Andreea Popescu*

MEDIEVAL CATHEDRALS.
SYMBOL AND ARCHITECTURE

RÉSUMÉ

L a cathédrale médiévale a la fonction d’un récipient de l’esprit divin, d’un messager de la parole de
Dieu. Dans sa qualité de sanctuaire abritant des reliques saintes, la cathédrale est du point de
vue symbolique une carte de la rédemption. Le croyant commence un pèlerinage spirituel qui a comme
point de départ le portail occidental du Dernier Jugement et il arrive à l’autel entouré de vitraux. La
découverte de l’art gothique, c’est-à-dire que Dieu est lumière, a son équivalent dans le principe de la
verticalité, rendu par la structure interne de la cathédrale. L’art roman interprète les mystères de la
création divine par l’assimilation de la nature environnante dans la technique de bâtir de l’artiste
médiéval. La cathédrale consacre l’espace autour d’une communauté. Grâce aux cycles de fresques, aux
ensembles sculpturales, au chant liturgique, l’homme médiéval s’imprégnait de spiritualité. Le statut
d’axis mundi donne à la cathédrale la fonction cosmique de liant entre le monde et le ciel. La cathédrale
a aussi le rôle de rendre Dieu intelligible pour l'homme en lui dévoilant la sacralité de l’espace qui se
traduit aussi comme une sacralité intellectuelle. Les paroles de Saint Augustine dans son traité De
musica sont justes: „ Le premier principe esthétique est que la beauté trouve ses origines dans la
compréhension rationnelle d’un ensemble unitaire qui conduit vers la sagesse. “ La cathédrale
médiévale, une vraie summa theologica, dévoile à l’homme par ses principes de symétrie et de proportion
l’essence de la belle création divine. Comprendre le message transmis par une cathédrale est un moyen de
se sauver. L’homme découvre ainsi que la beauté du monde est en effet la beauté de sa propre âme et
l’expérience religieuse le ramène dans la sphère du sacre. L’espace devient ainsi l’image d’une vraie
cathédrale de lumières où l’âme trouve un niveau supérieur de savoir. L’initiation par sacre fait que
l’homme revient d’une manière symbolique dans le paradis d’où il a été banni.

In his book entitled The Sacred and the Profane Mircea Eliade notices
that buildings are a means of consecrating space. Symbolically speaking
they represent the wish of man to return to the primordial time of the
divine revelation. A temenos is a centre of the world due to which the
universe gets stability and harmony. By building man reiterates the
cosmogonic act which brings him in direct contact with the universe.
Thus takes place a symbolic transfiguration of the profane space into
sacred space. The need to maintain the link with sacred space is of a
religious nature. It symbolises the wish of man to remain close to a

*
Lect. univ. dr. la Universitatea din Bucuresti, Facultatea de Limbi Straine, Catedra
de Limba Engleza.

Caietele Institutului Catolic VII (2008, 1), 55-78.

56 Andreea Popescu

source of sacrality. Unlike profane space which is fragmentary, sacred

space is homogeneous, which implies a continuity of revelations.
Entering sacred space is difficult as such places do not let themselves
be conquered easily.
A sacred space takes its validity from the permanence of the hierophany that
once consecrated it. Hierophany did not only sanctify one part of the
homogeneous profane space: it also ensures for the future the persistence of this
sacrality. In this region hierophany repeats itself. The area thus becomes an
eternal source of power and sacrality which allows man who enters it to share the
power and live this sacrality (Eliade, p. 338).
Medieval cathedrals play the same role of consecrating the space
around a community. They gather the ideals of a whole world which
tries to escape the darkness of the barbarian invasions and evolve
towards order and harmony. The origins of medieval architecture are
found in the very origins of Christianity. In ancient Rome the first
communities illustrated in humble frescoes the symbols of the new
religion. The places where the Christians chose to create them were the
temple walls or the catacombs. The form they used was the Greek one,
being more appropriate to a population that lived in the Greek and
Roman spirit. The images were however new as instead of the pagan
pantheon which was already obsolete appeared episodes and characters
which no longer corresponded to the old myths. Initially this new art
builds in the dark as Christianity was not yet officially recognised. Yet
gradually it grows in power and stability. The moment the artists did
not have to hide away from persecutions any longer the anonymous art
came to light and started using the ancient temples and basilicas.
The beginnings of the Middle Ages were characterised by the
barbarian invasions, by terrible misery and lasted between the fall of the
Roman Empire and the crusades. Despite the difficult living conditions
the need for beauty prevailed. Medieval art is the exclusive product of
the religious communities which first finds a shape in monasteries,
crossing their walls in order to enter the world.
In the chaos of moral customs, races, and languages that floated over the burned
towns and destroyed crops monasteries constituted the only active centres
(Faure, p. 244).
The social role of feudal art is obvious. The existence of the great
cathedrals is linked to the appearance of cities and communes. The
 Medieval Cathedrals. Symbol and Architecture 57

cathedral replaces the monastery which in its closed and isolated space
no longer corresponds to the expansive need of the medieval man. A
significant example is the French commune which appeared strictly out
of social and profitable interests. The commune obliged the medieval
population to cross the spiritual frontiers that had been established by a
church that was still prey to the rigid doctrines of the early Middle
Ages. Due to the communes and the building of cities, medieval art
acquires a new dimension, a larger one, culminating in the creation of
national architectural styles like the perpendicular Gothic in England.
The cathedral appeared together with the great cities, it grew and got a
definite shape due to them, passing through diverse evolutionary
stages. Be they Romanesque or Gothic, the cathedrals depended on the
fate of the cities surrounding them. Being bishoprics they exist as long
as the ecclesiastical spirit that formed them persists. When the need for
images, for a visual culture necessary to educate the community
disappears a written culture will prevail.
In the Middle Ages however these buildings are essential for the
development of urban civilisation. Due to the cycles of frescoes, to
liturgical songs, to the sculptural ensembles the medieval believer was
impregnated by a religious spirituality which helped him to better
understand the mysteries of the divinity. The medieval cathedral, that
genuine Biblia pauperum, is the central point of daily life, of the life of
man who enters it displaying the humility and the wonder due for the
greatness of God.
In a religion in which divine service was the essential ritual the main role of
God’s house was to offer an appropriate space for the greatness of the divine
mysteries. Yet the beauty of the forms was not adapted only to the sacred
character of the liturgical ceremony. The stone church, symbol of the great
Church, image of the redeemed human race, had to make the believers visualise
the majesty of Heaven (Vauchez, p. 141).
The medieval town also plays an important role. It stands for a new
mentality. The medieval town asserts itself between the Xth and the
XIIIth centuries during one of the most important processes of
urbanisation that Europe has ever known. In comparison to the ancient
communities it is much better situated in the surrounding landscape,
offering the necessary protection both against natural calamities and
against the invasions that threatened it.
58 Andreea Popescu

Among the typical features of the western medieval society nothing is more
characteristic than the medieval town. No matter its forms of survival the
medieval town, under its most common aspects, was essentially different from
the ancient community. More oriented towards commerce and crafts it was also
better delimited from the surrounding plains. Nevertheless it needed them. It
often struggled to dominate them or to use them. But the means were different
than in the case of the classical civilisations which used the model of a political
and religious centre open to the aristocracy living on the whole territory (Le Goff
& Schmitt, p. 561).
Cities appeared due to the interest for commerce, for gatherings and
fairs which were capable to ensure the economic prosperity necessary
for the flourishing of culture. The growth of the agricultural
production and especially the development of guilds also explain the
growth of the population which characterises this period. The medieval
market towns are the origin of the great cities of which Paris is the first
that can be called like that. The medieval town is above everything a
highly populated community, grouped in a small place, in the middle of
almost deserted spaces. It is the centre of a system of specific values
that urge towards the practising of crafts and trades on whose
flourishing depends also the inclination towards creativity and art.
Medieval art, including the cathedrals, is tightly linked to the economic
progress of a certain area. Once money starts to be used the financial
support provided by towns becomes essential. To make art one needs
funds, and these are obtained due to economic prosperity. The town is
also a social organism in which the rich are equal on the social scale
dominating a homogeneous mass that obeys them. Due to these rich
people medieval art knows new evolutions as many offer their
belongings for the building of a cathedral. This community lives in its
own time, a time governed by the church and marked by the tolling of
bells calling the believers to the divine service. It is a time that is
sacralized when man enters a cathedral where divine eternity takes the
place of the profane time of the daily existence. Thus the commune
constitutes itself in an institutional and social autonomy. On this
autonomy depend the guilds and the merchants. Though it is not an
image of democracy which is often obtained by revolts, urban
autonomy is the first stage in the separation of the city from the
medieval village it included. As the place of a bishopric, the city gets
economic and administrative independence which will allow it to
 Medieval Cathedrals. Symbol and Architecture 59

expand without being hindered by the more primitive rural civilisation.

The cathedrals that are built in these bourgeois towns are a sign of
power and authority. They are the centre of a world which gradually
evolves from the period of transition which characterizes the early
Middle Ages. Urban mentality replaces rural mentality just like a
cathedral becomes more important than a monastery.
The town, as a place of many movements of solidarity, acts as a social promoter
in order to integrate while at the end of the Middle Ages it acts in the opposite
way, excluding and marginalising. It welcomes travellers, pilgrims, ill people for
whom hospitals are built. It contains numerous centres. The town dominates the
surrounding villages and a more or less large territory, together with a periphery,
itsef more or less large, where it has economic, legal and political power (Le Goff
& Schmitt, p. 564-565).
Medieval art that flourishes in the urban areas is devoted to
Christianity. Starting with the little stone church which resists to the
barbarian invasions until the great Gothic cathedral, art obeys the
interests of the city. Urban theology, as it is understood in the medieval
culture belonging to the XII-XIIIth centuries, is ambivalent. On the
one hand it is influenced by the Biblical tradition where many towns
are punished by God for their sins (e.g. Sodom, Gomorrah, Babylon).
Saint Bernard de Clairvaux, for instance, urged the people to flee towns
and to take shelter in the nearby monasteries. On the other hand for
the intellectual elite of the age the town tries to be the image of
Jerusalem, the city of God. This ambivalence is also found in the Bible
which “starting with the Genesis until the Apocalypse displays a
gradual urbanisation of the other world, replacing paradise, the garden
of the early ages, with a town of the last days.” (Le Goff & Schmitt, p.
566).
In the case of a profound Christian mentality like the medieval one,
the town has its spiritual centre. A cathedral is the place of an eternal
pilgrimage as it shows to man the way to find God. In the Romanesque
Middle Ages man journeyed symbolically to the apse or the
underground crypt where were buried the saints he prayed to. Their
miraculous powers are the echo of the wish, of the nostalgia to return
in the middle of a divine world which offers happiness and trust. The
form of a cathedral is also symbolical. Heading towards the altar, man
advances to the east, that is symbolically speaking to Jerusalem. The
60 Andreea Popescu

wish to start a pilgrimage, to participate in the miracle of the

Resurrection is the reason for which every church is oriented to the
east. During the divine service the priest also turns to the altar,
undergoing a symbolical journey to Jerusalem.
A medieval cathedral, be it Romanesque or Gothic, is organised on
some principles. In the northern part where the sun never shines are
represented images of the Old Testament. It is the world which has not
yet been touched by the divine light. Even if the New Testament is the
fulfilment of all the prophecies in the Old Testament, it was still
believed that the people living in that time were experiencing spiritual
darkness. In the south where the sun is in full glare there are scenes
from the Gospels. Natural light is associated with divine light, and
when the Gothic style is invented man’s need for light becomes an
essential characteristic of the new art. In the west, where the sun sets,
there are images of the Last Judgement. The end of the day is the end
of the world, thus putting an end to a whole cycle of life and death. A
medieval cathedral becomes thus a map of redemption, showing the
way towards the holy places and the way in which the believer can
reach them. It is also a summa theologica as in the concrete beauty of the
building are found the elements contained in the sermons and the
sacred texts. A cathedral illustrates the essence of medieval theology,
displaying the unity and the harmony of the divine creation. The world
is no longer a chaos, but a cosmos. Entering a cathedral man leaves
behind his daily worries and the dangers of a troubled and unsafe
epoch. The church has the role of a sanctuary protecting the persecuted
ones. Many medieval cathedrals sheltered fugitives or people
persecuted by the authorities.
Entering a cathedral medieval man is aware of his privileged position
which is suggested to him by the cross-form of a church. Advancing
between the aisles he reaches the middle where he finds himself in full
light. He is in the light of the sun, but in fact it is God’s light. In
England, after the Norman conquest, a church was considered a ladder
towards Heaven, as it is the image of God’s word. This role is also
justified by the symbol of a cathedral as a pilgrimage place proper. In
the beginning leaving for a certain sanctuary on a pilgrimage was
obligatory if man had gravely sinned. Penitence brought him back in
the community. Later, when the journey lost its penitential meaning,
 Medieval Cathedrals. Symbol and Architecture 61

and due to some reasons for which the person could not go to a certain
sanctuary, there appeared another way of reconciling with God. Going
round a cathedral and stopping in some precise points was a reiteration
of the journey to the holy lands. Repeating the ritual several times
during a certain period brought absolution from sins. A cathedral thus
becomes a concrete means to find redemption. The Way of the Cross
was part of the ritual, implying the consecration of time and space for a
whole community.
In his treaty De musica Saint Augustine thinks that the artist is a
spiritual guide whose mission is to unveil the truth hidden by the
Scriptures. This truth is not beautiful in itself, but it directs attention to
the source of all beauty. The cathedral has the role to underline divine
beauty, to make God intelligible to man. All such constructions are
built on the principle of equality. Be it Romanesque or Gothic, the
building impresses by its proportions. In this way the artist is capable
to master its matter. In the same treaty De musica Saint Augustine says
that the first aesthetic principle consists in the fact that beauty comes
from the rational understanding of a unitary whole which leads to
wisdom. The artist is divinely inspired in his work.
What are the superior things with the exception of those in which there is the
supreme, eternal and immutable equality ? There is no change or time for them;
out of them come the constructed, ordered and modified images in such a way
so that they should imitate eternity. As terrestrial things are linked to celestial
things their temporal development is united in a harmonious succession as in an
universal song (St. Augustine, in Robertson, 117).
A cathedral is made up of the basic elements which correlate in
order to form an image of harmony.
Beauty is the ultimate purpose of the medieval artist who contributes
in his own way to the glory of God. Human spirit is directly guided by
divine will as, Saint Augustine says, nothing comes in between the artist
and his visions (nulla natura interposita). The anonymous medieval
builder chooses his subjects both from the already existing tradition in
the building field and from the surrounding reality. He gets his order
from the commune or the bishop and he has well defined problems to
solve. Behind him is the Roman-Byzantine tradition, quite confuse and
which no longer fits the demands of the new architectural style. His
obligation is to make a construction large enough to contain in it the
62 Andreea Popescu

population of a town. He finds most helpful the plans he makes with

the compasses, the lead weight, the tracing square. He has next to him
other skilful masters, believing in the same faith and who do not have
the least doubt or existential anxiety. But most of all they are the people
of their time. The old theory about the naivety and the simplicity of the
medieval man is not valid any more. These people are characterised by
pragmatism and by a highly adaptable spirit to reality.
In an epoch in which architecture quickly evolves the artist must
innovate, he must have a practical spirit without which his work would
be in vain. The passage from the Romanesque style to the Gothic style
is the most important architectural change. The Romanesque system
proposed a doctrine in which man had to be aware of his sins, he had
to bow his head with humility to the ground, listening to the voice of
the priest speaking to him in Latin which he could not understand. The
sermon was the only part of the divine service which was undertaken in
the vernacular language. It insisted on the original sin and on the
necessity that it should be expiated. The Romanesque cathedral is the
stone image of this doctrine which bears down on man, burying him in
his fear of eternal damnation. Romanesque art, an ars moriendi, creates a
tomb-church which covers the underground crypt and its relics. It is
the low vault under which the poor people come fearfully to listen in
the dark to the voice of the Church. The Romanesque construction
closes down on the one who enters it, swallowing him up in its entrails.
Its austerity derives from the doctrine of Saint Paul who in his letters
asserted that only the soul has the right to live on condition that it
never crosses the strict limits of the dogma. Romanesque art is the
image of an all-powerful Church. It is the image of fierce moral values
which are characteristic for a rigid world in which genuine life does not
exist.
Once mentality is changed in the XIIIth century cathedral art defines
its principles in a different way. From an ars moriendi oriented towards
the ground it becomes an ars vivendi opening up to the sky. Opening
towards the light is the great innovation of the Gothic style. In the
places where in the Romanesque churches there were no spaces, but
only compact and thick walls, there appear now luminous windows
decorated with stained glasses which filter the light of the sun. The
darkness of the Romanesque crypt, its extraordinary austerity melt in
 Medieval Cathedrals. Symbol and Architecture 63

the verticality, slenderness and harmony of the Gothic pillars. The

believer no longer looks up towards an angry God who punishes, but
he heads full of hope towards a loving and merciful one. He raises his
eyes to the vault which towers above him at incredible heights, he
visually embraces the huge and luminous nave. He has a feeling of
ascension, of transgressing his limits. While in the Romanesque
cathedral there were narrow spaces he now finds the lateral naves, the
transept, the choir, the apse. Man is aware of his place in the universe,
of the fact that he is God’s most precious creation. He regains his
dignity lost in centuries of invasions and epidemics. He can trustfully
look at the others because they form a community for whom
redemption is a certainty. Hope is provided by the beauty of the stained
glasses which in wonderful colours tell the biblical story of pain and
salvation.
A common practice in medieval architecture is the juxtaposition of
images. Thus, a scene from the Old Testament is opposed to one from
the New Testament so that the viewer should better understand the
hidden meaning of the image. Visual culture was essential for a
community which was often illiterate. Just like medieval theatre, which
was not accidentally played on the parvis of a cathedral, interior
decorations helped with the spiritual education of the people. A scene
like The Original Sin was juxtaposed to The Resurrection. Thus
symbolically was produced the translation of meaning from sin to
absolution of the viewer himself. Many cathedrals had schools nearby
which gives them an educational role. In the new system of thinking
proposed by Gothic art the universe is larger and better organised, and
the values linked to a cathedral change radically.
In the Romanesque buildings there was a sort of connection between the
darkness and the wall, while in the new architecture there is an association
between structure and light. Indeed, as the elements of this structure have
obtained more importance than the walls and the vaults, the builders could open
their constructions and the abundance of light will allow them to give value and
to plastically justify their compositions. Clarity is necessary in a more organised
world in which every group has a functional role to play. The lack of clarity,
darkness, imprecision must be removed (Scobeltzine, p. 277).
The deep significance of the light, all the slender columns, the
irresistible verticality are the result of the artist’s wish to bring the light
inside the building. Abbot Suger, the founder of the abbey of Saint
64 Andreea Popescu

Denis in France, the first using the Gothic style, sums up in his
treatises the doctrine about the light. Due to his efforts, “the new,
transparent choir, built instead the opaque Carolingian apse, will be
associated with an equally luminous nave and the whole building will be
flooded in a more brilliant light than before.” (Panofsky, p. 31).
The light Suger talks about, lux nova, is both the light that floods the
building and the light of the New Testament. Suger insists on the
paradigm of words like clarere, clarus, clarificare in his attempt to
underline the metaphysical meaning of the light. The cathedral is meant
to guide the spirit which looks for a significance beyond concrete
perception. Claritas is the word used to express the power to irradiate
or the brilliance that comes from God. As light must be clear the
message also must be transparent. The cathedral as an axis mundi is not
only the centre of the community, but it also provides it with the most
important lessons needed for the polishing of the human spirit. If in
Romanesque art man still lives in the surrounding darkness, in Gothic
art he is the centre receiving and irradiating light.
The two major architectural styles of the Middle Ages, Romanesque
and Gothic, are characterised by some specific features that distinguish
them in the context of medieval ecclesiastical art.
Thus Romanesque art inherits the Cistercian principles of asceticism,
nevertheless adding its own innovations. A Romanesque cathedral is
austere, but it contains sculptures and paintings made by the great
artists of the epoch. Romanesque art has its origins in the classical
tradition on which it put the foundations of the first stone churches in
the west. In a more general understanding of the term Romanesque
means the period from the middle of the XI th century to the beginning
of the XIIIth century. Stimulated by economic prosperity, by relative
stability and demographic growth, Romanesque art continues to build
its monasteries and cathedrals. The Romanesque artist is more
interested to create abstract structures of the order that he proposes.
Romanesque cathedrals have round windows that support the weight
of the whole ensemble. The windows have the role to brighten the
interior and not to embellish the construction which is very austere.
Romanesque architecture is characterised either by vast luminous
surfaces, the economy of details and decorations, or by the
predominance of the chiaroscuro, the depth of the nave or the sculpted
 Medieval Cathedrals. Symbol and Architecture 65

surfaces which create forms and expressions of exceptional variety. The

great innovations of Romanesque art are the system of tribunes and the
portals or the capitals decorated with rich sculptures. Romanesque
cathedrals combine the severity of the plans and forms with the
richness and the liberty of expression of the decorations.
Coming after Carolingian art with its preference for abstract forms and the
neglect for the human figure, Romanesque sculpture gave back to man his place
as main subject of art; the main subject, but not the only subject like in the
Antiquity. Man returns to art accompanied by the totality of nature (Tatarkiewicz,
p. 209).
Romanesque art owes much to the development of the vault. In the
beginning the construction of the Christian basilicas is reduced to
relatively small buildings and to crypts. The first basilicas have wooden
roofs. The development and the organisation of the basilical plan are
the essential features of Romanesque art.
The concentrated plan, imitated after the old funeral monuments, adapted to
Christian art for the dynastic chapels and for baptisteries, finds in Romanesque
art a new vitality in the imitation of the dome built by emperor Constantine over
the Holy Sepulchre (Focillon, p. 121).
Romanesque churches, with some exceptions in Italy and
Normandy, support the arched vault, obliging the artist to strengthen
the walls that supported the weight of the whole building in order to
counterbalance the pressure of the exterior. Reducing the openings in
the walls to minimum, which depends on the same problem,
contributes to the sober but yet impressive light of the edifices.
Another feature is provided by the large deambulatories with lateral
chapels especially built to facilitate the access to the holy relics.
A Romanesque cathedral has three or five naves. It has a simple or a
double transept on which open oriented chapels. The lateral
prolongations of the transept form a transversal church which is
included in the main building. It allows for a permanent passage to the
interior of the edifice from the gates of the western portal to the apse
and back again. The most important part of a Romanesque cathedral is
the apse as it contains the shrines of the saints. Sometimes the relics are
preserved in crypts similar to the martyrium in the primitive churches.
The apses are usually grouped around the deambulatory, thus allowing
an easier passage for the pilgrims. An important role is played by the
66 Andreea Popescu

tribunes due to the necessity of equilibrium and the distribution of the

light. They are not only ways of access destined to the circulation of
people, but they create a true superior church surrounding the nave and
often receiving large numbers of people in their vast openings.
Romanesque architecture is a combination of volumes as early roman art used to
be, but it uses more varied and more scholarly devices. One must situate himself
in the apse or outside it in order to understand these measures and progress.
From the roof of the chapels to the one of the apse and from here to the
superior level that supports the lantern tower and up to the point of the spire, the
view floats like in a permanent ascension during which each stone stair is a
measure of space (Focillon, p. 127).
Some churches allow for an abundance of decorations which
nevertheless does not transgress the strict limits imposed by the
architectural monument. Romanesque sculpture has its own features.
The sculpted figures on the portals seem to be part of the wall that
surrounds them. The accent is placed on the face and the hands, the
Romanesque artist is not interested in a more complex movement. The
predilect subjects of Romanesque sculpture coincide with the austere
doctrine that inspires their creator. Most frequent are the Last
Judgement, the image of God punishing the world. Romanesque
cathedrals are characterised by the richness of images and of the
exterior decorations. It is a whole world that lives, swarms and attracts
the person looking at it. The complexity of Romanesque art is given by
the original combination between austerity and picturesque, by the
vitality of the represented images.
Romanesque art must make the church speak, must satisfy the necessities of a
rich iconography and at the same time place it in space without weakening the
monumental masses and their functions. On top of a column had to be raised
not one or two figures that could be easily combined – Christ in glory, Saint
Anna and Saint Elisabeth, Adam and Eve –, but the more numerous characters
from the cycle of birth, of the Flight into Egypt or of the Last Supper (Focillon,
p. 172-173).
The continuity of movements and of the sculpted figures, the direct
relationship with the stone mass, the multiplications and the
prolongations of the decorations create compact systems in which
nothing is isolated without breaking the unity of the ensemble.
Architectural conformity and geometrical schemes are essential features
of Romanesque architecture. Symmetry is given by the well-defined
 Medieval Cathedrals. Symbol and Architecture 67

placement of the images, by the ordered frames which establish and

mould the composition on the ornament.
Opposed to Romanesque art Gothic art brings a different way of
shaping the forms of a cathedral. In the Middle Ages it was called “the
French style” and it reflects the scholastics of the age. The doctrines of
medieval scholastics are either building traditions, or are spread in
different treatises read by the Gothic architects. It is highly unlikely that
the Gothic builders read the philosophical books of the time, but they
go to school or to church, they listen to sermons, they participate in
public debates. The Gothic architect is a cultivated man who uses the
principles of his edifice from the ideas he has heard in the debates.
Gothic art is more intellectualised than Romanesque art which is closer
to nature.
The key of the new aesthetic is found in the words of Saint Thomas
Aquinas who considers as most important the concepts of order and
clarity. Divine nature gathers all things according to some clear rules, so
that all should be organised, each thing maintaining its specific purity
even in the structures where it enters in reciprocal combinations. Saint
Thomas insists on the idea that “the spirit must base its knowledge on
the sensible world”. This theory originates in the Platonic distinction
between the material and the sensible worlds. In the same way the
artistic representations in the Gothic cathedrals are images of divine
beauty that they represent according to human models.
Like the Romanesque cathedral, the Gothic one has the form of a
cross which corresponds to an initiatic pattern. It starts from the
Crucifixion, it passes through Resurrection and Ascension and it
reaches Redemption. Thus the western facade with its central portal
corresponds to a threshold that leads man to eternity. The cathedral is
also the stone image of medieval metaphysics, of the theories about
number, measure and weight. Both the aesthetics and the medieval
theology originate in the Christian artistic principles developed in the
early Middle Ages. Christian philosophy, enriched by the works of
Plato, Saint Augustine and Boethius, stresses the concept of change of
the material values into the immutable beauty of the cosmos. The
medieval architect transforms these common qualities in divine order
as the spirit contains in it the exemplary plan of the universe.
According to medieval philosophy, the universe is organised on a
68 Andreea Popescu

perfect hierarchical structure. The origin of this thinking is found again

in the Platonic theory about cosmic order. The forms of creation are
compared to the perfection of the forms that are found in the mind of
the Creator. Human life, physical or spiritual, constitutes a microcosm
which is the reduced image of the divine macrocosm. Human soul
finds its harmony in the divine reason which in its turn is formed by
the material world and by the universal order. The harmonious and
homogeneous structures of the Gothic are the result of the well-
established laws of proportion. All elements play the same role one
towards the other thus reaching unity. The elements divide and
combine according to mathematical laws of proportion in order to
produce the substance of the universal soul. The principle of symmetry
is taken by the medieval artist from the treatises of Saint Augustine
who considers mathematics, geometry and music as the three ways to
understand the universe. The world unveils both its moral and its
physical structures and together they achieve cosmic unity. Medieval
man must always discover the conclusion of the message transmitted to
him as being the truth and he must not guess it by applying hypotheses.
The aim of the edifice is to open the road to the truth.
The proportions given to some elements, defined strictly from a
mathematical point of view, serve for the delimitations of the concept
of division which is found in the Platonic dialogue Timaeus. Plato
considers that the vision on the universe depends on the way in which
man succeeds in delimiting the different aspects of the world in order
to establish their true value and to give them the place they deserve in
the harmonious structure of the universe. In the same way the structure
of a cathedral depends on several different elements which put together
create unity. Gothic architecture defines itself as a balanced game
between functional elements. The visible representations of the
construction form the harmonious pattern of geometrical
configurations which constitute the interior of a Gothic cathedral.
Using the principle of symmetry the medieval architect builds the
interior of the edifice as a mirror to the exterior. A cathedral is a vast
system of divisions, subdivisions and multiplications that help with the
clear explanation of the message.
Thus is produced a movement from the concrete representations to
the sacred reality of the principles that give meaning and moral value to
 Medieval Cathedrals. Symbol and Architecture 69

the existence. The medieval architect cultivates reason not only because
it gives him the opportunity to build a stable edifice, but also because it
is a way to come close to the divinity. As the artist knows that what he
does is a good thing, the structure of a cathedral stresses the patterns
that form it, showing the deliberate display of its components. Gothic
architecture unveils the way in which creation functions and not what
creation really is. It is based on visual logic which brings together the
constitutive elements in a harmonious unity. In the Gothic cathedrals
the nave is the most accomplished as it has that absolute quality, that
certain logic which the light passing through the stained glasses makes
even more beautiful. Thus the created forms are linked to each other
and they transform the whole construction in a homogeneous
expression of the artistic sensibility.
The beginnings of Gothic art are found in the abbey of Saint Denis
in Paris. The discovery of the new art initiated by abbot Suger is that
God is light. Each being participates in the process of the creation of
light. To have the light means to share in the divine spirit, to be the
light-bearer and to give it to the others as well. Wherever the stained
glass can be introduced in the wall frame, the light floods in the nave.
What in the beginning used to be a small window gradually grows until
it covers all the space between the pillars. According to abbot Suger,
light is necessary to worship God, therefore the interior of the
cathedral must be very large in order to allow for a disciplined
movement of the believers. The importance given to light is found in
the philosophical treatises of the age, in the works of Saint
Bonaventura or Albertus Magnus who created a special aesthetics
entitled the aesthetics of light.
Light is the radical energy, the primary form and the link among all substances.
There is a spiritual light which is for the intelligible things what corporal light is
for the sensible things (Gilson, p. 437).
Due to the light which floods the Gothic cathedral, the believer has
not only the possibility to better understand the theological meaning,
but also to perceive the fact that it is built for him so that he should
find the light in his own soul. Primordial light takes the shape of all
things, becoming origin of life and cause of existence. It is transformed
in the light of knowledge and of reason for all that lives on earth.
70 Andreea Popescu

In the divine intellect is any form which is only potential in the primary matter
and this is possible due to the knowledge that this intellect has about the form, as
he knows it and because he knows it. This is the beginning both to explain the
existence of the intelligible things for a created intellect and to explain the
intellects able to know these things. By creating the world, God gives distinct
forms to matter and these forms are images of the divine universal things
(Gilson, p. 473).
Human soul is a copy of the divine soul. It is open to illumination
and to the knowledge of the universe. Abbot Suger proposes the same
doctrine, of knowing the world through art. The aesthetics of light
inspired the abbot who for the first time in France enlarges the main
nave, gives up the tribune system and introduces the coloured stained
glasses in the large windows framed in the walls. The essence of the
new theology proposed by Suger is the Incarnation. It combines in a
subtle way the image of God from the Gospels (more human and
closer to the believers’ soul) with the one found in the Eucharist (more
abstract and harder to decipher). Thus is achieved a clarification of the
divine ideal from texts and symbolic representations. A Gothic
cathedral offers an image of unity around a central idea. The light
coming from God puts each being in its own place. In its turn each
being represents God in its own way. Beauty and kindness are
illustrated by the light of the new faith. The whole universe is made up
of light, all radiations returning to God who unites them in a general
image of His love for man. The luminous creation implies a progressive
return to the divine being from where all begins. The circle closes
because God cumulates all beings in Himself both visible and invisible.
At the successive levels of the hierarchy the visible things reflect the
light even better. All is based on the symmetry laws debated not only in
the philosophical treatises, but also in the sermons, liturgies and the
sacred texts. Beauty does not exist in separate elements, but in the
harmonious proportion of the parts. “The universal essence of beauty
exists in the splendour of the form which dominates the proportioned
parts of the matter.” (Gilson, p. 441).
A cathedral signifies the unity of the universe in stone with an accent
put on the moral lesson taught to the person who enters such a
building. Medieval man in the Gothic age is fascinated by colours,
stained glasses and windows. They do not have only a functional role
like in Romanesque art, they also tell a story. Often the biblical
 Medieval Cathedrals. Symbol and Architecture 71

episodes form a continuous text creating what may be called “the Bible
of the poor.” The English poet John Milton gave them the most
beautiful name: “storied windows”. The light coming through each
window symbolises the love of God for man. The sparkle of light
found in every being reflects the light in the world, bringing
redemption for the one that can see beyond appearances. Gothic art is
based on the principle of opening and illuminating. Abbot Suger
considers that “the beautiful creation shines with nobility. It illuminates
the spirit and guides it to the true light for which Christ is only the
gate.” (Suger, in Duby, p. 67).
The art of the stained glasses reaches its climax in the high Gothic
period of the XIIIth – XIVth centuries. A cathedral is a reasoned
universe, and the form that it has starts from a judgement over space,
the forces that influence it and equilibrium. The stained glass, the most
beautiful achievement of Gothic art, with the bright clearness that
characterises it, has intimate and profound values. There are two types
of painting for a stained glass: the one that imitates the sunlight like a
game of light and shadow, giving the illusion of a space shaped in its
profundity, and the one which uses natural light in its own purposes,
gives it a special artistic quality, introduces it in the space of the
representation and by the artifice of transparency or of the golden
backgrounds combines and creates an original light. In the latter case
natural light becomes an artistic achievement due to the craft and the
inventiveness of the medieval artist. The tradition of the stained glasses
exists in France from the time of the Merovingian dynasty, though a
long time it was believed that it was brought from the Orient along
with the crusades. It is true that the Arabs knew the technique to
incastrate coloured glass in the window frames. In the abbey of Saint
Denis in Paris the numerous biblical or legendary characters, the variety
of the human forms, the abundance of life, the activity of the guilds, all
are found in these genuine tapestries made of glass and light. At the
level of the composition there is a difference between the technique of
the XIIth century and its continuations in the high Gothic age. Thus in
the beginning was preferred an intense narrative of the episodes which
should deeply impress the viewer. Later the choice is in favour of
greatness and realism. The colours of the stained glasses have their own
significance guiding the viewer in the deciphering of the message.
72 Andreea Popescu

The cold nuances of the background, which tend towards a violet harmony,
emphasize the warmth and the translucent solidity of the other parts, nuances of
bright red as are not found even in the golden paintings, nuances of rich and
deep green. Even when violet creates a nocturnal effect, there is still place for
shining light (Focillon, p. 169).
The stained glasses of Chartres and their extraordinary blue, those of
Notre Dame in Paris which in the huge roses of the transept resemble
the chariots of fire in the Bible, the wonderful achievements of York or
Westminster are only some examples of this art which brings to
perfection the aesthetic thinking of the age. The image of life they
contain in their network belongs to the celestial dimension of light.
Together with the art of the stained glasses the Gothic style has
another important achievement: the column-statues. They are found on
the portals of the cathedrals. They demonstrate that the image of man
can be associated to a vertical element. The images are made according
to the dimensions and the proportions of the columns they are applied
to, the head supporting the capital while the inferior part of the body
identifies itself with the column it leans against. In comparison to the
Romanesque statues which have to conform to a certain space, thus
acquiring the strangest forms, the column-statues of the Gothic art do
not have to adapt to a certain space. Space arranges itself according to
the statue and confers it liberty of expression, harmony and realism.
The effects of light and shadows offer an ornamental interpretation to
the figures, be they biblical characters, kings or bishops. They are
immobile and the gesture by which they keep next to their body the
book, the sceptre or the coat is always the same. The realism of Gothic
art is due to the inclination of the artists towards the beauty of the
colour and of the form. Art has to represent the power, kindness and
wisdom of God. Consequently it has to be beautiful and spiritualised
because this is how divine creation is and the ideal of every artist is to
render it as truly as possible.
The beauty they wanted to give to the body was not the beauty that a body had
in real life, but it was a borrowed beauty. The bodies were made beautiful by
emphasizing the beauty of the soul. To the latter we owe the proportions of the
Gothic figures (Tatarkiewicz, p. 214).
In this art the principle of verticality is essential. Just like the vault of
the main nave rises to impressive heights, stressing the wish for
 Medieval Cathedrals. Symbol and Architecture 73

ascension of the medieval man, the column-statues give back to man

his dignity. The spirit is freed from its terrestrial links and it sees the
beauty of the divine creation. In this way the cathedral really becomes
an axis mundi uniting the two dimensions.
An essential role in the change of mentality was certainly played by
the travels which opened the human spirit to new horizons. Due to the
crusades the poor Occident heard about the mysterious Orient full of
wonderful legends. The Orient gave to the medieval man the feeling
that the world was larger than he thought and that there were no limits
for the universe which could not be contained in one religion. The
fundamental opening brought by the crusades is found in the
miraculous lands, the wonderful tales influencing the medieval
mentality. In art this opening towards the imaginary is illustrated by
fantastic animals, gargoyles and the strange apparitions which populate
a cathedral.
In his book entitled The Fantastic Middle Ages Jurgis Baltrusaitis
analyses gargoyles as the strange decorations for a Gothic cathedral.
Initially this element is simply a functional one as it serves for the
evacuation of rain. Later it becomes one of the characteristic aspects of
European Gothic.
A number of strange, unknown or little known creatures appear and spread in
the Gothic imaginary in the XIIth century. They are especially monsters obtained
by combinations of heads (Baltrusaitis, p. 14).
These strange apparitions are associated with remote universes, with
worlds and parallel dimensions of the supernatural. Their emerging into
reality shows the tight relationship that medieval man has with the
other world. Originating in classical antiquity, the fantastic animals, the
Gothic monsters that decorate the Gothic cathedrals are
representations of an evil that must be defeated. Their public exposure,
unveiling the grotesque which characterises them renders them
inoffensive. The classic type of gargoyles is that of a human head, with
no body and two animal paws put one over the other. The principle
according to which they function is that of the mobile faces which
appear along the whole body. The faces are presented in different
attitudes, many of them grotesque and naturalistic: laughing, grinning,
frowning. Although they seem strange in an art that cultivates beauty,
the gargoyles emphasize the variety of the divine creation which in its
74 Andreea Popescu

multiplicity includes both the ugly and the beautiful. On the other hand
these statues called by Baltrusaitis Gothic gryls have aesthetic function.
Just like in the treatises of Saint Thomas Aquinas where evil is the
absence of good, ugliness is the absence of beauty. Juxtaposing the two
aesthetic categories there appears a parallel between the two
representations. Appreciating a beautiful object is made in comparison
with an ugly one, just like evil opposes to good. The believer is offered
two images of the world from which to choose for his spiritual
fulfilment.
If Romanesque art was austere in its impressive simplicity, Gothic
art discovers the power of the imaginary, of the fantastic, associating
the Biblical saints with legendary creatures. It is perfectly normal for
the medieval man who dreams now about the treasures of the Orient.
The travel of the Polo family from Venice is only one example of
entrance in that miraculous space.
Cathedral art cannot be separated from the cult of images which in
the Middle Ages has great importance. The notion of image is reflected
in the medieval conception about man and world. It is found both in
the figurative objects (stained glasses, sculptures) and in the literary
works (theatre). Images create imagination, namely that ability to
visualise the unknown or the invisible. In literature the trope is allegory,
in art the technique is similitude. The religious experience of the
medieval man is made up of dreams, visions, meditations on the after
world. In cathedral art appears the attempt to portray both the
unknown material world, the aim of the travellers, and the spiritual
world known from the sermons and the sacred texts. Medieval culture
is therefore a culture of images carrying strong Christian influences.
Due to them the believer moved farther and farther from the ancient
idolatry which was forbidden. A significant example for the importance
of images in medieval art is the crucifix. There are two types of
representation which correspond to the two architectural styles. In
Romanesque art Christ is rendered in His glory with a crown of light
over His head and perpendicular legs, fixed by separate nails. It is the
image of God risen above suffering and who redeems by His simple
presence. It is an abstract image, detached from the reality of the
moment. It corresponds to a mentality found at the limits of the
doctrine imposed by Saint Bernard and by the Cistercian order for
 Medieval Cathedrals. Symbol and Architecture 75

whom life was based on the fight between light and darkness. Sin is
inherent to man who has to make penitence in order to find God. The
simplicity of the forms and the pure lines in a Cistercian cathedral are
the result of the wish to keep intact the asceticism proper for a very
strict morality.
Opposed to the Romanesque crucifix the Gothic one is much more
expressive. Christ is represented in the specific S-shaped form, figuring
an image of pain. He is the Son of Man who redeems by His suffering.
The legs are placed one above the other, fixed by the same nail. The
image is concrete and it corresponds to a mentality which tries to
recuperate the Biblical truth. It is wished to be a lesson of genuine
morality. The Gothic conception about light does not exclude a close
reading of the Gospels. The medieval image renders
the visible in the invisible, God in man, absence in concreteness, the past and the
future in the present. It thus reiterates in its own way the mystery of the
Incarnation as it endows with presence, identity, matter and body whatever is
transcendent and inaccessible (Le Goff & Schmitt, p. 321).
The meaning of an image is given by its link to the surrounding
space which must be analysed in its complexity, by the arrangement of
the elements on the surface where the narrated episode is rendered.
The general meaning does not depend only on one aspect, but it
contains all the significances which can be linked to a certain
representation. Most images are simultaneous and ambivalent, because
they display more meanings at the same time, they can combine
between themselves in order to create a new image, they can be
juxtaposed in order to facilitate the analogy. In a medieval cathedral
images also have an educational role. The religious representation can
help with a better identification between the believer and God or the
saint he is praying to. Once reaching the sanctuary, the medieval
pilgrim identifies himself symbolically with the local saint due to his
faith. In the same way, watching with devotion at an icon or a painting
having a religious subject there appears a communion between the
viewer and that work of art. Symbolically speaking man enters “inside“
that work of art becoming part of the narrative scheme. Faith or simple
admiration for the beauty of an image facilitates the transfer of
sensibility from the anonymous artist to the viewer. Man becomes part
of the Biblical story as a character in the narrative pattern.
76 Andreea Popescu

Another domain having the same function is theatre. In this case the
medieval cathedral plays the role of a background. Many of the
medieval mysteries or miracles were staged in front of a cathedral. The
place was called parvis coming from the French word paradis and it
denominated the strictly limited space before the entrance of a
cathedral. The building offered authority and authenticity to the play,
assuring the entrance to a “virtual paradise” to those who understood
the meaning of the play. Redemption through literature is a discovery
of the medieval world. The wagon on whose boards played the actors
is an image of the world, just like the cathedral is a map of salvation.
Moreover, religious medieval theatre was played in the language of the
country so that the public could better understand the story. It
completed as a welcomed variation the texts of the sermons which
used a more abstract language. Due to the staging on the parvis of the
architectural ensemble the sacred and the profane mingled to offer the
spectator a complex image of the world. For instance, in 1260 before
the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris was staged the play Le Miracle de
Théophile written by the French poet Rutebeuf, or another play called Le
Vrai Mystère de la Passion by Arnoul Gréban which lasted four days and
involved several hundred actors.
Inspired by the surrounding reality, the medieval artist transforms
the cathedral into the image of a whole world and its rights for hope
and life. A cathedral exists due to its builders, just like the architect
designing its plans and the masters raising it live through it. From
generation to generation the method of building changes and there
appear new techniques of using the matter which bring innovations. An
ogive is raised over a semicircular vault, the form of the towers is
modified, there appear new chapels, a transept started in one style is
continued in a different one. Thus appears unity in diversity, a theme
with many variations which is the art of the medieval cathedrals. Each
country contributes in its own way to the improving of a certain style.
Thus one can distinguish between German Gothic which is more
austere and Italian Gothic which is more luminous and cheerful. The
growing wave of expressive forms contains the reality which is the only
source of inspiration for the builders. The saints belonging to the
gallery of column-statues have the face of the people met by the artists
in the street or in the field, living models for old stories. An important
 Medieval Cathedrals. Symbol and Architecture 77

exception is the fact that God the Father is almost never figured in the
sculpture of the cathedrals. Humility and respect prevented the artists
to attempt such representations.
Not only people are represented in the church decorations. Animals
and plants populate this complex and heterogeneous world. The
slender columns of the Gothic, the lace interweaving of the vaults
belong to the trees and the vegetation from the forests that surrounded
a village or a town. The light that flickers in the stained glasses, their
wonderful colours of blue, yellow, green or red are the colours of the
sun, of the waters, of the cultivated fields. Just like the exterior world is
full of life, in the same way a cathedral comes to life due to the genius
of the artist. The anonymous builders are influenced by what they see,
leaving free their creative talent. They innovate according to the
possibilities of a certain construction. The cathedral is no longer only
the stone representation of a theological doctrine, it becomes the image
of the medieval mentality in its best and most picturesque form. The
cathedral
is human, traditional, revolutionary and deeply opposed to the authoritative and
moralising principle of Christianity which considers itself definitely organised, as
it expresses moral ideas in the most sensitive way and because it translates in the
most delicate way the doctrines which assert the royal character of the pure spirit.
A cathedral regains human nature, the nature of the world it exists in. It loves the
artist, as he, though weak, proves to have great courage. He describes paradise to
the other people with the trees, the waters and the clouds he sees when he raises
his eyes to the sky or when he gets out through the gates of his city carrying the
fruit and the vegetables he brings from the countryside together with the animals
that share his destiny. The cathedral achieves the equilibrium between the
common power of the people and the allegorical building whose creation has
been prepared by the Christian philosophy for more than a thousand years
(Faure, p. 294-295).
Both in Romanesque and in Gothic art there is the same need to
innovate the theological doctrine, which sometimes is too abstract and
hard to understand for the common people. The medieval artist
describes a world which due to its imagination and creative spirit raises
the mentality of the epoch to a level of knowledge never reached
before. Simple reality is sublimated in the ineffable art of the medieval
artists and the genuine wonders which the medieval cathedrals are.
78 Andreea Popescu

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