Micro-Architecture As the 'Idea' of Gothic Theory and Style
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International Center of Medieval Art is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Gesta. http://www.jstor.org Micro-Architecture as the 'Idea' of Gothic Theory and Style FRANCOISBUCHER State University of New York at Binghamton A definition of the ideal Gothic structure through the both East and West stressed instead the instruments of use of small monuments of architecture usually classified salvation-the reliquaries, shrines, and sometimes the mo- within the "minor arts" is based on the following pre- saics.4 The Second Council of Nicea of 787 A.D which mises: many objects and designs from the late thirteenth had declared against the Iconoclasts by pronouncing that century onwards show that the design theory applied to crosses, images, vessels, and hangings not only "lift men small works was identical to that used for large struc- up to the memory of their prototypes" but that "the tures; contracts show that the boundaries between metal- honor paid to them is passed on to that which the work, carpentry, and construction were fluid; stylistic in- image represents"; statements in the Edicts of Charlemagne ventions were often developed in small works and trans- and many other sources in fact encouraged, or at least ferred to architecture; and, eventually, the trend-setting sanctioned, the human need to escape daily absurdity morphology realized in small objects became so sophis- through a vicarious self-identification with the saints in ticated that it could no longer be duplicated in buildings Paradise. Christ, the martyrs and confessors had replaced which themselves, in a strange reversal of reference, became the Gods and heroes of antiquity, and it was the thrill mere shelters for micro-architecture.* of a physical proximity to their remains-coupled with Some of the subsequent statements are contrary to a the hope for indulgences-which offered a temporary, deritualized 20th-century society, whose outlook is governed powerful catharsis.5 In addition we have underestimated by scientism and a reluctance to view nature as a pos- the importance of a group experience of believers con- sible manifestation of a higher order. We are not pre- fronted with objects of mythical importance. Today, just pared to favor Origen's dictum, deeply anchored in medi- as in yesteryear, intellectuals have reacted negatively to eval perception, that "the visible world contains images emotional mass enthusiasm and even private high emotion of heavenly things in order that by means of these lower Witness the sneering remark of the eleventh-century objects we may rise to that which is beyond".' If we scholar Bernard d'Angers, who, having watched peasants read sources in their totality, we learn to accept that adore a statue, said to his companion: "We would not to the medieval church-goer or pilgrim sacred objects tolerate the making of statues of Saints at all were it offered an infinitely more valid transcendental experience not for a habit congenitally ingrained in gross minds."6 and vicarious identification with the Heavenly Jerusalem In tune with medieval intellectuals, architectural historians than the cathedrals whose structural arrogance only few have largely neglected the "gross minds" and thus mis- could appreciate and even fewer could comprehend.2 The judged the importance of an array bf small sacred objects, sources indicate that even most literati of the Middle which the medieval observer perceived as major mon- Ages took architectural descriptions lightly, and disposed uments.7 of buildings through varied and often brief formulae My hypothesis is corroborated by none other than before turning to the reliquaries and other mementos Suger of Saint-Denis; possessing a first rate organization- which fascinated them.3 With very few exceptions, such al mind, he was a friend of rulers, a Regent of France, as Hagia Sophia, Santiago, Saint-Denis, Canterbury and St. and last but not least the propagandist of a new style. Albans, descriptive accuracy applied to structures is hard And yet, his most basic emotional responses were trig- to find. Because redemption mattered, the chroniclers gered by the brilliant magic of small, sacred objects 71 which projected him anagogically into the ecstatic realm only be realized in the structurally forgiving realm of beyond. He did appreciate the fact that his "bright . buildings whose extraordinarily daring elevations neces- noble edifice" would be "pervaded by the new light." sitated small size. The complete two-tower church facades But his true and innermost catharthis lay in the con- in the baldachin of the Louvain tabernacle indicates its templation of the "multifarious wealth of precious stones" "true" immensity and therefore resolves the dilemma on the high altar, topped by the cross of St. Eloi as between the poetic and the realizable building. (P1 7, b) seen in a late 15th-century panel by the Master of St. It is with Roman de Troie with its complex tombs, Giles. (Plate la). With his view of architecture largely with the Norman epic Eracle of 1164 describing the blocked by an array of "minor" structures, Suger, primed throne of "Cosdroe" under a domed, star-studded vault, by the Dionysian theory of light was "transported from and with the description of the palace of Prester John this inferior to that higher world in an anagogical in the Land of Cocaigne (1165 A.D.) with its grandiose manner."8 No wonder then, that Bernard of Clairvaux cantilevered warning mirror that we begin to enter the lashed out against those who "currunt ad osculandum" Gothic realms of fantastic architectural daring. It is such and to venerate the "sacra." But at the same time he works which inspired Albrecht von Scharffenberg's prophetically criticized a nascent megalomania by inveighing Younger Titurel of ca. 1270 A.D. In the long poem against the size of Cluny III, its "oratoriorum immensas the hero builds a temple of the Grail on a polished altitudines, immoderatas longitudines, supervacuas latitu- onyx cliff on top of Monserrat. The air conditioned rotunda ines . ".9 measures 100 fathoms in diameter. Its central tower bears From the 1160's onward the construction of churches a gold and enamel roof and above it an immense carbuncle could no longer be separated from the dynamism of the The thirty-six octagonal, six story towers are crowned by cities with their ambitious building committees. The cost ruby knobs carrying crystal crosses which become trans- of the structures increased, and with it the prestige of parent supports for hovering eagles. The astronomical dome the lay architects who fulfilled the demand for ever in- is studded with sapphires and carbuncles. There is "not creasing scale until the end of Gothic gigantism around one hands's breadth without decoration." Ciboria house 1300. From then on the competition for height and struc- doves which gently lower angels carrying hosts The tural daring was restricted to the more identifiable, mighty building rests on a crystal sea with sham mobile mon- towers which not only symbolized ecclesiastical power, sters. In the center there is a small version of the same but equally also civic pride."' The discovery of virtues in structure. It is this miniature which contains the Grail less extravagant trend-setting examples such as the Sainte The final fourteenth-century version of the story, the Chapelle, or Santa Maria della Spina in Pisa had raised Marienloh, transformed Scharffenberg's structure into a the architects' awareness of challenges in more modest mere annex to a church of Mary whose 500 choirs were projects. It was in the mid-thirteenth century that they overshadowedby a tower which, according to Frankl, would began to impose their aesthetic vocabulary upon the world have been 1920 m. or over a mile high. Immediately there- of reliquaries, stalls, fonts, pulpits, tombs, etc.; in short after the architectural fantasies shrank, dainty details be- micro-architecture. These small structures changed from gan to be emphasized, as in Chaucer or Lydgate. Finally coffin, chest or tent-like shapes into small buildings, in the fifteenth-century anonymous Amadis de Gaula the which then fell within the purview of builders who sub- structures became small and more gadgety." These verbal jected them to ever more stringent design requirements buildings often rest on slender supports, are of precious, By taking over the increasing market for small struc- polished materials and are covered with jewels and orna- tures, produced for the heightened emotional needs of the ments. With the possible exceptions of Hagia Sophia, population and for new and inventive liturgical complex- San Vitale, the Sainte Chapelle and Karlstejn, few existing ities, the architects had entered a realm of activities monuments any longer give us the sense of unreality which was not only lucrative, but also allowed them to projected by these poetic visions. Their extravagant vast- perform sophisticated model experiments. ness, and later their complex daintiness is reflected in manu- Fantastic buildings in medieval literature and not scripts like the Tres Riches Heures of Jean Duc de Berry historical descriptions demonstrate the desire to couple of ca. 1413 A.D. But they were realized equally well in the gigantic size with emotionally laden small spaces con- hypnotically crafted small structures containing objects re- taining important mythological objects.