Rainer of Huy was a12th

century metalworker and

sculpture to whom
masterpieces of Mosan
art, including the
baptismal font at St.
Bartolomew’s church in
Liege, Belgium, are
attributed.
Innovations in
Romanesque
architecture
 Architectural development of great
importance which took place to the end of
eleventh century in both German and France,
were at least partly inspired by similar
demands for unity of effect.
 The technical knowledge and skill required
for stone-vaulting on a large scale had been
recovered by the mid-century.
Interior of the cathedral
of Speyer, Germany, C.
1082-1 106.
Round and square of double
transepts and double chansels
can. Speyer became a model
for many other church
buildings but was unsurpassed
in its magnificance.
Church of Maria Laach,
Germany, late 11th century
The abbey was built in the
11th to 12th centuries and was
originally known as “Abtie
Laach” (Abbatia Lacensis or
Laach Abbey meaning the lake
abbey) until 1862 when the
Jesuits added the name Maria
Above Nave of Durham
Cathedral, England, begun
1128
 At Durham Cathedral they
seem to have been intended
from the start (1093); they
were completed by about
1095 in the chancel aisles, by
about 1104 in the chancel
and by 1130 in the nave.
Interior of the Abbey church of St.
Etienne, Caen early 12th century

The Abbey of St. Etienne also

known as Abbaye Aux Homes (
Men’s Abbey)
The Abbaye Aux Dames ( Ladie’s
Abbey) is a former benedictine
monastery in the French city of
Caen Normandy dedicated to St.
Stephen.
9, 28 Ambulatory of the abbey
church of St- Denis, near Paris,
1140-44
The ambulatory of the abbey
church of St-Denis, now a
northern suburb of Paris,
holds a position of unique
importance in the history of
European architecture.
Gothic art and architecture
Gothic art is recognizable shifts in architecture
from Romanesque to gothic, and gothic to
renaissance styles, are typically used to defined
the period of art.
Gothic architecture is a style that flourished in
Europe during the high and late middle ages. It
evolved from Romanesque architecture.
High Gothic

The amazing achievement of French architects in

the early twelfth century was to create a system
in which structure, construction and visually
expressive form became indistinguishable in the
Gothic cathedral— the building-as-symbol of an
all-embracing religious faith.
Nave of Amiens Cathedral,
France, c. 1 220-36.

Is the largest of the three

great Gothic cathedrals built
in France during 13th
century, and it remains the
largest in France
Chartres Cathedral, aerial view,
mainly 1194-1220.

The desire for light and

immateriality complemented the
Gothic quest for ever greater
height. Clerestory windows
grew steadily taller, pushing up
the vaults to 120 feet (37m) at
Chartres, 125 feet (38m) at
Reims, 140 feet (43m) at
Amiens and a dizzying 157 feet
(48m) at Beauvais (1230-40).
Villard de Honnecourt.

 Their structural purpose is well

illustrated in a drawing by Villard de
Honnecourt, which shows how their
arms stretch out to resist the outward
thrust of the vaulting. A similar
system of buttressing had been used
in Romanesque architecture, but was
concealed beneath the roofs of the
tribune galleries above the aisles
Facade of Notre- Dame, Paris, 1
1 63-1 250.

The cathedral was consecrated to

the Virgin Mary and considered to
be one of the finest examples of
French Gothic architecture. Its
pioneering use the rib vault and
flying buttresses its enormous and
colourful rose window.
 Vine-leaf capital in chapter-house
of Southwell Minster,
England, C.I 290.
 With its spires, which strove to
pierce what an English mystic
called 'the cloud of unknowing', its
stained-glass windows radiant with
divine light shining through them as
the Holy Spirit penetrated the body
of the Virgin and illuminated the
Church.
West portal of Chartres Cathedral, c. 1
145-70.

Begun about 1145 under the

influence of St. Denis but even more
ambitious. They probably represent
the oldest full fledged example of
Early Gothic sculpture. Comparing
them with romanesque portals, we
are impressed first of all with a new
sense of order as if all the figures had
suddenly come to attention.
English and German
Gothic
 West portal, Reims Cathedral, c. 1 225-45.

At Reims Cathedral one is given an obvious shift in

style in only four figures. The Annunciation and
Visitation were completed at different times, but
installed together. In the Annunciation one can see the
angel, Gabriel , is sent by God to visit the virgin Mary
to give her the news that she will give the birth to the
Saviour.
9,36 Above Nave vault, Lincoln
Cathedral, England, c. 1 240-50
 In the vaulting of the nave of
Lincoln Cathedral, for instance,
ribs are multiplied by running one
along the center and splaying out
subsidiary ribs to join it, creating
a pattern of stars which willfully
sacrifices logic to decorative
effect.
9, 37 Above right Nicholas of Verdun,
The Prophet Jonah, detail from the
Shrine of the Three Kings, c. 1182-90.
Until the end of the twelfth century
Germany clung to the Romanesque
style so closely associated with the
Holy Roman Empire, and intimations of
a coming change are felt first in small-
scale works.
9, 38 Right Ekkehart and Uta, c. 1 250-
60. Naumburg Cathedral.

 The naturalism of such works was

taken to its furthest extreme in
Germany, most notably in two of the
quite extraordinarily lifelike statues
of the founders of Naumburg
Cathedral— the burly Margrave
Ekkehart, hand on sword, and his
elegant, worldly wife Uta, drawing
the collar of her cloak across her
cheek.
 Italian Gothic
Is a gothic architecture appeared in Italy in the
th
12 century. The bold architectural solutions and
technical innovations of the French gothic
cathedrals never appeared.
Italian architects preferred to keep the
construction tradition established in the previous
centuries.
Above Nave of San Francesco,
Assisi, 1 228-1 253
Gothic architecture was
introduced into Italy by the
Cistercians, whose abbey
churches look as if they had been
bodily transported from France.
St. Francesco at Assisi, begun in
1228 when St Francis was
canonized, substantially
completed by 1239 and
consecrated in 1253, is quite
different.
The aims of its architect were not only
different from, but almost contrary to,
those of his French contemporaries.
 The plan is of emphatically rectilinear
simplicity: a Latin cross with a five-sided
apse
Thank You