SACRED ARHITECTURE GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

SACRED ARHITECTURE GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

1. INTRO

   • church combines elements: structure, contents, cultural meanings
     • Christian understanding of world shaped/represented by visual and material surroundings
       • medieval church = combo between visual arts and devotional performance

2. 1 EARLY GOTHIC AT ST DENIS

   • pointed arches - taller- Gothic (from German)
     • royal burials - coronation regalia - relics of Saint Denis
       • SUGER - wanted light + furnishings - best materials- effects rather than building itself
         • enhance worldy and spiritual power - route to divine - use of building = metaphor (St Paul) - apostles and prophets = foundations, JC = cornerstone
           • earthly world to spiritual world - enlightnement
         • gold, semi precious stones/gems - stained glass
   • rebuilt from 1130s

3. 2 METHODS AND THEORIES FOR UNDERSTANDING MEDIEVAL GREAT CHURCH ARCHITECTURE

   • group 'great' churches of similar style - share architectural forms - 'formal analysis' - enable comparisons between buildings
   • widen context for evidence on decision making during building - cult of a saint to support Kingship of England
   • evidence doesn't focus on uses, forms and especially meanings of a building
     • holistic approach - how building made to work for communities (religious and secular) they served - political, secular needs and interests of patrons and communities
       • Historian Lindsay Jones - 3 uses of sacred architecture: ORIENTATION - helps with understanding rel of universe and earth COMMEMORATION - memorial or home of relics/homage to saint (miracles) RITUAL CONTEXT - performance, contemplation, propitiation (pleasing the saints/god/jesus by offerings/confession), sanctuary
   • Secular elements: heraldry - carved into stone - presence of donor families or civic involvement: political hierarchy and authority

4. SUGERS COMMISSION - NEW END OF SAINT DENIS

   • chevet -
     • semi-circle behind altar - ambulatory - chapels - made wider in rebuild due to previous overcrowding
       • exterior shows flow of chapels - Suger may have told builders what building should DO rather than what it should LOOK LIKE
         • names of builders not recorded
           • Suger did not record evolution of building
           • amalgamation of different masons, master carvers ideas and opinions rather than 1 single concept
     • east end spiritually powerful - high altar - JC due to return from the east

5. OTHER EXAMPLES

   • AUXERRE- rebuilt from 1215 - compete with others around - accommodate growing congregations - prestige for bishop/patrons - building not sacred but acquired sacred purpose
     • REIMS - similar details to Westminster Abbey - important for master builders - Henry de Reynes had worked on it - rebuilt 1211 - 1250s

6. 3 THE GREAT GOTHIC CHURCH: FORMAL CHARACTERISTICS

   • chapels (chevet), altar, crossing, transepts, nave, choir, screen, aisle, arcade, ambulatory
     • based on latin cross - some predictable relationships eg nave = 2x width of aisles - altar faces east - main door west - variations = crossing may have tower above- choir in non-monastic churches - screen separates clergy from laity
   • clerestory, triforium, main arcade, springing, shaft
     • extra windows and height = more light - higher ceilings (roman churches darker, lower)
   • areas separated by pillars - vaulted ceilings with ribs - decorated west exterior -
   • Furnishings
     • fixtures or fittings - screens to subdivide areas (sep. clergy from laity) - laity not able to go further than nave - lots of altars for different saints - endowed by individuals or guilds or institutions - donors buying speedy route to heaven - each altar had art - stained glass, altar retable, frontal, textiles, metalwork, vessels

7. 4 WESTMINSTER ABBEY

   • Saint Ed the C;s shrine behind altar - royal tombs - ambulatory - monastic buildings and cloisters to south -
     • rebuilding 1246
       • St Peters - consecrated 1065 - Edward the Confessor - Harold II - William the Conq 1066 - Henry III (1216 - 72)
         • Henry III rebuilding begun 1246 with Henry de Reynes
   • SIGNIFICANCE OF ROYAL PATRONAGE
     • paid for by Henry III - most "lavishly finished church of 13th C - coronations - shrine to Saint Edward (ex king) - repository for royal regalia - royal burial place
       • although monastic, most important uses = secular main uses
   • FRENCH AND ENGLISH GOTHIC AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY
     • Gothic dominant 1100 - 1500 - DECORATED GOTHIC= 13th C England = window tracery - effects of light - apparent lack of load bearing walls - definiing G characteristics
       • 'rayonnant' = radiating - re complex tracery of rose/round windows from 1230 plus arched windows
         • design resulting from masons travelling in Europe and sharing/experimenting for different patrons
   • AESTHETIC PROPERTIES OF WESTMINSTER ABBEY
     • high nave - chevet - rose window - height ratio of arcade:triforium;clerestory same as at Amiens
       • tracery in gallery like Sainte-Chapelle Paris
         • relics of Christ - crown of thorns
   • MULTIPLE MEANINGS AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY
     • Henry III au fait with French court culture (M Eleanor of Provence) - poss wanted to emulate Fr. cathedrals - set on total effect rather than particular style distinctions - aware of Louis IX's influence in Paris
       • material and spiritual seem to be considered of equal importance
   • ROYAL POWER AND WESTMINSTER ABBEY