07-2_Gothic_England_str_hdt_4p

The Gothic Style in England, AD 1200 - 1500Ca. 1250:Medieval division of the ‘liberal arts’ into ‘trivium’ (grammar, rhetoric, dialectics) and ‘quadrivium’ (music, astronomy, arithmetic, geometry).AD 1254:Royal Chaplain Robert de Sorbon establishes the school of theology in Paris (known as la Sorbonne from the 14th century).Ca. 1260:According to the theory of alchemy, metals consist of mercury, sulphur, and salt and can be transformed into each other (with the help of the ‘stone of wisdom’).AD 1275:Marco Polo reaches Peking.Ca. 1300:Pharmacy is recognised as a profession in Germany, spectacles are produced in Italy, glass windows spread, the foot-operated loom is invented, the mechanical clock with stop wheel is invented in Italy; masses in Bruges, Antwerp, Lyons, and Geneva become very important events. AD 1302:Pope Boniface VIII issues the Papal Bull ‘Unam sanctam’ (formulation of the Papal claim to world rule).AD 1309:Pope Clemens V transfers the Papal see to Avignon (‘Babylonian imprisonment of the church’).AD 1311:Dante starts work on the Divine Comedy.AD 1318:Development of a new system of payment. A law on the transfer of money (giro bank) is passed in Venice.AD 1339 - 1453:‘Hundred Years War’ between England and France; Joan of Arc liberates Orleans and succeeds in setting up the coronation of Charles VII as King of France (1429); she is imprisoned by the English and burned as a witch (1431).AD 1347:Outbreak of the plague in Europe.Ca. 1350:Division of the English parliament into the upper house (House of Lords) and lower house (House of Commons) which is given right of petition.AD 1353:Boccacio completes his collection of stories, the Decameron.AD 1356:Emperor Charles IV confirms the sole right of the seven German Princes to elect a king in the ‘Golden Bull’.AD 1378 - 1417:The Great Schism with opposition Popes in Avignon and Rome marks a nadir in papal power.AD 1415:Czech reformer Johann Hus is burned as a heretic.AD 1445:First book printed by Johann Gutenberg in Mainz, Germany.AD 1447:Foundation of the Vatican library.AD 1481:Beginning of the inquisition in Spain. The secular ruler must implement death penalty as the church ‘does not thirst for blood’.AD 1492:Discovery of America by Christopher Columbus; Martin Behaim designs the first globe.0. Continuing the Norman traditionsIt was mainly thanks to travelling architects that the style developed in the Ile-de-France became known outside France. Guillaume de Sens (an architect from the Sens church 5building association) was mainly responsible for the reconstruction of the burned choir of Canterbury cathedral. In doing this he brought the Gothic style to England where it developed to eventually rival the French Gothic. What emerged in England was a combination of Norman architecture, which already incorporated many Gothic trends, and the new style. This resulted in the development of something completely independent of the 10French style. Unlike the continent, large churches in England were generally built outside the towns, as illustrated by Durham cathedral. The English Church saw itself as an established territorial church and its cathedrals tended to be attached to monastic residences on the peripheries of towns, rather than the bishop’s seat in the town centre. Thus it was the custom to build large cathedral complexes with ‘castle gates’ on all sides, and a cathedral 15chapter house integrated into the periphery of the complex.Other typical features of Gothic churches in England included a far greater emphasis on the horizontal proportions, which was not reflected in the height of the building, and the straight eastern termination of the chancel, to which the lady chapel (chapel dedicated to the Virgin) was added. In continental Gothic churches, this was closely integrated into the overall 20system of the building, as the central chapel among the chapels radiating from the choir ambulatory. As in French cathedrals, the addition of a chapel at the choir end of the church caused the shifting of the crossing to almost the centre of the entire complex. Although this feature received little or no emphasis in the country of birth of the Gothic style, in England it became the pivotal focus of the church. Rectangular structures were added on all sides and 25it was crowned by the tower vault.The central role of the crossing was also generally reflected in the exterior. Salisbury cathedral (which like Lincoln cathedral has double transepts) does not have a double-tower façade. The west front merely has two small corner towers similar to those which terminate the transepts and the choir. These towers do not soar above the nave roofs. The dominant 30feature is the 123-metre-high crossing tower. The high shaft of space which it creates is particularly effective in the interior. Unlike in France, there is no spatial unity; division of the wall surfaces is based on decorative rather than structural motifs. Hence, independentadoption of the French model took over from the Early English Gothic style (of which Salisbury is an example) around 1250 and became known as the ‘decorated style’. In the 35classical French Gothic cathedral, the structural methods used were clearly exposed and the decorative details were based upon them, emphasizing their effects. The continuous ribs of the fan vaults in Lincoln and Exeter cathedrals have no load-bearing function whatsoever.Instead, they form part of a decorative detail consisting of sharp graphical lines which also divide up the thick pillars and arcade arches. The optical dematerialisation achieved in this 40way is, however, inadequate. The responds of the fan vaults do not take off from the abacuses of the arcade pillars, or even rest on floor pedestals, but arise from brackets which hang freely beneath the spandrels. This absence of continuous vertical lines stretching from floor to ceiling emphasises the spatial effect evoked by the squat nature of the building. The impression created is not one of a delicate, upward-striving skeleton held together by lines of 45force, but of a complex structure consisting of many individual parts and layers, which is nevertheless extremely stable and massive.The ‘perpendicular style’, which emerged in the mid-14th century and is found in Gloucester cathedral, is the logical continuation of this trend. In Gloucester, a complex regular network of ribs was added to the vaults, which were clearly devoid of a structural function. This left 50little scope for further development: the box-shaped spatial form remained unchanged, only its decoration could be varied endlessly. This architectural style exercised a decisive influence for several centuries in England and also spread back to France and the late Gothic Period with its ‘flamboyant style.*** ***55A) SalisburyThe fact that this cathedral was built from scratch gave enormous scope for the design, as it was not constrained by existing structures. The construction period being relatively short for its time also ensured a degree of uniformity in the design.The three-aisle basilica has two transepts, a choir ambulatory and Lady’s Chapel. A 60cloister and chapter house adjoin the building to the south. In contrast to the spatial unity of French cathedrals, the staggering of the structure makes it easy to read the functional spatial division both from the interior and exterior.B) LincolnThe stellar vaults along the nave immediately attract the eye of the observer on entering 65the cathedral from the west portal. The ribs above each of the bays combine to form a star. Viewed from one of the pillars, the effect is that of a fan. The central rib extends the entire length of the nave right up to the crossing. The walls emphasise the horizontal articulation of the three levels. Galleries above the ground-level arcades also have arcades, which open onto the roof of the side aisles; these are crowned by the clerestory.70The three responds in front of the wall terminate on brackets above the pillars and do not correspond in number to the ribs in the vault; they are conceived for a traditional rib vault.The number of responds does not correspond to that of the ribs until the Angel Choir. The actual choir has a strange asymmetrical rib vault which can probably be ascribed to theinfluence of Bishop Robert Grosseteste, a scientist who was particularly interested in optical 75phenomena.C) GloucesterConstruction of this Romanesque abbey church, which was extended and ‘modernised’ several times, initially started in 1089. At the beginning of the 14th century the south side aisle, and in the 1340s the southern transept, were given new windows with tracery in the 80flowing lines of the decorated style. A net vault was also added to the crossing. Over the following decades the choir, north transept, and cloister were redesigned in the perpendicular style, which involved covering the wall and vault surfaces with a dense lattice of decorative details. The crossing tower, a prominent feature of English Gothic cathedrals, originates from the 15th century. □。