The Gothic Cathedral and the Medieval city - Avant

The Gothic Cathedral
and the Medieval city
The built environment
Department of Construction
Dr. Jason E Charalambides
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Liberating the Italian Peninsula and
bringing Art and Architecture of Byzantium
San Vitale in Ravenna
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Byzantium can no longer hold
the Western Empire
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From Byzantium to the Holy
Roman Empire
On Christmas Day 800, Charlemagne, king of
the Franks, was crowned in Rome by Pope Leo III
with the title of Holy Roman Emperor. Leo not only
crowned Charlemagne, he kneeled before him.
The effect was to replace the Emperor in
Constantinople as the temporal protector of the
Church in the West and signaled an end to the
Eastern Emperor's involvement in Western affairs.
It was intended by the addition of the word 'Holy'
to forge a definitive link between the papacy and
Charlemagne's empire.
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4
Emulating Byzantium
the Palatine
Chapel of
Charlemagne
Aachen
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(Aix La Chapelle).
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A Different Vision, Tradition,
and Understanding
Torhalle (gatehouse),
Lorsch, Germany. Odo of
Metz
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Learning from the
Southerners and Adapting
to local traditions and
spatial forms
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What we keep
The Roman Basilica
plan is the basis for what
became the Christian
Church.
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At different scales, the
Basilica Ulpia and the first
Saint Peter's in the Vatican
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And what we adapt...
great coxwell barn, oxfordshire,
England, 14th century
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The First printed “Plan”.
Abbey of Saint Gall
The First recorded
architectural planCirca 820.
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Carolingian to Romanesque
The Carolingian
church was
transformed to
Romanesque with
vertical Aesthetic,
Basilican plan, and a
masonry vault instead
of a wooden ceiling
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The 8th-century Carolingian Martinskirche (Church of St. Martin)
in Linz is considered the oldest church in Austria that still retains
most of its original form.
The Église Notre-Dame-la-Grande in Poitiers is a magnificent
Romanesque-Byzantine church from the 11th and 12th centuries. Its
wide facade is flanked by pinecone-shaped towers and covered in
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carvings of saints and biblical scenes.
The Sculpture
Romanesque
Gothic
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Abbey of Saint
Denis 1140 and 1231
On the edge of the city of
Paris, the Abbey of Saint
Denis was built after the
patron Saint of France in
1140 by Abbot Suger
It was a national shrine
and the place where
Charlemagne's father was
buried...
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Skin Exterior Texture of Religious
Architecture
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The Keshava temple at
Somnathpur is a very intricately
sculpted ornate edifice. Yet in
terms of perception, it is a very
closed form where natural light
comes in only from the main entry.
The Indian approach defies the
perception of celestial divinities that
the occident follows. Natural light is
not “divine” and no connection of
the statue with the exterior is
imaginable.
J. Charalambides
Plan and views of the Keshava temple at Somnathpur, India
circa 1268 BC.
The Origins of Gothic
Architecture
This period is often associated with an
increased efficacy in the royal administration,
and Suger has been credited with having
contributed to a new ideology of kingship,
although recent scholarship tends to
downplay his immediate contributions. As
abbot of Saint Denis, Suger began a major
renovation program for the abbey perhaps as
early as 1122,
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Abbot Suger 1081-1151
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in the early years of his tenure. Although the academic literature
has concentrated primarily on the reconstruction of the west facade
and east ends of Saint-Denis, Suger's building program also included
almost all of the abbey's buildings, notably the refectory, the
dormitory, the domus hospitum, and perhaps a new cloister.
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The role of Suger as artistic patron has been the subject of a long
and varied critical discourse. Some have gone as far as to credit
Suger with having independently masterminded the creation of new
iconographic programs of sculpture, stained glass cycles, and of
Gothic architecture in general at Saint-Denis.
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The Origins of Gothic
Architecture
Abbot of Saint Denis from 1122 until his
death in 1151, Suger played an important role
in political and ecclesiastical affairs of Paris in
the first half of the twelfth century. Closely tied
to the Capetians since he was an oblate at
Saint-Denis, Suger even served as regent
from 1147-1149 while King Louis VII was on
Crusade.
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Inspired by Abbey of Saint
Etienne in Caen 1120
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Abbey of Saint
Denis 1140 and 1231
Note: rose window and
column figures on west
facade; double
ambulatory and pointed
ribbed vaults in choir.
Architecture and light.
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Abbey of Saint
Denis 1140 and 1231
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Abbey of Saint
Denis 1140 and 1231
Note: rose window and
column figures on west
facade; double
ambulatory and pointed
ribbed vaults in choir.
Architecture and light.
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Abbey of Saint
Denis 1140 and 1231
Note: rose window
and column figures
on west facade;
double ambulatory
and pointed ribbed
vaults in choir.
Architecture and
light.
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The cathedral town.
The cathedral
town. New
importance of the
town in political life,
and of the
cathedral in the
town.
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➢Amersfoort,
Netherlands
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The Case of Chartres
The cathedral as an
expression of piety and
local identity.
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Financing the
cathedral: roles of relics,
corporate gifts, diversion
of church and diocesan
incomes royal and noble
gifts.
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The Sacred Tunic.
The special
relationship of Chartres
and the Virgin Mary;
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the Sacred Tunic.
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Predecessors of
Chartres in 858, 1020;
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the fire of 1134 and the
new west front
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Differences between Gothic
and Romanesque structures:
The scale,
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skeletal vs. "mural"
quality
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pointed ribbed vaulting.
The pointed arch and its
implications;
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pier buttresses and
flying buttresses.
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The Cathedral of Laon:
Experiments in height,
light, and rhythm in the
early Gothic cathedrals at
Laon, 1150s-1214
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The Cathedral of Laon:
sexpartite vaults.
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four-story interior
elevation,
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use of
tribune/gallery;
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simple piers
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Chartres
➢ Chartres as the
classic solution to
these experiments.
Emulation and
competition as it
affects cathedral
design.
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Notre Dame of Paris
There is something
special about this!
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