College of Environmental Design
Department of Architecture, UC Berkeley
Architecture Slide Library
Arch 170A Fall 1995 James Study Aid 23
I. Origins of Gothic architecture in renovations of Abbey Church of St. Denis, ( Image1 or Image2) under leadership of Abbot Suger: two-towered west front with rose window (c 1135-1140); choir and ambulatory (1140-44) with pointed rib vaults and ample stained glass windows. Theology of an architecture of light and glorification of French monarchy at the burial place of its kings. Writings of Dionysius the Pseudo-Areopagite about God as light and their identification with St. Denis. Area of France around Paris as center of new style's development.
II. An early Gothic cathedral: Laon, c 1160-1205 (Image1 or Image2). New importance of the town in political life, and of the cathedral in the town. Plasticity of facade, and expansion of rose window and of porch. Five towers built of seven planned. Four story nave elevation with both gallery and triforium; sexpartite rib vaulting; flying buttresses originally not expressed on exterior.
III. Cathedral construction. role of master masons as architects (often with substantial input from local bishops and abbots) and as contractors overseeing craftspeople from different guilds. Emulation and competition as it affects cathedral design. range of tools and machines, all human or animal-powered. standardization as seen in use of templates.
IV. The cathedral of Chartres (Image1, Image2, Image3, Image4,): assimilates most previous experiments and directs path of later innovations. The special relationship of Chartres and the Virgin Mary; the Sacred Tunic. Fire of 1134 and the new west front. Royal Portal: integration of iconographic and architectural expression; jamb figures. Fire of 1194 and cathedral reconstruction, that followed (largely complete by 1220). Cathedral as an expression of piety and local identity. Financing the cathedral: contributions from townspeople, the wealthy diocese, aristocrats, and royalty, from France and across Europe. Transept facades and sculptural programs illustrating and instructing tenants of Christian faith and championing the Virgin Mary. Plan: triple-aiseld Latin cross with double ambulatory. Interior elevation: three stories with triforium, but no gallery, and greatly expanded clerestory; increased amount of stained glass, including rose windows in each transept; skeletal quality of Gothic construction with integration of pointed arch, rib vault, and flying buttress. Tension between structural and theological interpretations of Gothic cathedrals, between focus on engineering and on the creation of heaven on earth.
Casto Edward Vocal Jr.
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Department of Architecture, Slide Library
University of California, Berkeley
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