Characteristics of Gothic architecture
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The style emphasizes verticality and features almost skeletal stone
structures with great expanses of glass, pointed arches using the
ogive shape, ribbed vaults, clustered columns, sharply pointed
spires, flying buttresses and inventive sculptural detail such as
gargoyles and even butterflies attacking men. These features are all
the consequence of the use of the pointed arch and a focus on large
stained-glass windows that allowed more light to enter than was
possible with older styles. To achieve this "light" style, flying
buttresses were used as a means of support to enable higher ceilings
and slender columns. Many of these features had already appeared,
for example in Durham Cathedral, whose construction started in 1093.
As a defining characteristic of Gothic Architecture, the pointed
arch was introduced for both visual and structural reasons.
Visually, the verticality suggests an aspiration to Heaven.
Structurally, its use gives a greater flexibility to Architectural
form. |
The Gothic vault, unlike the semi-circular vault of Roman and
Romanesque buildings, can be used to roof rectangular and
irregularly shaped plans such as trapezoids. The other advantage is
that the pointed arch channels the weight onto the bearing piers or
columns at a steep angle.
In Gothic Architecture the pointed arch is utilized in every
position where an arched shape is called for, both structural and
decorative. Gothic openings such as doorways, windows, arcades and
galleries have pointed arches. Gothic vaulting over spaces both
large and small is usually supported by richly molded ribs. Rows of
arches upon delicate shafts form a typical wall decoration known as
blind arcading. Niches with pointed arches and containing statuary
are a major external feature. The pointed arch leant itself to
elaborate intersecting shapes which developed within window spaces
into complex Gothic tracery forming the structural support of the
large windows that are characteristic of the style.
Gothic cathedrals could be highly decorated with statues on the
outside and painting on the inside. Both usually told Biblical
stories, emphasizing visual typological allegories between Old
Testament prophecy and the New Testament.
Important Gothic churches could also be severely simple. At the
Basilica of Mary Magdalene in Saint-Maximin, Provence, the local
traditions of the sober, massive, Romanesque architecture were still
strong. The basilica, begun in the 13th century under the patronage
of Charles of Anjou, was laid out on an ambitious scale (it was
never completed all the way to the western entrance front) to
accommodate pilgrims that came to venerate relics. Building in the
Gothic style continued at the basilica until 1532.
In Gothic architecture new technology stands behind the new building
style. The Gothic cathedral was supposed to be a microcosm
representing the world, and each architectural concept, mainly the
loftiness and huge dimensions of the structure, were intended to
pass a theological message: the great glory of God versus the
smallness and insignificance of the mortal being.
Pugin, Ruskin and the Gothic as a moral force
In the late 1820s, A.W.N. Pugin, still a teenager, was working for
two highly visible employers, providing Gothic detailing for luxury
goods. For the Royal furniture makers Morel and Seddon he provided
designs for redecorations for the elderly George IV at Windsor
Castle in a Gothic taste suited to the setting. For the royal
silversmiths Rundell Bridge and Co., Pugin provided designs for
silver from 1828, using the 14th-century Anglo-French Gothic
vocabulary that he would continue to favor later in designs for the
new Palace of Westminster.
In Contrasts (1836), Pugin expressed his admiration not only for
medieval art but the whole medieval ethos, claiming that Gothic
architecture was the product of a purer society. In The True
Principles of Pointed or Christian Architecture (1841), he suggested
that modern craftsmen seeking to emulate the style of medieval
workmanship should also reproduce its methods. Pugin believed Gothic
was true Christian architecture, boldly saying "The pointed arch was
produced by the Catholic faith". Pugin's most famous building is The
Houses of Parliament in London, which he designed in two campaigns,
1836 — 1837 and again in 1844 and 1852, with the classicist Charles
Barry as his co-architect. Pugin provided the external decoration
and the interiors, while Barry designed the symmetrical layout of
the building, causing Pugin to remark, "All Grecian, Sir; Tudor
details on a classic body".
John Ruskin supplemented Pugin's ideas in his two hugely influential
theoretical works, The Seven Lamps of Architecture (1849) and The
Stones of Venice (1853). Finding his architectural ideal in Venice,
Ruskin proposed that Gothic buildings excelled above all other
architecture because of the "sacrifice" of the stone-carvers in
intricately decorating every stone. By declaring the Doge's Palace
to be "the central building of the world", Ruskin argued the case
for Gothic government buildings as Pugin had done for churches,
though only in theory. When his ideas were put into practice, Ruskin
despised the spate of public buildings built with references to the
Ducal Palace, including the University Museum in Oxford. |
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