GOTHIC AND THE DIVINE
What are the ways in which the Divine was used as a generating concept in the design of Gothic cathedrals and churches in the Middle Ages? How did the resulting design goals generate new structural technologies to support a Gothic cathedral, and how were they expressed in the building’s interior?
Gothic architecture was born out of the increasing faith to the divine in the present life but also in preparing for the afterlife. A feeling that all human action was governed by a higher plan permeated the faith of the Gothic period.
The middle ages was a dark time and individuals lost faith in their own abilities to control or even to understand events in the world around them and were now turning to the divine for answers …show more content…
It is composed of thin stone elements rather than thick ones as in plate tracery. The glass rather than the stone dominates when bar tracery is used giving a more delicate, web-like effect. Tracery is a Gothic invention of upmost importance that eventually whole buildings, like the Sainte-Chapelle in France were to be defined and composed of tracery and the glass it contained. This technique also adds to the building looking visually more ornate and decorative.
St Peter’s Cathedral features all these elements with a large rose window at the front, stained glass windows throughout the entire church and bar tracery. Brian Andrews states St Peter’s cathedral windows “had tracery of the simplest geometrical kind”.
As the sun moved through the cathedral’s stained glassed windows its colours would reflect into the interior of the cathedral creating an “other worldly” light. This had a major positive effect on the patrons as castles and early medieval buildings were often dark, depressing places to live or worship in, reflective of the times. This added to the power of the church and its increasing faith to the divine, it brought hope to its patrons.
Suger’s theory of light stated that man could come to a closer understanding of the light of God through the light of material objects in the physical world. Mystical contemplation also heightens the significant content of the stained-glass
What are the ways in which the Divine was used as a generating concept in the design of Gothic cathedrals and churches in the Middle Ages? How did the resulting design goals generate new structural technologies to support a Gothic cathedral, and how were they expressed in the building’s interior?
Gothic architecture was born out of the increasing faith to the divine in the present life but also in preparing for the afterlife. A feeling that all human action was governed by a higher plan permeated the faith of the Gothic period.
The middle ages was a dark time and individuals lost faith in their own abilities to control or even to understand events in the world around them and were now turning to the divine for answers …show more content…
It is composed of thin stone elements rather than thick ones as in plate tracery. The glass rather than the stone dominates when bar tracery is used giving a more delicate, web-like effect. Tracery is a Gothic invention of upmost importance that eventually whole buildings, like the Sainte-Chapelle in France were to be defined and composed of tracery and the glass it contained. This technique also adds to the building looking visually more ornate and decorative.
St Peter’s Cathedral features all these elements with a large rose window at the front, stained glass windows throughout the entire church and bar tracery. Brian Andrews states St Peter’s cathedral windows “had tracery of the simplest geometrical kind”.
As the sun moved through the cathedral’s stained glassed windows its colours would reflect into the interior of the cathedral creating an “other worldly” light. This had a major positive effect on the patrons as castles and early medieval buildings were often dark, depressing places to live or worship in, reflective of the times. This added to the power of the church and its increasing faith to the divine, it brought hope to its patrons.
Suger’s theory of light stated that man could come to a closer understanding of the light of God through the light of material objects in the physical world. Mystical contemplation also heightens the significant content of the stained-glass