Content Area: Early Europe and Colonial Americas, 200–1750 C.E.
TIME PERIOD: 1140–1400, up to 1550 in some sections of Europe
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: The culture, beliefs, and physical settings of a region play an important role in the creation, subject matter, and siting of works of art.
Learning Objective: Discuss how the culture, beliefs, or physical setting can influence the making of a work of art. (For example: Notre Dame de la Belle Verriere)
Essential Knowledge:
■Gothic art is a part of the medieval artistic tradition.
■In the Gothic period, royal courts emphasized the study of theology, music, and writing.
■Gothic art avoids naturalism and emphasizes stylistic variety. Text is often incorporated into artwork from this period.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Cultural interaction through war, trade, and travel can influence art and art making.
Learning Objective: Discuss how works of art are influenced by cultural interaction. (For example: the Golden Haggadah)
Essential Knowledge:
■There is an active exchange of artistic ideas throughout the Middle Ages.
■There is a great influence of Roman, Early Medieval, and Islamic art on Gothic art.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Art and art making can be influenced by a variety of concerns including audience, function, and patron.
Learning Objective: Discuss how art can be influenced by audience, function, and/or patron. (For example: Blanche of Castile and Louis IX)
Essential Knowledge:
■Works of art were often displayed in religious or court settings.
■Surviving architecture is mostly religious.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDING: Art history is best understood through an evolving tradition of theories and interpretations.
Learning Objective: Discuss how works of art have had an evolving interpretation based on visual analysis and interdisciplinary evidence. (For example: Great Portals of Chartres)
Essential Knowledge:
■The study of art history is shaped by changing analyses based on scholarship, theories, context, and written records.
■Contextual information comes from written records that are religious or civic.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
The beginning of the Gothic period cannot be dated precisely, although the place of its creation, Paris, can. The change in thinking that we call “Gothic” is the result of a number of factors:
1.An era of peace and prosperity in the region around Paris, owing to an increasingly centralized monarchy, new definition of the concepts of “king” and “kingship,” together with the peaceful succession of kings from 987 to 1328.
2.Increasing growth and wealth of cities and towns, encouraged by the sale of royal charters that bound the cities to the king rather than to local lords and the increased wealth of the king.
3.The gradual development of a money economy in which cities played a role in converting agricultural products to goods and services.
4.The emergence of the schools in Paris as the intellectual center of western Europe that brought together the teachers and scholars who transformed western thinking by changing the way questions were asked and by arguing using logic.
The Late Gothic period is marked by three crucial historical events:
1.The Hundred Years’ War between France and England (1337–1453). This conflict devastated both countries socially and economically, and left vast regions of France ruined.
2.The Babylonian Captivity (1304–1377). French popes moved the headquarters of the Christian church to Avignon, France, creating a spiritual crisis that had far-reaching effects on European society, and on Rome in particular. With the popes away, there was little reason to maintain Saint Peter’s; indeed Rome itself began to decay. When the pope finally returned to Rome in 1377, a schism developed as rival popes set up competing claims of authority, none of which was resolved until 1409. This did much to undermine the authority of the church in general.
3.The Black Death of 1348. This was the greatest cataclysm in human history: A quarter to a third of the world perished in a misdiagnosed pulmonary plague. The consequences for art history were enormous; in many towns there were not enough living to bury the dead: Consequently, architecture came to a standstill. Artists interpreted the plague as a punishment from God, thus painting became conservative and began to look backward to earlier styles. Europe spent generations recovering from the plague’s devastating effects.
Patronage and Artistic Life
Master builders coordinated hundreds of laborers and artisans—masons, stonecutters, sculptors, haulers, carpenters—in the building of a cathedral. Indeed, the cathedral was the public works project of its day, keeping the local economies humming and importing artists as needed from everywhere.
Similarly, manuscripts were organized by a chef d’atelier who was responsible for establishing an overall plan or vision of a book so that the workshop could execute his or her designs. A scribe copied the text, but in so doing left room for decorative touches, such as initials, borders, and narrative scenes. Embellishments were added by artists who could express themselves more fully than scribes, who had to stick to the text. Artists often rendered fanciful designs to an initial or a border. Lastly, a bookbinder had the manuscript bound.
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
Gothic architecture developed advances made in the Romanesque:
1.The rib vault. Invented at the end of the Romanesque period, and became the standard vaulting practice of the Gothic period.
2.Bays. The Romanesque use of repeated vertical elements in bays also became standard in the Gothic period.
3.The rose window. Begun as an oculus on the façade of Romanesque buildings, the rose window becomes an elaborate circular feature that opens up wall spaces by allowing more light in through the façade and transepts.
4.The pointed arch. First seen in Islamic Spain, this arch directs thrusts down to the floor more efficiently than rounded arches. More fanciful “S” shaped arches, called ogee arches, are developed at this time (Figure 12.3).
What is new in the Gothic period is the flying buttress (Figure 12.1). These stone arches support a roof by having the weight bypass the walls and travel down to piers outside the building. This enabled the building to be opened up for more window space and to display more stained glass. Most important, flying buttresses also help to stabilize the building, preventing wind stresses from damaging these very vertical and narrow structures.
Figure 12.1: Flying buttress and pinnacle on a Gothic cathedral
Ground plans of Gothic buildings denote innovations in the east end, or chevet (Figure 12.2). Increasingly elaborate ceremonies called for a larger space to be introduced between the transept and the apse, called the choir. While allowing for greater clergy participation, it also had the side effect of removing the public further from the main altar and keeping the ceremony at arm’s length.
Figure 12.2: Plan of Notre Dame, Paris
Figure 12.3: Ogee arches
Another innovation is the introduction of decorative pinnacles (Figure 12.1) on the roof of Gothic churches. Long thought to be mere ornaments on flying buttresses, pinnacles are now understood to be essential architectural components that act as stabilizing forces in a wind storm.
Gothic buildings are tall and narrow, causing the worshipper to look up upon entering. The architecture, therefore, reinforces the religious symbolism of the building.
French Gothic buildings tend to be nestled downtown, surrounded by other buildings, and rising above the city landscape as a point of civic and religious pride. In sort of a competition, each town built successively taller buildings, seeking to outdo its neighbors.
Chartres Cathedral, Gothic Europe, c. 1145–1155, reconstructed 1194–1220, limestone and stained glass, Chartres, France (Figures 12.4a, 12.4b, 12.4c, and 12.4d)
Figure 12.4a: Chartres Cathedral flank, Gothic Europe, c. 1145–1155, reconstructed 1194–1220, limestone and stained glass, Chartres, France
Figure 12.4b: Chartres Cathedral façade
Figure 12.4c: Chartres Cathedral interior
Figure 12.4d: Chartres Cathedral ground plan
Form
■The first church to have flying buttresses as part of the original design; earlier churches retrofitted flying buttresses after the building was constructed.
■The tall vertical nature of the interior pulls the viewer’s eyes up to the ceiling and symbolically to heaven; rib vaulting increases the ceiling’s vertical thrust.
■Lancets and spires add to the verticality of the building.
■The dark, mysterious interior increases a spiritual feeling.
■Stained glass enlivens the interior surfaces of the church (see Figure 12.8).
■The façade contains a gallery of Old Testament figures above a rose window.
■Enlarged chevet accommodates elaborate church ceremonies.
Function
■Christian church dedicated to the Virgin Mary; a Marian shrine.
Context
■Started in 1145; fire in 1194 forced reconstruction of everything except the façade.
■Mary’s tunic, worn at Jesus’s birth, is its most sacred relic; its escape from a fire in 1194 was seen as a signal to rebuild the cathedral.
■Right spire is from 1160; left spire is Late Gothic (1507–1513), a style more elaborate and decorative called Flamboyant Gothic.
■Importance of the church reflected in the speed of construction: 27 years.
■Each wing of the cathedral faces a cardinal direction of the compass:
–The west wing is the entrance, facing sunset and symbolizing the end of the world.
–The north wing has stained-glass windows that symbolize the past.
–The south wing has stained-glass windows that symbolize the present world depicted in the New Testament.
–The east wing has the apse and altar, located where the sun rises.
■Part of a complex that included a school, a bishop’s palace, and a hospital.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 60
Web Source http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/81/
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Church Ground Plans that Indicate Their Function
–San Vitale (Figure 8.4c)
–San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (Figure 17.2c)
–Santa Sabina (Figure 7.3c)
Westminster Hall, 1097–1099; ceiling 1390s, stone and wood, London, England (Figure 12.5)
Figure 12.5: Westminster Hall, 1097–1099; ceiling 1390s, stone and wood, London, England
Form
■Bare walls were probably decorated with tapestries.
■Windows placed high up, surrounded by Romanesque arches.
■Hammerbeam style roof; made of oak; beams curve to meet in the center of the ceiling like a corbelled arch.
Function
■Meant for grand ceremonial occasions: coronations, feasts.
■Later used as a law court to dispense justice.
Context
■Started under William II (r. 1087–1100) as the largest hall in England at the time.
■Roof remodeled under Richard II (r. 1377–1399).
■Original roof has been replaced; there is debate over how the roof was vaulted, perhaps with beams that came down to the floor, denoting a main aisle and two side aisles.
■Richard II also placed six statues of kings at one entrance, along with his emblems.
■When the old Houses of Parliament were burned to the ground, this remaining building was the last vestige of the medieval parliament, and served as inspiration for the new Houses of Parliament (Figure 20.1a).
Content Area Later Europe and Americas, Image 112
Web Source http://www.parliament.uk/about/living-heritage/building/palace/westminsterhall/
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Wooden Roofs on Stone Structures
–Mosque at Córdoba, Spain, original construction (Figure 9.14a)
–Santa Sabina, Rome (Figure 7.3a)
–Basilica of Ulpia, Rome (Figure 6.10b)
GOTHIC SCULPTURE
Although Romanesque buildings had sculpture on the portals and on parts of building façades, its role was subsidiary to architecture. In the Gothic period, sculpture begins to emerge more forcefully on church façades.
Saint-Denis (c. 1140–1144) was the first building to have statue columns on the jambs, now mostly destroyed. Although still attached to the columns, jamb figures have rounded volumes that set them apart from their architectural background. The statue columns at the Great West Portals at Chartres (1145–1155) (Figure 12.6) appear to imitate the verticality of the church itself, but contain a robust three-dimensionality lacking in the Romanesque period.
There is also a change in the subject matter from the Romanesque to the Gothic portals. Romanesque sculptural programs stress the Last Judgment and the threat of being damned to hell. Gothic sculpture concentrates on the possibility of salvation; the believer is empowered with the choice of salvation.
In Romanesque sculpture, figures are flattened into the wall space of tympana or jambs, being content to be defined by that space. In Gothic sculpture, the statue columns progress away from the wall, building a space seemingly independent of the wall surface. The Great West Portals of Chartres (Figure 12.6) begin this process by bringing figures forward, although they are still columnar.
As Gothic art advances, the sculptures become increasingly three-dimensional and freestanding. In the thirteenth century, the figures are defining their own space, turning to one another with humanizing expressions and engaging in a narrative interplay.
By the fourteenth century, Gothic sculpture and painting develops a courtly S-curve to the bodies.
Great Portals of the West Façade, 1145–1155, limestone, Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France (Figure 12.6)
Figure 12.6: Great Portals of the West Façade, 1145–1155, limestone, Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France
Form
■Jamb statues stand in front of the wall, almost fully rounded; cf. Romanesque figures, which are flat against the surface.
■Upright, rigid, elongated figures reflect the vertical columns behind and the vertical nature of the cathedral itself.
■Figures wear rich courtly dress with vertical folds.
■The robes are almost hypnotic in their concentric composition; cf. Romanesque nervous excitement to drapery.
■Heads: serene; slightly heavy eyes; benevolent; humanized faces.
■Heads are lined up in a row, but the feet are of different lengths.
Function
■These portals were used by church hierarchy, not commoners, as the entry to the church.
Context
■Called Royal Portals because the jamb sculptures depict kings and queens from the Old Testament; connection is being made between the French and biblical royalty.
■Three portals linked by lintels and 24 capitals that contain the life of Christ:
–Left tympanum: Christ before he takes on mortal form.
–Central tympanum: Christ as Judge of the World, no menacing Last Judgment as at Conques (Figure 11.6a); Christ surrounded by symbols of the evangelists.
–Right tympanum: Mary as Queen of Heaven; scenes from her life; Mary with the Christ Child in her lap symbolizing her as the throne of wisdom.
■Scholasticism stressed in the image of Mary as the throne of wisdom (sedes sapientiae) holding Jesus, in the right tympanum; the seven liberal arts taught at medieval universities are personified in the archivolts of the right tympanum.
■Originally 24 statues (19 survive).
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 60
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Architectural sculpture
–Helios, horses, and Dionysos (Heracles?) (Figure 4.4)
–Last Judgment, Sainte-Foy, Conques (Figure 11.6a)
–Lintel 25, Yaxchilán (Figure 26.2b)
Röttgen Pietà, late medieval Europe, 1300–1325, painted wood, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany (Figure 12.7)
Figure 12.7: Röttgen Pietà, late medieval Europe, 1300–1325, painted wood, Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn, Germany
Form
■Christ emaciated, drained of all blood, all tissue, all muscle.
■Originally vividly painted, some paint survives.
Function
■An Andachtsbild, used in church for services or in a procession.
Context
■Horror of the crucifixion is made manifest.
■This work shows the humanizing of religious themes; Mary as a grieving, very human mother displaying compassion and emotion.
■Christ’s blood is depicted in grape-like drops, a reference to Christ as a “mystical vineyard.”
■The imagery asks the viewer to concentrate on the Eucharist: the body and blood of Jesus Christ.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 62
Web Source http://metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/2001.78/
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Images of Suffering
–Coyolxauhqui Stone (Figure 26.5b)
–Seated boxer (Figure 4.10)
–Kollwitz, Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht (Figure 22.4)
GOTHIC PAINTING
Stained-glass has existed for centuries; the earliest surviving examples are from the seventh century in England. It became an industry in the Gothic period. Craftsmen made the glass, while glaziers cut the big panels into the desired shapes, wrapping the leading around them. Details (i.e., facial expressions or folds of drapery) were then painted on the glass before it was refired and then set into the window frame.
Stained-glass windows became the illustrations of a sophisticated theological program. Generally, larger images of saints appeared in the clerestory so that they could be read from the floor. Narratives appeared in side aisle windows where they could be read more clearly at a closer distance.
Illuminated manuscripts continue to be important, some seeking to emulate the luminous colors of stained-glass windows. Forms have borders much like the leading of windows, and are painted in brilliant colors.
Notre Dame de la Belle Verriere, “Our Lady of the Beautiful Window,” c. 1170, stained glass, Chartres Cathedral (Figure 12.8)
Figure 12.8: Notre Dame de la Belle Verriere, c. 1170, stained glass, Chartres Cathedral
Function
■Part of a lancet stained-glass window in Chartres Cathedral.
Context
■Mary is crowned Queen of Heaven with the Christ Child on her lap; she is depicted as the throne of wisdom.
■Light acts as a manifestation of the divine; shades of color patterns play across the gray stone of the cathedral.
■Bands across the surface are typical of Early Gothic stained glass.
■Undamaged by the fire of 1194; blue framing added when it was reset with framing angels on either side of the main scene, which contrasts the two styles of stained glass in the same window.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 60
Web Source http://www.medievalart.org.uk/Chartres/030a_pages/Chartres_Bay030a_key.htm
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Transparency and Reflection
–Kusama, Narcissus Garden (Figures 22.25a, 22.25b)
–Mies van der Rohe, Seagram Building (Figure 22.18)
–Versailles, Hall of Mirrors (Figure 17.3d)
Scenes from the Apocalypse, from a Bible moralisée (Moralized Bible), Gothic Europe, c. 1226–1234, illuminated manuscript, ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum, Cathedral, Toledo (Figure 12.9a)
Figure 12.9a: Scenes from the Apocalypse, from a Bible moralisée, Gothic Europe, c. 1226–1234, illuminated manuscript, ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum, Cathedral, Toledo
Form
■Eight medallions; format derives from the stained-glass windows.
■Luminosity of text a reflection of stained-glass windows; strong black outlining of forms.
■Two vertical columns of four painted scenes.
■Modeling is minimal.
Function
■Moralized Bible.
Content
■Each scene has a text with a summary of the event depicted in the roundel.
■Old and New Testament scenes are paired as complementing one another.
Context
■Done for the royal court at Paris.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 61
Web Source http://ica.themorgan.org/manuscript/page/6/77422
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Gold
–Golden Stool (Figure 27.4)
–Ogat Korin, White and Red Plum Blossoms (Figures 25.4a, 25.4b)
–Gold and jade crown (Figure 24.10)
Dedication Page with Blanche of Castile and Louis IX of France, 1226–1234, illuminated manuscript, ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum, Morgan Library, New York (Figure 12.9b)
Figure 12.9b: Dedication Page with Blanche of Castile and Louis IX of France, 1226–1234, illuminated manuscript, ink, tempera, and gold leaf on vellum, Morgan Library, New York
Context and Interpretation
Content
■Top left: Blanche of Castile, mother and regent to the king; her gestures indicate her dominant role at this time.
–Since she is a widow, she is wearing a white widow’s wimple.
■Top right: teenage king Louis IX; beardless, enthroned, holding a bird surmounting fleur-de-lis scepter in his right hand and a round object, possibly a seal matrix, in his left hand.
■Bottom: older monk dictates to younger scribe; younger scribe is drawing circles as seen in Scenes from the Apocalypse (Figure 12.9a).
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 61
Web Source http://ica.themorgan.org/manuscript/page/8/77422
JEWISH ART
Although Jews almost universally ban images in temples today, their ancient and medieval ancestors did not always follow this prohibition. Perhaps they were inspired by episodes in the Old Testament that mention incidents in which images could be valid; for example, in Exodus 25: 18–22, God orders Moses to install two cherubim above the Arc of the Covenant in the Holy of Holies.
Jews living in the Greco-Roman world were also influenced by pagan artists who created sweeping narratives of the heroic deeds of their gods. This is perhaps why there are a few ancient synagogues that have illustrations of episodes from the Old Testament. In the Middle Ages, wealthy Jewish patrons often commissioned luxury objects like illuminated manuscripts the same way their Christian or Muslim neighbors would. Jewish patrons often used Christian painters to decorate important sacred books, mostly for personal use.
Golden Haggadah (The Plagues of Egypt, Scenes of Liberation, and Preparation for Passover), late medieval Spain, c. 1320, illuminated manuscript, pigments and gold leaf on vellum, British Library, London (Figures 12.10a, 12.10b, 12.10c, 12.10d)
Figure 12.10a: Golden Haggadah: The Plagues of Egypt
Upper right: plague of frogs initiated here by Moses, not Aaron as depicted in the Bible
Upper left: plague of lice: Pharaoh and his magicians are covered with lice
Lower left: Moses looks on as Pharaoh is attacked by wild beasts
Lower right: plague on livestock
Figure 12.10b: Golden Haggadah: Scenes of Liberation
Upper right: Plague and death of the first-born Egyptian child
Upper left: Pharaoh orders Israelites to leave Egypt
Lower right: Egyptians dressed in medieval armor attack the Israelites
Lower left: Israelites safely cross the Red Sea; Egyptians drown
Figure 12.10c: Golden Haggadah: Preparation for Passover
Upper right: Miriam, Moses’s sister, holds a tambourine decorated with an Islamic motif and is joined by maidens dancing and playing contemporary musical instruments
Upper left: master of the house, sitting under a canopy, orders the distribution of matzah (unleavened bread) and haroset (sweetmeats) to the children
Lower right: a family prepares the house for Passover; women clean and the man searches for leaven
Lower left: people are preparing for Passover: sheep are being slaughtered and utensils are being purified
Figure 12.10d: detail of Figure 12.10c. Family prepares the house for Passover; women clean, and the man searches for leaven.
Form
■Style similarities to French Gothic manuscripts in the handling of space, architecture, figure style, facial/gestural expression, and the manuscript medium itself.
■56 miniatures; gold leaf background.
Function and Content
■A Haggadah is a book that illustrates the story of the Jewish exodus from Egypt under Moses and its subsequent celebration.
■It contains a narrative cycle of events from the books of Genesis and Exodus.
■It is to be read at a Passover Seder.
■This Haggadah was used primarily at home, therefore avoiding the more stringent restriction against holy images in a synagogue.
Context
■Haggadah means “narration”; fulfills the Jewish requirement to tell the story of the Jewish escape from Egypt as a reminder of God’s mercy.
■Haggadot (plural) are generally the most lavishly painted of Jewish manuscripts.
■The book is read right to left according to the manner of Hebrew texts.
■Two unknown artists, probably Christian, illustrated the Golden Haggadah; a Jewish scribe wrote the Hebrew script.
■Painted around the Barcelona area of Spain.
Content Area Early Europe and Colonial Americas, Image 64
Web Source http://www.bl.uk/turning-the-pages/?id=47111807-4e9a-43de-be65-96f49c3d623c&type=book
■Cross-Cultural Comparisons for Essay Question 1: Works as Part of a Series
–Rubens, Henri IV Receives the Portrait of Marie de’ Medici, from the Marie de’ Medici Cycle (Figure 17.8)
–Lawrence, The Migration of the Negro, Panel no. 49 (Figure 22.19)
–Giotto, Lamentation from the Arena Chapel (Figures 13.1b, 13.1c)
VOCABULARY
Andachtsbild: an image used for private contemplation and devotion (Figure 12.7)
Apocalypse: the last book of the Christian Bible, sometimes called Revelations, which details God’s destruction of evil and consequent raising to heaven of the righteous (Figure 12.9a)
Bay: a vertical section of a church that is embraced by a set of columns and is usually composed of arches and aligned windows (Figure 11.2)
Chevet: the east end of a Gothic church (Figure 12.2)
Choir: a space in a church between the transept and the apse for a choir or clergymen (Figure 12.2)
Close: an enclosed garden-like area around a cathedral
Compound pier: a pier that appears to be a group or gathering of smaller piers put together (Figure 12.4c)
Flying buttress: a stone arch and its pier that support a roof from a pillar outside the building. Flying buttresses also stabilize a building and protect it from wind sheer (Figure 12.1)
Haggadah (plural: Haggadot): literally, “narration”; specifically, a book containing the Jewish story of Passover and the ritual of the Seder (Figures 12.10a, 12.10b, and 12.10c)
Hammerbeam: a type of roof in English Gothic architecture, in which timber braces curve out from walls and meet high over the middle of the floor (Figure 12.5)
Lancet: a tall narrow window with a pointed arch usually filled with stained glass (Figure 12.8)
Moralized Bible: a Bible in which the Old and New Testament stories are paralleled with one another in illustrations, text, and commentary (Figures 12.9a and 12.9b)
Ogee arch: an arch formed by two S-shaped curves that meet at the top (Figure 12.3)
Passover: an eight day Jewish festival that commemorates the exodus of Jews from Egypt under the leadership of Moses. So-called because an avenging angel of the Lord knew to “pass over” the homes of Jews who, in order to distinguish their houses from those of the pagan Egyptians, had sprinkled lamb’s blood over their doorways, thus preserving the lives of their first-born sons
Pietà: a painting or sculpture of a crucified Christ lying on the lap of his grieving mother, Mary (Figure 12.7)
Pinnacle: a pointed sculpture on piers or flying buttresses (Figure 12.1)
Portal: a doorway. In medieval art they can be significantly decorated (Figure 12.6)
Rib vault: a vault in which diagonal arches form riblike patterns; these arches partially support a roof, in some cases forming a weblike design (Figure 12.4c)
Rose window: a circular window, filled with stained glass, placed at the end of a transept or on the façade of a church (Figure 12.4b)
Seder: a ceremonial meal celebrated on the first two nights of Passover that commemorates the Jewish flight from Egypt as told in the Bible; marked by a reading of the Haggadah
Spire or Steeple: a tall pointed tower on a church (Figure 12.4b)
Triforium: a narrow passageway with arches opening onto a nave, usually directly below a clerestory (Figure 11.2)
SUMMARY
A century of peace and prosperity brought architectural greatness to Northern France, where the Gothic style of architecture exploded on the scene around 1140. New buildings were built with great verticality, pointed arches, and large expanses of stained-glass windows. The introduction of flying buttresses made taller and thinner buildings possible.
Gothic portal sculpture became more humanized than its Romanesque counterparts, stressing salvation and resurrection rather than judgment and fear. Figures are still attached to the wall space, but are more three-dimensional. As Gothic sculpture progresses, the body is increasingly revealed beneath the drapery.
PRACTICE EXERCISES
Multiple-Choice
1.The cathedral at Chartres is typical of Gothic churches in that it
(A)contains references to classical architecture
(B)has an oculus to admit light
(C)uses flying buttresses to stabilize tall naves
(D)provides a separate space for coronations
2.Christian worshippers at Chartres had their attention drawn to
(A)the relics displayed in the crypt
(B)the mihrab pointing the way to Mecca
(C)the royal tombs that line the side aisles
(D)the apse, which was elevated from the nave
3.The great portal of the west façade of Chartres is similar to the Lamassu of ancient Assyria in that they
(A)are both guardian figures protecting what is inside
(B)are both attached to the walls behind the figure
(C)both have the faces of the religious leaders of their day, forming a divine connection with the earthly
(D)both show a military presence to frighten the viewer
4.The architectural achievement that, in part, makes Gothic buildings so tall and yet so stable is the use of
(A)rib vaults
(B)stained-glass windows
(C)a dome on pendentives
(D)ashlar masonry
5.Perpendicular Gothic is a style of architecture unique to
(A)Spain
(B)France
(C)Germany
(D)England
Long Essay
Practice Question 1: Comparison
Suggested Time: 35 minutes
This work is the Röttgen Pietà, 1300–1325, painted wood.
This work shows an image of suffering and pain.
Select and completely identify another work of art that shows suffering and pain. You may choose a work listed below or any other work of your choice.
For each work, discuss at least two reasons why the figures are shown suffering.
Analyze the relationship between how these objects are depicted and the function they were supposed to have.
Explain at least one difference on how each work conveys suffering.
Coyolxauhqui “She of the Golden Bells”
Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht
Giotto, Lamentation
ANSWER KEY
1.C
2.D
3.B
4.A
5.D
ANSWERS EXPLAINED
Multiple-Choice
1.(C) Flying buttresses were first introduced at Notre Dame in Paris and were used to stabilize naves that were getting increasingly tall.
2.(D) In order for the altar to be seen more effectively in a darkened church, it was generally elevated above the floor of the nave.
3.(B) Both the Lamassu and the great portals at Chartres are attached to the walls behind them and, therefore, are not entirely freestanding.
4.(A) Rib vaults stabilize the stone roofs and help pass pressure down to the walls below. Gothic buildings do not have domes, and ashlar masonry is rarely used. Stained-glass windows do not have a supporting function in a building.
5.(D) Perpendicular, a form of Late Gothic architecture, is unique to England. Westminster Hall is Perpendicular Gothic.
Long Essay Rubric
Task |
Point Value |
Key Points in a Good Response |
Select and completely identify another work of art that shows suffering and pain. |
1 |
Answers could include: ■Coyolxauhqui, “She of the Golden Bells,” 1409 (?), volcanic stone. ■Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht, 1919–1920, woodcut. ■Giotto, Lamentation, from the Arena Chapel, 1305–1306, fresco. |
For each work discuss at least two reasons why the figures are shown suffering. |
1 point for each work |
For Röttgen Pietà, answers could include: ■Crucifixion is a bloody and painful death. ■Emphasis on the physical suffering. ■In compliance with the biblical account. For Coyolxauhqui, answers could include: ■Represents the dismembered moon goddess who is placed at the base of the two pyramids of Tenochtitlán. ■Coyolxauhqui and her many brothers plotted the death of her mother, Coatlicue, who became pregnant after tucking a ball of feathers down her bosom. When Coyolxauhqui chopped off Coatlicue’s head, a child popped out of the severed body fully grown, and he dismembered Coyolxauhqui, who fell dead at the base of the shrine. For Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht, answers could include: ■In 1919 Liebknecht was shot to death during a Communist uprising in Berlin called the Spartacus Revolt (named for the slave who led a revolt against the Romans in 73 B.C.E.). For the Lamentation, answers could include: ■Biblical figures seen grieving over the body of Jesus. ■Emphasis on the human drama of seeing a son murdered in a humiliating way during a public spectacle. ■In compliance with the biblical account. |
Analyze the relationship between how these objects are depicted and the function they were supposed to have. |
Each reason earns 1 point; total 4 points |
For Röttgen Pietà, answers could include: ■An andachtsbild, used for church devotion, services, or in processions. ■Grapelike drops of Christ’s blood are a reference to Christ as a “mystical vineyard.” For Coyolxauhqui, answers could include: ■Aztecs sacrificed people and then threw them down the steps of the temple dismembered, as Huitzilopochtli did to Coyolxauhqui. ■Relationship between the death and decapitation of Coyolxauhqui and the sacrifice of enemies at the top of Aztec pyramids. For Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht, answers could include: ■Karl Liebknecht was among the founders of the Berlin Spartacus League, which became the German Communist Party. ■Exposed the brutality of the ruling party and the stifling of dissent. ■Meant to make the drama of this event personal and emotional to the viewer. ■Use of woodcut technique makes the print readily available; thus the image can have a maximum impact among many people. For the Lamentation, answers could include: ■Part of a series of paintings depicting the life of Christ. ■Reality of the subject made the viewer feel closer to the biblical account. ■Brought the biblical story into focus as a human and dramatic event. |
Explain at least one difference on how each work conveys suffering. |
1 |
Answers could include: ■The Röttgen Pietà is different from the others in that it is smaller in scale, and therefore can be carried in processions and all can share in the suffering of Jesus. ■Coyolxauhqui shows a direct relationship between what happened to her and the sacrifices the Aztecs performed in front of this work. ■The Memorial Sheet for Karl Liebknecht is a secular work that references Christian iconography. ■The Lamentation is part of a larger series of works and is best understood in the context of the whole. |