gothic 💪

Abbey Church of Saint-Sanis

Early Gothic

Stone masonry and stained glass

Redesigned by Abbot Suger to serve as the burial place for French kings and solidify connection between monarchy and church

Saints-Chapelle

High gothic

Stone masonry, stained glass and paint

Commissioned by king Lou’s in IX. Pinnacle of Rayonnant style. Houses Christ’s crown of thorns.

Notre Dame de la Belle Verrière

Early gothic

Stained glass, lead cames

celebrates for luminous background. Visual prayer honoring Mary as the queen of heaven and the primary intercessar between humanity and god.

Laon Cathedral

Early gothic

Limestone masonry

Built during intense civil pride and economic growth in France. Retains conservative Romanesque by using a four-story nave elevation.

Porch of the Confessors

High gothic

Lambs-tone jamb

Part of a decorative campaign for the transept portals. Massive leap from the rigid royal portal statues.

North Transept Window, Chartres

High gothic

Stained glass and bar tracery

Commissioned and gifted by the queen Blanche of Castile. Complex bar tracery to hold up a massive window.represents heavenly perfection.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Early to High gothic

Limestone masonry

Monument to the growing intellectual and political power of the French capitol. One of the earliest monumental structures to intentionally integrate flying buttresses into og engineering design

Visitation, Reims Cathedral

High gothic

Limestone Jamb

Made for Reims cathedral. Example of classical revival from Middle Ages.

Amiens Cathedral

High gothic

Limestone masonry

Built to house the head of Saint John the Baptist. Represents absolute peak of high gothic quest.

Chartres Cathedral

High gothic

Limestone

Rebuilt rapidly after fire in 1194. Massing pilgrimage.

Virgin of Paris

stone

Commissioned for the royal cathedral of Paris. Shifts away naturalism of the high gothic towards more decorative

Royal Portal, Chartres Cathedral

Early gothic

Limestone

The kings and queens serve as literal and figurative structural supports for the New Testament scenes

Master Honoré

gothic

Ink and tempere on vellum

Created for King Philip. Early attempts at creating 3-dim volume through chiaroscuro-like modeling and texturing. Biblical stories of kingship.

David before Saul, Belville Breviary

Late gothic

Ink, tempera, and gold leaf on on vellum

Jean Pucelle. Places figures inside three dimensional architectural spaces. Merges sacred text with worldly observation.

Abbot Suger

Initiated the gothic style through his theological focus on lux nov

Triforium

The shallow arched wall inside a gothic church located directly below the clerestory and above the main arcade

Flashing

Fusing a thin layer of intense colored glass onto thicker clear glass sheet to alter color saturation

Pointed arch

An arch with a pointed apex that channels weight more vertically allowing taller walls and larger window

Plate Tracery

An early window technique where openings are punched directly out of a solid stone wall

Cames

Lead strips used to channel and hold pieces of stained glass together in a window frame

Professional (lay) artist

A secular, non-clergy artisan working in an urban workshop for profit, replacing monastic scribes.

Flying buttress

An exterior masonry strut that holds up thin Gothic walls by transferring roof weight outward to a detached pier.

Bar tracery

A mature Gothic technique using slender, interlocking stone frames to maximize stained glass surface area.

Contrapposto

A mature Gothic technique using slender, interlocking stone frames to maximize stained glass surface area.