Gothic: St.-Denis and the First Cathedrals

1. Gothic: St.-Denis and the First Cathedrals Basilica of St.-Denis, Paris, apse and triforium of the choir, 1231

2. French Gothic

3. English Gothic

4. German Gothic

5. Spanish Gothic

6. Italian Gothic

7. Conventional ways of classifying Gothic architecture French Gothic: classic balance Late Gothic: decorative

9. Textbook for Part 3: Concentrated Focus on the Gothic Great Church, 1200-1400 c.e.

10. Abbot Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153) Cistercian order Abbot Suger of St.-Denis (1081-1151) Benedictine order Romanesque abbey church of Fontenay 1139-47 Gothic abbey church of St.-Denis, Paris choir 1140-44 “What is the good of displaying all this gold in the church? You display the statue of a saint . . . and you think that the more overloaded with colors it is, the holier it is. And people throng to kiss it – and are urged to leave an offering; they pay homage to the beauty of the object more than to its holiness. . . . Oh vanity! vanity! and folly even greater than the vanity! The church sparkles and gleams on all sides, while its poor huddle in need; its stones are gilded, while its children go unclad; in it the art lovers find enough to satisfy their curiosity, while the poor find nothing there to relieve their misery.” “We maintain that the sacred vessels should be enhanced by outward adornment, and nowhere more than in serving the Holy Sacrifice, where inwardly all should be pure and outwardly all should be noble. . . . If, according to the word of God and the prophet’s command, the gold vessels, the gold phials, and the small gold mortars were used to collect the blood of goats, the calves, and a red heifer, then how much more zealously shall we hold our gold vases, precious stones, and all that we value most highly in creation, in order to collect the blood of Jesus Christ.”

11. Choir of St.-Denis, furnishings from ca. 1140-44

12. St. Denis: Suger’s twin-towered façade (1137-40) replaced Carolingian westwork Carolingian St.-Denis, 768-75 Suger’sSt.-Denis new narthex

13. St.-Denis façade, center portal with Last Judgment (Romanesque), 1137-40

14. Abbot Suger on light: “de materialibus ad immaterialia” (“from the material to the immaterial”): a declaration of Neoplatonic theology? supposedly inspired by a 9th-cen manuscript of an anonymous 6th-century author now known as the Pseudo-Dionysius whom Suger took to be St. Denis himself Colored light and air in the choir of St.-Denis

15. colored light and air in the choir of St.-Denis

16. pointed arch or arc brisé (“broken arch”) Choir of St.-Denis, 1140-44

17. rib vaults Choir of St.-Denis

18. rib vaults Choir of St.-Denis rib vaults facilitate vaulting irregular bay shapes

19. Choir of St.-Denis

20. New goals for ecclesiastical architecture to express the theology of light → Gothic architecture Choir of St.-Denis

21. Erwin Panofsky’s contribution to study of Gothic architecture

22. Wilson shakes up conventional divisions and periodizations: The origins of French Gothic do not begin with St.-Denis Choir of St.-Denis, 1140-44

23. Île-de-France region (Gothic’s birthplace)

24. The Norman Contribution St.-Étienne abbey, Caen, France, 1060-77

25. Early Christian San Paolo fuori le Mura Rome, Italy, 385-392 Romanesque St.-Étienne abbey Caen (Normandy), France, 1060-77

26. Romanesque St.-Étienne abbey Caen (Normandy), France, 1060-77 Angled position of diagonal ribs and capitals Primacy accorded to the bay Filling of spaces above the springings of vaults Hollowed out wall (Norman thick wall)

27. The BurgundianContribution tall proportioning of nave and nave arcades sharply pointed arches bold bay-defining members overall verticality

28. earliest pointed-arched rib vault is in Durham’s high nave vault (1120-1133)

29. Clues in smaller churches in the Ile-de-France Wilson: “skeletonized walls” St.-Pierre-de-Monmartre, Paris, 1133-47

30. Clues in smaller churches in the Ile-de-France Wilson: “skeletonized walls” St.-Pierre-de-Monmartre, Paris, 1133-47

31. Norman St.-Etienne at Caen Anglo-Norman Durham Groin vault in Autun

32. Clues in smaller churches in the Ile-de-France St.-Martin-des-Champs, Paris, 1130s buttresses: narrowness of depth high placing in relation to vault springings

33. Wilson: there is no trace of originality of the architectural means employed by the unnamed designer (32).

34. Romanesque Cathedral of St.-Lazare, Autun, France, 1120-46 w/ 15th-cen. Gothic additions

35. the pilasters: “self-conscious, knowing, modernizing distortions of the very antiquity to which these same buildings are so powerfully attached” (Trachtenberg 2000, 203n11). Romanesque Cathedral of St.-Lazare, Autun, France, 1120-46

36. Constantine’s Basilica (aula nova) at Trier, 305-312 Conrad’s Speyer Cathedral, 1030-61

37. Façade of Constantine’s Basilica (aula nova) at Trier, 305-312

38. Conrad’s Speyer Cathedral, 1030-61 Henry IV’s Speyer Cathedral, 1080s

39. Cluny III: “scattered, episodic, fragmentary, often superficial modernist gestures” (187). Romanesque Cluny III in photo montage recon. of crossing recon. of nave

40. groin vaults of Speyer Cathedral, 1080s rib vaults of Chartres Cathedral, 1194-1260

41. Nôtre-Dame, Paris b. 1150-55, nave 1170-80, extensive rebuilding in 1220s

42. Nôtre-Dame, Paris nave elevation looking east nave elevation looking west 1150-55