GOTHIC CATHEDRALS

The architecture of the central Middle Ages was termed Gothic during the Renaissance because of its association with the barbarian north. Now this term is used to describe the important international style in most coun­tries of Europe from the early 12th century to the advent of the Renaissance in the 15th century.

At the technical level Gothic architecture is characterized by the ribbed vault, the pointed arch, and the flying buttress.

One of the earliest buildings in which these techniques were introduced in a highly sophisticated architectural plan was the abbey of Saint-Denis, Paris.

The proportions are not large, but the skills and precision with which the vaulting is managed and the subjective effect of the undulating chain windows around the perimeter have given the abbey its traditional claim to the title "first Gothic building".

It should be said that in France and Germany this style is subdivided into the Early, High, and Late Gothic.

The French middle phase is called Rayonnant, the late — Flamboyant.

In English architecture the usual divisions are Early English, Decora­tive, and Perpendicular.

Early English Gothic developed from c. 1180 to c.1280. The most in­fluential building in the new fashion was the choir of Canterbury cathedral (1175—1184), which has many of the features of Laon cathedral.

The building retains a passage at clerestory level — an Anglo-Norman feature that remained standard in English architecture well into the 13th century. Both in the shape of the piers and in the multiplicity of attached colonettes, Canterbury resembles Laon. Colonettes became extremely pop­ular with English architects, particularly because of the large supplies of purbeck marble, which gave any elevation a special coloristic character. This is obvious at Salisbury cathedral (begun 1220), but one of the richest ex­amples of the effect is in the nave of Lincoln cathedral (begun c. 1225).

English architects for a long time retained a liking for heavy surface dec­oration: thus, when Rayonnant tracery designs were imported, they were combined with the existing repertoire of colonettes, attached shafts, and vault ribs. The result which could be extraordinarily dense — for instance, in the east (or Angel) choir (begun 1256) at Lincoln cathedral and at Ex­eter cathedral (begun before 1280) — has been called the English Deco­rated style (1280-1350).

The architectural affects achieved (notably the retrochair of Wells ca­thedral or the choir of St. Augustine, Bristol) were more inventive gener­ally than those of contemporary continental buildings.

English Gothic came to an end with the final flowering of the Perpen­dicular style (c. 1350—1550). It was characterized by vertical emphasis in structure and by elaborate fan vaults.

The first major surviving statement of Perpendicular style is probably the choir of Gloucester cathedral (begun soon after 1330). Other major monuments were St. Stephen's Chapel, Westminster (begun 1292 but now mostly destroyed) and York Minster nave (begun 1291), St. George's Chap­el, Windsor, King's College Chapel, Cambridge (1444), the naves of Win­chester (c. 1480), and Canterbury (c. 1400), the Chapel of Henry VII at Westminster Abbey.

Gothic was essentially the style of the Catholic countries of Europe. It was also carried to Cyprus, Malta, Syria, and Palestine by the Crusaders and their successors in the Mediterranean. The forms that were developed within the style on a regional basis were often of great beauty and com­plexity. They were used for all secular buildings, as well as for cathedrals, churches, and monasteries.

By the Gothic Survival is meant the survival of Gothic forms, particu­larly in provincial traditional building.

It developed after the advent of the Renaissance and into the 17th cen­tury. It should be differed from the Gothic Revival (Neo-Gothic) in the 18th — the 19th centuries.

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