Chapter 14 Gothic Cathedral Architectural Style c Began

Chapter 14

Gothic Cathedral Architectural Style c. Á Began in France in the 12 Á Pointed arches replaced rounded Roman arches. Á Flying buttresses. Á Stained glass windows. Á Elaborate, ornate interior. Á Taller, more airy lots of light. Á Lavish sculpture larger-than-life.

The Gothic Cathedral

Gothic Floor Plans

Canterbury Cathedral, England

Interior of a Gothic Cathedral

St. Etienne, Bourges, “Flying” Buttresses late 12 c

Flying Buttress

Gothic “Filigree” Closeups

Cathedral Gargoyles

Stained Glass Windows Á For the glory of God. Á For religious instructions.

Notre Dame Cathedral

Rose Window Chartres Cathedral, Paris The good, of course, is always beautiful, and the beautiful never lacks proportion. Plato ---

The Renaissance • Began mid-fourteenth century • Began Northern Italy and spread to northern Europe • Triggered by: – After Southern Italy free of all foreign influence, Greek & Arabic manuscripts found & translated into Latin • Works by Plato & Aristotle • Works by Muslims • Treatises on medicine, math, & geography

Focus on Learning • Establishment of independent colleges & universities • Modeled after Muslim madrasas • 1300 -1500 – 60 universities • Courses taught in Latin • Bologna – law • Montpellier & Salerno – medicine • Paris & Oxford - theology

Importance of Theology • Seen as the central discipline • Scholasticism – synthesize reason & faith – Summa Theologica – Thomas Aquinas – intertwined Christian beliefs with Aristotelian principles

Literature • Most used Greco-Roman themes and mythology • Many wrote in vernacular languages instead of Latin • Dante – Divine Comedy – Dante’s trip through 9 circles of hell, purgatory, and paradise • Chaucer – Canterbury Tales – Pilgrims on their way to Canterbury

Humanists • Interest in humanities, classical disciplines of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history, & ethics • Reformed secondary education curriculum which still dominates Europe and the Americas today • Their influence was wide because of new printing technology – Printing press (1450) – movable type that pressed inked type onto sheets of paper

Renaissance and the Church • Pope Nicholas V created the Vatican Library • Purchased Greco-Roman scrolls • Dutch scholar Erasmus – retranslated the New Testament correcting errors & mistranslations in the Latin text • Gutenberg – Gutenberg Bible (1454) was first book in the West printed – Growing number of literate population

Art Patronage • Italians willing to spend money on art • Art in Florence supported by the guilds • Consumption of art was used as a form of competition for social and political status

Art • Focus – Biblical subjects – Greco-Roman deities – Mythical tales – Scenes of daily life • Flemish painter Jan van Eyck introduced oil painting • Characteristics – Realism & expression – Individualism – Geometrical arrangement of figures – Light and shadowing