GOTHIC ART
Chapter 3: Gothic Architecture
Jacques Rouveyrol
Romanesque art was about the wall. Gothic will be the negation of the wall. It replaces the wall with partitions of glass: stained glass windows.
1. The Ribbed Vault
The invention of the ribbed vault was designed to ensure that, at the point of greatest pressure in the vault, there was a way to redirect the forces outward. The ribbed vault defines a point where two arches meet. The vault exerts pressure at this point, but instead of pushing directly downward, perpendicular to the ground, it pushes outward. The crossing arches at this point receive this pressure and disperse it in four directions.
2. The Ribbed Vault
The Gothic cathedral is a treatise on architecture. To look at it is to understand the interplay of forces at work in the vault and on the pillars.
It borrows two forms: the dome-like vault, which resembles a series of domes, and the ribbed vault, which rises higher than the summit of the arcs formerets or doubleaux.
The segmental vault is achieved by raising the arcs formerets and doubleaux to align them with the height of the ribbed vault, in order to create a regular vault.
3. The Elevation of the Wall
Several solutions were implemented, either separately or together, to allow for the elevation of the church. First, the arc formeret.
a. The Arc Formeret
Embedded in the wall, parallel to the large arcade that runs along the nave at each bay and opens to the aisle, it reinforces the structure according to the principle explained earlier: to deflect the forces to either side, thus halving them, instead of receiving them perpendicularly.
b. The Thinning of the Supports
The reinforcement of the wall is also based on another method of construction. The original technique, which used stone as it was taken from the quarry — with horizontal layers accumulated over time, making the stone "elastic" — is replaced by a construction method known as délit, in which the stone is turned so that the layers are oriented vertically. As a result, this creates a rigidity (opposed to the earlier-mentioned elasticity) in the support, allowing it to be thinned and, consequently, to weigh less.
c. The First Gothic (12th century): Saint-Denis, Noyon, Laon, Notre-Dame de Paris.
4. The Flying Buttress and the Classic Gothic (First Half of the 13th Century)
The appearance of the flying buttress made it possible to dispense with the tribunes. The vault "pushes" against the walls on either side. Previously, the tribune reinforced the sides. The flying buttress now takes on the forces and channels them outside the wall into the buttress, and from there, down into the ground.
Freed from the tribunes, the wall could be opened up even more and replaced by partitions of glass: stained glass windows.
5. The Arch of Glass and the Rayonnant Gothic (Second Half of the 13th Century)
With the wall having disappeared, only the "ribs" remain, and between them, stained glass windows. The Sainte-Chapelle, on the Île de la Cité in Paris, is a building made of glass (similar to those still built today).
Here we are at the complete opposite of Romanesque architecture, which was centered around heavy stone walls.
The rose window (a sun radiating outward — hence the name given to this style: Rayonnant) is without doubt one of the most beautiful and convincing expressions of this very elegant architecture (elegant in the way one might describe a mathematical demonstration as elegant).
6. The Stained Glass Window
a. General Characteristics: its Symbolism:
The cathedral is undoubtedly like an ark, a refuge for those who wish to be saved. But it is also the prefiguration of the City of God.
As such, it must present itself as a precious casket overflowing with gems. The colors of the stained glass give the incoming light the appearance of such precious stones.
Moreover, since the windows often depict saints, they are like the Court of Lords seated with God, on either side of the tabernacle where He Himself resides.
b. Its Evolution:
The evolution of stained glass also teaches us something crucial about its meaning.
Small in size and with muted colors during the Romanesque period, stained glass then allowed only a little light to enter the church — and even so, it transformed that light through its colors.
As the walls receded and were replaced by glass, the stained glass intensified its colors (often "dark" colors like blue and red), so that no more light entered the church than before.
Thus, glass walls were not built to bring in more light.
The purpose of stained glass was not so much to brighten the interior, but to transmute earthly light into heavenly light. In the House of God, sunlight has no place. What is needed is divine light. Stained glass is the philosopher’s stone that achieves this transmutation.
7. Flamboyant Gothic (Late 14th – 15th Century)
In classical Gothic, one could, at a glance, follow the ribs of the columns and arches and understand the architecture of the cathedral.
In Flamboyant Gothic, however, the eye gets lost in the maze of ribs, most of which serve no structural purpose but are purely decorative — even spectacular.
This Gothic is called Flamboyant because the columns and arches, using counter-curves, mimic the grace (which would later be called mannerist in the 16th century) of a rising flame.
It is an exotic and extremely light style, which some have seen as a "decadence" of the Gothic style.
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