Gothic Art Slide Set

Side Notes

• Bear in mind what we have lost cos of loss of polychrome - paint/colour
• Gothic Phases: Early - 1140-80, High 1180-1240, Rayonnant/Court - 1240-80, late - 1280 - think 40, 80

Problems with Idolatry

• Relics used reliquaries to help with devotion
• St Bernard of Clairvaux 1090-1153 - Abbot of Clairvaux 1115-28 - Formed Cistercian order - 'catch the worshipper's eye and dry up his devotion'
• Gothic advertises God through visual imagery
• Images present with divinity - think about Suger - reliquary power ingested by our senses - images had divine presence - praesetnie and potentia (presence and power)
• Art helps explain faith and design of church compels us to do thing - space imbues something
• Gregory the Great (r.590-604) letter to Bishop of Marseilles, 'such as are ignorant of letters may at least read by looking at the walls what they cannot read in books'
• Exodus 20:4-6 - 'You shall not make yourself an idol' - 'You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord, your God, am a jealous God'

Thomas Becket Primary Sources

• Benedict of Peterborough - made prior of Christ Church 1175. Made Abbot of Peterborough 1177 - TB's miracles happen night of death when Canterbury citizen poured water on cloth stained with TB's blood and ill wife drank blood-tinged water and was cured - Wanted to know details - name, place of origin, nature of illness etc - of people - as well as their healing - Almost medical approach - blind man stuck head in tomb (in Crypt) where TB was and could see - violent woman becomes sane - also talks of failed attempts at healing - Even questions why TB so slow to perform miracles in early stages

Canterbury

• William of Sens appointed as new architect - said whole church had to be destroyed - safety like at Saint-Denis - Based on Sens style - had to stop when fell 50 feet while working on vaulting - no one else injured - William the Englishmen took over - was told what to do by W of S on his deathbed - Chapel of Holy Trinity assigned to him - finished transepts summer of 1179 (G of C)
• First example of Gothic in England
• Gervase of Canterbury - wrote about new architecture - second most commonly cited medieval description of a building after Suger's Saint-Denis - Did not write about colour - May have been temporary monk that oversaw the masons after William of Sens and before William of Canterbury - Talks about the rebuilding of the choir (it was that the East that caught fire) - However, architect deemed it necessary to rebuild whole church
• Colours of which Binski speaks embody TB. Church envelopes TB. TB becomes Church and Church becomes TB.
• Thomas Becket murdered in 1170 - East had to be enlargened cos a chapel for TB was to be built - so was not sacred for several decades - Hearn - His translation from Crypt to here (1220) - public
• Third time eastern part built since Norman times
• Chapel of Saint Thomas (Trinity Chapel) to be built
• Rose pink marble around Trinity Chapel - Binski: it unusual - red and white rose and lily - alternation in colour of columns: rose and purbeck - Binski - this purposeful
• Fire 1174 - monks preserved reliquaries
• Sens style
• This and S-D have clear records of rebuilding - makes them particularly important
• Early Gothic
• Built (as well out of necessity) for cult - like S-D - though one against
• The east end is home to the Trinity Chapel
• New work is higher than old - Gothic

Canterbury cont.

• 4 areas associated with the TB. The shrine (after 1220 - he translated), the Corona, tomb and altar - but also the place of his martyrdom in the north transept
• Irregular sequence of radiating chapels
• William the Englishman put Becket's crown (or head relic) in Corona and other parts of him in Trinity Chapel. William of Sens just gonna put it all in Trinity Chapel - Thomas Becket becomes church - his head is at top of church
• Prior Odo recognise that rebuilding church, rather than just fixing i, would be better to house Becket's cult
• William of Sens worked on Canterbury from fire of 1174 until 1178 - fall did not kill him
• Alternating columns in William of Sens' choir. They alternate between cylindrical and octagonal supports - choir built 1175-8
• Miracle windows - woman cured from blindness - visions of which Benedict of Peterborough writes - insane - sane etc
• We know about rebuilding of Canterbury (names, dates etc.) because of Gervase
• William the Englishman built Trinity Chapel - Began 1179, finished 1184
• William the Englishman needed to place prominence on relics of Becket
• Foundations of Trinity Chapel were some of first things to be built - Peter Draper says this shows it possibly intended from outset

Primary Sources for Canterbury

• Gervase of Canterbury (completed in 1184) - people would rather die than see church perish - says their afflictions were like those of Jeremiah - the 'weeping prophet' as described in the book of Jeremiah and Lamentations - Biblical reference - fire was big deal - reliquary chests were salvaged by monks - chapel of Saint Mary, choir and infirmary were ruined in fire - Does not emphasise symbolic meaning - William of Sens appointed as new architect - Not only explained new style, but actually compared it to old Romanesque style and why new was better than old - factual and to-the-point - compare with Suger - although Gervase had nothing to do with rebuilding, he just documented it, so would not be as egotistical - new work is higher than old - Gothic - historiographical consensus that he reliable (unlike Suger - Peter Kidson)

Thomas Becket

• Monks at Canterbury no always get on with Becket - maybe they no like cult at least in early stages - haircloth found when going to bury body, monks immediately like him
• His bones got lost and his shrine melted down in reformation
• England's only international cult
• William of Sens fell 1178 - William the Englishman appointed either near end of 1178 or beginning of 1179
• Haircloth found when monks going to bury body, monks immediately like him - put him in Crypt - monks at Canterbury no always get on with Becket
• Miracle collections of Becket written by Benedict of Peterborough and William of Canterbury - parallel miracles - 18 stories - William's is longer but less detailed
• Monks and architects have agency over cult
• Becket's crown in Corona (1220 built by William the Englishman - William of Sens was gonna put all relics in Trinity Chapel) and rest of his relics in Trinity Chapel
• Henry II did penance - and made pilgrimages to Canterbury
• Everyone but Edward Grim fled - one of Becket's clerks
• Richard of Dover took over as archbishop
• Newington Cross
• Monks open Becket's tomb (in Crypt) for visitors early April 1171 and distributed diluted blood to visitors - After which Benedict of Peterborough say miracles happen every day - Benedict says monks pressured to open Crypt - monks scared body be stolen
• Buried in Crypt day after his death
• Healed blind, lepers, insane etc.
• cult took a while to take off - Henry only start penance July 1174
• John of Salisbury, Edward Grim, Guernes and William FitzStephen all completed their vitae of Becket by 1174

Glossary

• Portal
• Lintel
• Tympanum
• Christ in Judgement
• Christ in Majesty
• Chevet
• Archivolts
• Ascension
• Incarnation
• Annunciation
• Visitation
• Evangelists
• Apostles
• Prophets
• Jamb
• Figural Jamb
• Capital friezes
• pillars
• choir
• aisle
• arches
• vault
• vaulted compartments
• keystone
• transept
• quadripartie vaults
• triforium
• ribbed vault
• nave
• triforia
• ciborium
• crypt
• altar
• presbytery
• capital
• pier
• sedes sapientae
• compound pier
• Christ's passion
• 5 Wise and Foolish Virgins

Glossary cont.

• Resurrection
• Trinity
• 24 elders
• Articulated ribs
• ribs
• rob vault
• Passion
• Holy Innocents
• boss
• De Imitatione Christi
• Agnus Dei
• Redemption
• corona
• iconaclasm
• liturgy
• skeletal
• Coronation of the Virgin
• Tetramorph
• Trumeau
• Assumption
• Dormition
• Translation
• Infirmary
• barrel vault
• radiating chapels
• alternating columns

Historians for Chartres

• Margot Fassler says that northern 'Ascension' portal is actually Christ indicating his coming ascent to earth- eternal presence of Christ even before his incarnation - 10 figures in lintel - archivolts - labours of the months - signs of the zodiac - before time of grace when man followed natural law - 3 tympana together suggestive of designer's preoccupation with concept of time - Christ's similar visage in all three tympana - unchanging identity
• Bernard Myers - Relationship between time and sculptural space is inherently gothic - order and chronology important in Gothic imagination
• Laura Spitzer - portrayal of emotion in the capital friezes Anna and Joachim - body language depicts psychological horrors of infertility hunched shoulders - contrast with joy when they depicted at the Golden Gate - emphasis on Virgin Mary in Royal Portal shows growth of her cult during the Gothic period
• Paul Crossley - Chartres is a 'summa in stone' - viewer pulled through cos of design and liturgy
• Meyer Schapiro - Romanesque induces fear
• Erwin Panofsky - Rise in High Gothic coincided with rise in scholasticism - exemplified in sculptural design - cause and effect idea - controversial - very popular series of lectures - 'iconology' - break down things into system of forms, these forms have symbolic meaning - structuralist - transparency and verticalism - habitus: when people around each other influence each other and create same language of forms - e.g. Paris at this time - brings scholars and architects together - not that they explicitly talk together, they share same space and thus ideas - birth of university and reform of theology in middle ages starts c.1140 in Paris, so does Gothic - High scholasticism (1240) coincides with transition from High Gothic to Rayonnant style - Gothic and Scholasticism both occur in Paris at the same time - Opus Francigenum - French work - Panofsky hooks onto that too strongly? - Dunno if people thought this at the time - Although there is evidence that people from far away want something that looks French - most influential art historian in American history - German Jew tho

Saint-Denis

• Early Gothic features - two-towered facade - tripartite system of west portals - figural jambs (happens in Gothic) - riv-vault interiors - more height and light
• More classical influence - Suger even wanted to use Roman marble
• Central portal - much restored - Christ in Majesty tympanum - life of Saint Denis in other tympana - bronze doors are symbolic
• Trinity in central portal archivolts (first appearance of this motif in sculpture). Lord (Father) holding lamb (son) with dove (Holy Ghost) - again symbolic becomes physical
• Chevet, synthesis of old and new
• Iconoclasm - beheads statues in revolution - royal - Alexandre Lenoir want to save some monuments
• As well as the west facade, Suger also implores Denis to grant him into Heaven in the saint's altar in the chevet
• Consecration of west front 9 June 1140
• Suger calls pointed arch 'arcus' - sense that they know changes being made
• Suger wants to bring bodies of Holy Martyrs out of the Crypt into light cos Crypt is dangerous - too many people - chevet envelopes that space - columns are placed on older columns - ribs are symmetrical - light - directly on top of Crypt - expression of visual logic - raised east end - like Canterbury - Architectural persuasion to be more attuned to divine presence
• Bronze doors invite us not to marvel at gold and expense of labour but at the workmanship
• Historiography of Gothic rises in late nineteenth century to early twentieth century
• Suger refers to Saint Denis as 'blessed Denis'
• Still slightly wonky, e.g. south porch 30cm wider than north to accommodate difference in the width of the aisles
• Badly restored after the revolution - Lindy Grant
• Antecedent for many other church styles that came after - took inspiration from Saint-Denis - e.g. Canterbury raised east end
• Compare figural jambs in west front to 12 Apostle columns in chevet - architectural space is personified - the symbolic becomes the physical

Saint-Denis cont.

• order, strength, control and symmetry. Compare with Ile-de-France forerunners
• Louis VI give crown and regalia to Saint-Denis
• historians agree Romanesque style started in South-West France but people argue over start date. But in Gothic, everyone agrees it started in radius of Paris and everyone agrees it becomes cohesive c.1140s
• Lost most precincts cos of revolution
• Monastry
• Capetians obsessed with Saint Denis - their patron saint - gives monastery money
• Do not know names of architects or designers or 'barbarian artist' in Suger's text - perhaps not pejorative, he just says they come from far away - they looking at other things recently built
• Suger becomes most powerful man in Europe for his love of Saint Denis - regent of France - 18 February 1147
• Saint-Denis first cohesive Gothic space cos it had money to do so
• Saint-Denis - place, Saint Denis - person
• Ile-de-France (c.1120-30s) - starting to work things out - Saint-Martin-des-Champs - Paris - outside still looks Romanesque - c.1135 - Cluniac (Benedictine powerhouse in Burgundy) - Monasteries get more money in 12thc -leads to building projects - Benefit from them - money - Asymmetrical - start to have pointed arches and articulated ribs - ambulatory thus extended - height and light - closer to God - illuminate visitation experience - want more light in church leads to wonky design at this stage - Saint-Pierre-de-Montmartre - keystone wonky and too low - building leans out - dedicated to Saint Peter - Jean Bony says it shows desire for thinness and delicacy - essentially Gothic - antecedent to Saint-Denis - rebuilt in 1130s - compound piers - does not directly convert into rib - does not have clean line - dark - scared to punch negative space into clerestory - small windows - Saint-Germer-de-Fly - inventio = find relics and use them again - exterior silhouette looks Romanesque - starting to feel lighter - Romanesque exterior

Chartres cont.

• Mendicant Orders in Paris - dedicate themselves to study - part of Panofsky's idea of habitus - Gothic architects were Scholastics in Paris to Panofsky, especially after 1200 - Nicolas de Briard - Parisian Franciscan Friar 1260s - This evidence as this guy wrote about a scholastic type who ordered masons - very smart preachers
• Cathedral
• As enter 13th century - things starts to look natural, perfect, symmetrical - Panofsky - unlike wonky at Canterbury - Chartres not wonky - But illusion, no long bendy stone, but looks like they stretched stone - designers conceal technique in service of rationalisation and skeletal - rationalisation as illusion
• Orderly and logical - like Scholastic developments in books - Index etc.
• Skeleton of independently constructed ribs - Panofsky - ribs are pretty and have function and strength - they have mastered engineering - looks controlled
• Has flying buttresses
• 'peace treaty between faith and reason' - Panofsky - Scholastic idea - Aquinas' Summa Theologica - study of faith using rational ideas
• Everything explicit - nothing superfluous. Architectural space in service to imagery. I.e. Jambs leading to lintel leading to tympanum - design helps teach - link this to Saint-Denis west facade - Paul Frankl - almost like eye and body are controlled by architecture - Design helps teach
• Panofsky: transparency 'light and verticalism' - everywhere we look, eye is forced up - But also body as we ascend towards cult sight
• Have names of scholars, do not have names of architects. Do have some however, just not as mucn
• Because of rationalisation of design, Panofsky assumes designers are scholars
• Interest in emotions - driven by developments of scholarship - Aristotle body unified reflects soul - Only around this time, people in west study Aristotle - brought over via Spain by Muslim scholars to Paris - If face is radiant, soul is radiant - coincides with change in sculpture - filling form with life - Naturalism, displaying unified body with unified soul

Edward Grim - The Martyrdom of St. TB

• conflict between Henry II and Becket
• Becket welcomed martyrdom
• hailed as a saint, and his shrine became one of the most celebrated pilgrimage sites of western Europe
• 'It is not proper', he said, 'that a house of prayer, a church of Christ, be made a fortress since although it is not shut up, it serves as a fortification for his people; we will triumph over the enemy through suffering rather than by fighting - and we come to suffer, not to resist'
• 'Here I am, not a traitor of the king but a priest
• 'Here I am ready to suffer in the name of He who redeemed me with his blood; God forbid that I should flee on account of your swords or that I should depart from righteoussness.'
• 'And I' he said, 'am prepared to die for my Lord, so that in my blood the church will attain liberty and peace, but in the name of Almighty God I forbid that you hurt my men
• laid sacrilegious hands on him
• with his neck bent as if he were in prayer and with his joined hands elevated above - commended himself and the cause of the Church to God, St. Mary and the blessed martyr St. Denis
• presented his body to the killers so that he might keep his head, in other words his soul and the church, safe
• O worthy shepherd who so boldly set himself against the attacks of wolves so that the sheep might not be torn to pieces
• he remained firm
• 'For the name of Jesus and the protection of the church I am ready to embrace death'
• it purpled the appearance of the church with the colours of the lily and the rose, the colours of the Virgin and Mother and the life and death of the confessor and the martyr
• the martyr displayed the virtue of perseverance
• a sign signalling any kind of pain
• easily received whatever pain, whatever malice, the bloody murderer was able to inflict
• his salvation and faith this martyr should fight for the protection of others

Secondary Sources for Canterbury

• Paul Frankl - No one understands the architectural developments of the Gothic as well as Gervase of Canterbury
• Paul Binski - Edward Grim talks of significance of red and white - coloured marble in chapel of St. Thomas Becket - compare to Antiquarian architecture - similar to Antiquarian ideas of poetry within architecture - colour high meaning - red and white: rose and lily - Edward Grim - red and white marble envelops Trinity Chapel (TB). It represents TB and thus TB becomes architectural space. He becomes church - church built around TB - Agnus Dei boss - Benedict of Peterborough lamb comment - Lamb of Canterbury compared to Lamb of Bethlehem - De Imitatione Christ
• Erwin Panofsky - The colour of the marble unlike anything seen in France
• Jean Bony - First steps towards Gothic not in France, but in England - Durham
• Peter Draper - foundations for Trinity Chapel - talks about Benedict of Peterborough's and William of Canterbury's miracles - Was William of Sens's idea to elevate Trinity Chapel - William of Sens intended Trinity Chapel to be in main body of church, not in a separate chapel as was built
• M.F. Hearn describes William the Englishman's Trinity Chapel as 'light, airy and skeletal'- 'articulated and refined' (Trinity Chapel) - coloured marble unprecedented in Gothic architecture - As well as floor mosaic. However this placed early 13th century, however Hearn say it may have been intended from outse

Saint-Denis

• Comparison with other classical works: Plotinus' The Enneads - He says beauty of art not in art itself, but in idea of art. It is the participation of seeing art where true beauty found - not the art material itself. Beauty thus exists in a higher state than the art itself
• Missing north tower struck by lightning in 19th century
• Term Gothic actually pejorative term coined in 16th century
• People from many nations help build Saint-Denis (although Gothic known to start in Paris) - Suger boasts about this

Images of Saint-Denis

• Golden Crucifix - jewels on one side - Christ suffering on other side - in his De Administratione he also used this and its jewels to talk about material becoming immaterial
• Bronze doors - compare to Pseudo-Dionysius - compare to John 10:9
• Trinity in archivolt God hold lamb with dove above - lamb in disc - represents cosmos - Paula Gerson
• Suger kneeling before Christ on lintel
• In window, Suger is prostate at feet of Mary
• Golden Altar fronted at Upper Choir - jewels - come from kings
• Life and martyrdom of Saint Denis on other tympanum (central = Christ in Judgement)
• 5 Wise and Foolish Virgins in figural jambs - Book of Matthew - becomes popular image after this - these jambs lead up to tympanum, becomes a sculptural narrative which reminds visitor to be prepared for resurrection. Paul Frankl says each piece of sculpture is part of plan - didactic
• Trinity in archivolts above Last Judgement tympanum, as well as 24 elders in archivolts - to Paula Gerson this represents grace at end of time - architectural narrative beginning with 5 Wise and Foolish Virgins
• Tympanum of Christ in Judgement
• Disappointed could not case the tomb of Holy Martyr in solid gold instead of copper-gilt

Historians for Saint-Denis

• Sumner Crosby - western facade was pivotal from Romanesque to Gothic - New style largely down to Suger - Suger telling truth in documents - did take three years to build - left some of nave standing - expediency of project, it had limited time and the number of people coming from all over led to it becoming first cohesive manifestation of Gothic - discovered that nave still 9th century, between Gothic westfront and Gothic chevet
• Erwin Panofsky - first to highlight similarity between Suger's inscriptions and Pseudo-Dionysius - emphasis on light. All material things contain light, and anyone who behold them becomes 'enlightened' - translated Suger - Dunno if Suger aware of Pseudo-Dionysius - Peter Kidson says Pseudo-Dionysius likely in Suger's library - Suger patronised Gothic style from devotion to Saint Denis - Panofsky thins Suger thinks Saint Denis wrote Celestial Hierarchy
• Paul Frankl - 5 Wise and Foolish Virgins lead to Christ in tympanum - sculptural narrative - very Gothic - Architect looks at Roman barrel vault and realised Roman barrel vault could be intersected with other Roman barrel vault and can be made higher - 2 Roman barrel vaults overlapping = Gothic groin vault
• Henry Focillon - Saint-Denis designed from borrowing and experimentation
• Clark Maines - Suger was genuinely concerned about his soul
• John Bony - say a lot of Gothic elements of Saint-Denis appear earlier in other places - development of Gothic was accidental (like Crosby) - points out that first arch with pointed rib found in Durham cathedral in 1093 - blend of old and new - chevet columns on old crypt columns
• Robert Hanning says Suger had a 'collective impulse'
• Lindy Grant - badly restored after revolution - ribbed vaulting had spread from Normandy - west front was completely new (triple portals, two towers) - rebuilding of church was as necessary as Suger suggests - iconography in choir is theological (for clergy) whereas on west front it scriptural (for laymen)
• Generally considered amongst historians that Suger's writings on the architecture are accurate

Suger's De Administratione

• the narrowness of the place forced the women to run toward the altar upon the heads of the men
• enlargement of the body of the church as well as with the trebling of the entrance and the doors, and with the erection of high and noble towers
• the Passion of the Saviour and His Resurrection, or rather Ascension, with great cost
• 'For the splendour of the church that has fostered and exalted him, Suger has laboured for the splendour of the church. Giving thee a share of what is thine, O Martyr Denis, He prays to thee to pray that he may obtain a share of Paradise
• Bright id the noble work; but, being nobly bright, the work Should brighten the minds, so that they may travel, through the true lights, To the True Light where Christ is the true door
• The dull mind rises to truth through that which is material
• 'Receive, O stern Judge, the prayers of Thy Suger; Grant that I be mercifully numbered among Thy own sheep'
• three years and three months
• Hand of God, during our administration, has adored His church, His chosen Bride
• Denis, is, we confess and proclaim, so generous and benevolent that we believe him to have prevailed upon God to such an extent
• we might have been able to do for his church a hundred times more than we have done, had not human frailty, the mutability of the times, and the instability of manners prevented it.
• You could see how kings, princes, and many outstanding men, following our example
• Mayest thou, who has built a new dwelling for thyself through us, Cause us to be received in the dwelling of Heaven
• barbarian artists
• the loveliness of the many-coloured gems has called me away from external cares, and worthy meditation has induced me to reflect, transferring that which is material to that which is immaterial

Suger's De Administratione

• transported from this inferior to that higher world in an anagogical manner
• every costlier or costliest thing should serve, first and foremost, for the administration of the Holy Eucharist
• detrimental to health for a long time on account of the coldness of the marble and the copper
• enlarge it
• from the material to the immaterial
• are very valuable on account of their wonderful execution and the profuse expenditure of painted glass and sapphire glass, we appointed an official master craftsmen for their protection and repair
• offer this vase to the Lord

Canterbury

• irregular sequence of radiating chapels
• William the Englishman put Becket's crown (or head) in the corona and other parts of him in Trinity Chapel. William of Sens just gonna put it all in Trinity Chapel. Thomas Becket becomes church - his head is at head (or top) of church
• Prior Odo recognise that rebuilding church, rather than just fixing it would be better for Becket's cult
• Cathedral
• William of Sens worked on Canterbury from fire 1174 until 1178 - fall did not kill him
• Alternating columns in William of Sens' choir. They alternate between cylindrical and octagonal supports - choir built 1175-8
• Miracle windows - woman cured from blindness - insane -sane etc - visions of which Benedict of Peterborough writes
• we know about rebuilding of Canterbury (names, dates etc.) because of Gervase
• William the Englishman built Trinity Chapel - Begun 1179, finished 1184
• William the Englishman needed to place prominence on relics of Becket
• Foundations of Trinity Chapel were some of first things to be built - Peter Draper says this shows it possibly intended from outset

Thomas Becket

• Innocent III stated that white is the colour of the feasts of confessors and virgins, whilst red is the colour of feasts of apostles and martyrs - representation of wider conflict
• very popular cult cos it unusual and gruesome (and perpetuated by Imitation of Christ idea and rebuilding of church around his cult) - loved all over Europe - murder in cathedral unheard of
• Died 29 December 1170
• Edward Grim and William FitStephen (biographers) liken brain and blood (one whitening and one reddening the other) to lily and rose - Binksi - blood and milk - Christ and Mary - redemption and doctrine - 5 of his biographers talk of this - virgins, confessors and martyrs
• conflict with Henry II
• Canonised by Alexander III in 1173
• Binski: allegory of martyrdom helped those who knew him to 'comprehend and assimilate horror'
• colour - Binksi - both colours represent all that is part of Christ
• His shrine became one of most celebrated pilgrim sites in western Europe
• Whether he is responsible for the arrival of Gothic to England is disputed
• Lily and rose - Edward Grim - Binksi - William FitzStephen
• 4 knights: Reginald FitzUrse, Hugh de Morville, William de Tracy and Richard le Breton
• haircloth found night he was martyred
• haircloth
• huge cult
• the biographer Benedict of Peterborough compares Lamb of Canterbury (Becket) to lamb of Bethlehem (Christ). Binski says this fits the Agnus Dei boss in William of Sens' eastern crossing vault (1180)

Thomas Becket

• Biographer of Becket compiled in cathedral in 1170 to employ idea that Becket was alike to the lord in suffering - Imitation of Christ - had foreknowledge of approaching passion - staged a final adventus - held a last supper - garments were parted - disciples fled - gave forth water and blood - 5 wounds - last words - burial in newly hewn tomb - martyrdom after feast of Saint Steven and Holy Innocents - imitatione Christi (imitation of Christ) - Christ crucified again in Becket's martyrdom - Binski

Primary Sources for Virgin Mary

• Suger's De Administratione (mid 12th century) - Says church is God's bride, like Mary is God's bride. Link to what Margot Fassler says of Chartres' Incarnation portal

Primary Sources for Becket

• Edward Grim (biographer) c. 1185 - Becket says monks should not close doors to knights as 'we will triumph over the enemy through suffering rather than by fighting' - took 5 blows to kill him, yet he remained pious throughout - 5 wounds of Christ - rose and lily: virgin, confessors and martyrs - Becket say he ready to suffer for God - he very pious - yet forbid knights from hurting his men (cleric of layman) - says he did this to keep the church and his 'sheep' safe - connotations with Christ - Good shepherd - Gospel of John - says he 'remained firm' even when he had blow to his head - Becket's shrine = one of most important pilgrimage sites in western Europe - blood turned white from the brains and brains turned red from blood - says symbolic meaning to colours: red - rose -mother - death - martyr - white- lily - virgin - life - confessor - at time had connotations with virginity - describes Becket as a 'glorious martyr' - says of knight - they lay 'sacrilegious hands on him' - blood and brains: rose and lily - Did not look like he in pain - welcome death
• William FitzStephen (1170s wrote about this) - blood and brains: rose and lily - virgins, confessors and martyrs - (monk of Christ Church when Becket died - did not see martyrdom - Vita Sancti Thomae
• Benedict of Peterborough (monk of Christ Church when Becket died did not see martyrdom - Lamb of Canterbury - Lamb of Bethlehem - first to write about miracles - rose and lily - virgins, confessors and martyrs - became abbot of Peterborough 1177 - wrote Becket's miracle collections (started mid 1171 and finished 1173)

Secondary Sources for Becket

• W.L. Warren says that Becket welcomed martyrdom and could have escaped if he had wanted - think about problems with suicide - this echoed by Edward Grim
• Paul Binski - rose and lily etc - blood and milk - Christ and Mary - redemption and doctrine - allegory of martyrdom helped those who knew him to 'comprehend and assimilate horror' - allegory as psychological as it is intellectual - made details of his martyrdom important - red and white allegories represent all that is Christ - Becket becomes Christ - Edward Grim talks of significance of red and white - coincidence? - Becket's garments of martyrdom - the blooded exterior and the haircloth represent dual nature. Inner, private, white and outer, public, red martyrdom
• Rachel Koopmans - William more anatomical - 'medical one-upmanship' - hardly anyone thought of Becket as saintly before his death - until discover haircloth - when William of Canterbury finish his collection, there were problems few people who had not given thanks to Becket - William wrote from notes of Benedict of Peterborough - Not same emotional resonance of Benedict nor as many stories

Essay on Saint-Denis

• first manifest early Gothic basilica
• 'the narrowness of the place forced the women to run toward the altar upon the heads of men
• 'upon the heads of men'
• great cost and expenditure for their gilding as was fitting for the noble church'
• Giving thee a share of what is thine, O martyr Denis, He prays to thee to pray that he may obtain a share in Paradise'
• 'Receive O stern Judge, the prayers of Thy Suger; Grant that I be mercifully numbered among Thy own sheep.'
• 'The dull mind rises to truth through that which is material
• 'through the true lights, to the True Light
• 'because of our love of the beautiful which attracts us to Him, and by which we are raised up to Him
• 'To the True Light where Christ is the true door'
• 'I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved

Historians for Saint-Denis

• Paula Gerson - 5 Wise and Foolish Virgins are thematically linked to the bronze doors as by passing them, into the church, one can prepare for the last judgement - Suger wants to be permitted through door to Paradise in way 5 Wise Virgins were
• William Clark - on central portal: 'Bilateral, mirror-image symmetry'
• Erwin Panofsky - 'this vanity was more than personal [...] it was institutional' - Suger - early Gothic born in Suger's Saint-Denis - Dionysian aesthetic of height and light (which very Gothic) came about cos of Saint Denis (he thinks Suger thought St. Denis was Pseudo-Dionysius - Peter Kidson criticises this idea - Peter Kidson thinks Suger not patronising devotion to St. Denis into Gothic, he just want nice aesthetic style for basilica and expensive - and that is why it emerge at Saint-Denis first
• Peter Kidson (in contrast with Sumner Crosby) says that too much emphasis has been placed on Suger in the creation of the new style and says that new styles are never normally created by a single man - disagrees with Erwin Panofsky in the assertion that Suger definitely inspired by Pseudo-Dionysius - disagrees with Panofsky that scholars are most responsible for sculpture - artistic imagination of artists needed to interpret Suger's verbal instruction - bear in mind, it only verbal instruction, he did not build basilica, so some influences must have come from artists themselves, according to Peter Kidson - also, in contrast to Crosby, he says documents from patrons do not tell true story - I could say that Suger's ego would point to this - make himself look better

Saint-Denis

• Trinity in archivolts - Gerson says that when St. Denis died he professed his belief not in Christ, but in Trinity - Trinity also of central importance in writing of pseudo-Dionysius
• On bronze doors, there passion and resurrection (or ascension) of Christ
• bronze doors destroyed in revolution
• Personal secretary, Guillaume said he had (Suger) natural understanding for what needed to be done - think about practical side - church close to ruin in many places
• Abbot of Hilduin of 9th century purposefully claimed St. Denis was Pseudo-Dionysius - took on
• bronze doors contain Christ's passion, resurrection (and ascension)
• Suger is a materialist - loved jewels - interested in goldsmith work
• on west portal, it say 'Suger strove for the glory of the church' - worried about his soul
• Suger sure to mention 'with great expense' when he talks of his bronze doors 'as befits such a royal portico'
• 5 Wise and Foolish virgins precedes Last Judgement in Matthew's gospel - link to what Paul Frankl says about Gothic architectural narrative
• On bronze doors, 'the work should brighten the minds' - '[mind] is resurrected from its former submersion when the light is seen' - then through light to Christ (door)
• Suger pronounced regent of Capetian France 18 February 1147
• Places of Suger's signature 1. Bronze doors 2. Golden cross 3. Chevet windows
• Louis VI d. 1 August 1137 - Suger commissions rebuilding of church from 1137 - chevet starter July 1140 and consecrated 11 June 1144 - west front consecrated 9 June 1140
• De Administratione - 'we exerted ourselves incessantly with the enlargement of the body of the church as well as with the trebling of the entrance and the doors, and with the erection of high and noble towers'

Chartres Historians

• Erwin Panofsky - distinctive features of early and high scholasticism coincide with distinctive features of early and high Gothic art - habitus - 100 mile zone around Paris - more lifelike (tho not portrait-like) High Gothic statues at Reims and Amiens and natural (tho not naturalistic) flaura and fauna of High Gothic proclaim 'victory of Aristotelianism' - a plant thought to exist as plant, not just copy of an idea of plant - like body and soul - outside is inside - not seperate - 'peace treaty between faith and reason' - He says it not probable that Gothic architects read Aquinas, just being in habitus - 'faith clearer' by 'an appeal to reason' - imagination - senses - High Gothic cathedral aim at 'totality' as seen in High Scholastic Summas - for one 'perfect and final solution' - 'elucidation of faith by reason' - In its imagery, High Gothic cathedral sought to embody all of Christian knowledge - compare to Thomas Aquinas' Summa - Crossley says it 'Summa in stone' - Through travelling Mendicant orders, Scholasticism shifted from cut off monasteries to urban centres - creating idea of habitus - in Romanesque architects in Benedictine Abbeys, in High Gothic they move to cathedrals
• Otto von Simpson - Chartres architects may have been influenced by shrine of Becket - appointed John of Salisbury as Bishop of Chartres in 1176 - knew Becket - Chartres = first Gothic cathedral where height and light are finally realised
• Robert Branner first to think that Opus Francigenum was contemporary term for 'Gothic'

Chartres

• Rebuilding from 1194 to c.1235 - fire
• The compound pier is reorganised to express every feature of the High Gothic superstructure
• Compare with Autun - we 'read' the stone - encyclopaedia in stone
• Cult of Virgin Mary at Chartres since 'immemorial times' Otto von Simpson
• Paris (to Panofsky) had monopoly of education
• portrait-like sculpture and flora and fauna
• rationalisation as illusion
• west portal not best representation of what Panofsky says is 'victory of Aristotelianism' cos it survived fire of 1194 - but traces of scholastic influences - e.g. emotion in capital friezes - Laura Spitzer
• logical and orderly
• Emphasis on body language -e.g. emotion in capital friezes - Laura Spitzer -empathy - also in High Scholasticism
• Urban professionals on increase. Different people, laymen, scholars, clergy etc. brought together in urban centres - habitus (Panofsky)
• Appointment of John of Salisbury to the See of Chartres was act of homage to Becket - Made Bishop of Chartres 1176 - cos of cult of Becket - Otto von - Simpson says this suggests that it is not impossible that architect at Chartres had studied shrine of Becket in Canterbury
• Skeleton of independently constructed ribs
• Light and harmony - Otto von Simpson
• 'Master of Chartres'
• Faith starts to be 'worked out' - almost mathematically about Aquinas' Summa in 12th century - the theology

Gervase - New Architecture c. 1185

• lamentations of Jeremiah
• This opinion, true as it was, excruciated the monks with grief
• pillars rent with the fire and all that they supported must be destroyed if the monks wished to have a safe and excellent building
• beams broke under his feet, and he fell to the ground.
• fifty feet
• rendered helpless alike to himself and for the work
• William by name, English by nature
• a chapel of St. Thomas was to built there
• only that the translation of St. Thomas was reserved until the completion of his chapel
• fitting and manifest that such a translation should be most solemn and public

Secondary Sources for the Virgin Mary

• Willibauld Sauerlander - her smile in Incarnatino portal at Chartres denotes not just motherly love but also the role she played in the salvation of Man
• Fassler says of Chartres' Incarnation portal that there theme of entrance and like Christ entering earth to Mary's lap, we enter church - Mary becomes church - Link to Suger's De Administratione in which he says that the church is God's bride - Mary is God's bride as well as mother
• Miri Rubin - As European economy on the way up, Europeans given opportunity to enhance and beautify environment - Mary emerged as perfect embodiment of this - 'mother, bride and consoler'