GOTHIC ART

Gothic art evolved from Romanesque art and lasted from the mid-12th century to as
late as the end of the 16th century in some areas.

The term Gothic was coined by classicizing Italian writers of the Renaissance, who
attributed the invention (and what to them was the non-classical ugliness) of medieval
architecture to the barbarian Gothic tribes that had destroyed the Roman Empire and its
classical culture in the 5th century Ad.

The term retained its derogatory overtones until the 19th century, at which time a
positive critical re-evaluation of Gothic architecture took place.

Although modern scholars have long realized that Gothic art has nothing in truth to do
with the Goths, the term Gothic remains a standard one in the study of art history.

Gothic Art
• The Gothic Period began in the first half of the twelfth century in the Greater
Paris Basin.

• It continued until the mid fifteenth century: from Scandinavia to the Iberian
Peninsula; from Wales to Central Europe.

• During the Early Middle Ages, the power of feudal lords and abbots of
great monasteries were gradually weakened (twelfth and early thirteenth
centuries).

• Their financial situation became precarious due to excess in spending and

expenses. As a result, they could no longer protect their vassals as they
had been able to in the past.

The Social Context

• Liquid capital became more important and competed with the land as a form
of wealth.

• New forms of power: the growth of Monarchy, the traders and bankers who
didn't depend on feudal lords...

• Growth of the craftsmen and traders: the guilds gained power while
becoming associated

• As farmers made more money they moved to towns that soon grew into
Cities and became the centre of life during the Late Middle Ages.

• In contrast to monasteries, which were located in the countryside away from

the temptations of urban life, cathedrals were in the centre of the city.

• Gothic Art is the expression of a new city life

The Social Context

 Civilian Architecture
• Its development is consequence of
– Trade
– development of cities government
• Main buildings are
– Palaces
– Town halls
– Markets
 Civilian Architecture
• Town halls were the residence of the city’s government
• There are two kind of models:
– Northern (Netherlands) : highly decorated
– Southern (Italian): closer, sometimes as a fortress

Leuven
(Belgium)

Siena
 Civilian Architecture
• Palaces were the residences of the nobility
• They lost their defensive character
Civilian Architecture

• Markets were
spaces for selling &
storing products
• They have large
open spaces
• High ceilings and
stylised columns
Aesthetic Basis of Gothic Style
-In contrast with the intellectualization and
rationalization of geometric elements that is
one of the bases of Romanesque style,

Gothic Style seeks a new idea of the Heavenly

Jerusalem: the verticality and the presence of
light become major features.

-In Cathedrals, new elements can be observed:

o high towers, verticality

o flying arches and buttresses
o quatripartite and sexpartite vaults
o three storeys: arcade, tribune/triforium,
clerestory
o portal with tympanum and rose star
o pinnacles and traceries
o wide windows with stained glass
o transept with prominent decoration outside
Gothic architecture has three distinct characteristics which set it
apart from Romanesque; pointed arches, ribbed vault, and
flying buttresses.

These developments allowed the architects to make the church

much larger and brighter.

BARREL / TUNNEL VAULT:
The simplest form of a vault, consisting
of a continuous surface of semicircular
or pointed sections. It resembles a
barrel or tunnel which has been cut in
half lengthwise
Vaults
GROIN VAULT: A vault
produced by the intersection at
right angles of two barrel
(tunnel) vaults. Sometimes the
arches of groin vaults may be
pointed instead of round.
GROIN VAULT
RIB VAULT:
A masonry vault with a
relatively thin web and set
within a framework of ribs.
QUADRIPARTITE RIB VAULT:
A rib vault which is divided into
four sections by two diagonal
ribs.
SEXPARTITE RIB VAULT:
A rib vault which is divided into
six sections. sexpartite rib
vault: A rib vault whose surface
is divided into six sections by
three ribs.
A rib vault is supported by a series of arched diagonal ribs that divide the vault’s surface into panels
Groin Vault Ribbed Vault
 This revolutionary design first gave rise to the Gothic in the 13th century. It
was first seen at the Abbey of St. Denis, just outside Paris, where Abbot Suger
had a master plan for transforming the squat, heavy Romanesque style into
the architectural wonder of the age.

The pointed arch is widely regarded as the main

identifiable feature of Gothic architecture (distinct
from the round arch of the Romanesque period).

The most common Gothic arches are the Lancet,

Equilateral, Tudor and Ogee.

The basic Gothic arch begins simply with a straight,

horizontal line
Reims Cathedral - Notre-Dame
de Reims
Architectonic Elements

Lancet arches

Tudor Ogee Three-centered

 The double-curve ogee (oh-jee) was introduced from the Arab world in the
14th century and became popular throughout medieval England.

It was also a favourite in Venice, Italy from where it derived its other name -
the Venetian arch. It can also be referred to as a keel arch for its apparent
resemblance to ship construction.

Campo Bandiera e Moro, Venice.

 An instantly recognizable feature of Gothic is the stonework
tracery that decorates fan vaulting, rose windows, arcaded
cloisters, to simple windows and doorways. Many of the
following shapes morph and grow from an interesting variety of
other shapes - including triangles, pentagons, hexagons, circles,
or circles within circles.
The trefoil begins with a simple equilateral triangle:

Stonework Tracery Gothic Windows

Stonework Tracery
Stained Glass Window at Notre
Dame Cathedral in Paris

Stonework Tracery
Circular Rose Window
Stonework Tracery
The Flying Buttress:
Not all of the weight of the vaults, however, can
be channeled down ward. There is always lateral
thrust as weight tries to spread outward.

With the barrel vault the lateral thrust is

considerable and has to be met with thick walls or
with side aisles that serve as buttresses to the
main vaults. In effect, the vaults of the side aisles
served as raised buttresses

The ribs of the aisle vaults could reach over the

aisles from the massive exterior walls, which
allowed the builder to open the aisle arcade to the
nave

Flying Buttresses diagram of Forces

Hidden under the aisle
roofs, the aisle vault arches
were really the first flying
buttresses.

In reality, the flying

buttress is the arch of an
aisle vault raised above
the aisle roof to the
position where it absorbs
the most thrust from the
main vaults.

The invention of the flying

buttress was a later
development.
Flying Buttresses
 Pinnacles

On top of the Buttresses, pinnacles appear, in order to transmit

the strength to the floor
Pinnacles
• Thanks to the use of the
flying buttresses, the wall
is liberated and replaced
with windows
• Windows tend to be
covered by stained glass
• (fenestration)
• The inside is full of light
thanks to the numerous
windows
• The cathedral has three
levels: Main Arcade,
Tribune and Clerestory
• The walls are open,
allowing a lot of light into
the church, with different
levels of intensity (more
light in the highest parts
because light comes
through directly).
Clerestory

Triforium/Tribune

Main Arcade
Façade Towers
with Spires

Chartres (1194)
Façade Towers
Reims
Leon cathedral
facade
Portal with Tympanum &
Rose Window