Influences upon Gothic architecture

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The Gothic style of architecture was strongly influenced by the Romanesque architecture which preceded it. Why the Gothic style emerged from Romanesque, and what the key influences on its development were, is a difficult problem for which there is a lack of concrete evidence because medieval Gothic architecture was not accompanied by contemporary written theory, in contrast to the 'Renaissance' and its treatises.[1][2] A number of contrasting theories on the origins of Gothic have been advanced: for example, that Gothic emerged organically as a 'rationalist' answer to structural challenges;[3] that Gothic was informed by the methods of medieval Scholastic philosophy;[4] that Gothic was an attempt to imitate heaven and the light referred to in various Biblical passages such as Revelation;[5] that Gothic was 'medieval modernism' deliberately rejecting the 'historicist' forms of classical architecture.[6] Beyond specific theories, the style was also shaped by the specific geographical, political, religious and cultural context of Europe in the 12th century onwards (the 'first' Gothic building is considered to have been St Denis, in France in the 1140s by scholarly consensus[7]).

Cathedrals in their cityscapes
Prague Cathedral, Bohemia[b]
Albi Cathedral, France
Freiburg Minster
, Germany

Political

At the end of the 12th century, Europe was divided into a multitude of

French Gothic architecture to Cyprus and the Kingdom of Jerusalem.[citation needed
]

Throughout Europe at this time there was a rapid growth in trade and an associated growth in towns.[9][page needed][10][page needed] Germany and the Lowlands had large flourishing towns that grew in comparative peace, in trade and competition with each other, or united for mutual weal, as in the Hanseatic League. Civic building was of great importance to these towns as a sign of wealth and pride. England and France remained largely feudal and produced grand domestic architecture for their kings, dukes and bishops, rather than grand town halls for their burghers.[citation needed]

Religious

The

Mont Saint-Michel in France. English examples are Westminster Abbey, originally built as a Benedictine order monastic church; and the reconstruction of the Benedictine church at Canterbury.[citation needed
]

The

Carthusians and Premonstratensians also built some 200 churches, usually near cities.[12]

In the 13th century Francis of Assisi established the Franciscans, or so-called "Grey Friars", a mendicant order. Saint Dominic founded the mendicant Dominicans, in Toulouse and Bologna, were particularly influential in the building of Italy's Gothic churches.[9][page needed][10][page needed]

The Teutonic Order, a military order, spread Gothic art into Pomerania, East Prussia, and the Baltic region.[13]

Monastic churches
Abbey of Saint-Remi, Reims (1170–80)
Batalha Monastery
, Portugal (1386–1517)

Geographic

From the 10th to the 13th century, Romanesque architecture had become a pan-European style and manner of construction, affecting buildings in countries as far apart as Ireland, Croatia, Sweden and Sicily. The same wide geographic area was then affected by the development of Gothic architecture, but the acceptance of the Gothic style and methods of construction differed from place to place, as did the expressions of Gothic taste. The proximity of some regions meant that modern country borders do not define divisions of style.[9][page needed] On the other hand, some regions such as England and Spain produced defining characteristics rarely seen elsewhere, except where they have been carried by itinerant craftsmen, or the transfer of bishops.[citation needed] Regional differences that are apparent in the churches of the Romanesque period often become even more apparent in the Gothic.[10][page needed]

The local availability of materials affected both construction and style. In France,

Purbeck marble which was often used for architectural features.[citation needed
]

In Northern Germany, Netherlands, northern Poland, Denmark, and the Baltic countries local building stone was unavailable but there was a strong tradition of building in brick. The resultant style, Brick Gothic, is called "Backsteingotik" in Germany and Scandinavia and is associated with the Hanseatic League.[citation needed] In Italy, stone was used for fortifications, but brick was preferred for other buildings. Because of the extensive and varied deposits of marble, many buildings were faced in marble, or were left with undecorated façade so that this might be achieved at a later date.[citation needed]

The availability of timber also influenced the style of architecture, with timber buildings prevailing in Scandinavia.[

hammer-beam roofs of England were devised as a direct response to the lack of long straight seasoned timber by the end of the mediaeval period, when forests had been decimated not only for the construction of vast roofs but also for ship building.[9][page needed][14][page needed
]

Romanesque tradition

Gothic architecture grew out of the previous architectural genre,

Classical style in the early 15th century.[citation needed
]

By the 12th century, builders throughout Europe developed Romanesque architectural styles (termed

abbey church, the monastery, the castle, the palace, the great hall, the gatehouse, the civic building, the warehouse, and others.[16]

Many architectural features that are associated with Gothic architecture had been developed and used by the architects of Romanesque buildings, particularly in the building of cathedrals and abbey churches. These include ribbed vaults, buttresses, clustered columns, ambulatories, wheel windows, spires, stained glass windows, and richly carved door tympana. These were already features of ecclesiastical architecture before the development of the Gothic style, and all were to develop in increasingly elaborate ways.[17]

Delal Bridge
, Iraq

It was principally the development of the pointed arch which brought about the change that separates Gothic from Romanesque.[

Qasr ibn Wardan
, Syria (564)
ar-Raqqa
, Syria
Monreale Cathedral, Sicily (1174)

Eastern Christian, Sasanian, and Islamic Architecture

The

Great Mosque of Cordoba, built from 785 and repeatedly extended.[23] The Abbasid palace at al-Ukhaidir employed pointed arches in 778 as a dominant theme both structural and decorative throughout the façades and vaults of the complex, while the tomb of al-Muntasir, built 862, employed a dome with a pointed arch profile. Abbasid Samarra had many pointed arches, notably its surviving Bab al-ʿAmma (monumental triple gateway). By the 9th century the pointed arch was used in Egypt and North Africa: in the Nilometer at Fustat in 861, the 876 Mosque of Ibn Tulun in Cairo, and the 870s Great Mosque of Kairouan. Through the 8th and 9th centuries, the pointed arch was employed as standard in secular buildings in architecture throughout the Islamic world.[24] The 10th century Aljafería at Zaragoza displays numerous forms of arch, including many pointed arches decorated and elaborated to a level of design sophistication not seen in Gothic architecture for a further two centuries.[23]

Increasing military and cultural contacts with the Muslim world, including the Norman conquest of Islamic Sicily between 1060 and 1090, the Crusades, beginning 1096, and the Islamic presence in Spain, may have influenced medieval Europe's adoption of the pointed arch, although this hypothesis remains controversial.[25] The structural advantages of pointed arches seems first to have been realised in a medieval Latin Christian context at the abbey church known as Cluny III at Cluny Abbey.[26] Begun by abbot Hugh of Cluny in 1089, the great Romanesque church of Cluny III was the largest church in the west when completed in 1130.[27] Kenneth John Conant, who excavated the site of the church's ruins, argued that the architectural innovations of Cluny III were inspired by the Islamic architecture of Sicily via Monte Cassino.[26] The Abbey of Monte Cassino was the foundational community of the Benedictine Order and lay within the Norman Kingdom of Sicily, which at that time was majority Muslim and predominantly Arabic-speaking[citation needed]. The rib vault with pointed arches was used at Lessay Abbey in Normandy in 1098,[28] and at Durham Cathedral in England at about the same time.[29] In those parts of the Western Mediterranean subject to Islamic control or influence, rich regional variants arose, fusing Romanesque, Byzantine and later Gothic traditions with Islamic decorative forms, as seen, for example, in Monreale and Cefalù Cathedrals, the Alcázar of Seville, and Teruel Cathedral.[30][31]

Notes

  1. Brunelleschi is often cited as one of the first works of the Renaissance
    , the octagonal plan, ribs and pointed silhouette were already determined in the 14th century.
  2. ^ The Gothic south tower is surmounted by a Baroque spire.

Citations

  1. S2CID 191408625
    .
  2. S2CID 257147542
    .
  3. S2CID 240902117
    , retrieved 2023-05-07
  4. ^ Panofsky, Erwin (1951). Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism. Archabbey Press.
  5. ISBN 978-0-691-21403-0
    .
  6. S2CID 191408625
    .
  7. S2CID 240902117
    , retrieved 2023-05-07
  8. ^ "L'art Gothique", section: "L'architecture Gothique en Angleterre" by Ute Engel: L'Angleterre fut l'une des premieres régions à adopter, dans la deuxième moitié du XIIeme siècle, la nouvelle architecture gothique née en France. Les relations historiques entre les deux pays jouèrent un rôle prépondérant: en 1154, Henri II (1154–1189), de la dynastie Française des Plantagenêt, accéda au thrône d'Angleterre." (England was one of the first regions to adopt, during the first half of the 12th century, the new Gothic architecture born in France. Historic relationships between the two countries played a determining role: in 1154, Henry II (1154–1189) became the first of the Anjou Plantagenet kings to ascend to the throne of England). [page needed]
  9. ^ a b c d e f Banister Fletcher, A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method.[page needed]
  10. ^ a b c d John Harvey, The Gothic World
  11. ^ Grodecki 1977, p. 28.
  12. ^ Grodecki 1977, pp. 29–30.
  13. ^ Grodecki 1977, p. 30.
  14. ^ Alec Clifton-Taylor, The Cathedrals of England [page needed]
  15. ISBN 0300052987
  16. ISBN 0199250812
    ; and Ann Williams, "A bell-house and a burh-geat: lordly residences in England before the Norman Conquest", Medieval Knighthood 4 (1992): 221–40.
  17. ^ Nikolaus Pevsner, An Outline of European Architecture. [page needed]
  18. ^ Draper 2005, p. 1–20.
  19. JSTOR 1523154
    .
  20. ^ Draper 2005, p. 3–4.
  21. ^ Draper 2005, p. 4.
  22. ^ Draper 2005, p. 8.
  23. ^ a b Draper 2005, p. 12.
  24. ^ Draper 2005, p. 15.
  25. ^ Scott 2003, p. 113.
  26. ^ a b Draper 2005, p. 17–18.
  27. ^ "Cluny Abbey (article) | Romanesque". Khan Academy. Retrieved 2020-05-07.
  28. ^ François Salet, « L'église abbatiale de Lessay », Bulletin monumental, vol. 1117, no 1, 1959, p. 56-59
  29. ^ "The notable exception is Durham Cathedral, the nave and choir of which (c. 1104) are supported by the first known examples of pointed ribbed vaults." Norman style at the Encyclopædia Britannica
  30. ^ Le genie architectural des Normands a su s'adapter aux lieux en prenant ce qu'il y a de meilleur dans le savoir-faire des batisseurs arabes et byzantins", Les Normands en Sicile, pp.14, 53–57.
  31. ISBN 0-300-02090-2
    .

Bibliography

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