Gothic heritage: the perfect church, the aesthetics of structure; verticality of power Gothic cathedral as the Heavenly Jerusalem Gothic versus Romanesque architecture Cathedral’s façade Cathedral’s interior Stained-glass windows Flying buttresses Between Gothic and Renaissance Freestanding sculpture: the Virgin Nicola and Giovanni Pisano - Classical heritage and Gothic religiosity Painting: Giotto The Gothic Cathedral
Term Gothic born as pejorative rehabilitated in the 19th cent
James Renwick, Saint Patrick's Cathedral, Construction Completed: 1879, New York Influence on early modernism: beauty of structure
John ROEBLING, Brooklyn Bridge, New York City, 1869 -1883 verticality
Cass GILBERT, Woolworth William VAN ALEN, Building: view Chrysler Building from the air, New York, 1913 New York, 1930 Urbanization and power
San Gimignano, Italy 13th century
Manhattan, USA, 21st century Exterior: Main characteristics of Gothic facade: - Not 1 but 3 monumental portals - decoration everywhere (sculptures, columns, trefoils, rose) - windows - lightness (vision of Heavenly Jerusalem), rather than volume and heaviness (solidity) - Verticality of pointed arches Reims Cathedral, France, ca. St-Trophime, Arles, France, ca. 1225-1290 and pinnacles 1180 Reims Cathedral, France, ca. 1225-1290 Interior of Saint- Sernin, Toulous e, France, ca. 1070-1 120
The Gothic ribbed groin vault is a development of
The Romanesque groin vault From structural to aestheticfunction structure and beauty Influence of…
Pointed arches at the base of the dome, Great Mosque, Cordoba, Spain, 961-965. Reims Cathedral, France, ca. 1225-1290
Flying buttresses Notre-Dame, Paris, France, begun 1163, nave and flying buttresses ca. 1180-1200
The Gothic Cathedral: light
Abbot Suger’s “lux nova” filtered through the sacred images of stained glass windows Jewels of the Heavenly Jerusalem (Revelation XXI)
Chartres Cathedral, north transept, Rose and Lancet, 1220
Virgin and Child (Virgin of Paris), Notre-Dame, Paris, France, Early 14th century, detail
Nicola Pisano, Fortitude, detail of pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260, marble Nicola Pisano, Fortitude, detail of pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260, marble
Pulpit: a raised platform or lectern in a church or chapel from which the preacher delivers a sermon It is a mix of Classical and Gothic elements:
trefoil, but round arches
Corinthian capitals
Large rectangular relief panels similar to those of Roman sarcophagi
Nicola Pisano, pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260, marble Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation and the Nativity, detail of Annunciation pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260, marble relief Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation and the Nativity, detail of Nativity pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260, marble relief Bath (prefiguration Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation and the Nativity, detail of pulpit of Pisa Cathedral baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260, of Baptism) marble relief Nicola Pisano, The Annunciation and the Giovanni Pisano, The Nativity, detail of pulpit of Pisa Cathedral Annunciation and the Nativity, baptistery, Pisa, Italy, 1259-1260, marble detail of the pulpit of relief Sant’Andrea, Pistoia, Italy, 1297-1301, marble relief Nicola Pisano, The Virgin, detail
Humanization
Nervous agitation
Giovanni Pisano, The Virgin, detail Dynamism of a moment
Nicola Pisano, The Giovanni Pisano, The Annunciation, detail Annunciation, detail Intense gaze: psychological drama Giovanni Pisano, The Bath, detail
Humanity of the characters
Nicola Pisano, The Bath, detail Giovanni Pisano, The Crucifixion(detail) , Pistoia:Church S.Andrea, 1297 Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1280-1290 Giotto, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1310. Uffizi, Florence Tempera on wood, Uffizi Firenze
Volume of the figures
Complexity and modernity of architecture
No more frontality
Clear position of figures in space
Natural superimposition of figures
Cimabue, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1280-1290 Giotto, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1310. Uffizi, Florence Tempera on wood, Uffizi Firenze Giotto, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1310. Tempera on wood, Uffizi Firenze, p.206 illusion of the third 2 implications dimension on a flat surface 1) prominence of sight (2 ways): ----> foundations of 1) modeling empirical science 2) intuitive perspective: 2) Things are shown the architectures = three- according to their position dimensional stages where in relation to the viewer these figures can act
Interior of the Arena Chapel (Cappella Scrovegni), Padua, Italy, 1305-1306
Humanization: angels darting about in hysterical grief Solemn theatricality: congregation mourns over the dead body of Christ, showing different manifestations of despair Involvement of the viewer: figures seen from the back:
Giotto, Lamentation, Cappella Scrovegni, Padua, Italy, ca. 1305. Fresco Giotto, Lamentation, Vesperbild (Pieta’), Cappella Middle Rhine Region, Scrovegni, Germany, c. 1330, wood Padua, Italy, ca. and polychromy, h. 34” 1305. Fresco ca.