Gothic Art and Architecture

C

Rayonnant Gothic Period

Beauvais Cathedral was begun in 1225, the year before Louis IX of France ascended the throne. During his long reign, from 1226 to 1270, Gothic architecture entered a new phase, known as the Rayonnant. The word rayonnant is derived from the radiating spokes, like those of a wheel, of the enormous rose windows that are one of the features of the style. Height was no longer the prime objective. Rather, the architects further reduced the masonry frame of the churches, expanded the window areas, and replaced the external wall of the triforium with traceried glass. Instead of the massive effects of the High Gothic cathedrals, both the interior and the exterior of the typical Rayonnant church now more nearly assumed the character of a diaphanous shell.

All these features of the Rayonnant were incorporated in the first major undertaking in the new style, the rebuilding (begun 1232) of the royal abbey church of St-Denis. Of the earlier structure only the ambulatory and the west façade were preserved. The spirit of the Rayonnant, however, is perhaps best represented by the Sainte-Chapelle, the spacious palace chapel built by Louis IX between 1242 and 1248 on the Ile-de-la-Cité, in the centre of Paris. Immense windows, rising almost from ground level to the arches of the vaults, occupy the entire area between the vaulting shafts, thus transforming the whole chapel into a sturdy stone armature for the radiant stained-glass windows.

In the evolution of Gothic architecture the progressive enlargement of the windows was not intended to allow more light into the interiors, but rather to provide an ever-increasing area for stained glass. As can still be appreciated in the Sainte-Chapelle and in the cathedrals of Chartres and Bourges, Gothic interiors with their full complement of stained glass were as dark as those of Romanesque churches. It was, however, a luminous darkness, vibrant with the radiance of the windows. The dominant colours were a dark saturated blue and a brilliant ruby red. Small stained-glass medallions illustrating episodes from the Bible and from the lives of the saints were reserved for the windows of the chapels and the side aisles. Their closeness to the observer made their details easily distinguishable. Each of the lofty windows of the clerestory, on the other hand, was occupied by stained-glass images of single monumental figures. Because of their often colossal size, they were also readily visible from below. Beginning in the 1270s the mystic darkness was gradually dispelled as grisaille glass—white glass decorated with designs in grey—was more often employed in conjunction with coloured panels, while the colours themselves grew progressively lighter in tone.

D

Dissemination of Gothic Architecture

The influence of French Gothic architecture on much of the rest of Europe was profound. In France the scheme of Bourges Cathedral, with its giant arcade and short clerestory, was not conspicuously repeated elsewhere, but in Spain it was taken up again and again, beginning in 1221 with the Toledo Cathedral and continuing into the early 14th century with the cathedrals of Palma de Majorca, Barcelona, and Girona. In Germany the impact of all phases of French Gothic architecture was decisive, from the early Gothic four-storey elevation of the cathedral at Limburg-an-der-Lahn (c. 1225) to the choir of Cologne Cathedral (begun 1248). Modelled on the Rayonnant-style choir of Amiens Cathedral, the interior of Cologne Cathedral exceeds in height even that of Beauvais.

This pervasive French influence affected neither Italy nor England, however. The peculiarly Italianate idiom of the Gothic churches of Florence and the superficial reminiscences of the French Gothic façades on the cathedrals of Siena and Orvieto are but transitory phases in a development that leads from the Italian Romanesque to and the beginnings of Renaissance architecture in the work of Filippo Brunelleschi.

In England, French Gothic architecture appears only twice, once in the 1170s in the eastern extension of Canterbury Cathedral and again in the mid-13th century in Westminster Abbey (begun 1245), which is based on the general scheme of Reims Cathedral, with Parisian Rayonnant modifications. Otherwise medieval English architects developed their own highly successful Gothic idiom. Lacking the aspiring verticality and functional logic of French Gothic cathedrals, the English Gothic style emphasizes length and horizontality. The French polygonal apse is replaced by a square east end that is sometimes further prolonged by a rectangular Lady Chapel (a chapel devoted to the Virgin Mary, characteristic of English cathedrals). This extreme elongation often incorporates two separate transepts. A multiplication in the number of ribs, some of which are purely ornamental, is also characteristically English.

This early English period of Gothic architecture is well represented by Salisbury Cathedral (begun 1220; the tower and spire are 15th-century). The introduction of bar tracery in Westminster Abbey led to an astonishing variety in tracery design. This Decorated period, with its lavish ornamentation, also produced the lovely Angel Choir (begun 1256) of Lincoln Cathedral, and that masterpiece of medieval architecture, the astounding octagon (begun 1322) of Ely Cathedral, with its wooden lantern and spire rising above the crossing.

III

Sculpture

Following Romanesque precedent, a multitude of carved figures proclaiming religious dogma and belief adorn the vast cavernous portals of French Gothic cathedrals. Gothic sculpture in the 12th and early 13th centuries was predominantly architectural in character. The largest and most important of the figures are the over-life-size statues in the embrasures on either side of the doorways. Because they are attached to the colonnettes by which they are supported, they are known as statue-columns. Eventually the statue-column was to lead to the free-standing monumental statue, a form of art unknown in western Europe since Roman times.

The earliest surviving statue-columns are those of the west portals of Chartres Cathedral, which are derived from the older pre-Gothic cathedral and that date from about 1155. The tall, cylindrical figures repeat the form of the colonnettes to which they are bound. They are rendered in a severe, linear Romanesque style that nevertheless lends to the figures an impressive air of aspiring spirituality. During the next few decades the west portals of Chartres inspired a number of other French portals with statue-columns. They were also influential in the creation of that sculptural ensemble on the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, fittingly known as the Portico de la Gloria (completed 1188), one of the outstanding artistic achievements of medieval Spain.

All these proto-Gothic monuments, however, still retain a distinct Romanesque character. In the 1180s Romanesque stylization gave way to a period of transition in which the statue begins to assume an air of grace, sinuosity, and freedom of movement. This classicizing style culminates in the first decade of the 13th century in the great series of sculptures on the north and south transept portals of Chartres.

The term “classicizing”, however, must be qualified, for a fundamental difference exists between the Gothic figure of any period and the truly classical figure style. In the classical figure, whether statue or relief, a completely articulated body can be sensed beneath, and separate from, its drapery. In the Gothic figure no such differentiation exists. What can be discerned of the body is inseparable from the folds of the garment by which it is enveloped. Even where the nude is portrayed, as in the statues of Adam and Eve (before 1237) on Bamberg Cathedral in Germany, the body is largely reduced to abstraction.

A

Emergence of Naturalism

Beginning about 1210 on the Coronation Portal of the cathedral of Nôtre Dame, in Paris, and continuing after 1225 on the west portals of Amiens Cathedral, the rippling surface treatment of classicizing drapery was replaced by more solid volumes. In the 1240s, on the west façade of Reims Cathedral and in the statues of the apostles in the Sainte-Chapelle, Paris, the drapery assumes those sharp, angular forms and deeply carved tubular folds that are characteristic of almost all later Gothic sculpture. At the same time the statues are finally liberated from their architectural bondage.

In the statues at Reims and in the interior of the Sainte-Chapelle the exaggerated smile, almond-shaped eyes, and clustered curls of the small heads and the mannered poses result in a paradoxical synthesis of naturalistic forms, courtly affectations, and a delicate spirituality. Along with these manneristic tendencies and the increased naturalism, a more maternal type of the cult statue of the Virgin Mary playfully balancing the Christ Child on the outward thrust of her hip made its first appearance on the lower portal of the Sainte-Chapelle—an image that in ensuing centuries was disseminated in infinite variations throughout Europe.

B

Diffusion of Gothic Sculpture

Although northern France was the creative heartland of Gothic sculpture, as it was of Gothic architecture, some of the outstanding sculptural monuments were produced in Germany. Expanding on the French Gothic style, German Gothic sculpture ranges from an Expressionistic exaggeration, sometimes verging on caricature, to a lyrical beauty and formal nobility. The largest assemblage of German 13th-century sculpture, that of Bamberg Cathedral, whose creation was influenced by that of Reims Cathedral, culminates about 1240 in the Bamberg Rider, the first equestrian statue in Western art since the 6th century. Although the identity of the regal horseman remains unknown, no other work so impressively embodies the heroic ideal of medieval kingship.

As in Italian architecture, the influence of French Gothic style on Italian sculpture was more superficial and transitory than in Germany. This influence can indeed be aptly described as Gothicizing trends within the larger framework of the Italian proto-Renaissance that in sculpture begins in 1260 with Nicola Pisano's marble pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery. Giovanni Pisano, son of Nicola, was the first to adopt the full repertory of French Gothic mannerisms. Of great inner intensity and power, the statues of prophets and Greek philosophers he created about 1290 for the façade of Siena Cathedral also stand out as masterpieces of this entire Italian period.

Although during the later decades of the 14th century an ever-increasing number of Italian sculptors assumed the mannerisms of French Gothic style, again and again their works show the study of the classical nude and differentiate between body and drapery in a way that is the mark of the classical style. This Gothicizing phase in Italian sculpture ended soon after 1400 with Lorenzo Ghiberti's bronze doors for the Baptistery of Florence Cathedral and the beginnings in sculpture of the full Italian Renaissance.