (added about 1320–1330), which
dominates the silhouette.
• modest compared with that of
Amiens and Reims. And because
• the architectused the flying buttress
sparingly and as a rigid prop, rather
than as an integral part of the
vaulting system within the church.
• In short, the English builders
adopted some of the superficial
motifs of French Gothic
architecture but did not embrace its
structural logic or emphasison
height.

88. Fan Vaults of the Chapel of Henry
VII, Westminster Abbey, 1503-1519
• CHAPEL OF HENRY VII The structure-
disguising and decorative qualities of the
Perpendicular style became even more
pronouncedin its late phases.
• English linear play of ribs into a kind of
architectural embroidery. The architects
pulled the ribs into uniquely
• English fan vaults (vaults with radiating ribs
forming a fanlike pattern)
• with large hanging pendants resembling
stalactites. from the ceiling.
• The chapel represents the dissolution of
structural Gothic into decorative fancy.
• Art form in purity, no longer pragmatic.

91. Death of the Virgin,
tympanum of left doorway,
south transept, Strasbourg
Cathedral, Strasbourg,
France, ca. 1230.

92. • Probably a portrait of a
German emperor,
perhaps Frederick II,
• the Bamberg Rider
revives the imagery of
the Carolingian Empire.
• The French-style
architectural canopy
cannot contain the
entire statue.
Equestrian portrait (Bamberg Rider), statue in the east
choir, Bamberg Cathedral, Germany, ca. 1235–1240. Sandstone,
7 9 high.

93. Virgin with the Dead Christ (Röttgen Pietà), from the
Rhineland,
Germany, ca. 1300 1325. Painted wood, 2 101 2 high. Rheinisches
Landemuseum, Bonn.
• haunting 14thcentury
• German painted wooden
statuette (FIG. 18-51) of the
Virgin
• Mary holding the dead Christ in
her lap. The widespread
troubles
• of the 14th century—war,
plague, famine, and social
strife—brought on an ever
more acute awareness of
suffering.
• This sensibility found its way
readily into religious art. The
Dance of Death, Christ as the
• Man of Sorrow, and the Seven
Sorrows of the Virgin Mary
became favorite themes.

94. The Moses Well, Chartreuse de
Champmol, Dijon, France, 1395-1405
• The work was executed for Philip’s son, John the
Fearless (1371–1419), in a style combining the elegance
of International Gothic with a northern realism, but with a
monumental quality unusual in either.
• It was carved from stone quarried in Asnières, France and
consisted of a large crucifixion scene or "Calvary", with a
tall slender cross surmounting a hexagonal base which
was surrounded by the figures of the six prophets who
had foreseen the death of Christ on the Cross
• (Moses, David, Jeremiah, Zachariah, Daniel and Isaiah).
Standing on slender colonnettes on the corners between
these prophets are six weeping angels. All the figures,
including the lost Calvary group
• It was traditionally assumed that the Calvary scene would
have included the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalen, and St.
John, though recent research (based on a close reading of
the archives and an examination of the fixing-points on
top of the base) suggests that there was only one figure,
the Magdalen, embracing the foot of the Cross.

95. Gerhard of
Cologne, interior of Cologne
Cathedral (looking east),
Cologne, Germany, choir
completed 1322.

96. German Gothic
• COLOGNE CATHEDRAL 1245-
1880
• EXTERIOR
– built to house remains of the
Three Wise Men
– largest cathedral in Europe: 475’
X 202’ and with 515’ high spire
• SCULPTURE
– German Gothic sculpture tends to
be more "Hellenistic" in its
derivation (French is more
“Classical”)
– emphasis on strong emotion,
movement, violence
– portrait-like realism

97. • The nave of Cologne
Cathedral is 422 feet
long. The 150-foot
high choir
• taller variation on
the Amiens
Cathedral choir