3. Gothic
Dates and Places:
• 12th to 14th century
• Western Europe (begins in
France)
People:
• Growth of urban centers
• Sophisticated courts
• Scholasticism (universities)
• Guilds Plan, abbey church, Saint-
• Cult of Virgin Mary Denis, 1140–1144.
Fig. 7-3.
• Abbot Suger
4. Gothic
Themes:
• Virgin Mary
• Life of Christ and saints
• Portraits
• Secular life
Forms:
• Height & light (soaring height Notre-Dame,
& open space illuminated by begun 1163
Paris
light (Lux nova – new light)
• Flying buttresses
• Stained glass windows
• Rib vaults and pointed
arches
• Lavish ornament and Sainte-Chapelle,
materials 1243–1248.
• Increasingly optical approach Paris
to figures and space
5. Gothic –
The
Cathedral
Model of the hypostyle hall
Temple of Amen-Re
Karnak, Egypt, ca. 1290 BCE
The Medieval Mind:
How to Build a Cathedral
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5u9rjssGJrc&feature=youtu.be
6. Gothic – The Cathedral
Diagram, Romanesque vs Gothic rib vault
View, Great Mosque, Isfahan, Iran, 11-17th cent. Amiens Cathedral, Nave, begun 1220 CE
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/interactive/animations/arch/index_embed.shtml
7. Gothic: France
• Contains relic of Virgin (tunic)
• Early Gothic (west façade and
towers)
• After fire (1194), remainder
High Gothic
• Towers on heavily
ornamented & sculpted
westwork & transept portals
• Flying buttresses
• Large clerestory of stained
glass windows
• Rose windows
• Skeletal support system Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France,
Begun 1134, rebuilt after 1194
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/Gothic.html
8. Romanesque vs. Gothic
Saint-Sernin, ca. 1070–1120
Toulouse, France, Fig. 6-14.
Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France,
Begun 1134, rebuilt after 1194
9. Gothic: France
Ascension of Christ Second Coming Christ & Virgin Mary
Royal Portal, West façade, Chartres Cathedral, 1145-1155
10. Gothic: France
• Royal Portal on west façade
(original)
• Kinder, gentler Last Judgment
(vs. Romanesque portals)
• Cult of Virgin Mary
• Jamb statues flanking doors
show Old Testament kings &
queens
• Romanesque linearity
(elongated bodies, garment
folds, rigidly attached to
columns)
• New naturalism (individualized
Old Testament kings & queens
faces) Royal Portal, West façade, Chartres
Cathedral, 1145-1155
11. Gothic: France
• Independent
of architecture
• As Christian
knight
• Greater
naturalism
• Contrapposto
Saint Theodore,
jamb statue,
south transept
portal, Chartres
Cathedral, ca.
1230
Old Testament kings & queens
Royal Portal, West façade, Chartres
Cathedral, 1145-1155
12. From Archaic to Classical Greece
Kroisos, from Anavysos, Greece, ca. 530 BCE
Polykleitos Doryphoros (Spear Bearer) ca. 450 BCE
13. Gothic: France Old Testament kings
Virgin & Christ
child
fleurs-de-lis
Rose window, North transept, Chartres Cathedral, ca. 1220. Fig. 7-11.
14. Gothic: France 43’
• Stained glass window
• Lux nova (new light)
• Given by Queen of France to
Chartres (fleurs-de-lis)
• Stories of the faith
• Virgin Mary at center
• Surrounded by doves of holy
spirit, angels, Old Testament
kings
• Lancets below (Queen Anne
with baby Mary and royal
ancestorys of Christ)
• Bar tracery (stone armature)
Rose window and lancets,
Chartres Cathedral, ca. 1220.
16. Gothic:
France
• Illuminated manuscript
• Produced in urban workshops
• Luxury books for private
patrons
• Moralized Bible (pairs Old &
New Testament)
• God as architect (holding
compass)
• Sun & moon present, Earth
still unformed
• Like Medieval cathedral God as architect of the world,
builder? folio 1 verso of moralized Bible, ink, tempera,
gold leaf on vellum, Paris, ca. 1220
19. Gothic: Italy
DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints, from
1308–1311. Fig. 7-32.
20. Gothic: Italy
• Altarpiece
• Wood panels
• Civic pride
• Cult of the Virgin
Mary
• Shifting from Italo- DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA, Virgin
and Child Enthroned with Saints,
Byzantine to more from 1308–1311. Fig. 7-32.
naturalistic style
21. Gothic: Italy
CIMABUE, Madonna Enthroned with Angels and GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Madonna
Prophets, ca. 1280–1290, 12’7” x 7’4” Enthroned, ca. 1310, 10’8” x 6’8”
22. Gothic: Italy
• Italian humanism (emphasis on
human values & interests distinct
from otherworldly religious values)
• Increasing interest in antiquity
and study of Roman
sculpture, literature,
philosophy, sciences, etc
• Growing naturalism of figures
and spaces (observation)
• Cimabue = Italo-Byzantine
Left: CIMABUE, Madonna Enthroned
(flat, frontal figures, symmetry with Angels and Prophets, ca. 1280–
& patterning, gold) 1290. Fig. 7-28. Right: GIOTTO DI
BONDONE, Madonna Enthroned, ca.
• Giotto anticipates 1310. Fig. 7-29.
Renaissance (3D stability &
solidity, mass, figures profile)
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/cimabue-santa-trinita-madonna.html
23. Gothic or Early Renaissance? : Italy
Giotto, Arena Chapel, Padua, Italy, 1305-1306
24. Gothic or Early Renaissance? : Italy
GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Lamentation, ca. 1305. Arena Chapel
25. Gothic: Italy
• Fresco program in family chapel
• 38 framed pictures
• Registers for 3 narrative cycles
(Life of Virgin, Life of Christ,
Passion of Christ)
• Imitation marble frame
• Shallow, illusionistic space for
narrative (implied lines)
• Symbolism (Tree of knowledge of
good & evil)
• Focus dynamically off center
• Naturalistic treatment of figures
(light & shade)
• Drapery reveals body mass
• Figures seen from back
• Emotional expression & gesture
(grief)
• Like contemporary mystery plays
http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/giottos-lamentation.html
26. Gothic: Italy
ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO and others, Florence Cathedral,
begun 1296. Fig. 7-36.
27. Gothic: Italy
• Regional variation of Gothic
in Italy
• Florence a dominant city-
state
• Civic project (intended to
hold entire city population)
• Basilican church
• Marble incrustation
• Campanile (bell tower) by
Giotto ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO and others,
Florence Cathedral, begun 1296.
• Compartmentalized clarity Fig. 7-36.
of architectural parts
• Anticipates Renaissance
• Dome not present until 15th
century
Notes de l'éditeur
You have probably heard the saying “knowledge is power.” We can very easily apply this saying to an understanding of Gothic art and architecture. If the act of acquiring knowledge is a form of enlightenment, then the patrons and architects of the Gothic period very much took that literally in the design of their buildings. At the heart of Gothic architecture are these two most important words: height and light. These soaring cathedrals and spires built in Gothic Europe realize the age old theme of axis mundi (world pillar, cosmic axis or center of the earth), something we’ve seen from the ancient ziggurats of Babylonia to the skyscrapers of today. They not only attempt to reach the heavens, but to create a semblance of Heaven on Earth. And as you can see in this interior of Sainte-Chapelle in Paris, France, they are often bathed in light, filtered in through elaborate stained-glass windows. For Gothic thinkers, this light not only illuminated the interior, but it symbolically suggested the presence of God on Earth and the knowledge, and salvation, acquired when one is enveloped by it. As we have seen in the lecture on Early Medieval and Romanesque art, the Church was the sole proprietor of this knowledge, both of Christianity and of Classical antiquity, the combination of both we’ve seen in the many syncretic buildings and images made since the fall of the Roman empire. However, as we’ll see toward the end of class today, as the world modernized and moved toward its “Renaissance,” this knowledge will become increasingly more available to an increasingly literate public. Perhaps the more realistic, more familiar painted images of the late Gothic era and early Renaissance exist, in part, because of this?
