Lesson 17: The High Middle Ages

Compound pier

(cluster pier) with shafts (responds) (12) A pier with a group, or cluster, of attached shafts, or responds, extending to the springing of the vaults

stained glass

-"Bright is that which is brightly coupled with the bright, and bright is the noble edifice which is pervaded by the new light [lux nova]." -the "lux nova" is an allusion to the biblical description of God as the God of light. -No discussion of light and glass in this period can overlook the famous windows of the Chartres Cathedral, southwest of Paris -the blues and reds of Chartres are famous, and the tones were never again reproduced exactly, by adding metallic salts to molten glass. -The sections were set into stone frames (mullions) and reinforced in place by the use of iron retaining rods. Windows as large as 60 feet high could be created in this fashion.

mosaics vs stained glass (pg. 283)

-. There was a strong element of mysticism of light in the art of Byzantine mosaic decoration, derived from some of the same sources later utilized by Abbot Suger: Neo-Platonism and the allegorical reading of the Bible. -The actual perception of light in the two art forms, however, was radically different. -The mosaic scattered reflected light off an opaque surface. The sacred aura of the light in a Byzantine church comes from the oddly mysterious breaking up of light as it strikes the irregular surface of the mosaic tesserae. -The stained-glass window was the medium through which the light was seen directly, even if it was subtly muted into diverse colors and combinations of colors. -It was a commonplace of the period to refer to the stained-glass windows as the Bible of the poor, because the illiterate could read the biblical stories in their illustrated form in the cathedral. -The viewer sees an object (the illustrated window) but through it is conscious of a distant unseen source (the sun—God) that illumines it and gives it its intelligibility.

La Belle Verriere (Our Lady of the Beautiful Window) - Notre Dame

-Almost all of the stained glass in Chartres Cathedral is original, giving us a good sense of the colored light effects that the designers had in mind. Chartres is particularly known for its blue and red glass. -The window, with its characteristic pointed arch frame, depicts the Virgin enthroned with the Christ child, surrounded by worshipping angels bearing candles and censers (incense vessels). -The scene shows the Virgin enthroned as the symbol of Mary as the seat of wisdom, an ancient motif in religious art. -The window also has a conceptual link with the exterior sculptural program -This scene is surrounded by sculpted arches, called archivolts, which have symbolic representations of the seven liberal arts -He passed through her body as light passes through a window, completely intact without changing the glass. The analogy of Christ to light and Mary to glass is an apt and deepened metaphor to be seen in La Belle Verrière

Laon Cathedral - gothic architecture

-Although Laon Cathedral is considered an Early Gothic building, its plan resembles those of Romanesque churches. -Yet there were important innovations at Laon. The interior displays a change in wall elevation from three to four levels -The obsession with reducing the appearance of heaviness in the walls can also be seen on the exterior -As the Gothic period progressed, all efforts were directed toward the dissolution of stone surfaces. The walls were penetrated by greater expanses of glass, nave elevations rose to new heights, and carved details became more complex and delicate.

Saint Chapelle - Paris - Gothic

-Built to house relics of Christ's Passion, this is an exquisite example of Gothic luminosity. Although the chapel has been restored heavily, the overall effect is of skeletal architecture used to frame the windows has nonetheless been maintained. -It has been said, perhaps with some exaggeration, that walls in Gothic cathedrals were replaced by skeletal masonry scaffolding for windows

nave elevations for four french gothic cathedrals at the same scale

-Gothic nave designs evolved from the Early Gothic four-story elevation to the High Gothic three-story elevation (arcade, triforium, and clerestory). The height of the vault also increased from 80 to 144 feet. -Medieval builders seemed to engage in contests to build higher and higher, almost as a matter of civic pride

Gothic Sculpture

-Gothic sculpture was still generally confined to decoration of cathedral portals. -Every square inch of the tympanums, lintels, and archivolts of most Gothic cathedrals was carved with a dazzling array of figures and ornamental motifs

Images of the Virgin and the Christ Child

-La Belle Verriere (Our Lady of the Beautiful Window)

flying buttresses

-Masonry struts that transfer the thrust of the nave vaults across the roofs of the side aisles and ambulatory to a tall pier rising above the church's exterior wall -they channel much of the weight of the roof and walls laterally and then downward, so that the walls—freed of much of the need to carry the load of the structure above—can be pierced with fenestration, allowing exterior light to stream through to illuminate the interior of the church and stained-glass windows

Notre Dame Cathedral - gothic architecture

-Notre-Dame is a curious mixture of old and new elements. -It retains a sexpartite rib vault and was originally planned to have an Early Gothic four-level wall elevation. -It was begun in 1163 and not completed until almost a century later, undergoing extensive modifications between 1225 and 1250. -Some of these changes reflected the development of the High Gothic style, including the elimination of the triforium and the use of flying buttresses to support the nave walls -Although the façade is far more massive than that of Laon Cathedral, the north and south elevations look light and airy because of their fenestration and the lacy buttressing

Characteristics of Gothic Style

-One characteristic of Gothic cathedrals is the desire for verticality = very pointy -The verticality that is typical of Gothic architecture is indisputable, yet Romanesque architects only a generation before Suger had also attempted verticality, as is evident in such churches as the proposed third abbey church of Cluny or the pilgrimage church at Santiago de Compostela in Spain. -What prevented Romanesque architects from attain- ing greater verticality was not lack of desire but insufficient technical means. The pointed arch was known in Romanesque architecture but not fully understood. -The net result of these technical innovations was to lessen the thickness, weight, and mass of the walls of the Gothic cathedral. -This reduction provided an opportunity for greater height with less bulk to absorb the weight of the vaulted roof -There was a mystical quality to these buildings in the way they seemed exempt from the laws of gravity.

Le Beau Dieu "Beautiful Lord" - Amiens Cathedral

-Showing Christ in the act of blessing, this figure symbolically blesses all pilgrims who pass through the door, the "Gate of Heaven," of Amiens Cathedral. -Marble sculpture on the trumeau (the central column supporting the tympanum) of the central doorway, west facade. -The pilgrim is a central metaphor for the period, whether one is speaking of an actual pilgrim on the road to Santiago de Compostela or Canterbury or of life itself as a pilgrimage toward God -Pilgrims to Chartres or the other cathedrals journeyed in both senses: they traveled to visit a real monument and, at the same time, hoped to find peace and salvation -Abbot Suger called Saint - Denis the Gate of Heaven.

The Many Meanings of the Gothic Cathedral

-The cathedral overwhelms the town either by crowning a hilly site, as at Laon, or rising up above the town plain, as at Amiens -Analogy = small town American Square -The cathedral square of the typical European or Latin American town is the ancestor of the courthouse square. The difference is that the medieval cathedral exercised a degree of social control and integration more comprehensive than that of the courthouse -the Cathedral shaped individual and social life in the town -The daily and yearly round of life was regulated by the horarium of the cathedral. -More significant than the social interaction of town and cathedral was the economic impact of the cathedral on the town. The building of a cathedral was an extremely expensive enterprise. -The cathedral claimed possession of a relic of the Virgin (the tunic she wore when Jesus was born), given in 877 by Charles the Bald, the great-grandson of Charlemagne. -Relics were popular throughout the Middle Ages, and this particular one was especially important to the pilgrims of the time

Tympanum Chartes Cathedral

-The central panel shows the Virgin and Child framed by adoring angels within an interior arch, while the outer arch depicts the seven liberal arts that together constitute a shorthand version of a window -At the lower left is Aristotle dipping his pen in ink with the female of Dialectic above him. -Under the central of the Virgin, the lintel shows scenes from the life of Mary and the young Christ; on the upper level, the Presentation in the Temple, and on the lower level (from left), representations of the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Nativity, and the Adoration of the Shepherds. -The cathedral school was a flourishing center of literary and philosophical studies—studies that emphasized that human learning became wisdom only when it led to the source of wisdom: God -The fact that Mary was depicted here in glass would also call to mind an oft-repeated exemplum (moral example) used in medieval preaching and theology: Christ was born of a virgin. -Church authorities sought not only to build a place suitable for worship but also to use every opportunity to teach and edify worshippers.

Gargoyles of Notre Dame

-The famous Gothic gargoyles blend functionality and instruction. -These carved beasts funnel rainwater off the roofs while, in their extended and jutting positions on the roofs and buttresses, they also signify that evil flees the sacred precincts of the church. -. The entire decorative scheme of a cathedral was an attempt to tell the story of the history of salvation. -Modern visitors may be overwhelmed by an apparent jumble of sculptures depicting biblical scenes, allegorical figures, symbols of the labors of the months, signs of the zodiac, representatives of pagan learning, and panoramic views of the Last Judgment; but for medieval viewers the various scenes represented a patterned whole

Jamb Figures of Chartes Cathedral

-The figures are rigid in their poses, confined by the columns to which they are attached. -Yet there is a certain weight to the bodies, and the hinged treatment of the limbs is eliminated, heralding change from the Romanesque. -During the High Gothic period, these simple elements lent a naturalism that had not been witnessed since Classical times.

Guilds

-The guild, a fraternal society of craftsmen or merchants, was a cross between a modern-day union and a fraternal organization like the Elks or the Knights of Columbus -Members of guilds placed themselves under the patronage of a saint, promised to perform charitable works, and acted as a mutual-aid society. -The guild—the forerunner of the union—accepted and instructed apprentices; certified master craftsmen; regulated prices, wages, and working conditions; and maintained funds to care for older members and bury their dead -Many of the windows, were donated by the members of the local craft and commercial guilds; their signature frames can be found at the bottoms of the windows. -Five large windows in honor of the Virgin in the chevet, the east end of the cathedral, were donated by merchants—principally the bakers, butchers, and vintners—which is suggestive of the power of the guilds

The Mysticism of Light

-The key characteristic of Gothic architecture that sets it apart from the Romanesque style is not verticality, but luminosity. -The Gothic style may be described as transparent—diaphanous—architecture. -Abbot Suger wrote two short booklets about his stewardship of the abbey and his ideas about the building and decorating program he initiated for the abbey church—sources for our understanding of the thought that stood behind the actual work of the builders and artists. -In the doctrine of the Pseudo-Dionysius (as later generations have called him), every created thing partakes, however imperfectly, of the essence of God -There is an ascending hierarchy of existence that ranges from inert mineral matter to the purity of light, which is God. -The Pseudo-Dionysius described all of creation under the category of light: Every created thing is a small light that illumines the mind a bit. Ultimately, as light becomes more pure, one ascends the hierarchy and gets closer to pure light, which is God

Builders

-The motivation for the building of a medieval cathedral, then, came from theological vision, religious devotion, civic pride, and socioeconomic interest -The construction depended on people who raised the money and hired the master builder or architect. He in turn, hired the master craftsmen, designed the building, and created the decorative scheme -The names of several master builders, including the builder of Chartres, have been lost, but others have survived in funerary inscriptions, commemorative plaques, and building records. -Villard de Honnecourt = an architect from northern France -Honnecourt writes that he could teach a willing apprentice skills ranging from carpentry and masonry to practical geometry and plan drafting. -Honnecourt's notebook reveals a highly skilled, persistently inquisitive, and inventive man

Music of the School of Notre Dame

-This first step toward polyphony, a musical term for many voices, was called organum -Outside the church, the knightly classes also composed and performed secular music. -The German minnesingers (minne means "love") of the 13th century used traditional church modes and melodies to create secular and sacred songs. -The school of Notre-Dame in Paris was the center of systematic musical study and composition in the 12th century. -Léonin's Magnus "liber organi", is an important source for our knowledge of music in the period of the Gothic cathedral -Most of the time, particularly in the opening, the additional lower voice sim- ply serves as a bass background, but as the piece develops, parallel voices enter to accompany the principal line. -One development in the Gothic period deriving from the polyphony of organum was the motet. The motet usually had three voices (in some cases four). The tenor— from the Latin "tenere" ("to hold")—another term for "cantus firmus", maintained the traditional line, usually derived from an older ecclesiastical chant. -. Gothic music was an aural expression of the dynamism inherent in the medieval Gothic cathedral.

Vintner's Window, Chartres Cathedral

-This panel from a window donated by the winemakers of the area shows a wine merchant transporting a cask of wine

Musical Changes (canvas sheet)

-Two composers whose names have survived, Léonin and Pérotin, worked and taught at the cathedral school of Notre-Dame. -Their music exhibits an important change that would prove as influential musically as the architectural shifts taking place. the medieval efforts towards polyphony are called "organum" -The earliest forms of organum were relatively simple: monks merely sang the same melody but with different starting notes (generally a musical fourth or fifth apart). -This is what is known as "parallel organum", since the two parts move at the same pace, singing the same words, and the two melodies stay at the same musical interval -Stand-alone polyphonic compositions were called motets, and increasingly they included not only different musical voices but even different texts.

Chartes Cathedral - Gothic architecture

-generally considered to be the first high gothic church -Unlike Notre-Dame, Chartres was planned from the beginning to have a three-level wall elevation and flying buttresses. (3 part wall elevation allowed for larger windows in the clerestory) -Flying buttresses support the walls and roof from the exterior, permitting the installation of more non-supporting glass windows -In the High Gothic style, each rectangular bay has its own cross rib vault, and only one side aisle square flanks each rectangular bay = need for alternate support system was no more -The architects directed all of their efforts toward creating a spiritual escape to another world. They did so by effectively defying the properties of matter: creating the illusion of weightlessness in stone and dissolving solid surfaces with mesmerizing streams of colored light.

Jamb Figures (Reims Cathedral) Gothic

-individual figures carved by different artists -The detail of the central portal of the façade illustrates two groups of figures. -To the left is an Annunciation scene with the angel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary, and to the right is a Visitation scene depicting the Virgin Mary and Saint Elizabeth. -All of the figures are detached from columns and instead occupy the spaces between them. -Although they have been carved for these specific niches and are perched on small pedestals, they suggest a freedom of movement that is not found in the jamb figures at Chartres -The weighty figures of Mary and Elizabeth are placed in a contrapposto stance. -The folds of drapery articulate the movement of the bodies beneath with a realism that we have not seen since Classical times -. Although we have linked the reappearance of naturalism to the Gothic artist's increased awareness of nature, we must speculate that the sculptor of the Visitation group was looking directly to Classical statues for inspiration. -With this small and isolated attempt to revive Classicism, this unknown artist stands as a transitional figure between the spiritualism of the medieval world and the rationalism and humanism of the Renaissance

Gothic Architecture (canvas sheet)

-many of the style's distinctive characteristics were developed during the remodeling of the abbey church of Saint Denis, carried under the leadership of Abbot Suger -he firmly believed that the beauty of material things could direct believers toward a love of God. -In Suger's system, beautiful things which approximate perfection can therefore help us to learn to love that which is most perfect of all, namely, God. -Suger's church then is truly meant to function as the "Gate of Heaven": the mental journey we make through the contemplation of its beauty is the type and symbol of the final journey we hope to make into the presence of God. -All branches of knowledge—natural and human history, the sciences, and the liberal arts as well as theology—are considered parts of one great whole composing God's truth. -In the sculpture and stained-glass windows of a cathedral such as Chartres, we find the following: 1. the flora and fauna of the natural world 2. human history from Adam and Eve to the Last Judgment, with special emphasis on the exemplary lives of the prophets, saints, and martyrs 3. symbols of the various branches of learning taught in the universities 4. allegorical representations of virtues and vices 5. scenes from everyday life in the community of Chartres itself

Intro from Canvas

-misconception during this time was that it was believed to have had endured no change or advancement educationally or artistically. -but this is wrong -Paris was the epicenter of many of the changes that occurred -2 major changes (gothic architecture and polyphonic music)

Paris

-strong mercantile center = famous annual trade fair -gave birth to gothic architecture, theoretical and philosophical traditions known as Scholasticism, and established a "university" -these three things sprang from a common intellectual impulse; the desire to articulate all knowledge systematically -The culture of the Middle Ages derives from the twin sources of all Western high culture: (1) the humane learn- ing inherited from the culture of Greece and Rome and (2) the accepted faith of the West, which had its origin in the worldview of the Judeo-Christian scriptures and religious world-views. -The University of Paris is inextricably linked with the name of Peter Abelard just as Scholasticism is associated with the name of Thomas Aquinas. -Gothic architecture began near Paris at the abbey of Saint-Denis in the first half of the 12th century under the sponsorship of the head of the abbey, Abbot Suger

Saint-Denis = Gothic Architecture

-the Gothic style of architecture began in 1140 with the construction of the choir of the church of Saint-Denis just north of Paris. -pointed arches were used in the structural skeleton rather than the rounded arches of the Romanesque style -this type of vault construction also allowed for larger areas of stained glass -The abbey church— built in Carolingian times—housed the relics of Saint Denis, a fifth-century martyr who had evangelized the area of Paris before his martyrdom. -The crypt of the church served as the burial place for Frankish kings and nobles from before the reign of Charlemagne, although it lacked the tomb of Charlemagne himself. -One concrete link between the abbey of Saint-Denis and Charlemagne came through a series of literary works. The fictional "Pèlerinage de Charlemagne" (The Pilgrimage of Charlemagne) claims that the relics of the Passion housed at the abbey were brought there personally by Charlemagne when he returned from a pilgrimage crusade to the Holy Land. -Suger began rebuilding/remodeling that took 15 years and never saw completion = took 2 sacred buildings as his muse (Hagia Sophia and Temple of Solomon) -first part of his project was demolition and repair job (the finished choir made a revolutionary change in architecture in the west -Emulation of the style of Saint-Denis blossomed by the end of the century into a veritable explosion of cathe- dral building in the cities and towns radiating out from Paris, called Île-de-France.

The Gothic Style

-type of European architecture that developed in the Middle Ages, characterized by flying buttresses, ribbed vaulting, thin walls, and high roofs -started much of their history by raw destruction = attacked the romans -converted to Christianity -divided into two tribes = Visigoths and Ostrogoths, both of which further contributed to the demise of the Roman Empire in the West -actually weren't the ones who built or inspired cathedrals = the word Gothic originally was intended as an insult -Florentine historian Giorgio Vasari = in reference to rude and barbaric culture

transverse rib

A rib crossing the nave or aisle at a 90-degree angle; in the figure, lines AB and DC

what was innovative about organum?

It introduced polyphony.

diagonal rib

One of the ribs forming the X of a groin vault; in the figure, the diagonal ribs are the lines AC and DB

What does "Notre Dame" mean?

Our Lady

triforium

The story in the nave elevation consisting of arcades, usually blind arcades but occasionally filled with stained glass.

Clerestory

The windows below the vaults in the nave elevation's uppermost level. By using flying buttresses and rib vaults on pointed arches, Gothic architects could build huge clerestory windows and fill them with stained glass held in place by ornamental stonework called tracery

Springing

Thee lowest stone of an arch; in Gothic vaulting, the lowest stone of a diagonal or transverse rib

Vaulting web

Thee masonry blocks filling the area between the ribs of a groin vault

archivolt

a sculpted, ornamental molding around an arched wall opening

Oculus

a small round window

Lancet

a tall, narrow window crowned by a pointed arch

rose window

an elaborately designed circular window sectioned by mullions

what was the functional purpose of the Gothic gargoyles

as rain gutters

for what contribution is Abbot Suger most famous?

he introduced the major features which defined Gothic architecture

what is the term used to describe early polyphony where one voice maintains the basic chant melody while the upper voices sung the same syllable but in elaborate melodic developments?

melismatic organum

what is the term used to describe a medieval polyphonic vocal piece featuring several different texts, including texts in different languages?

motet

from around 1150 to 1300, what city was the intellectual and cultural center of Western civilization?

paris

jamb figures

sculptures carved to decorate cathedral portals

what religious figure becomes prominent in Gothic art and sculpture?

the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus

Which is NOT of spiritual importance to stained glass windows?

the deep red hue represents Christ's blood

narthex

the part of a church one enters before the nave, used by individuals preparing for baptism

Which pf the following is a distinctive characteristic of Gothic architecture?

the pointed arch

Nave arcade

the serious of arches supported by piers separating the nave from the side aisles

in the gothic style, what is the name for the building level between the nave arcade and the clerestory?

the triforium