Many people associate the Gothic style with goths, crosses and black locks. But was everything so dull in the 12th century, when this style had just come into fashion? Of course not. Gothic is first of all lightness and sublimity. During this period, people began to reach for enlightenment and, after that, for something beautiful. Today we will talk in more detail about the Gothic style: where and as a result of which it appeared, the main representatives. In general, read, it will be interesting.
Briefly about the style
The word "Gothic" is the name of the style that dominated the Middle Ages. The French called Gothic the lancet style. This art dates back to the 12th century. (until the 15th century) It was at this time that the active struggle of the Catholic Church for power began in Europe. Therefore, all the art that was created during this period was aimed at exalting the church and faith.
New cathedrals were built, which were beautiful in themselves, and complemented by sculpture and painting, they looked simply divine. At this time, all artists used allegories. Now paintings, sculptures and even decorative items began to lay a hidden meaning.
Main Features
In short, gothic is a style that goes against everything that came before it.
Therefore, a kind of art is being formed that denies the classics and represents a natural development and modification of the Romanesque style.
Style Features:
- Gothic is primarily sublimity and dynamics. All architecture strives upward and develops from the bottom up.
- All buildings built in the Gothic style had a great height. This effect was achieved not only due to the walls, but also due to the long, pointed roofs.
- Stained-glass windows began to be used everywhere. They have doors and even ceilings.
- Arches became popular among architects of the 12th century; entrance and interior spaces were designed in this architectural design.
- Sculpture from the Gothic period has become widespread. Sculptors now decorated not only the interiors and exteriors, but also decorated the walls of the building.
Architecture
Gothic was mainly manifested in architecture. After the heavy buildings built in the Romanesque style (with small windows and a minimum of decorative elements), people wanted something light and sublime.
Gothic satisfied this desire. This style of the Middle Ages is divided into three periods:
- Early. In the buildings of this period, the influence of the Romanesque style can still be traced. But still, lightening of structures and vertical decor are already clearly observed. It was at this time that the architects appeared and can be traced the departure from barrel vaults. A well-thought-out system of columns and buttresses made it possible to make buildings lighter and more openwork. Notre Dame Cathedral is considered the most striking building of this period.
- Mature. In the churches of this period, a transition to frame structures can be traced. Instead of glass in the middle of the XIII century. start using stained glass. The windows themselves, by the way, become elongated and take the form of a pointed arch. Almost all buildings of this period are complemented by sculptures and sculptural compositions. The most striking buildings of mature Gothic are the cathedrals in Chartres and Reims.
- Late. During this period, the sculpture gradually acquires not a biblical character, but an everyday one. Even despite the fact that marble and stone statues adorned the walls of the church, scenes from the life of ordinary people were the theme for creativity. The most striking buildings of the late Gothic are the cathedrals: the cathedral in Moulin and Milan.
Furniture
In Gothic - this is sublimity and lightness. It was this effect that the craftsmen who made the furniture tried to achieve. First of all, in the everyday life of a medieval person there were such interior items as tables, chairs, chests.
The most common and sought after material was oak. Despite the heaviness of the material, carved chairs with a high back, tables with graceful legs and beds with openwork pillars for a canopy came out from under the skillful hands of the master.
Despite the fact that the Gothic style is primarily dynamic, medieval people often used static wrought iron bars to decorate rooms. They decorated fireplaces, less often windows.
Arts and Crafts
Gothic is the art of the late Middle Ages. People preferred to use the decor items of the past, but in a new interpretation. Cups for wine and vases were especially fond of. People did not strive for simplicity; they used church paraphernalia even in their own homes. So, on the tables in the living room one could see crosses and various figurines on the theme of biblical scenes. Often the room was decorated with bas-reliefs and statues. They could be not only biblical, but also mythological.
Painting
The Gothic style is not only architecture and sculpture, it is also painting. It was in the XIII-XIV centuries. realism began to emerge. Of course, in the Gothic era, it was not fully formed, but still the most significant works of that period, such as A. Lorenzetti's "Allegory of Good Government", the Van Eyck brothers "Ghent Altarpiece", were made in the emerging style of naturalism.
The faces of all the main characters are quite believable, although the feelings depicted on them are sometimes too simulated. In general, during the Gothic era, it was fashionable to depict bright moments of the manifestation of passions on icons. For example, the Mother of God very often on the canvases of artists is in a swoon, and on the faces of the women surrounding her, obvious sorrow and compassion are written.
Almost every painting was religious in nature. The artists worked out every detail of their painting. There were no ill-conceived moments, and not a single detail escaped the attention of the creator. After all, it was considered good taste to introduce allegories into your canvases. Therefore, you can find many works of Gothic artists, where images are written in detail on the altar.
clothing
In Gothic, not only architecture had elongated forms. In clothing, there is also a trend towards pointedness. In the XIII-XIV centuries. shoes with long pointed toes, pointed hats and bicorne hats become popular. The hemlines of women's skirts are also lengthening.
Trains and long veils appear. Corsets do not go out of fashion, but now girls are pulling dresses higher. Clothing with a high waist and a long narrow skirt dominates. All this is sewn mainly from velvet, but silk does not go out of fashion. Sewing was used as decoration. Floral ornament prevails.
Men's fashion is also characterized by elongated shapes. But such clothes were preferred by the older generation. The youth flaunted in cropped trousers and jackets. Men's suits, as well as women's, are decorated with gold embroidery with intricate ornaments. Long powdered wigs are in fashion.
Gothic- a period in the development of medieval art in Western, Central and partly Eastern Europe.
The word comes from Italian. gotico - unusual, barbaric - (Goten - barbarians; this style has nothing to do with the historical Goths), and was first used as a swear word. For the first time, the concept in the modern sense was applied by Giorgio Vasari in order to separate the Renaissance from the Middle Ages.
Origin of the term
However, there was nothing barbaric in this style: on the contrary, it is distinguished by great elegance, harmony and observance of logical laws. A more correct name would be "lancet", because. the lancet form of the arc is an essential attribute of Gothic art. And, indeed, in France, at the birthplace of this style, the French gave it a completely appropriate name - “gival style” (from ogive - arrow).
Three main periods:
- Early Gothic XII-XIII centuries.
- High Gothic - 1300-1420. (conditionally)
- Late Gothic - XV century (1420-1500) is often called "Flaming"
Architecture
The Gothic style mainly manifested itself in the architecture of temples, cathedrals, churches, monasteries. It developed on the basis of Romanesque, more precisely, Burgundian architecture. In contrast to the Romanesque style, with its round arches, massive walls and small windows, the Gothic style is characterized by pointed arches, narrow and high towers and columns, a richly decorated facade with carved details (wimpergi, tympanums, archivolts) and multi-colored stained-glass lancet windows. . All style elements emphasize the vertical.
art
Sculpture played a huge role in creating the image of the Gothic cathedral. In France, she designed mainly its outer walls. Tens of thousands of sculptures, from plinth to pinnacles, inhabit the mature Gothic cathedral.
In the Gothic style, round monumental plastic art is actively developing. But at the same time, Gothic sculpture is an integral part of the ensemble of the cathedral, it is part of the architectural form, since, together with architectural elements, it expresses the upward movement of the building, its tectonic meaning. And, creating an impulsive chiaroscuro game, it, in turn, animates, spiritualizes the architectural masses and promotes their interaction with the air environment.
Painting. One of the main directions of Gothic painting was stained glass, which gradually replaced fresco painting. The stained-glass window technique remained the same as in the previous era, but the color palette became much richer and more colorful, and the plots were more complex - along with images of religious subjects, stained-glass windows on everyday topics appeared. In addition, stained-glass windows began to use not only colored, but also colorless glass.
The period of Gothic was the heyday of book miniatures. With the advent of secular literature (knightly novels, etc.), the range of illustrated manuscripts expanded, and richly illustrated books of hours and psalters for home use were also created. Artists began to strive for a more reliable and detailed reproduction of nature. Vivid representatives of the Gothic book miniature are the Limburg brothers, court miniaturists of the Duke de Berry, who created the famous "Magnificent Hours of the Duke of Berry" (circa 1411-1416).
Ornament
Fashion
Interior
Dressoire - a cupboard, a product of late Gothic furniture. Often covered with painting.
Gothic era furniture is simple and heavy in the truest sense of the word. For example, for the first time, clothes and household items are being stored in cabinets (in antiquity, only a chest was used for this purpose). Thus, by the end of the Middle Ages, prototypes of the main modern pieces of furniture appeared: a wardrobe, a bed, an armchair. One of the most common methods for making furniture was frame-paneled knitting. As a material in the north and west of Europe, mainly local species of wood were used - oak, walnut, and in the south (Tyrol) and in the east - spruce and pine, as well as larch, European cedar, juniper.
The Gothic style in art replaced the Romanesque, and brought many innovations and techniques. In architecture, this was reflected in the cathedral city churches, spacious, with high vaults, filled with sunlight due to huge windows instead of the usual painting on the walls. In painting and sculpture, the plots gravitated more and more to the real ones, the volumes were worked out and the emotions of the characters were vividly conveyed. The figures were freely located in the space surrounding them, slightly curved S-shaped poses were characteristic of the Gothic.
The main directions of art were born within the framework of the Gothic style in France and then became widespread throughout Europe.
Gothic period architecture
The most striking building of the architecture of the Gothic period is the city temple. It is based on the rib vault. Similar frame buildings were already in the Romanesque period, but the architects
XIII - XVI centuries. brought the technique to perfection, greatly facilitating the construction, without losing its strength.
Due to changes in the design of the vault, it was possible to reduce the pressure on the walls. The need for their solid monumental construction disappeared, it became possible to save consumables and radically change the space. It became one, numerous columns disappeared, there was no clear division into zones. The architects were able to erect buildings up to 40 meters high in a short period of time (up to 40 years).
The walls have also undergone significant changes. Large murals began to gradually recede into the past. They were replaced by huge stained-glass windows, which, in addition to a beautiful artistic effect, made it possible to fill the temple buildings with natural light. The interior decoration with a characteristic decor of silver and gilding, thanks to them sparkled with new colors.
(Gothic stained glass windows in St. Vitus Cathedral)
The stained glass technique was known to glassmakers before, but new designs made it possible to create large stained-glass windows with stunning artistic techniques and thematic plots. The favorite image in stained glass was the parable of the prodigal son, which for several centuries adorned the stained-glass windows of temples throughout Europe.
The most exquisite stained-glass windows of the period can be safely called the windows of the chapel of Sainte-Chapette, located in France. Masters and architects managed to turn the building into a kind of glass cage with amazing openwork windows to the full height of the walls. Between themselves, they were separated by elegantly decorated load-bearing structures. The chapel impressed and continues to amaze all its visitors with the abundance of light and lightness of the interior space.
(Main chapel in Toledo Cathedral)
A few centuries after the birth of the Gothic direction, the church intervened in the affairs of architects and demanded to change the layout, returning the division of space into zones. Changes did not affect the interior and exterior decoration. The facades of buildings, vaults and walls from the inside were generously decorated with sculptures, images and monuments, which became more voluminous and realistic with every decade.
Examples of classical Gothic architectural art in Europe are:
- Cathedral of Toledo (Spain);
- Cologne Cathedral (Germany);
- Canterbury Cathedral (England);
- Notre Dame Cathedral (France).
gothic art sculpture
Statues were the basis of Gothic sculpture. Their characteristic feature was the merging with the facades of buildings. From a distance, they seemed to be a single whole, and only close up separated from them and became interesting subjects that I wanted to consider for a long time.
The sculptors worked out the figures with great care. Attention was paid not only to trifles in the form of drapery of fabrics and clothes in general, but also to the general mood, dynamics, which were transmitted to the viewer.
Emotional outbursts, experiences and suffering were invested in the detailed faces of the sculptures and their interaction with other characters in the composition. In the staging of the figures, the emphasis was on the dynamics of movements, frozen in the moment.
A vivid demonstration of the Gothic trend in plastic art are the statues and decor of the walls of the portal of Chartres Cathedral in Paris, Magdeburg and Strasbourg Cathedrals in Germany.
An interesting addition to the sculptural decoration of many temples are plant motifs. Volumetric stucco imitates flowers, fruits and leaves of plants that grew in the region where the temple was built.
gothic art painting
The craving for naturalism and the desire to portray the heroes of the paintings as realistic as possible touched the painting of the Gothic period. The main leitmotif of the era was religious and everyday scenes, in which attention was focused on the suffering and experiences of the depicted people and characters.
(Painting by Dutch artist Rogier van der Weyden)
Artists skillfully interspersed, at first unobtrusively, in the form of separate elements, the attributes of everyday life: candlesticks, plants, bottles, books, etc. In the 15th century, landscapes began to appear in the paintings, serving as a background for plots. Religious themes still prevailed.
Artists of the Gothic period used the technique of emptiness to emphasize the materiality of the plot conveyed by the brush.
Book miniatures began to develop actively during this period. Written with beautiful and ornate letters resembling monograms, the pages began to be supplemented with illustrations characteristic of the Gothic style. There were also realistically depicted people against the backdrop of nature. The drawings were complemented by a frame with detailed floral elements and motifs.
The most prominent representatives among the masters of the brush and paints of the Gothic period were:
- Lorenzetti;
- Campin;
- Van der Weyden;
- the Van Eyck brothers.
The breakthrough of the period of Gothic art can rightfully be called architecture and the achievements of architecture. As for the other arts, the nascent attraction to naturalism flourished more and more with each century, preparing the way for the realism characteristic of the Renaissance. It was at the end of the Gothic period that sculptures began to separate from the facades of temples, and everyday scenes increasingly unfolded in the paintings.
He began to redeem himself. At this time, the first prerequisites for an unusual new art arose. The name "Gothic", "Gothic architecture" comes from the word "Goths" - barbarian tribes with Germanic roots.
Renaissance people with refined manners were outraged that art was taking on a form that was far from the canons of antiquity. They called the new style Gothic, that is, barbaric. Almost all the art of the Middle Ages fell under this definition.
This direction existed for some time along with the old trend, so it is quite difficult to separate them by different chronological boundaries. But you can highlight the features of the Gothic style in architecture, which were not similar to Romanesque.
When Romanesque art was at its peak in the twelfth century, a new trend began to emerge. Even the forms, lines and themes of the works differed significantly from everything that was before.
Gothic style in architecture is divided into several stages:
early Gothic;
the tall, or mature, species was pushed to its limit in the 13th century;
flaming, or late, flourished in the 14th and 15th centuries.
The main location of the style
Gothic was popular where the Christian church dominated secular life. Thanks to the new type of architecture, temples, churches, monasteries, and churches appeared.
It originated in a small French province called Ile de France. At the same time, it was discovered by the architects of Switzerland and Belgium. But in Germany, from where this art got its name, it appeared later than the others. Other architectural styles flourished there. Gothic style became the pride of Germany.
First try
With the beginning of the twelfth century, the main features characteristic of this direction appear in the architecture of various cathedrals. So, if you look at the Abbey of Saint-Denis near Paris, you can see an unusual arch. It is this building that embodies the entire Gothic style in the architecture of Western Europe. A certain abbot Sugery supervised the construction.
The churchman ordered to remove several internal walls during construction. The abbey immediately began to seem more voluminous, solemn and large-scale.
Heritage
Although the Gothic style in architecture concentrates mainly on the individual experiences of a person, he also took a lot from his predecessor. Romanesque architecture transferred its laurels to this style and faded into the background.
The main object of Gothic was the cathedral as a symbiosis of painting, architecture, and sculpture. If earlier architects preferred to create churches with round windows, thick walls with many supports and small interior spaces, then with the advent of this style, everything changed. The new current carried space and light. Often the windows were decorated with stained-glass windows with Christian scenes. Tall columns, towers, oblong arches and carved facades appeared.
The horizontal Romanesque style left room for the vertical stripes of the Gothic.
The cathedral
The Middle Ages are always identified with the development of Christianity. The church received power not only in religious but also in secular life. She began to govern states, to put on the throne the monarchs she liked.
Literacy was taught according to church books. The only literature was religious. Music was also directly linked to Christianity. The Gothic style in the architecture of the Middle Ages interacted with all kinds of art.
The cathedral has become the central place of any city. It was visited by parishioners, they studied in it, beggars lived here, and even theatrical performances were played out. The sources often mention that the government also met in church premises.
Initially, the Gothic style for the cathedral had the goal of significantly expanding the space, making it brighter. After such a monastery was created in France, fashion began to quickly disperse throughout Europe.
The values of the new religion, forcibly imposed in the Crusades, spread the Gothic style in architecture in Syria, Rhodes, and Cyprus. And the monarchs, put on the throne by the Pope, saw divine guidance in sharp forms and began to actively use them in Spain, England, and Germany.
Characteristics of the Gothic style in architecture
From other styles, Gothic architecture is distinguished by the presence of a stable frame. The main part of such a skeleton is arches in the form of arrows, vaults going up in the form of arcs and crosses.
The building of the Gothic style, as a rule, consists of:
traveya - elongated cells of a rectangular design:
four arches:
4 pillars;
the skeleton of the vault, which is formed from the arches and pillars mentioned above and has a cruciform shape;
arkbutanov - arches that serve to support the building;
buttresses - stable pillars outside the room, often decorated with carvings or spikes;
windows in an arched style, with mosaics, as clearly shows the Gothic style in the architecture of France and Germany.
Whereas in Romanesque classical art the church is separated from the outside world, Gothic seeks an interplay between nature on the outside and cathedral life on the inside.
Secular architecture in a new way
Considering that in the Dark Ages, the church and religion in general were inseparable from the daily life of the people of that time, the fashion for the Gothic style in the architecture of the Middle Ages spread everywhere.
Following the cathedrals, town halls began to be built with the same characteristic features, as well as residential buildings, castles, and mansions outside the city.
french gothic masterpieces
The founder of this style was a monk from the Abbey of Saint-Denis, who decided to create a completely new building. He was called the godfather of the Gothic, and the church began to be shown as an example to other architects.
In the fourteenth century, another striking example of Gothic architecture arose in the capital of France, which became famous all over the world - Notre Dame Cathedral, a Catholic stronghold of faith in the city center, which has retained all the features of the Gothic style in architecture to this day.
The shrine was built where the Romans used to honor the god Jupiter. Since ancient times, the place has been an important religious center.
The first stone was laid in the new church by Pope Alexander III and Louis VII. The cathedral was designed by the famous architect Maurice de Sully.
Nevertheless, the founder of Notre Dame never saw his brainchild. After all, the cathedral was built only after a hundred years of continuous work.
According to the official idea, the temple was supposed to accommodate ten thousand citizens who lived in Paris at that time. And become a refuge and salvation in times of danger.
After so many years of construction, the city has grown several times. When it was completed, the cathedral became the center of all Paris. Bazaars, fairs immediately formed at the entrance, street artists began to perform. The color of the Parisian nobility gathered at his place and discussed new fashion trends.
They took refuge here during revolutions and wars.
Arrangements of Notre Dame Cathedral
The frame of the cathedral is connected by many thin pillars with the help of an arch. Inside, the walls stretch high and close imperceptibly to the naked eye. The oblong windows are covered with colored stained glass. The hall is in darkness. The rays that nevertheless pass through the glass illuminate hundreds of sculptures made of silver, wax, and marble. Ordinary people, kings, ministers of the church in various poses froze in them.
Instead of the walls of the church, it was as if they simply placed a frame of dozens of pillars. Between them are colored paintings.
The cathedral has five naves. The third one is much larger than the others. Its height reaches thirty-five meters.
If measured in modern standards, then in such a cathedral you can easily place a twelve-story residential building.
The last two naves intersect and visually form a cross between them. It symbolizes the life and suffering of Jesus Christ.
Money from the public treasury went to the construction of the cathedral. The Parisians hoarded them, donated them after every Sunday service.
The cathedral was badly damaged in modern times. So, the original stained-glass windows can be seen only on the western and southern facades. Sculptures are visible in the choir, on the facades of the building.
Germany
The Gothic style of architecture was named after the tribes living in German territory. It was in this country that he experienced his heyday. The main attractions of Gothic architecture in Germany include:
1. Cologne Cathedral. This temple began to be built in the thirteenth century. Nevertheless, work on it was completed only in the nineteenth century, in the year 1880. Its style is reminiscent of Amiens Cathedral.
The towers have sharp ends. The middle nave is high, while the other four are about the same proportions. The decor for the cathedral is very light and elegant.
At the same time, stiff, dry proportions are noticeable.
The western branch of the church was completed in the nineteenth century.
2. Cathedral in Worms, built in the thirteenth century by order of the local steward.
3. Notre Dame in Ulm.
4. Cathedral in Naumburg.
Italian Gothic
Italy for a long time preferred to remain committed to ancient traditions, to the Romanesque style, and then to the Baroque and Rococo.
But this country could not help but be inspired by a new medieval trend at that time. After all, it was in Italy that the residence of the Pope was located.
The most striking example of Gothic architecture can be considered the Doge's Palace in Venice. Mixed with the cultural traditions of this city, it acquired its own unique characteristics, retaining the signs of the Gothic style in architecture.
In Venice, the builders missed in their drawings the constructivism that reigned in this direction. They focused on decorating.
The facade of the Palace is unique in its components. Thus, columns of white marble are built on the lower floor. They form lancet arches between themselves.
The building itself seems to settle on top of the columns and presses them to the ground. And the second floor is formed with the help of a large loggia around the entire perimeter of the building, on which supports are also placed, more elegant and elongated, with unusual carvings. This pattern also extends to the third floor, the walls of which seem to be devoid of those windows that are characteristic of Gothic architecture. Instead of numerous frames, an ornament in geometric shapes appeared on the facade.
This Gothic-Italian style combined the luxury of Byzantine culture and European austerity. Piety and love for life.
Other Italian examples of the Gothic style in architecture:
The palace in Milan, which began to be built in the fourteenth century, and was completed in the nineteenth;
Palazzo d'Oro (or Palazzo Santa Sofia) in Venice.
Chapter "Gothic Art". General history of arts. Volume II. Art of the Middle Ages. Book I. Europe. Authors: A.A. Guber, Yu.D. Kolpinsky; under the general editorship of Yu.D. Kolpinsky (Moscow, Art State Publishing House, 1960)
The period that received the name Gothic in the history of European art is associated with the growth of trade and craft cities and the strengthening of feudal monarchies in some countries.
In the 13th-14th centuries, the medieval art of Western and Central Europe, especially church and civil architecture, reached its highest level. Slender, soaring huge Gothic cathedrals, uniting large masses of people in their premises, and proudly festive city halls affirmed the greatness of the feudal city - a large trade and craft center.
The problems of synthesis of architecture, sculpture and painting were developed exceptionally widely and deeply in Western European art. The images of the majestic, full of dramatic expressiveness of the architecture of the Gothic cathedral were developed and further plot concretized in a complex chain of monumental sculptural compositions and stained-glass windows that filled the openings of huge windows. Stained glass painting, enchanting with a shimmering radiance of colors, and especially Gothic sculpture, imbued with high spirituality, most clearly characterize the flowering of the fine arts of medieval Western Europe.
In Gothic art, along with purely feudal ideas, new, more progressive ideas, reflecting the growth of the medieval burghers and the emergence of a centralized feudal monarchy, acquired great importance. Monasteries lost their role as leading centers of medieval culture. The importance of cities, merchants, craft workshops, as well as royal power as the main builders-customers, as organizers of the country's artistic life, increased.
Gothic masters widely turned to vivid images and ideas generated by folk fantasy. At the same time, in their art, more than in Romanesque, the influence of a more rational perception of the world, the progressive tendencies of the ideology of that time affected.
In general, Gothic art, reflecting the deep and sharp contradictions of the Epoch, was internally contradictory: it intricately intertwined the features of realism, deep and simple humanity of feeling with pious tenderness, ups and downs of religious ecstasy.
In Gothic art, the proportion of secular architecture increased; it became more diverse in purpose, richer in forms. In addition to town halls, large premises for merchant guilds, stone houses were built for wealthy citizens, and a type of urban multi-storey building was taking shape. The construction of city fortifications, fortresses and castles was improved.
Nevertheless, the new, Gothic style of art received its classical expression in church architecture. The city's cathedral became the most typical Gothic church building. Its grandiose dimensions, perfection of design, abundance of sculptural decoration were perceived not only as a statement of the greatness of religion, but also as a symbol of the wealth and power of the townspeople.
The organization of the construction business also changed - urban lay artisans, organized in workshops, built. Here technical skills were usually inherited from father to son. However, there were important differences between masons and all other artisans. Every craftsman - gunsmith, shoemaker, weaver, etc. - worked in his workshop, in a certain city. Artels of masons worked where large buildings were erected, where they were invited and where they were needed. They moved from city to city and even from country to country; between the construction associations of different cities, a commonality arose, there was an intensive exchange of skills and knowledge. Therefore, in Gothic there is no longer that abundance of sharply different local schools, which is characteristic of the Romanesque style. Gothic art, especially architecture, is distinguished by great stylistic unity. However, the essential features and differences in the historical development of each of the European countries led to significant originality in the artistic culture of individual peoples. It is enough to compare French and English cathedrals to feel the great difference between the external forms and the general spirit of French and English Gothic architecture.
The surviving plans and working drawings of the grandiose cathedrals of the Middle Ages (Cologne, Vienna, Strasbourg) are such that not only well-trained masters could not only draw them up, but also use them. In the 12th-14th centuries. cadres of professional architects were created, the training of which was at a very high theoretical and practical level for that time. Such, for example, are Villard de Honnenkour (the author of the surviving notes, equipped with abundant diagrams and drawings), the builder of a number of Czech cathedrals Petr Parlerzh and many others. The building experience accumulated by previous generations allowed Gothic architects to solve bold constructive tasks and create a fundamentally new design. Gothic architects also found new means to enrich the artistic expressiveness of architecture.
It is sometimes believed that the hallmark of Gothic construction is the lancet arch. This is not true: it is already found in Romanesque architecture. Its advantage, known, for example, even to the architects of the Burgundian school, consisted in a smaller lateral thrust. Gothic masters only took into account this advantage and widely used it.
The main innovation introduced by the architects of the Gothic style is the frame system. Historically, this constructive technique arose from the improvement of the Romanesque cross vault. Already Romanesque architects in some cases laid out the seams between the stripping of the cross vaults with stones protruding outwards. However, such seams then had a purely decorative value; the vault was still heavy and massive. Gothic architects made these ribs (otherwise called ribs, or edges) the basis of the vaulted structure. The construction of the cross vault began by laying out ribs from well-hewn and fitted wedge-shaped stones - diagonal (so-called zhivy) and end (so-called cheek arches). They created, as it were, the skeleton of a vault. The resulting formwork was filled with thin hewn stones with the help of circles.
Such a vault was much lighter than the Roman one: both vertical pressure and lateral thrust were reduced. The rib vault leaned with its heels on the pillars-abutments, and not on the walls; its thrust was clearly identified and strictly localized, and it was clear to the builder where and how this thrust should be “repaid”. In addition, the rib vault had a certain flexibility. Ground shrinkage, catastrophic for Romanesque vaults, was relatively safe for him. Finally, the rib vault also had the advantage of allowing irregularly shaped spaces to be covered.
Having appreciated the merits of such a vault, Gothic architects showed great ingenuity in its development, and also used its design features for decorative purposes. So, sometimes they installed additional ribs going from the point of intersection of the revival to the arrow of the cheek arches - the so-called lierns (EO, GO, FO, BUT). Then they installed intermediate ribs supporting the liernas in the middle - the so-called tierserons. In addition, they sometimes connected the main ribs with each other with transverse ribs, the so-called counter-rails. Especially early and widely English architects began to use this technique.
Since there were several ribs for each pillar-abutment, then, following the Romanesque principle, a special capital or console, or column, adjacent directly to the abutment, was placed under the heel of each rib. So the abutment turned into a bunch of columns. As in the Romanesque style, this technique clearly and logically expressed the main features of the design through artistic means. In the future, however, Gothic architects laid out the stones of the abutments in such a way that the capitals of the columns were completely abolished, and the supporting column from the base of the abutment continued without interruption of the masonry to the very top of the vault.
The lateral thrust of the rib vault, strictly lacquered, in contrast to the heavy Romanesque vault, did not require massive support in the form of wall thickening in dangerous places, but could be neutralized by special pylons - buttresses. The Gothic buttress is a technical development and further improvement of the Romanesque buttress. The buttress, as the Gothic architects established, worked the more successfully, the wider it was from below. So they began to give the buttresses a stepped shape, relatively narrow at the top and wider at the bottom.
It was not difficult to neutralize the lateral expansion of the vault in the side aisles, since their height and width were relatively small, and the buttress could be placed directly at the outer pillar-abutment. It was completely different to solve the problem of the lateral expansion of the vaults in the middle nave.
Gothic architects used in such cases a special arch of wedge-shaped stones, the so-called flying buttress; At one end, this arch, thrown over the side aisles, rested against the sinuses of the vault, and at the other, against the buttress. The place of its support on the buttress was strengthened by a turret, the so-called pinnacle. Initially, the flying buttress adjoined the sinuses of the vault at a right angle and, therefore, perceived only the lateral expansion of the vault. Later, the flying buttress began to be placed at an acute angle to the sinuses of the vault, and thus it partially took on the vertical pressure of the vault.
With the help of the Gothic frame system, great savings in material were achieved. The wall as a structural part of the building became redundant; it either turned into a light wall, or was filled with huge windows. It became possible to build buildings of unprecedented height (under vaults - up to 40 m and above) and to block spans of great width. The pace of construction also increased. If there were no obstacles (lack of funds or political complications), then even grandiose structures were erected in a relatively short time; thus, Amiens Cathedral was mostly built in less than 40 years.
The building material was local mountain stone, which was carefully hewn. The beds, that is, the horizontal edges of the stones, were especially diligently fitted, since they had to take a large load. The Gothic architects used the binding solution very skillfully, achieving with its help a uniform distribution of the load. For the sake of greater strength, iron staples were placed in some places of the masonry, reinforced with soft lead filling. In some countries, such as in North and East Germany, where there was no suitable building stone, buildings were erected from well-formed and fired bricks. At the same time, the craftsmen masterfully created textured and rhythmic effects, using bricks of various shapes and sizes and various laying methods.
The masters of Gothic architecture brought a lot of new things to the layout of the cathedral interior. Initially, one span of the middle nave corresponded to two links - spans of the side aisles. In this case, the main load fell on the abutments ABCD, while the intermediate abutments E and F performed secondary tasks, supporting the heels of the vaults of the side aisles. Intermediate abutments, respectively, were given a smaller cross section. But from the beginning of the 13th c. a different solution became common: all the foundations were made the same, the square of the middle nave was divided into two rectangles, and each link of the side aisles corresponded to one link of the middle nave. Thus, the entire longitudinal chamber of a Gothic cathedral (and often also the transept) consisted of a series of uniform cells, or grasses.
Gothic cathedrals were built at the expense of the townspeople, they served as a place for city meetings, they gave representations of the mysteries; University lectures were given in Notre Dame Cathedral. Thus, the importance of the townspeople increased and the value of the clergy decreased (which, by the way, was not as numerous in the cities as in the monasteries).
This phenomenon was also reflected in the plans of large cathedrals. In Notre Dame, the transept is not as sharply defined as in most Romanesque cathedrals, which softens the border between the sanctuary of the choir, intended for the clergy, and the main longitudinal part, accessible to all. In the cathedral of Bourges, there is no transept at all.
But such a layout is found only in the early works of Gothic. In the middle of the 13th c. Church reaction began in a number of states. It was especially intensified when new mendicant orders settled in the universities. Marx notes that they “lowered the scientific level of the universities, scholastic theology again took a leading position” (K. Marx, Synopsis of Green’s work “History of the English People”, “Archive of Marx and Engels”, vol. VIII, p. 344.). At that time, at the request of the church, a partition was installed in already built cathedrals, separating the choir from the public part of the building, and a different layout was envisaged in the newly built cathedrals. In the main - longitudinal - part of the interior, instead of five, they began to build three naves; the transept develops again, for the most part - three-aisled. The eastern part of the cathedral - the choir - began to be increased to five naves. Large chapels surrounded the eastern apse with a wreath; the middle chapel was usually larger than the others. However, in the architecture of the Gothic cathedrals of that time, there was another trend, which ultimately reflected the growth of craft and trade workshops, the development of a secular beginning, a more complex and broader worldview. So, for the Gothic cathedrals, a great richness of decor, an increase in the features of realism, and at times even genre in monumental sculpture, became characteristic.
At the same time, the initial harmonious balance of horizontal and vertical articulations by the 14th century. more and more gives way to the aspiration of the building up, the rapid dynamics of architectural forms and rhythms.
The interiors of Gothic cathedrals are not only grander and more dynamic than the interiors of the Romanesque style - they testify to a different understanding of space. In Romanesque churches, a narthex, a longitudinal body, and a choir were clearly distinguished. In Gothic cathedrals, the boundaries between these zones lose their rigid definition. The space of the middle and side aisles almost merges; the side aisles rise, the abutments occupy a relatively small place. The windows become larger, the piers between them are filled with a frieze of arches. The tendency to merge the internal space was most pronounced in the architecture of Germany, where many cathedrals were built according to the hall system, that is, the side naves were made the same height as the main one.
The appearance of Gothic cathedrals has also changed a lot. The massive towers above the crossroads, characteristic of most Romanesque churches, have disappeared. On the other hand, powerful and slender towers often flank the western facade, richly decorated with sculpture. The size of the portal has increased significantly.
Gothic cathedrals seem to grow before the eyes of the viewer. Very indicative in this respect is the tower of the cathedral in Freiburg. Massive and heavy at its base, it covers the entire western facade; but, rushing up, it becomes more and more slender, gradually thins out and ends with a stone openwork tent.
Romanesque churches were clearly isolated from the surrounding space by the smoothness of the walls. In Gothic cathedrals, on the contrary, an example of a complex interaction, interpenetration of the internal space and the external natural environment is given. This is facilitated by huge window openings, through carvings of tower tents, a forest of buttresses topped with pinnacles. Carved stone decorations were also of great importance: cruciferous fleurons; stone thorns growing like flowers and leaves on the branches of the stone forest of buttresses, flying buttresses and tower spiers.
The ornament adorning the capitals has also undergone great changes. The geometric forms of the ornament of the capitals, dating back to the “barbarian” braid, and the acanthus, which is antique in origin, almost completely disappear. Gothic masters boldly turn to the motives of their native nature: the capitals of Gothic pillars are decorated with richly modeled leaves of ivy, oak, beech and ash.
The replacement of blank walls with huge windows led to the almost universal disappearance of the monumental paintings that played such a major role in the Romanesque art of the 11th and 12th centuries. The fresco was replaced by a stained-glass window - a kind of painting, in which the image is made up of pieces of colored painted glass, interconnected by narrow lead strips and covered with iron fittings. Stained glass appeared, apparently, in the Carolingian era, but they received full development and distribution only during the transition from Romanesque to Gothic art.
Stained-glass windows placed in the window openings filled the interior of the cathedral with light, painted in soft and sonorous colors, which created an extraordinary artistic effect. The pictorial compositions of the late Gothic style, made in the technique of tempera, or colored reliefs, decorating the altar and altar rounds, were also distinguished by the brightness of their colors.
Transparent stained-glass windows, shining colors of altar painting, the brilliance of gold and silver of church utensils, contrasting with the restrained severity of the color of stone walls and pillars, gave the interior of the Gothic cathedral an unusual festive solemnity.
Both in the internal and especially in the external decoration of the cathedrals, a significant place belonged to plastic. Hundreds, thousands, and sometimes tens of thousands of sculptural compositions, individual statues and decorations on portals, cornices, drains and capitals directly grow together with the structure of the building and enrich its artistic image.
The transition from Romanesque to Gothic in sculpture took place a little later than in architecture, but then the development took place at an unusually fast pace, and Gothic sculpture reached its highest flowering over the course of one century.
Although Gothic knew the relief and constantly turned to it, the main type of Gothic plastic was the statue.
True, Gothic figures are perceived, especially on facades, as elements of a single giant decorative and monumental composition. Separate statues or statuary groups, inextricably linked with the facade wall or with the pillars of the portal, are, as it were, parts of a large multi-figured relief. Nevertheless, when a city dweller on his way to the temple approached close to the portal, the overall decorative integrity of the composition disappeared from his field of vision, and his attention was attracted by the plastic and psychological expressiveness of the individual statues framing the portal, and the reliefs above the gates, which tell in detail about the biblical or gospel event. In the interior, the sculptural figures, if they were placed on the consoles protruding from the pillars, were visible from several sides. Full of movement, they differed in rhythm from the slender, soaring pillars and asserted their special plastic expressiveness.
Compared with the Romanesque, Gothic sculptural compositions are distinguished by a clearer and more realistic disclosure of the plot, a more narrative and instructive character, and, most importantly, greater richness and direct humanity in the transfer of the inner state. The improvement of the specific artistic means of the language of medieval sculpture (expression in the molding of forms, in the transmission of spiritual impulses and experiences, the sharp dynamics of restless folds of draperies, strong light and shade modeling, a sense of expressiveness of a complex silhouette covered in intense movement) contributed to the creation of images of great psychological persuasiveness and enormous emotional strength.
With regard to the choice of subjects, as well as in the distribution of images, the giant sculptural complexes of the Gothic were subject to the rules established by the church. The compositions on the facades of the cathedrals in their totality gave a picture of the universe according to religious ideas. It is no coincidence that the heyday of Gothic was the time when Catholic theology developed into a strict dogmatic system, expressed in the generalizing codes of medieval scholasticism - Thomas Aquinas' Sum of Theology and Vincent of Beauvais's Great Mirror.
The central portal of the western facade, as a rule, was dedicated to Christ, sometimes to the Madonna; the right portal is usually the Madonna, the left portal is the saint, especially revered in the given diocese. On the pillar dividing the doors of the central portal into two halves and supporting the architrave, there was a large statue of Christ, the Madonna, or a saint. On the base of the portal, “months”, seasons, etc. were often depicted. On the sides, on the slopes of the walls of the portal, monumental figures of apostles, prophets, saints, Old Testament characters, and angels were placed. Sometimes stories of a narrative or allegorical nature were presented here: the Annunciation, the Visitation of Mary by Elizabeth, Reasonable and foolish virgins, the Church and the Synagogue, etc.
The field of the gate tympanum was filled with high relief. If the portal was dedicated to Christ, the Last Judgment was depicted in the following iconographic version: at the top sits Christ pointing to his wounds, on the sides are the Madonna and the Evangelist John (in some places he was replaced by John the Baptist), around are angels with the instruments of Christ's torment and the apostles; in a separate zone, below them, an angel weighing souls is depicted; to the left (from the viewer) - the righteous entering paradise; on the right - demons that take possession of the souls of sinners, and scenes of torment in hell; even lower - yawning coffins and the resurrection of the dead.
When depicting the Madonna, the tympanum was filled with scenes: the Assumption, the Taking of the Madonna to heaven by angels and her heavenly coronation. In the portals dedicated to the saints, episodes from their lives unfold on tympanums. On the archivolts of the portal, covering the tympanum, there were placed figures that developed the main theme given in the tympanum, or images, one way or another ideologically connected with the main theme of the portal.
The cathedral as a whole was like a religiously transformed image of the world gathered in a single focus. But interest in reality, in its contradictions, imperceptibly invaded religious plots. True, life's conflicts, the struggle, suffering and grief of people, love and sympathy, anger and hatred appeared in the transformed images of the gospel tales: the persecution of the great martyr by cruel pagans, the disasters of Patriarch Job and the sympathy of his friends, the cry of the Mother of God for the crucified son, etc.
And the motives for turning to everyday life were mixed with abstract symbols and allegories. Thus, the theme of labor is embodied in a series of months of the year, given both in the form of signs of the zodiac coming from antiquity, and through the depiction of labors characteristic of each month. Labor is the basis of the real life of people, and these scenes gave the Gothic artist the opportunity to go beyond religious symbolism. Allegorical representations of the so-called Liberal Arts, already widespread since the late Romanesque period, are also associated with ideas about labor.
The growth of interest in the human personality, in its moral world, in the main features of its character, more and more often affected the individualized interpretation of biblical characters. In Gothic sculpture, the sculptural portrait was also born, although these portraits were only rarely made from life. So, to some extent, the memorial sculptures of church and secular rulers placed in the temple were of a portrait nature.
In the late Gothic book miniature, realistic tendencies were expressed with particular immediacy, and the first successes were achieved in depicting landscapes and everyday scenes. It would be wrong, however, to reduce the entire aesthetic value, all the originality of the realistic underlying foundation of Gothic sculpture, only to the features of a realistically accurate and concrete depiction of life phenomena. True, the Gothic sculptors, embodying the images of biblical characters in their statues, conveyed that feeling of mystical ecstasy and excitement, which was not alien to them. Their feelings were religious in color and were closely associated with perverse religious ideas. And yet, deep spirituality, the extraordinary intensity and strength of manifestations of a person’s moral life, passionate excitement and poetic sincerity of feeling largely determine the artistic truthfulness, value and unique aesthetic originality of Gothic sculptural images.
With the growth of new bourgeois relations, the development and strengthening of the centralized state, humanistic, secular, realistic tendencies grew and strengthened. By the 15th century in most countries of Western and Central Europe, progressive forces entered into an open struggle against the foundations of feudal society and its ideology. From that time on, the great Gothic art, gradually exhausting its progressive role, lost its artistic merit and creative originality. There was a historically inevitable turning point in the development of European art - a turning point associated with overcoming the religious and conventionally symbolic framework that fettered the further development of realism, with the establishment of secular art, consciously realistic in its method. In a number of regions of Italy, where cities were able to achieve a relatively early and relatively complete victory over feudalism, Gothic did not fully develop, while the crisis of the medieval worldview, of medieval art forms, came much earlier than in other European countries. Already from the end of the 13th century. Italian art entered that period of its development, which directly prepared a new artistic era - the Renaissance.
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