Gothic Architecture
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ScribdTranslationsGothic Architecture
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ScribdTranslationsCourse notes: SH LI 04 347 Criticism and historical analysis of architecture II, Dr.
Antonio Salgado Gómez
CHAPTER 3. LATE MIDDLE AGES: GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
The principle of Gothic architecture is infinity made
imaginable.
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
THE GOTHIC: HISTORICAL CONTEXTI
Gothic developed between the mid-12th century and the beginning of the 16th century, except
in Italy, where the Renaissance began at the beginning of the 15th century.
The 12th century saw important changes: there was an increase in agricultural production
thanks to technical advances and the expansion of land clearing.
The generation of agricultural surpluses reactivates trade and the growth of cities (towns).
Europe is becoming populated with cities again.
The Gothic period was favoured by intense urban and commercial activity, which turned cities
into powerful cultural centres. It was at this time that universities would appear, which would
gradually free themselves from the tutelage of the Church and open themselves to all citizens.
Commercial activity was boosted from the 13th century onwards, after the Crusades that
opened new trade routes to the East, which until then had been in Muslim hands. A growing
trade and craft industry developed, concentrated in the cities. Guilds and boroughs were
formed in them.
An urban bourgeoisie appears, a new triumphant class that will develop an urban art, with a
more realistic and more naturalistic sensibility. The most emblematic building will be the
cathedral. With the development of cities, civil architecture appears. The most characteristic
buildings will be the urban palaces and municipal buildings such as town halls and exchanges.
If Romanesque was agrarian, feudal and monastic, Gothic developed in cities, many of them
new and growing constantly.
Having its genesis in the Île-de-France (Paris and its surroundings), Gothic art spread
throughout Western Europe. Historians divide the chronological evolution of Gothic
architecture into three major periods:
I Fountain of this section: In line: http://www.juntadeandalucia.es/averroes/centros-
tic/29009041/helvia/site/upload/Gothic_art_samira_and_diego.pdf
■ Initial period (second half of the 12th century-13th century)
■ Classical or fullness period (13th century - 14th century)
■ Final or flamboyant period (15th century and beginning of the 16th century).
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
The Gothic style developed in Europe, succeeding the Romanesque from the fourth decade of
the 12th century until well into the 16th century. The pejorative term "Gothic" was invented by
Renaissance scholars with a sense of contempt for an art that they considered barbaric (the
art of the Goths) and very inferior to Greco-Roman art.
However, it was revalued and exalted in the 19th century by European nationalist and
romantic movements and is currently universally considered one of the most brilliant
moments, from an artistic point of view, of the Western world.
Although Gothic architecture follows the Romanesque architecture of the 12th century, the
truth is that both architectures respond to opposite inspiring principles.
FIGURE 15. CHARACTERISTICS OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
With the Gothic style one of the most radical stylistic ruptures that Western architecture has
ever known occurred.
FIGURE 16. THE POINTED OR OGIVAL ARCH
FIGURE 16. THE CROSSED VAULT
Gothic architecture, made of stone, was characterized by the conjunction of three construction
elements: the pointed or ogival arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress.
Gothic architecture, made of stone, was characterized by the conjunction of three construction
elements: the pointed or ogival arch, the ribbed vault and the flying buttress.
The pointed or ogival arch is much more dynamic than the Romanesque semicircular arch, as
it allows for considerable elevation.
The ribbed vault is lighter than the Romanesque groin vault. It is formed by the crossing of two
pointed arches at a central point called a keystone. These arches bear their weight at four
points, which coincide with the angles of the vault.
FIGURE 17. THE FLYING BUTTERFLY
The flying buttress leads to the outer pillars, the lateral thrusts of the vaults. In this way, the
walls lose their supporting role, and large windows closed with stained glass can be opened in
them. These give the Gothic building great luminosity and colour.
Stained glass windows are especially common in Gothic cathedrals. Made from meticulously
cut stained glass, these kaleidoscopic windows – typically tall arched lancet windows or round
(rose) windows – are larger than those in other types of churches. Thanks to this, their
interiors were better illuminated.
Gothic architecture produced a new style of building that featured massive arches, increased
vaults, and enlarged windows. In addition to reinterpreting these features, however, Gothic
architecture also abandoned a key feature of Romanesque architecture: thick walls.
FIGURE 17. THE STAINED GLASS WINDOWS
To build taller, more delicate buildings with thinner walls, Gothic architects employed
buttresses for support. These stone structures allowed architects to create soaring cathedrals
and churches that evoked the ethereal and reached toward the heavens.
The Gothic century was the era of tremendous and profound Christian beliefs turned into
stone. Numerous Gothic cathedrals were built between the 13th and 14th centuries in Western
Europe. The tall spires, along with other building elements, pointed to the “sublime realm of
heaven.”
The most important feature of Gothic architecture is the pointed arch. Whether in the window
or in the doorway, the pointed arch is almost always found.
Also typical of Gothic cathedrals is the impression of increasing height. This impression was
partly deliberately created by a clever optical illusion, partly also by building elements such as
columns, arches and ribs. The Cathedral rises “towards the sky”. Gothic stained glass
windows are one of the most striking decorative elements of Gothic religious buildings. They
contain illustrations from the Bible and stories of Saints.
The main portals of medieval churches were often aligned to the west at night. Entering the
interior of the church, the path leads from the darkness towards the east of the rising sun. The
gaze is directed from the darkness of the world towards the altar and Christ.
ELEMENTS OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
■ Gothic buttresses: finials and long arches with delicate decorations
■ Finial (pyramidal tip)
■ Fiale (below the finial)
■ Buttresses (below the fiale)
■ Longbow (support bow)
■ The creeping flower is used to decorate bezels, arches and protrusions. Can
found in practically all Gothic religious buildings.
■ Gothic sculptures: They usually have loose tunics; The tunics are wavy with
folds. Also typical of the Gothic style is the rose window with tracery (behind the
sculpture).
■ Filigree structures
■ Openwork exterior walls with finely structured windows.
■ Pointed arches, vaults.
■ External buttress to the stability of the building.
■ Ornamental pediment over portals and windows
■ Tracery (geometrically shaped filigree design element of windows)
■ Stained glass windows and rose windows (circular windows with tracery).
■ Fiale (slender flanking turret emphasizing the aspiring architecture of Gothic
architecture)
■ Crab (decorative design element in the form of folded leaves along the pinnacles)
■ Gargoyle (architectural element, to drain rainwater).
STAGES OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
Gothic styles or periods: The design of interiors such as hallways, galleries, windows, etc.
varies from cathedral to cathedral and from country to country. Thus, the Gothic style, which
lasted 400 years, is divided into three style periods or periods:
Early Gothic. Lancet windows are typical of early Gothic. It succeeded Romanesque art
around 1130, with the appearance of the ribbed vault.
Classical Gothic, between 1190 and 1230, with buttresses on the model of Chartres
Cathedral. High Gothic: typical is the installation of geometric ornaments within the window
arch and the division into vertical and horizontal bracing (truss and crossbars).
Radiant Gothic: between 1230 and 1350, characterized by majestic roses and numerous
stained glass windows. Late Gothic: The Gothic style developed in the 16th century.
Characterized by an overload of decorations. Here the tracery forms are even more elaborate.
Typical shapes are fish bubbles, which are partially intertwined with each other and then
called snow two, three or four. Typical of late Gothic is the use of the pointed arch for the keel
arch.
GOTHIC ORNAMENTATION
FIGURE 18. ARCHWAYS FULL OF FILIGREE TRACERY. CA D'ORO, VENICE
FIGURE 19. GOTHIC POINTED GABLE AND GOTHIC ROSETTE. SEVILLE CATHEDRAL
FIGURE 20. KALEIDOSCOPIC VERY LARGE STAINED GLASS WINDOWS
COMPONENT ELEMENTS OF A GOTHIC CATHEDRAL
FIGURE 21. COMPONENTS OF A GOTHIC CATHEDRAL
Central nave
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN FRANCE
FIGURE 22. NÔTRE-DAME CATHEDRAL IN ROUEN, NORMANDY BEGINNING OF
CONSTRUCTION: EARLY 12TH CENTURY
NOTRE-DAME CATHEDRAL IN PARIS, ÎLE-DE-FRANCE BEGINNING OF
CONSTRUCTION: IN THE 12TH CENTURY
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN SPAIN
FIGURE 23. BURGOS CATHEDRAL. THE FIRST STONE WAS LAID ON JULY 20, 1221
AND WAS READY FOR WORSHIP IN 1230
SEVILLE CATHEDRAL. THE LARGEST GOTHIC CATHEDRAL IN THE WORLD. CONSTRUCTION
BEGAN IN 1403 AND ITS WORKS DID NOT REACH THE 16TH CENTURY, IN 1507
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN ITALY
FIGURE 24. MILAN CATHEDRAL. THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE MILAN DUOMO BEGAN
IN 1386 AND FINISHED IN 1965
ORVIETO CATHEDRAL. THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE ORVIETO CATHEDRAL LASTED
NEARLY A CENTURY; WORK BEGAN IN THE YEAR 1290
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN
FIGURE 25. SALISBURY CATHEDRAL. CONSTRUCTION BEGAN IN 1220; IN 1320
THE TOWER AND THE STIRE WERE COMPLETED, WITH A
HEIGHT OF 123 METERS. CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL. THE ORIGINAL DATES FROM
597, BUT IT BURNED DOWN. THE
CURRENT, IN FRENCH GOTHIC STYLE, ITS CONSTRUCTION BEGAN IN 1077
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN GERMANY
FIGURE 26. COLOGNE CATHEDRAL. CONSTRUCTION OF THE CATHEDRALBEGAN
IN 1248, STOPPED IN 1473, AND WAS ONLY COMPLETED IN
1880. ERFURT CATHEDRAL. IT WAS BUILT ON THE RUINS OF AN ANCIENT
ROMANESQUE
BASILICA. ITS CONSTRUCTION BEGAN AT THE BEGINNING OF THE 14TH CENTURY.
IT IS AN EXAMPLE OF LATE GOTHIC
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN BELGIUM
FIGURE 27. BRUGES CATHEDRAL. THE CATHEDRAL OF SAN SALVADOR DE BRUGES
HAS ITS ORIGINS IN A FIRST ROMANESQUE CHAPEL FROM THE 9TH CENTURY,
ALTHOUGH THE CURRENT BUILDING WAS CONSTRUCTED BETWEEN THE 12TH AND
15TH CENTURIES
ANTWERP CATHEDRAL. CONSTRUCTION BEGAN IN 1352 AND WAS COMPLETED BY
1474
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN THE NETHERLANDS
FIGURE 28. AMSTERDAM CATHEDRAL. IT WAS BUILT IN 1302 AND IS THE
THE OLDEST BUILDING IN THE CITY; IT BEGAN AS A
WOODEN CHAPEL THAT OVER THE YEARS BECAME A LARGE CATHEDRAL
GOTHIC
ROTTERDAM CATHEDRAL. IT WAS BUILT IN THE YEAR 1449, BUT NOT
IT WOULD BE COMPLETELY COMPLETED UNTIL 1525