Gothic Architecture

Montilla, Carolina
 Romanesque VS Gothic

• Gothic has more windows and bigger ones.

Reason: architects learned new ways of making roofs and
supporting walls.

•Romanesque churches are darker.

•Gothic are usually bigger because people had more money

to spend around 1200 ad.

•Romanesque churches only used wooden roofs and gothic

also used stone roofs.
 Romanesque VS Gothic

Duomo di Pisa, Italy

Westminster Abbey, England

 Gothic style-beginnings & definition

• a style of architecture developed in northern

France that spread throughout Europe between
the 12th and 16th centuries

• it followed the Romanesque period

• originated at the abbey church of Saint Denis

• characterized by slender vertical piers,

flying buttresses and by vaulting and pointed
arches
Main Sections
Vocabulary
arch
boss
clerestory
crocket
finial
flying buttress
parapet
pier
pinnacle
rib
tracery
triforium
vault
Simple Characteristics to remember

Pointed Arches

• also called ogives

• structural and visual

reasons
visually: its verticality
suggest aspiration to
heaven
Structurally: it’s more
flexible

• its advantage is that

channels the weight onto
piers at steep angles
Simple Characteristics to remember

Slender vertical pier

•Typically has a
rectangular, polygonal,
or round cross-section

•Often no capital

•A compound pier is a
pier with two or more
members or support
elements
Simple Characteristics to remember
Flying buttress

•a type of half arch

•a slender masonry
structure that
transfers the outward
thrust of the vaults
and arches at the
upper portion of a
wall to a massive pier
below.

•to prevent the

outward collapse of
the arches
 Simple Characteristics to remember
Stained Glass

•presence of beautiful objects

would lift men's’ souls closer to
God

•representation of biblical
stories and saints lives.

Window at •huge stained glass windows and a

Chartres profusion of smaller windows
created the effect of lightness
and space.

•walls themselves were no longer

the primary supports
Simple Characteristics to remember

Oriel window

• also known as a bay

window

• a projected window
from the outer face of
a wall and supported
by corbels

• also appears in
private and public
houses in the Gothic
style
Simple Characteristics to remember
Carvings

Cathedrals in Gothic
style became
increasingly
elaborate.

Some examples are

gargoyles and green
man

Gargoyles: shape of an
animal or demon. It’s connected
to a gutter for throwing rain
water from the roof of a
building.

Green man: an ancient symbol

of man's deep connection to
nature
Simple Characteristics to remember

Gothic Vault

•thin arches of stone,

running diagonally,
transversely, and
longitudinally

•can be used to roof

rectangular and
irregularly shaped
plans

•Finished look for the

inside
 EVOLUTION
a. Early Gothic
• Abbey of St. Denis (early phase)
• Ambulatory of St. Denis
• Notre Dame

a. High Gothic
b. Rayonnant Gothic
c. Dissemination of Gothic Architecture
 Early Gothic

ambulatory

Abbey church of St. Denis

1st façade designed by Abbot Suger

Later restored by architect
West facade Viollet le Duc
Early Gothic

Notre Dame de Paris

Restored by architect Viollet le
Duc
 Early Gothic

First use of
Triforium

Notre Dame de Paris

High Gothic

Cathedral of Chartres
High Gothic

Plate tracery

Reims Cathedral
1st architect to design plans Jean d'Orbais
High Gothic

Bourges Cathedral
Architect Paul-Louis Boeswillwald
 Rayonnant Gothic

“word Rayonnant is derived

from the radiating spokes,
like those of a wheel, of
the enormous rose windows
that are one of the
features of the style.”

•height was not that

important anymore

•expanded window areas

Sainte chapelle •instead of massive more of

“holy chapel” a thin shell effect
Rayonnant Gothic

Sainte chapelle
“holly chapel”
•luminous darkness
•Vibrant and radiant
Dissemination of Gothic

Toledo cathedral,
Spain
 Dissemination of Gothic

Palma de Mallorca cathedral,

Spain
 End of
Gothic!

NEXT Renaissance architecture!