The Rise of Gothic Architecture in Europe (2013)
Throughout history, humans have had an appreciation for architecture. On a base level, the need for shelter drives our appreciation, but in other realms of thought, it exists for something greater— the Acropolis of polytheistic Athens, the Coliseum in Rome, even the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, California each represent a higher understanding of and desire for architecture to perform not just as functional, but as a genuine form of tribute, inspiration, and art.
The Gothic period is a distinct example of the way architecture both reflects and promotes the development of more distinguished forms of building techniques, stylization, and the endowment of purpose in a space. Throughout the few centuries that span the true Gothic era, structures are created for a variety of reasons, but discernibly for divine and significant purposes. The people of the Gothic age dealt with issues similar to those that contemporary societies meet, and likewise the important matters of their time are evident in the things they produced. Communities once concerned with the afterlife, tradition, and religious culture, changed their focuses to new ideas, morals, and methods of expression. They began to explore thoughts and desires once forbidden or altogether not considered; they allowed themselves a freedom previously unknown for the centuries ahead.
In considering the evolution into Gothicism, it is important to approach it with an understanding of its predecessors. The Romanesque period, a time that focused intensely on the significance of the afterlife. Coming from the Western Roman Empire in the 11th century, the Romanesque had the profound influence of Catholicism guiding its creative direction. The people of this era were deeply concerned with the powers of Heaven, and ensuring their place in it for their immortal souls. God was an almighty, powerful figure in the everyday lives of the Romanesque citizens, and they did all that they could to maintain and better their image and relationship with Him. Thusly, much of the art of the period reflects the weight of this mentality on the people creating it. Images of biblical narratives, the Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity are more than dominant in the artwork that remains from the Romanesque. After the year 1150, however, a gradual but noticeable change occurs, becoming the distinctive attitude and style of the Gothic.
An important thing to note in looking at the merge into Gothic is that it was a change that evolved quickly in some areas, and was powerfully different from the Romanesque. From the perspective of the late Otto G. Von Simson, professor at University of Chicago, “Gothic architecture emerges suddenly and almost simultaneously with the great expressions of Romanesque art, not as its sequel or ‘logical equal,’ but its rival and antithesis” (6). Much of what is more distinctively Gothic style and influence can be seeing coming out of Western Europe, which developed the style more readily than Eastern European and Southern-Mediterranean countries. France is arguably the most accessible state in terms of evident Gothic tendencies and stylization. From the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians:
[Early] Gothic art…is geographically so closely identified with one territory and its historical destinies that the late Henri Foçillon[1] suggested, paradoxically but wisely, that Gothic
be defined as the Romanesque of the Ile de France. (Von Simson 6)
This idea should be taken to understand the absolute power that the Gothic style and mindset had in France, as well as its early, almost simultaneous rise to popularity during the continued Romanesque influence in countries slower to adopt the change, such as Italy and England. Due to this non-dismissible factor, France is a primary source for considering the ideas, values, and aesthetics of the Gothic period.
What is considered the first identifiably Gothic basilica (and almost certainly the first architectural work) is the Abbey Church of St. Denis. Completed in 1144, the transformation of the Church into the Gothic style was wholly the work of Abbot Suger. Appointed Abbot of the church in 1122 (at the age of 41), Suger made it his duty to rebuild the abbey (initially completed by King Dagobert of France in 775 and decaying by 1137) in honor of the patron saint of both Paris and the original church, St. Denis[2]. When approaching the task, Suger had already developed an appreciation for Byzantine art. The Byzantine style, in congruence with the Romanesque, came instead from Eastern Europe, Constantinople, and Parts of the Middle East and Mediterranean. These influences were brought to France through trading, exploring, and the great crusades of Europe. Suger was drawn to the angular shapes, vibrancy of color, and use of pictographic narratives and felt strongly about their abilities to enhance the experiential qualities of the abbey. In describing the effect of these attributes, Suger wrote:
…Sometimes when, because of my delight in the beauty of the house of God, the multicolor loveliness of the gems has called me away from external cares…transporting me from
material to immaterial things, has persuaded me to examine the diversity of holy virtues, then I seem to see myself existing on some level, as it were, beyond our earthly one, neither
completely in the slime of the earth no completely in the purity of heaven. By the gift of God I can be transported in an anagogical manner from this inferior level to that superior
one[3]. (Suger XXXII)
Hoping to endow St. Denis with this type of transcendent power, Suger, despite criticism from contemporaries, Suger set on constructing the abbey in his own take on the Byzantine style.
St. Denis Abbey Church features all the beginnings of a Gothic basilica. A grand three-portal entrance welcomes visitors at the west façade; Christian churches are always oriented due to Christ’s birth taking place in the east, where the apse is located. There are multiple levels on the structure—the ambulatory, the gallery, the clerestory and the tower—pulling the building taller and upward towards heaven, in contrast with more square-built, horizontal Romanesque and even slighter Gothic architectural styles like the English. The west façade features a display of lancet windows, depicting biblical scenes and stories in vibrant colors. A brilliant rose window is set over the center portal, which has been replaced multiple times due to damages. Especially typical of Gothicism, St. Denis features magnificent tracery and brilliant exterior crochets, adding a more decorated feel that characterizes the Gothic style. More naturalistic, individualized jamb statues embodying the ‘Gothic sway’ line the exterior of the building, while fanciful relief sculptures are embedded in the portal doors and the tympanum and archivolts above.
The interior of the basilica features early Gothic traditions—the many bays of arches lining the nave of the church are slightly pointed, still featuring a widened curve that is characteristic of both Romanesque and, even more so, Byzantine-Muslim constructions. Contrary to most recognizably Gothic churches, St. Denis is not established in a cruciform shape, but runs more linearly with a much shorter transept, thereby removing partially its ability to be titled a cathedral. Ribbed vaulting and bundled piers add to the development of more intricate detailing to come.
In recognizing St. Denis as the first truly Gothic establishment, it is important and not entirely difficult to distinguish the remaining traces of Romanesque in its design. Rounded arches, fundamental in Romanesque style, are present in St. Denis’ exterior. The tracery is less pronounced and the building is more blockish than many later Gothic structures will prove. The lack of heavy decoration, crochets, tracery, and a pronounced transept indicate that the basilica has not fully departed from Romanesque tendencies. In these ways, St. Denis gives itself away, in a manner, as the earliest of Gothic incarnates.
These aspects of architectural stylization, briefly described, personify the growing interest in matters of travel, style, and outer influences that occurred beyond the long held focus on divinity during the previous centuries. While the churches constructed in the Gothic were indeed glorious tributes to God, The Virgin Mary, and the many martyrs and saints after which they are often named or to whom they are dedicated, the people of the 12th century through the 16th developed their own understanding of the significance of life and existence. Considering St. Denis once more and looking at the importance Abbot Suger placed on the transcendental qualities of the glass and the inner chapel, it is important to recognize the potential reason behind his response to the architecture. Scholars have speculated:
There is something unexpectedly vivid and autobiographical about that private world poised between heaven and earth. Suger’s words sound like the personal confession of someone trying to describe a complex experience for which the ordinary vocabulary of his day made no adequate provision…the essential thing about it is that it was grounded in the physical beauty of the building and its appurtenances. Religious architecture was here performing what sensitive imaginative souls might consider to be its proper function, namely offering a foretaste of paradise through the senses. Instead of conducting the soul to heaven, it brings heaven down to earth[4]. (Kidson 7)
It is this last insight that speaks to the existential ideas driving the growth that occurred in the Gothic era. After centuries of fearing the Christian Apocalypse, citizens of the medieval age began to focus their attention and their religious priorities on understanding and investigating the self. One’s humanity and place on earth became a factor in the evolution of society, religion, experimentation, and art. Pioneers of exotic influence like Abbot Suger are essential in the motivation for the rest of the country, continent, and overall time period to broaden their knowledge and interests in their daily lives; not only their immortal soul, but their own purpose and pleasures to be experienced in life on Earth.
With St. Denis giving way to more extravagant basilicas and cathedrals well into the 13th, 14th, 15th, and even 16th century which encompass the Gothic period. One such example is Chartres Cathedral in Chartres, France. Started in 1194 and completed in 1220, Chartres stands as an absolute example of progressive Gothic style.
Chartres is known for being incredibly brilliant in color. Given an appropriate name, “La Belle Verriere”—‘the beautiful window’—the rose window and the lancet windows around it feature the Virgin and Child as Sedes sapientia in stained glass most likely colored with lapis lazuli, giving the windows a distinct, “Chartres blue”. The windows depict biblical scenes and symbolism—the Last Judgment, Passion, the Tree of Jesse, the Infancy of Christ, and Old Testament stores such as the Visitation, the Annunciation, and the Nativity. The windows features detailed tracery, and the entire cathedral, set in cruciform, features pointed arches and Flamboyant style, spikier crochets and decoration. The exterior flying buttresses, moderately personalized and interactive jamb statues, and soaring towers (one completed much later and noticeably more Gothic) make for a well-rounded example of religious Gothic architecture.
While the emphasis on humanity and one’s place in life was grew ever more significant throughout the Gothic and into the Baroque—the invention of clocks, navigation tools, explorations of science by people like Aristotle and Thomas Equinas, and the development of music, literature, and philosophy and painting began to spread and evolve into more individualized regional styles and methodologies—religion was still a massive aspect of life in the middle ages. The need to create these houses of God was more present than ever, and in some ways, it became a business in itself for those that recognized the profit to be made from pilgrimages.
Medieval Europe was littered with small towns and dirt roads connecting them, some close and some a great distance away so that when en route to a pilgrimage site, visitors would have to stay a fortnight in one of the many towns through which they passed. Visitors on the pilgrim routes were most often hoping to reach a specific destination which was recognized to be a holy site, therefore paying tribute to God and making themselves clean of sin and pure enough for Heaven. The most recognized and visited sites include Santiago de Compostela, in Spain, where the apostle James is said to have traveled converting Celtic peoples to Christianity[5] and where his bones are said to have been kept; St. Peter’s in Rome, Italy, and Jerusalem, where Christ was said to be crucified, buried, and to have risen anew. In attempting to reach these places and achieve retribution, pilgrims would often stop at monasteries and smaller churches in smaller villages. These places, as well as the larger, more distinguished cities like Paris and Chartres, began capitalizing on the tourism they received by investing in or artificially crafting reliquaries and stories of religious significance in their towns’ religious buildings. This resulted in a massive expansion and growth in architectural constructs due to the increasing competition among villages to receive the pilgrims’ patronage. Tithing at mass even became a part of a clergy’s construction budget in order to expand and better a church’s sacred and aesthetic value.
When considering the massive duty of creating a holy place which brings people closer to their religion, it is even more impressive the time, money, and power invested in the creation of the divine architecture seen sprouting up and upwards in the Gothic period. Architecture in the Gothic period is both a lasting reflection of the goals of the people, as well as it was an inspirational tool for those who experienced its power as a holy space and those who continue to make the voyage today.
[1] Henri Foçillon (1881-1943) was an influential French art historian, museum director, college professor, poet, printmaker and critical writer. He is best known for his scholastic literature on medieval art.
[2] Halsall, Paul. “Medieval Sourcebook: Abbot Suger: On What Was Done in His Administration”. Internet Medieval Sourcebook. Fordham University, New York. Web. Nov. 26 1996.
[3] Suger, Abbot. The Book of Suger Abbot of St. Denis on What Was Done During his Administration. (ca 1144-1148). Print.
[4] Kidson, Peter. “Panofsky, Suger and St. Denis”. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 50 (1987): 1-17. Print.
[5] Sacred Sites. “Santiago de Compostela”. https://sacredsites.com/europe/spain/satiago_de_compostela.htm. Web. 1982-2013.
The Gothic period is a distinct example of the way architecture both reflects and promotes the development of more distinguished forms of building techniques, stylization, and the endowment of purpose in a space. Throughout the few centuries that span the true Gothic era, structures are created for a variety of reasons, but discernibly for divine and significant purposes. The people of the Gothic age dealt with issues similar to those that contemporary societies meet, and likewise the important matters of their time are evident in the things they produced. Communities once concerned with the afterlife, tradition, and religious culture, changed their focuses to new ideas, morals, and methods of expression. They began to explore thoughts and desires once forbidden or altogether not considered; they allowed themselves a freedom previously unknown for the centuries ahead.
In considering the evolution into Gothicism, it is important to approach it with an understanding of its predecessors. The Romanesque period, a time that focused intensely on the significance of the afterlife. Coming from the Western Roman Empire in the 11th century, the Romanesque had the profound influence of Catholicism guiding its creative direction. The people of this era were deeply concerned with the powers of Heaven, and ensuring their place in it for their immortal souls. God was an almighty, powerful figure in the everyday lives of the Romanesque citizens, and they did all that they could to maintain and better their image and relationship with Him. Thusly, much of the art of the period reflects the weight of this mentality on the people creating it. Images of biblical narratives, the Virgin Mary and the Holy Trinity are more than dominant in the artwork that remains from the Romanesque. After the year 1150, however, a gradual but noticeable change occurs, becoming the distinctive attitude and style of the Gothic.
An important thing to note in looking at the merge into Gothic is that it was a change that evolved quickly in some areas, and was powerfully different from the Romanesque. From the perspective of the late Otto G. Von Simson, professor at University of Chicago, “Gothic architecture emerges suddenly and almost simultaneously with the great expressions of Romanesque art, not as its sequel or ‘logical equal,’ but its rival and antithesis” (6). Much of what is more distinctively Gothic style and influence can be seeing coming out of Western Europe, which developed the style more readily than Eastern European and Southern-Mediterranean countries. France is arguably the most accessible state in terms of evident Gothic tendencies and stylization. From the Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians:
[Early] Gothic art…is geographically so closely identified with one territory and its historical destinies that the late Henri Foçillon[1] suggested, paradoxically but wisely, that Gothic
be defined as the Romanesque of the Ile de France. (Von Simson 6)
This idea should be taken to understand the absolute power that the Gothic style and mindset had in France, as well as its early, almost simultaneous rise to popularity during the continued Romanesque influence in countries slower to adopt the change, such as Italy and England. Due to this non-dismissible factor, France is a primary source for considering the ideas, values, and aesthetics of the Gothic period.
What is considered the first identifiably Gothic basilica (and almost certainly the first architectural work) is the Abbey Church of St. Denis. Completed in 1144, the transformation of the Church into the Gothic style was wholly the work of Abbot Suger. Appointed Abbot of the church in 1122 (at the age of 41), Suger made it his duty to rebuild the abbey (initially completed by King Dagobert of France in 775 and decaying by 1137) in honor of the patron saint of both Paris and the original church, St. Denis[2]. When approaching the task, Suger had already developed an appreciation for Byzantine art. The Byzantine style, in congruence with the Romanesque, came instead from Eastern Europe, Constantinople, and Parts of the Middle East and Mediterranean. These influences were brought to France through trading, exploring, and the great crusades of Europe. Suger was drawn to the angular shapes, vibrancy of color, and use of pictographic narratives and felt strongly about their abilities to enhance the experiential qualities of the abbey. In describing the effect of these attributes, Suger wrote:
…Sometimes when, because of my delight in the beauty of the house of God, the multicolor loveliness of the gems has called me away from external cares…transporting me from
material to immaterial things, has persuaded me to examine the diversity of holy virtues, then I seem to see myself existing on some level, as it were, beyond our earthly one, neither
completely in the slime of the earth no completely in the purity of heaven. By the gift of God I can be transported in an anagogical manner from this inferior level to that superior
one[3]. (Suger XXXII)
Hoping to endow St. Denis with this type of transcendent power, Suger, despite criticism from contemporaries, Suger set on constructing the abbey in his own take on the Byzantine style.
St. Denis Abbey Church features all the beginnings of a Gothic basilica. A grand three-portal entrance welcomes visitors at the west façade; Christian churches are always oriented due to Christ’s birth taking place in the east, where the apse is located. There are multiple levels on the structure—the ambulatory, the gallery, the clerestory and the tower—pulling the building taller and upward towards heaven, in contrast with more square-built, horizontal Romanesque and even slighter Gothic architectural styles like the English. The west façade features a display of lancet windows, depicting biblical scenes and stories in vibrant colors. A brilliant rose window is set over the center portal, which has been replaced multiple times due to damages. Especially typical of Gothicism, St. Denis features magnificent tracery and brilliant exterior crochets, adding a more decorated feel that characterizes the Gothic style. More naturalistic, individualized jamb statues embodying the ‘Gothic sway’ line the exterior of the building, while fanciful relief sculptures are embedded in the portal doors and the tympanum and archivolts above.
The interior of the basilica features early Gothic traditions—the many bays of arches lining the nave of the church are slightly pointed, still featuring a widened curve that is characteristic of both Romanesque and, even more so, Byzantine-Muslim constructions. Contrary to most recognizably Gothic churches, St. Denis is not established in a cruciform shape, but runs more linearly with a much shorter transept, thereby removing partially its ability to be titled a cathedral. Ribbed vaulting and bundled piers add to the development of more intricate detailing to come.
In recognizing St. Denis as the first truly Gothic establishment, it is important and not entirely difficult to distinguish the remaining traces of Romanesque in its design. Rounded arches, fundamental in Romanesque style, are present in St. Denis’ exterior. The tracery is less pronounced and the building is more blockish than many later Gothic structures will prove. The lack of heavy decoration, crochets, tracery, and a pronounced transept indicate that the basilica has not fully departed from Romanesque tendencies. In these ways, St. Denis gives itself away, in a manner, as the earliest of Gothic incarnates.
These aspects of architectural stylization, briefly described, personify the growing interest in matters of travel, style, and outer influences that occurred beyond the long held focus on divinity during the previous centuries. While the churches constructed in the Gothic were indeed glorious tributes to God, The Virgin Mary, and the many martyrs and saints after which they are often named or to whom they are dedicated, the people of the 12th century through the 16th developed their own understanding of the significance of life and existence. Considering St. Denis once more and looking at the importance Abbot Suger placed on the transcendental qualities of the glass and the inner chapel, it is important to recognize the potential reason behind his response to the architecture. Scholars have speculated:
There is something unexpectedly vivid and autobiographical about that private world poised between heaven and earth. Suger’s words sound like the personal confession of someone trying to describe a complex experience for which the ordinary vocabulary of his day made no adequate provision…the essential thing about it is that it was grounded in the physical beauty of the building and its appurtenances. Religious architecture was here performing what sensitive imaginative souls might consider to be its proper function, namely offering a foretaste of paradise through the senses. Instead of conducting the soul to heaven, it brings heaven down to earth[4]. (Kidson 7)
It is this last insight that speaks to the existential ideas driving the growth that occurred in the Gothic era. After centuries of fearing the Christian Apocalypse, citizens of the medieval age began to focus their attention and their religious priorities on understanding and investigating the self. One’s humanity and place on earth became a factor in the evolution of society, religion, experimentation, and art. Pioneers of exotic influence like Abbot Suger are essential in the motivation for the rest of the country, continent, and overall time period to broaden their knowledge and interests in their daily lives; not only their immortal soul, but their own purpose and pleasures to be experienced in life on Earth.
With St. Denis giving way to more extravagant basilicas and cathedrals well into the 13th, 14th, 15th, and even 16th century which encompass the Gothic period. One such example is Chartres Cathedral in Chartres, France. Started in 1194 and completed in 1220, Chartres stands as an absolute example of progressive Gothic style.
Chartres is known for being incredibly brilliant in color. Given an appropriate name, “La Belle Verriere”—‘the beautiful window’—the rose window and the lancet windows around it feature the Virgin and Child as Sedes sapientia in stained glass most likely colored with lapis lazuli, giving the windows a distinct, “Chartres blue”. The windows depict biblical scenes and symbolism—the Last Judgment, Passion, the Tree of Jesse, the Infancy of Christ, and Old Testament stores such as the Visitation, the Annunciation, and the Nativity. The windows features detailed tracery, and the entire cathedral, set in cruciform, features pointed arches and Flamboyant style, spikier crochets and decoration. The exterior flying buttresses, moderately personalized and interactive jamb statues, and soaring towers (one completed much later and noticeably more Gothic) make for a well-rounded example of religious Gothic architecture.
While the emphasis on humanity and one’s place in life was grew ever more significant throughout the Gothic and into the Baroque—the invention of clocks, navigation tools, explorations of science by people like Aristotle and Thomas Equinas, and the development of music, literature, and philosophy and painting began to spread and evolve into more individualized regional styles and methodologies—religion was still a massive aspect of life in the middle ages. The need to create these houses of God was more present than ever, and in some ways, it became a business in itself for those that recognized the profit to be made from pilgrimages.
Medieval Europe was littered with small towns and dirt roads connecting them, some close and some a great distance away so that when en route to a pilgrimage site, visitors would have to stay a fortnight in one of the many towns through which they passed. Visitors on the pilgrim routes were most often hoping to reach a specific destination which was recognized to be a holy site, therefore paying tribute to God and making themselves clean of sin and pure enough for Heaven. The most recognized and visited sites include Santiago de Compostela, in Spain, where the apostle James is said to have traveled converting Celtic peoples to Christianity[5] and where his bones are said to have been kept; St. Peter’s in Rome, Italy, and Jerusalem, where Christ was said to be crucified, buried, and to have risen anew. In attempting to reach these places and achieve retribution, pilgrims would often stop at monasteries and smaller churches in smaller villages. These places, as well as the larger, more distinguished cities like Paris and Chartres, began capitalizing on the tourism they received by investing in or artificially crafting reliquaries and stories of religious significance in their towns’ religious buildings. This resulted in a massive expansion and growth in architectural constructs due to the increasing competition among villages to receive the pilgrims’ patronage. Tithing at mass even became a part of a clergy’s construction budget in order to expand and better a church’s sacred and aesthetic value.
When considering the massive duty of creating a holy place which brings people closer to their religion, it is even more impressive the time, money, and power invested in the creation of the divine architecture seen sprouting up and upwards in the Gothic period. Architecture in the Gothic period is both a lasting reflection of the goals of the people, as well as it was an inspirational tool for those who experienced its power as a holy space and those who continue to make the voyage today.
[1] Henri Foçillon (1881-1943) was an influential French art historian, museum director, college professor, poet, printmaker and critical writer. He is best known for his scholastic literature on medieval art.
[2] Halsall, Paul. “Medieval Sourcebook: Abbot Suger: On What Was Done in His Administration”. Internet Medieval Sourcebook. Fordham University, New York. Web. Nov. 26 1996.
[3] Suger, Abbot. The Book of Suger Abbot of St. Denis on What Was Done During his Administration. (ca 1144-1148). Print.
[4] Kidson, Peter. “Panofsky, Suger and St. Denis”. Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 50 (1987): 1-17. Print.
[5] Sacred Sites. “Santiago de Compostela”. https://sacredsites.com/europe/spain/satiago_de_compostela.htm. Web. 1982-2013.
