GOTHIC
ARCHITECTURE
INFLUENCES
HISTORY
• 12th – 13th centuries: Holy Roman Empire was
reduced to the area of Germany
• Only 3 great kingdoms were left: France, England
and Castile in Spain
• Prosperous years in terms of agriculture - warm
weather and invention of the windmill and water-
mill increased the amount of food produced
• Most Europeans were Catholics
• Church under the Pope brought Christians together
• Entire Christianity was united against Muslims
• The rulers, the church and townspeople spent wealth on
building more castles, cathedrals and monasteries
• Towns competed with each other to produce the best
architecture
• Some 4000 new towns were built to accommodate the
rising population
• Towns became centers of trade – Paris, Milan, Florence,
Venice, Naples
• Mixture of lands ruled by nobles
• Feudal system - landlords ruled with tyranny
• There was restlessness among the people
• Towns became crowded and dirty - disease
was rife
• Black Death struck Europe from 1347 to 1351
and killed half the population - spread by rats
and fleas, could kill a person within 3 days
ARCHITECTURAL CHARACTER
DESCRIPTION
• "Gothic" is a term used in reproach to this
style
• a departure from classic lines
• Can be identified by the general use of
pointed arch
• Also called “Medieval Architecture”
FRANCE
• In French, "L'architecture Ogivale“ Primaire (12th Century
AD)
• Also called "a lancettes"
• Distinguished by pointed arches and geometric
traceried windows Secondaire (13th Century AD)
• Also called "Rayonnant"
• Characterized by circular windows with wheel tracery
Tertiare (14th to 16th Century AD)
• Also called "Flamboyant"
• Flame-like window tracery or free-flowing tracery
Features:
• Use of pointed arch to cover rectangular bays
• Use of flying buttresses weighted by pinnacles
• Tall, thin columns – “stretching up as if to heaven”
• Walls released from load-bearing function
• Invention of colored, stained glass windows to adorn
window-walls
• Tracery windows provided a framework for Bible
stories to be told in pictures
• Cathedrals as a library for illiterate townspeople -
Biblical stories were told with stained-glass and
statuary
Amiens Cathedral
Reims Cathedral
Chartres Cathedral
NORTE DAME,
PARIS
•One of the oldest
French cathedrals
•Begun by Bishop
Maurice de Sully
•Façade features
successive tiers of
niches with statues:
Christ and French
kings
•Central wheel
window
•Two western towers
with high pointed
CASTLES
• Built on mounds above rivers
• Thick walls and small windows to resist
attack
• Many were adapted to make convenient
residences in later periods
CARCASSONNE
•built in 13th
Century AD
•double wall, inner
one made in 600 AD
•50 towers and
moat
•two gateways
guarded by
machicolations,
drawbridge and
portcullis
ENGLAND
NORMAN (1066 to 1154 AD)
• Includes the raising of most of major
Romanesque churches and castles
TRANSITIONAL (1154 to 1189 AD)
• Pointed arches in Romanesque structures
EARLY ENGLISH (1189 to 1307 AD)
• Equivalent to High Gothic in France
• Also called "Lancet" or "First Pointed" style,
from long narrow pointed windows
DECORATED (1307 to 1377 AD)
• Window tracery is "Geometrical" in form, and
later, flowing tracery patterns and curvilinear
surface pattern
• Also called "Second Pointed", equivalent to
French "Flamboyant" style
PERPENDICULAR (1377 to 1485 AD)
• Also called "Rectilinear“ or "Third Pointed"
TUDOR (1495 to 1558 AD)
• Increasing application of Renaissance detail
ELIZABETHAN (1558 to 1603 AD)
• Renaissance ideas take strong hold
CATHEDRAL
S
•May have been
attached to
monasteries or to
collegiate
institutions
•Found in precincts
with dormitories,
infirmary, guest
houses, cloisters,
refractory, other
buildings
Westminster Abbey
• Complex of church, royal palace and burial
grounds
• Most important medieval building in Britain
• widest (32 m) and highest vault in England
(102 ft)
MANOR HOUSES
Erected by new and wealthy trading families
Parts:
• Great hall
• Room with solar room
• Chapel
• Latrine chamber
• Service rooms
• Kitchens
• Central hearth
Later, in Tudor Manor Houses
• increased rooms, quadrangular court,
battlement parapets, and gateways,
chimneys, buttery (butler’s pantry),
oven, pantry, serving area and storage,
larder (food storage), wardrobe,
oratory-study, private chapel with altar
and crucifix, scullery, brew house.
GERMANY, BELGIUM AND THE
NETHERLANDS
• In Germany, the chief influence came from
France, not from German Romanesque
• In Belgium and The Netherlands, it was based
on French Gothic, developing the Brabantine
style
HALL CHURCHES
Had a different look:
•Nave and aisle of
same height
•One or two immense
and ornate western
towers or apse, in
place of sculptured
doorway
•Brick-work and
simplified
ornamentation
SPAIN
• Strong Moorish influences: the use of
horseshoe arches and rich surface
decoration of intricate geometrical and
flowing patterns
• Churches had flat exterior appearance, due to
chapels inserted between buttresses
• Excessive ornament, without regard to
constructive character
Burgos Cathedral
(1221 - 1457 AD)
• Irregular in plan
• Most beautiful and
poetic of all Spanish
cathedrals
Seville Cathedral
(1402 to 1520 AD)
• Largest Medieval church
in Europe
• Second largest church in
the world, next to St.
Peter's, Rome
Gerona Granada
Cathedral Cathedral
Toledo Salamanca
Cathedral Cathedral
ITALY
• Led the way in Europe, in terms of art, learning and commerce
• Cultural revival was taking place in Italy in advance of
northern Europe
• Roman tradition remained strong
• This arrested the development of Gothic architecture in Italy
• Verticality of Gothic is generally neutralized by horizontal
cornices and string courses
• Absence of pinnacles and flying buttresses
• Small windows without tracery
• Projecting entrance porches with columns on lion-like
beasts
FLORENCE CATHEDRAL OR S.
MARIA DEL FIORE
•Designed by
Arnolfo di Cambio
•Essentially Italian
in character,
without the
vertical features of
Gothic
•Peculiar latin
cross plan with
campanile and
baptistery
SIENA
CATHEDRA
L
•One of most
stupendous
undertakings since the
building of the Pisa
cathedral
•Outcome of civic pride
- all artists in Siena
contributed their
works to its building
and adornment
•Cruciform plan
•Zebra marble striping
on wall and pier
