Gothic

Dates and Places: • 12th to 14th century• Western Europe

(begins in France)

People:• Growth of urban

centers• Sophisticated courts• Scholasticism• Cult of Virgin Mary

Reims Cathedral, ca. 1225–1290.

Gothic FranceThemes:• Virgin Mary • Life of Christ and saints• Portraits • Secular lifeForms:• Immense churches• Increasingly optical

approach to figures and space

• Lavish ornament and materials

Saint Theodore, Chartres Cathedral, ca. 1230.

Gothic: FranceExample:

• Birth of Gothic style

• Abbot Suger

• Royal church

• Rib vaults and pointed arches

• Open space

• Stained glass windows, symbolic light = lux nova

Plan, abbey church, Saint-Denis, 1140–1144.

Gothic: FranceExample:

• Flying buttresses

• Quadrant arches

• Rose windows

• Towers on heavily ornamented westwork

• Large clerestory of stained glass windows

• Skeletal support system

Notre-Dame, begun 1163.

Gothic: France

Example:

• Stained glass window

• Lux nova

• Stories of the Christian faith

• Virgin Mary

• Bar tracery

Rose window and lancets, Chartres Cathedral, ca. 1220.

Gothic: France

Example: • Gothic architects seek

height • Nave bays with

arcade, triforium, and clerestory

• Rib vaults, colonettes, compound piers

• Flying buttresses outside

Amiens Cathedral, begun 1220.

Gothic: FranceExample:

• Portal jamb sculpture

• Compare to Royal Portal at Chartres

• Increasing naturalism

• Figures released from vertical support

• Influence of classical sculpture

• Cult of Mary: VisitationAnnunciation and Visitation,

Reims Cathedral, ca. 1230–1255.

Gothic: France

Example:

• Skeletal support

• Walls replaced by stained glass

• Rib vaults, mullions

• Rayonnant style

Sainte-Chapelle, 1243–1248.

Gothic: FranceExample:

• Illuminated manuscript

• Produced in urban workshops

• Luxury books for private patrons

• Contemporary architectural style

• Courtly eleganceBlanche of Castile, Louis IX, and

two monks, 1226–1234.

Gothic: EnglandExample:

• English regional variation

• Rectilinear forms

• Two transepts

• Short façade and vaults

• Single aisles

• Color contrastsSalisbury Cathedral,

1220–1330.

Gothic: EnglandExample:

• English variation of Gothic style

• Fan vaults

• Pendants

• Perpendicular style

• Dissolves appearance of structural solidity

Westminster Abbey, 1503–1519.

Gothic: Holy Roman EmpireExample:

• Donor portraits = secular theme in church

• Painted

• Individualized faces and personality

• Drapery reveals body beneath Ekkehard and Uta, Naumburg

Cathedral, ca. 1249–1255.

Gothic: ItalyExample: • Italian humanism • Increasing interest in

antiquity and study of Roman sculpture

• Growing naturalism of figures and spaces

• Cimabue = Italo-Byzantine

• Giotto anticipates Renaissance

Left: CIMABUE, Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets, ca. 1280–1290.

Right: GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1310.

Gothic: ItalyExample:

• Fresco program in family chapel

• Naturalistic treatment of figures

• Drapery reveals body

• Emotional expression

• Shallow, illusionistic space for narrative

GIOTTO DI BONDONE, Lamentation, ca. 1305.

Gothic: ItalyExample:

• Altarpiece

• Wood panels

• Civic pride

• Cult of the Virgin Mary

• Shifting from Italo-Byzantine to more naturalistic style

DUCCIO DI BUONINSEGNA, Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints, from

1308–1311.

Gothic: ItalyExample: • Regional variation of

Gothic in Italy • Civic project• Campanile by Giotto• Incrustation• Compartmentalized

clarity of architectural parts

• Anticipates Renaissance

ARNOLFO DI CAMBIO and others, Florence Cathedral, begun 1296.