GOTHIC

ARCHITECTURE
Blaga Adeluta Ramona
Gheletiuc Septimiu Dorian
Construction Faculty, Civil Engineering
1.History
◦ Gothic architecture, is an architectural style in Europe that lasted from
the mid 12th century to the 16th century.
◦ Is a style of masonry building characterized by cavernous spaces with
the expanse of walls broken up by overlaid tracery.
◦ The original Gothic style was actually developed to bring sunshine
into people's lives, and especially into their churches.
◦ The Gothic grew out of the Romanesque architectural style, when
both prosperity and relative peace allowed for several centuries of
cultural development and great building schemes.
◦ From roughly 1000 to 1400, several significant cathedrals and
churches were built, particularly in Britain and France, offering
architects and masons a chance to work out ever more complex and
daring designs.
◦ The High Gothic years (c. 1250–1300), heralded by Chartres
Cathedral, were dominated by France, especially with the development
of the Rayonnant style.
◦ Britain, Germany, and Spain produced variations of this style, while
Italian Gothic stood apart in its use of brick and marble rather than
stone.
◦ Late Gothic (15th-century) architecture reached its height in
Germany’s vaulted hall churches. Other late Gothic styles include the
British Perpendicular style and the French and Spanish Flamboyant
style.
Chartes Cathedral, France
2.Specific elements
◦ The rib vault, flying buttress, and pointed (Gothic) arch were used as
solutions to the problem of building a very tall structure while
preserving as much natural light as possible.
◦ Stained-glass window panels rendered startling sun-dappled interior
effects.
◦ One of the earliest buildings to combine these elements into a
coherent style was the abbey of Saint-Denis, Paris (c. 1135–44).
Saint Denis Cathedral, Paris
2.1.The Vault
◦ Vault, in building construction, a structural member consisting of an
arrangement of arches, usually forming a ceiling or roof.
◦ The basic barrel form, which appeared first in ancient Egypt and the
Middle East, is in effect a continuous series of arches deep enough to
cover a three-dimensional space.
◦ It exerts the same kind of thrust as the circular arch and must be
buttressed along its entire length by heavy walls with limited openings.
Vault
◦ Four common types of vault:
A barrel vault (also called a cradle vault, tunnel vault, or wagon vault)
has a semicircular cross section.
A groin (or cross) vault is formed by the perpendicular intersection
of two barrel vaults.
A rib (or ribbed) vault is supported by a series of arched diagonal
ribs that divide the vault’s surface into panels. A fan vault is composed
of concave sections with ribs spreading out like a fan.
The 4 types of vault
Rib vault inside Saint Denis Cathedral
2.2.Flying butress
◦ Flying buttress, masonry structure typically consisting of an inclined
bar carried on a half arch that extends (“flies”) from the upper part
of a wall to a pier some distance away and carries the thrust of a roof
or vault.
◦ A pinnacle (vertical ornament of pyramidal or conical shape) often
crowns the pier, adding weight and enhancing stability.
◦ The design increased the supporting power of the buttress and
allowed for the creation of the high-ceilinged churches typical of
Gothic architecture.
Flying butress
2.3.The arch
◦ The most fundamental element of the Gothic style of architecture is
the pointed arch, which was likely borrowed from Islamic architecture
that would have been seen in Spain at this time.
◦ The pointed arch relieved some of the thrust, and therefore, the stress
on other structural elements.
◦ It then became possible to reduce the size of the columns or piers
that supported the arch.
Arches, Saint Denis Cathedral
2.4.Stained glass
◦ The term stained glass derives from the silver stain that was often
applied to the side of the window that would face the outside of the
building.
◦ When the glass was fired, the silver stain turned a yellow color that
could range from lemon to gold.
◦ Stained glass was usually used to make windows, so that the light
would shine through the painting.
◦ It is a form of painting that began over 1,000 years ago and is still
essentially made the same way today.
Stained glass, Reims Cathedral
2.5.The Tracery
◦ Tracery, in architecture, bars, or ribs, used decoratively in windows or
other openings; the term also applies to similar forms used in relief as
wall decoration (sometimes called blind tracery), and hence,
figuratively, to any intricate line pattern.
◦ The term is applicable to the system of window decoration developed
in Europe during the Gothic period as well as to the pierced marble
screens common in Mughal India and the pierced cement windows of
Persia, Turkey, and Egypt.
Tracery, Saint Denis Cathedral
3.Salisbury Cathedral,
England
The Biggest and the Highest

◦ There are so many superlatives consorting with the Cathedral Church

of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Salisbury:
it has the tallest spire in Britain (404 feet);
it houses the best preserved of the four surviving original copies of
the Magna Carta (1215);
it has the oldest working clock in Europe (1386);
it has the largest cathedral cloisters and cathedral close in Britain; the
choir (or quire) stalls are the largest and earliest complete set in
Britain;
the vault is the highest in Britain.
◦ Bigger, better, best—and built in a mere 38 years, roughly from 1220
to 1258, which is a pretty short construction schedule for a large stone
building made without motorized equipment.
Salisbury Cathedral inside
◦ It was an ideal opportunity in the development of Early English
Gothic architecture, and Salisbury Cathedral made full use of the new
techniques of this emerging style.
◦ Pointed arches and lancet shapes are everywhere, from the prominent
west windows to the painted arches of the east end.
◦ The piers are decorated with slender columns of dark gray Purbeck
marble, which reappear in clusters and as stand-alone supports in the
arches of the triforium, clerestory, and cloisters.
◦ One deviation from the typical Gothic style is the way the lower
arcade level of the nave is cut off by a string course that runs between
it and the triforium.
◦ In most churches of this period, the columns or piers stretch upwards
in one form or another all the way to the ceiling or vault.
◦ Here at Salisbury the arcade is merely an arcade, and the effect is more
like a layer cake with the upper tiers sitting on top of rather than
extending from the lower level.
Nave of Salisbury Cathedral
3.1. The Tower and the Spire

◦ The original design called for a fairly ordinary square crossing tower
of modest height.
◦ But in the early part of the 14th century, two stories were added to
the tower, and then the pointed spire was added in 1330.
◦ The spire is the most readily identified feature of the cathedral and is
visible for miles.
◦ However, the addition of this landmark tower and spire added over
6,000 tons of weight to the supporting structure.
◦ Because the building had not been engineered to carry the extra
weight, additional buttressing was required internally and externally.
◦ The transepts now sport masonry girders, or strainer arches, to
support the weight.
◦ Not surprisingly, the spire has never been straight and now tilts to the
southeast by about 27 inches.
Tower and Spire of Salisbury Cathedral
 3.2. Restorations

◦ Over the centuries the cathedral has been subject to well-intentioned,

but heavy-handed restorations by later architects such as James Wyatt
and Sir George Gilbert Scott, who tried to conform the building to
contemporary tastes.
◦ Therefore, the interior has lost some of its original decoration and
furnishings, including stained glass and small chapels, and new things
have been added.
◦ This is pretty typical, though, of a building that is several centuries
old.
◦ Fortunately, the regularity and clean lines of the cathedral have not
been tampered with. It is still refined, polished, and generally easy on
the eye.
3.3. Sunlight

◦ Although it inspires the usual awe felt in such a grand and substantial
building, and is as pretty as a wedding cake, it has had some criticism
from art historians: Nikolaus Pevsner and Harry Batsford both
disliked the west front, with its encrustation of statues and
“variegated pettiness” (Batsford).
◦ John Ruskin, the Victorian art critic and writer, found the building
“profound and gloomy.” Indeed, in gray weather, the monochromatic
scheme of Chilmark stone and Purbeck marble is just gray upon gray.
 West front of
Salisbury
Cathedral, 1220-
1320
◦ The pictures in this essay, however, show the widely changing
character of the neutral tones; sunlight transforms the building, and
the visitor's experience of it.
◦ This very quality is what made the Gothic style so revolutionary – the
ability to get sunlight into a large building with massive stone walls.
◦ Windows are everywhere, and when the light streams through the
clerestory arches and the enormous west window, the interior turns
from drear gray to transcendent gold.
4. Chartres Cathedral
◦ The Chartres Cathedral is probably the finest example of French
Gothic architecture and said by some to be the most beautiful
cathedral in France.
◦ The Chartres Cathedral is a milestone in the development of Western
architecture because it employs all the structural elements of the new
Gothic architecture: the pointed arch; the rib-and-panel vault; and,
most significantly, the flying buttress.
◦ The cathedral is also celebrated for its many stained-glass windows
and sculptures.
◦ Because most of its 12th-and 13th-century stained glass and
sculpture survives, Chartres Cathedral is one of the most completely
surviving medieval churches.
◦ Its spiritual intensity is heightened by the fact that no direct light
enters the building(all the light is filtered through stained glass).
Stained glass inside Chartes Cathedral
◦ The interior of the Chartres cathedral is remarkable. The nave, wider
than that of any other cathedral in France (52 feet, or 16 meters), is in
the purest 13th-century ogival style.

◦ In its center is a maze, the only one still intact in France, with 320
yards (290 meters) of winding passages, which the faithful used to
follow on their knees.

◦ The warm glow of the light inside the cathedral results from the
incomparably beautiful stained-glass windows, which date mostly
from the 14th century.
5. Cathedral of Florence, Italy
◦ The typical Italian Gothic building, the Cathedral of Florence, is
dedicated to "Santa Maria del Fiore".
◦ The church was designed by Arnolfo di Cambio (c1245-1302) who
considerably enlarged the existing religious structure.
◦ Finished around 1367, the Cathedral was completely covered by
coloured marbles like the earlier Baptistery, except for the façade that
remained unfinished and was terminated only in the 19th century.
Façade of the cathedral
◦ The project left unfinished also the Dome, since in 1421 only the
frame (polygonal base) had been erected.
◦ Two architects, Lorenzo Ghiberti (1368-1445) and Filippo
Brunelleschi (1377-1446) won the competition although it was the
latter who actually built the dome, showing a great mastery of
technical knowledge, in 1436.
The Dome
◦ One of the most remarkable features of the outside of the building is
the socalled "Porta della Mandorla"(north) (della mandorla = almond)
that was given this name because of the large aureole around the
figure of the Virgin sculptured also by Nanni di Banco (1380/90-
1421) among others.
Porta della Mandrola
◦ Its interior preserves very important works of art: on the left side we
find the first two detached frescoes showing the "Condottiero
Giovanni Acuto"and "Niccolò da Tolentino" painted respectively by
Paolo Uccello in 1436 and by Andrea del Castagno in 1456.
◦ Paolo Uccello also frescoed the clock on the inside wall, showing four
vogorous "heads of saints".
"Condottiero Giovanni Acuto" "Niccolò da Tolentino"
◦ Most of the splendid stained glass windows were made between 1434
and 1455 to the designs of famous artists like Donatello, Andrea del
Castagno and Paolo Uccello.
◦ The wooden inlays on the Sacristy´s cupboards were designed by
Brunelleschi and other artists, including Antonio del Pollaiolo.
◦ The bell tower by Giotto remains, together with the huge dome one
of the most striking views of the town.
◦ The famous painter, Giotto, was in fact also the architect of the
project for the bell tower, although by the time of his death (1337)
only the lower part had been completed.
◦ The works continued under the direction of Andrea Pisano (c. 1290-
1349) and Francesco Talenti (not. 1325-1369) who completed the
project.
Giotto's bell tower