Also, the later Gothic churches had very elaborate decoration, especially the "tracery", or stonework supporting the stained glass windows.Ĭhurches were a point of civic pride, and towns vied to outdo each other in the glory of their churches. The easiest point of reference to look for in a Gothic church is the pointed arch, seen in window openings and doors. The new expanse of window space was filled with gloriously rich coloured glass. Sculpture became free-standing rather than being incorporated in columns. Window sizes grew enormously, as did the height of vaults and spires. Heavy Romanesque piers were replaced by slender clusters of columns. Advances in architectural technique learned from contacts with the Arab world during the Crusades led to innovations such as the pointed arch, ribbed vault, and the buttress. Gothic architecture is light, spacious, and graceful. This was a reference to the imagined lack of culture of the barbarian tribes, including the Goths, which had ransacked Rome in the twilight of the Roman Empire. At the time it was called simply "The French Style", but later Renaissance critics, appalled at the abandonment of classical line and proportion, derisively called it "Gothic". Sculpture burst forth gloriously in the Romanesque era, with little regard for classical conventions of the proportion of figures.īeginning in 12th century France a new style of architecture and decoration emerged. Everywhere you look there is evidence of pre-Christian symbology in church sculpture animals real and fanciful, scenes of everyday life, and the pagan "Green man" peering out from amongst carefully wrought leaves and vines of stone. Carvings were not just religious, however. He brought Biblical tales and moral lessons to life in stone. The mission of the sculptor, whose work was seen almost exclusively adorning church buildings, was to educate as well as decorate. Pope Gregory the Great, he of the Gregorian chants, said, "painting can do for the illiterate what writing does for those who read." He might have added that sculpture could serve the same purpose. It also served to symbolize what people believed. The purpose of art was to awe and inspire the viewer with the grandeur of God. It was infused with spiritual symbolism and meaning. While the fact that Gothic architecture in England is chiefly represented by additions to Romanesque buildings is widely acknowledged, the implications of this piece of information for the design process have not been analyzed.Art in the Middle ages was inseparable from religion. Elsewhere the Gothic fabric may be the final stage of a prolonged building campaign. Usually this modernization takes place in the east end of the building, its liturgical focus. The earlier building may possibly be damaged due to fire tower collapse or, as at Southwell, the patron may simply have sought an updated appearance for part of the building. Later medieval architecture in England, commonly referred to as Gothic, is usually in the form of a later addition to an earlier Romanesque building. Southwell Minster is typical of many English medieval churches in combining building fabric from a variety of periods.Īt Southwell, the Norman east end was replaced by Archbishop Walter de Grey of York (1216-55), an ambitious architectural patron who may have sought to increase the prestige of Southwell though the construction of a larger and more up to date east end. It will begin with a case study of Southwell Minster to explore the feasibility and utility of this type of modeling for the study of medieval architecture. It will also provide a prototype for similar analysis for other medieval sites as well as the architecture of other times and places. Thus, the project will develop a new mode of analysis through the application of technology to a key question frequently raised in the scholarly literature but never fully addressed. This archaeological information will then be integrated into consideration of issues of contemporary culture such as program, patronage and external stylistic influences to create a holistic study of the design process for each case study.
MEDIEVAL ARCHITECT SERIES
This project will investigate to what degree the physical structure of the extant fabric has a determining effect on the form of the later medieval addition through the development of multi-dimensional dynamic models for a series of case studies.
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