Unique Features of Gothic Churches,
Cathedrals and Monasteries :
Antependium : Decorated frontispiece to an altar, featuring allegorical figures in tapestry or carved forms. Canopy : An overhanging shade or shelter above an artwork or statue, sometimes situated upon pillars. Capital : The upper element of an architectural pillar, often finely decorated in Romanesque and Early Gothic structures. Column figure : A statue or sculpted figure which serves as a supportive or decorative shaft within a portal. Gargoyle : From the Old French: gargouille, meaning: throat.
The word refers to sound which water makes as it passes through the gullet. Originally a reference to the drains atop cathedrals which were later carved into the form of beasts or animals.Image at right : Gargoyle atop Notre Dame, watching over Paris.
View the Earthlore Foundation Stone about Gargoyles Iconography : Religious imagery painted upon wooden panels. The term is also used to define the study of symbolism as it relates to the subject of a work of art. Lady chapel : Found in all the Notre Dames, as well as many of the Great Cathedrals and churches, the Lady chapel is usually located behind the Sanctuary. These spaces are dedicated to—sometimes set aside for the use of—Mary, the Blessed Virgin. Latin cross : A cross form which contains one arm that is longer than the other three, traditionally the base arm. This is the accepted manner of the Crucifixion cross, based upon the upright beam and crossbar commonly used by the Romans for execution. As a central Christian symbol this motif is utilized in many forms, from literal sculpted figures of the Martyrdom to Cruciform floorplans of churches and cathedrals.
Maestà : Artwork or sculpture which portrays the Madonna and the Christ child upon a throne, usually attended by angels or saints.Image at right : Detail of a fine Maestà by the Gothic artist Duccio di Buoninsegna; commissioned for the cathedral at Siena in 1308.
Pieta : Artwork or sculpture which portrays the Virgin Mary cradling the lifeless body of Christ upon her lap. Relic : A sacred object venerated because of its association to a martyr or saint, in certain instances, remains of the saint. Retable : Sometimes referred to as Reredos, these sculpted structures form the back of altars. Ridge turret : Found more commonly on churches without towers, located over the crossing and named for their location on the ridge of the roof. Rood Screen : An ornamented piece which serves on the Altar as a separation between the Choir and the Nave. Quite often Rood Screens will contain or support a crucifix. Rose window : Evolving from the simple round windows of the
Romanesque period these intricate works of glass, metal and stone literally flowered into holistic representations of the known Universe. While glass windows were used in cathedrals of other countries, the Rose Window was initially a French creation; incorporated initially at St. Denis.Image at right : Detail of Rose window at Rheims cathedral, France.
Roundel : From the Old French: rondel, meaning small circle. In architecture: a curved panel or window recess. Sacred Conversation : Artwork or sculpture which portrays the Madonna and Christ child contained in the same setting with saints & angels. Sarcophagus : A sculpted stone tomb or wooden coffin, adorned with ornamentation. Tabernacle : A ceilinged alcove used for the display of statuettes or art pieces. Tetramorph : An allegorical figure containing the symbols of the four Evangelists; lion, eagle, bull and man. Traditionally, these are associated to Mark, John, Luke and Matthew.
Triptych : A three paneled art piece, either image or carving, linked by hinges, used in religious iconography.Image at right : Cloister door with tympanum; Burgos cathedral, Spain.
Tympanum : The curved vertical space between the arch and the lintel of a doorway. This location was often considered the premier site on a structure for sculpture, and so contained significant scenes such as the Last Judgment or Christ enthroned.“It is one of the advantages of Gothic architecture,—I use the word Gothic in the most extended sense as broadly opposed to classical,—that it admits of a richness of record altogether unlimited. Its minute and multitudinous sculptural decorations afford means of expressing, either symbolically or literally, all that need be known of national feeling or achievement.
More decoration will, indeed, be usually required than can take so elevated a character; and much, even in the most thoughtful periods, has been left to the freedom of fancy, or suffered to consist of mere repetitions of some national bearing or symbol. It is, however, generally unwise, even in mere surface ornament, to surrender the power and privilege of variety which the spirit of Gothic architecture admits; much more in important features—capitals of columns or bosses, and string-courses, as of course in all confessed bas-reliefs. Better the rudest work that tells a story or records a fact, than the richest without meaning. There should not be a single ornament put upon great civic buildings, without some intellectual intention.”
“In the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window, with which Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colors of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
“On entering a church through the porch on the north or south side, or at the west end, we sometimes perceive on the right hand side of the door, at a convenient height from the ground, often beneath a niche, and partly projecting from the wall, a stone basin: this was the stoup, or receptacle for holy water, called also the aspersorium, into which each individual dipped his finger and crossed himself when passing the threshold of the sacred edifice. The custom of aspersion at the church door appears to have been derived from an ancient usage of the heathens, amongst whom, according to Sozomen, the priest was accustomed to sprinkle such as entered into a temple with moist branches of olive.”
—M. H. Bloxam,The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture
“We have endeavoured to restore for the reader this admirable Cathedral of Notre Dame. We have briefly enumerated most of the beauties it possessed in the fifteenth century, though lost to it now; but we have omitted the chief one—the view of Paris as it then appeared from the summits of the towers.
When, after long gropings up the dark perpendicular stair-case which pierces the thick walls of the steeple towers, one emerged at last unexpectedly on to one of the two high platforms inundated with light and air, it was in truth a marvellous picture spread out before you on every side; a spectacle sui generis of which those of our readers can best form an idea who have had the good fortune to see a purely Gothic city, complete and homogeneous, of which there are still a few remaining, such as Nuremberg in Bavaria, Vittoria in Spain, or even smaller specimens, provided they are well-preserved, like Vitré in Brittany and Nordhausen in Prussia.
The Paris of that day, the Paris of the fifteenth century, was already a giant city. We Parisians in general are mistaken as to the amount of ground we imagine we have gained since then. Paris, since the time of Louis XI, has not increased by much more than a third; and, truth to tell, has lost far more in beauty than ever it has gained in size.”
—Victor Hugo,Notre Dame de Paris;
A Bird's-Eye View of Paris
Bibliography
The Principles of Gothic Ecclesiastical Architecture,Matthew Holbeche Bloxam, London, D. Bogue (1846)
Dictionnaire raisonné de l'architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle,Eugène Viollet-le-Duc, Paris (1858-68)
Mont Saint-Michel and Chartres, Henry Adams, New York (1904) Gothic Painting, J. Dupont & C. Gnudi, Skira, Geneva (1954) The Gothic Cathedral, Otto von Simson, Pantheon, NY (1956) The Gothic, Paul Frankl , Princeton Univ. Press (1960) The Cathedral Builders, Jean Gimpel, Grove Press, NY (1961) Gothic Architecture, Robert Branner, G. Braziller, NY (1961) High Gothic, Hans Jantzen, Pantheon, NY (1962) History of Medieval Art I, II, III, Georges Duby, Skira, Geneva (1966-67) The Medieval Architect, J. H. Harvey, Pantheon, London (1972) The Age of the Cathedrals, Art and Society 980-1420, Georges Duby, London (1981) French Gothic Architecture of the 12th
and 13th Centuries,
J. Bony, Berkeley (1983) The Gothic Cathedral, Christopher Wilson, Thames & Hudson (1990) The Art of Gothic, Könemann Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, (1999)Development & Production Credits
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