After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in Europe, the so-called dark ages, during which numerous barbarian tribes carried out their bacchanalia on the remains of the Roman cultural heritage. Against the backdrop of endless wars, there was a partial revival of the Roman architectural tradition, which resulted in the Romanesque architectural style, which was formed around the 10th century and transformed three hundred years later into Gothic.

The Gothic style in architecture was formed in the 12th-13th centuries, along with the onset of the High Middle Ages. It was based on the same Romanesque heritage and the growing power of the Holy See, which needed to be emphasized by the appropriate scale of church buildings.

It is worth noting that the church so dominated the minds of people in those days that its agents, without special labor raised huge masses of people on an adventure called later First crusade, which resulted in the capture of Jerusalem and the founding of Christian states in Asia Minor. This, in turn, contributed to the development of pilgrimage, and the pilgrims brought considerable income to the Church itself, whose representatives also enriched themselves by selling indulgences, displaying counterfeit relics, and simply donating. But, despite such dubious methods, which were limited by the Literan Council of 1215, first in France, and then in others European countries, beautiful cathedrals are being built, heralding a new dawn European culture and Gothic as an architectural movement.

Bourges Cathedral

The use of the chapel crown was due to the rapidly developing cult of relics at that time, as mentioned a little earlier. In 1220, the basilica was expanded - a three-oil building was added to the west, thanks to which the basilica became one of the largest Catholic churches of that time. The third basilica of Cluny, built on the basis of the first two, became the prototype of the vast majority of large-scale French cathedrals in the Gothic style. But alas, only its drawings have survived to this day, and the building itself was demolished in 1807.

Third Basilica of Cluny (reconstruction)

According to Suger's plan, the light flooding the temple is a symbol of the boundless divine light emanating from the Creator himself. The lighter interior of Gothic churches, compared to Romanesque ones, was facilitated by the revolutionary rejection of columns in favor of a Gothic frame. In addition to the fact that the internal space of the temple was now unified, this technology made it possible to significantly save construction resources and build higher structures. Another distinctive feature of Gothic architecture is strict symmetry, thanks to which the interior of Gothic cathedrals looks very harmonious.

Among the most famous representatives of the Gothic architectural style in France is the cathedral Notre Dame of Paris, as well as Chartres, Reims, Laon, Bourges and Amiens cathedrals.

Gothic architecture in England began to appear at the end of the 12th century. It is worth noting that if there was active urban development in France, English cities developed quite slowly and Gothic churches were predominantly of the monastery type. The purest example early period Salisbury Cathedral is considered to be the main Gothic cathedral in England, and Canterbury Cathedral is considered the main Gothic cathedral in England.

The London Cathedral building has the most common features with French Gothic. Westminster Abbey- it was here that the Norman rulers of England, starting with William the Conqueror, were crowned and buried. Among other significant English examples of Gothic architecture, one can recall the cathedrals of Durham, York, Winchester, Eley and Lincoln.

Canterbury Cathedral

Experts call the Church of Our Lady in Trier one of the first buildings with exclusively Gothic features, the shape of which is an equal-ended cross, elongated only in the altar part. A novelty not found in France was the placement of two chapels at each corner of the cross. German Gothic also has other differences from French: it is more geometric strict forms, entrance from the side facade, one or four turrets (in France traditionally two), more austere external decoration of buildings, etc. The only exception is the Cathedral in Cologne, created in the characteristic French Gothic style.

In the northern part of Europe, due to the shortage of sandstone and marble, traditionally used for the construction of Gothic cathedrals, the so-called. brick gothic. The builders used figured brick, which made it possible to create Gothic patterns no worse than from hewn stone.

Gothic actively developed in Spain, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Italy - this style everywhere underwent certain changes, maintaining common features. The development of Gothic was interrupted by the Black Death, which wiped out almost a third of the population of Europe in the 14th century. Subsequently, Gothic received a kind of revival under the name “flaming Gothic” - features of mannerism were already visible in it.

Duomo, Milan Cathedral, flaming Gothic

Neo-Gothic architecture burst into flames in the 50s of the 18th century at the instigation of the British aristocracy, after which they turned to Gothic in continental Europe. This was facilitated by the idealization of the Middle Ages and the rejection of the priorities of antiquity. Neo-Gothic turned into national style Victorian Britain. During this period, abandoned and unfinished cathedrals were completed and restored throughout Europe, a striking example of which is the already mentioned cathedral in Cologne.

On the territory of Russia during the dawn of European Gothic, there were more pressing problems than the construction of cathedrals, especially since the Gothic forms characteristic of Catholicism did not really fit into the Orthodox tradition. But in the 18th century, along with the dawn of neo-Gothic in Europe, in Russian Empire nevertheless, its own, unique, Russian pseudo-Gothic arose, incorporating traditional Gothic features and elements

Gothic art represents the next stage of development after Romanesque medieval art. The name is conditional. It was synonymous with barbarism in the minds of Renaissance historians, who first used this term to characterize the art of the Middle Ages in general, without seeing its valuable aspects.

Gothic is a more mature art style of the Middle Ages than Romanesque. It amazes with the unity and integrity of artistic manifestations in all forms of art. Religious in form, Gothic art is more sensitive than Romanesque to life, nature and man. It included in its circle the entire sum of medieval knowledge, complex and contradictory ideas and experiences. In the dreaminess and excitement of Gothic images, in the pathetic rise of spiritual impulses, in the tireless quest of its masters, new trends are felt - the awakening of the mind and feelings, passionate aspirations for beauty.

The increased spirituality of Gothic art, the growing interest in human feelings, in the highly individual, in the beauty of the real world, prepared the flowering of Renaissance art.

Gothic art is the art of flourishing trade and craft commune cities, which, at the cost of intense struggle, achieved a certain independence within the feudal world. It was caused by new conditions public life Europe - a high rise in productive forces, the growing flame of grandiose peasant wars and victory by the beginning of the 13th century. communal revolutions. In some countries, royal power, based on an alliance with the cities, rose above the forces of feudal fragmentation.

Religion remained the main form of worldview, and the church continued to exert its influence on art. However, the needs of life in trade and craft cities gave rise to the desire for knowledge and constant quest. With the formation of city and church schools, the influence of monasteries on the masses began to weaken. Centers of science - universities - emerged in Bologna, Oxford, and Paris. They became the arena of religious disputes, centers of freethinking. Within the framework of scholastic philosophy, which tried to reconcile faith with reason, heretical teachings arose, caused by the growth of critical thinking, serious philosophical problems were posed, and much attention was paid to general issues associated with the life of human society and the knowledge of man himself. The philosopher Pierre Abelard considered it necessary to prove religious dogmas with the help of reason; for him the main thing was “resistance to the authority of the church.” Scholasticism was permeated by an interest in experimental knowledge, clearly manifested in the activities of Roger Bacon. At the end of the 12th and 13th centuries. The teachings of the Arab philosophers Averroes and Avicenna, close to materialism, spread. Attempts were made to reconcile Christian dogmas and observations of reality. The real world was no longer completely denied, it was viewed as the perfect creation of a deity. The tragic hopelessness that the church inspired in people was replaced by a lighter and more joyful perception of the beauty of the world. Harsh morals have softened. Instead, the self-awareness of the people grew. During the struggle, in the midst of the jacquerie, in the heated atmosphere of the cities, fighting for communal liberties, preaching the reform of the church, a consciousness of brotherhood and equality was born, succinctly expressed in the saying: “When Adam plowed and Eve spun, who was then a nobleman?”

In the court knightly environment of the 12th-14th centuries. a secular, deeply personal attitude to the world arose. Along with the epic and chivalric romance, love lyrics Troubadours - Provençal poetry, a sign of a new time. Individual feelings penetrated poetry. Developed urban literature, prone to bright paintings everyday life. In music, unison (one-voice) was replaced by polyphony. In powerful choral hymns, the city community directly expressed its feelings, in the mysteries country people and guild artisans acted out scenes from scripture. Comical theatrical genres: farces were performed in the squares, ridiculing the clergy, “unholy masses” and clownish processions were held in churches.

In medieval cities of the second half of the 12th and 13th centuries. new forms of architecture and fine art arose, more complex and multi-valued, they combined mysticism and rationalism, calm concentration and passionate impulses, sincere living feeling and dogmatism, a riot of imagination and a craving for uniformity, orderliness, aspiration to the world of dreams and keen observation, festive -beautiful and ordinary, ugly. In art, the desire arose to express the spiritual powers and abilities of man.

It is difficult to draw a clear chronological boundary between the Romanesque and Gothic styles. 12th century - heyday Romanesque style; at the same time, since 1130 new forms appeared, marking the beginning of Gothic (early Gothic). The Gothic style in Western Europe reached its peak (High Gothic) in the 13th century. The style died out in the 14th and 15th centuries. (flaming gothic).

IN different countries Gothic style has peculiar features. However, this does not deny its commonality and internal unity. In France - the birthplace of Gothic - works of this style are characterized by clarity of proportions, a sense of proportion, clarity, and elegance of forms. In England, they are characterized by heaviness, congestion of compositional lines, complexity and richness of architectural decor. In Germany, Gothic acquired a more abstract, mystical, but passionate character in expression. In Spain, Gothic forms were enriched with elements of Muslim art introduced by the Arabs. To Italy, where cities flourished by the end of the 13th century. created favorable soil for the emergence of the culture of the Proto-Renaissance, only a few penetrated, mainly decorative elements gothic, not contrary to the principles romanesque architecture. But in the 14th century. Gothic style spread everywhere in Italy. Flamboyant Gothic reached its highest culmination in the Milan Cathedral (late 14th-15th centuries, completed at the beginning of the 19th century).

Architecture
The architectural appearance of Western European free cities was determined for a long time by Gothic buildings - cathedrals, town halls, exchanges, covered markets, hospitals, residential buildings, concentrated near the square, to which narrow crooked streets of tanners, dyers, carpenters, weavers, etc. ran down. Construction was now carried out not only by the church, monasteries and private individuals, but also by the community (organized into workshops by professional artisans and architects). Between the construction teams traveling from city to city, there were connections, exchange of experience and knowledge. The most significant buildings, and above all cathedrals, were erected at the expense of the townspeople. Often many generations worked on the creation of one monument. Grandiose Gothic cathedrals differed sharply from Romanesque monastery churches. They were roomy, tall, elegant, and spectacularly decorated. Their forms were striking in their dynamism, lightness and picturesqueness. The slender silhouette of the cathedral with sharp spiers and towers determined the character of the city landscape. Following the cathedral, residential buildings rushed upward, the number of floors in them increased, and gable gable (pointed) roofs stretched upward. Closed by a ring of fortress walls, the city developed upward. Intended for a large crowd of lay people, the cathedral was the main community center cities. In addition to divine services, city meetings were held here, debates took place, university lectures were given, and spiritual dramas - mysteries - were played out.

The design of the cathedral’s image revealed not only new ideas of the Catholic religion, but also new ideas about the world, and the increased self-awareness of the townspeople. The dynamic upward aspiration of all forms of the temple was generated by the idealistic “striving of the soul towards heaven”, an awakened longing for the universe and at the same time rational considerations caused by the cramped urban development. The cathedral towers served as a lookout and fire tower. Sometimes they were crowned with the figure of a rooster - a symbol of vigilance. To organize spacious interiors with space developing upward and deeper in the cathedral, a new structural vault system was used, complex and logical, testifying to the enormous progress of thought and technology.

The Gothic cathedral, in comparison with the Romanesque, is a new stage in the development of the basilica type of building, in which all elements began to obey a uniform system. The main difference of a Gothic cathedral is a stable frame system, in which the structural role is played by cross-rib lancet vaults, cut through a network of protruding ribs (laid out of stone), internal (columns, pillars) and external (buttresses) supports. The efforts of the architects were aimed at highlighting and strengthening the main, load-bearing skeleton of the building and lightening the vaulted ceilings to the limit. For this purpose, the distribution of gravity and arch thrust was changed. The main nave was now divided into a number of rectangular sections. Each of them was covered with intersecting pointed arches. The shape of the pointed arch reduced the expansion of the vault. Lightening its weight was facilitated by a network of ribs, dividing the vault into small sections filled with thinner vault shells than before.

From below, the load of the rib vault was carried by powerful pillars. For each pillar there were several ribs converging into a bundle; their weight was borne by the service columns surrounding the pillar. Most of the lateral thrust and part of its vertical pressure were transferred to the outward buttresses - pillars-pylons with the help of flying buttresses (open supporting semi-arches). Flying buttresses were thrown over the roofs of the side naves to the base of the arches of the central nave.

All this made it possible to cover wide spans and sections of space of various shapes, as well as raise the vault to dizzying heights. The temple was filled with light. The wall, freed from its supporting functions, was cut through with large lancet windows, niches, galleries, and portals, which lightened its weight and connected the interior of the temple with the surrounding space.
A characteristic feature of Gothic architecture is the pointed arch, which largely determines the internal and external appearance of Gothic buildings. Repeatedly repeated in the design of the vault, windows, portals, galleries, it enhances the lightness and energy of architectural forms with its dynamic outlines.

The Gothic cathedral inside makes a strong impression. Its interior - spacious, bright, designed for a crowded crowd - immediately opens up to the viewer and captivates with its rapid movement to the east, since the main entrance is now on the short western side. The boundaries between the transept and the longitudinal space of the naves are almost erased. The chapels merge to form a continuous wreath; they are separated from the temple by a colonnade, in which the walls seem to dissolve. The vast space of the temple becomes united and easily visible, dynamic, giving rise to an endless change of visual impressions. The space of the immeasurably extended naves rapidly develops into depth - towards the altar, the choir, illuminated by a light that makes the whole atmosphere tremble; with an accelerating upward rhythm it rises under the canopy of light vaults. The gaze is led there by the movement of all the lines of pillars, ribs, columns, pointed arches, as if tending to infinity. Streams of multi-colored light flowing from above, from windows with colored glass, mix in space and play on the beams of columns. IN holidays The cathedral presented a particularly solemn spectacle: the voices of singing children and the sounds of the organ filled the space and gave rise to a mystical mood. They seemed to carry away into some unknown, enticing, spiritual world located beyond the earth and at the same time raised a person above the ordinary to the sublime, the perfect.

Has changed significantly and appearance cathedral, because the internal structure of the building is projected onto the external one; the internal divisions of the longitudinal part of the building are visible in its facade. The internal space seems to flow into the external. The image of the temple has lost its harsh isolation, and the temple seems to be facing the square. The role of the main western façade with monumental, richly decorated portals, which were previously located on the side walls, has increased. Tall, light towers, numerous vertical rods and spiers, pointed shapes of windows and portals with wimpergs (pointed ends above the windows and portals) gave the impression of uncontrollable upward movement and transformed the cathedral, according to Rodin, into “a symphony of light and shadow.” A complex system of sculptural decoration transformed stone wall in the semblance of light lace, the contours became airy, as if dissolving in environment. Colored windows occupying the upper part of the wall and through galleries contribute to the fact that the building seems to lose its materiality, but this does not deprive it of the impression of monumentality - the details are subordinated to a clear, logical and strict design.

Gothic- a period in the development of medieval art in the Western, Central and partly of Eastern Europe from the XII to the XV-XVI centuries. Gothic replaced the Romanesque style, gradually displacing it. The term "Gothic" is most often applied to the famous style architectural structures, which can be briefly described as “intimidatingly majestic.” But Gothic covers almost all works of fine art of this period: sculpture, painting, book miniature, stained glass, fresco and many others.

Gothic originated in the middle of the 12th century in the north of France, in the 13th century it spread to the territory modern Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Spain, England. Gothic penetrated into Italy later, with great difficulty and strong transformation, which led to the emergence of “Italian Gothic”. At the end of the 14th century, Europe was swept by the so-called international gothic. Gothic penetrated into the countries of Eastern Europe later and stayed there a little longer - until the 16th century.

The term "neo-Gothic" is applied to buildings and works of art that contain characteristic Gothic elements, but were created during the eclectic period (mid-19th century) and later.

In the 1980s, the term “gothic” began to be used to refer to the subculture that arose at that time (“gothic subculture”), including the musical direction (“gothic music”).

Elements that define the Gothic style

The Gothic style has fairly clear elements that define it. The Gothic style is easily recognizable by certain techniques that were then used. If we express this in one phrase, then we can use the following – aspiration upward into the world of the spiritual, its religious sense. This idea was expressed in:

Gothic in the interior.

Gothic- the next stage in the development of medieval art, the second pan-European style. The term “Gothic” was introduced by Italian humanists to designate everything that does not relate to classical, ancient models, that is, in their opinion, ugly, associated with complete barbarism (the Goths are a “barbaric” Germanic tribe).

Gothic style, which dominated Western Europe in the 13th - 14th centuries, became the highest artistic synthesis of the Middle Ages.

The leading art form in gothic architecture remained, and its highest achievement was the construction of city cathedrals, evoking a feeling of lightness, special airiness and spirituality. In contrast to the Romanesque, the Gothic cathedral is a city building, directed upward, dominating the entire urban development.

The transition from Romanesque style to gothic in Western European architecture was marked by a number of technological innovations and new stylistic elements. It was believed that the basis for the changes was the introduction of a pointed arch, which with its shape emphasized the upward direction of the entire building; its appearance was associated with Arab influence.

In Gothic architecture, the basilica type of temple was used. The buildings of the Gothic period were based on a new vault design with a stable frame system. Central nave gothic temple usually was higher than the side ones, and part of the load was taken on by flying buttresses - special girth arches that connected the base of the arch of the central nave with the buttresses (special supporting pillars) of the side one. This design made it possible to significantly lighten the entire structure and maximize the internal space of the building, almost removing the walls.

An important detail of the Gothic building is the huge windows, which seemed to replace the walls and occupy all the spaces between the supports. Window decorated with colored stained glass. Thanks to the stained glass windows, the entire interior space was saturated with light, painted in various colors.

On the outside, a Gothic building usually has two towers on the facade, and between them there is a large round window, the so-called “Gothic rose”.

The feeling of lightness was emphasized and interior decor. The smooth surface of the wall disappeared, and the arches were cut by a network of ribs; wherever possible, the wall was replaced by windows, dismembered niches or arches.

Furniture items of the Gothic period were quite heavy and clumsy; they were usually located along the walls. On the cabinets beds, chairs contained a variety of elements of church architecture.

Later, geometrically precise ornaments, quite bizarre and pretentious, begin to be used on wooden products.

Furniture products rooted in a church setting. Furniture decorated with openwork, floral patterns and ribbon weaving. A characteristic feature of this period is a stylized carved ornament, presented on furniture in the form of an engraved leather scroll or an imitation of the texture of fabric laid in fancy folds.

One of the main types of furniture is box, performing a variety of functions. The chests were made from various breeds wood and were decorated with figured stucco molding and rich metal inserts.

Used everywhere benches. They came in a wide variety of types, for example, with a chest-like lower part and a high back.

Bed V gothic style was equipped with a canopy, and in European countries with milder climates it was replaced by a wooden structure, decorated with carvings, panels and trim of different colors.

The term “Gothic” arose during the Italian Renaissance as an expression of disdain for the art of those barbarian tribes who, back in the 5th-7th centuries. populated the western Roman Empire and were associated with the Italians last period art of the Middle Ages. It was only the romantics who “rehabilitated” him. early XIX centuries.

It was in the XIII-XV centuries. This is the peak of medieval culture: secular literature and poetry, theatrical art, in which mysteries coexist with secular farces; music, where unison was replaced by the polyphony of church choral hymns. The main spiritual force remains the church, but the life of cities causes the growth of anti-feudal and anti-church opposition. To suppress various heresies and fight the enemies of the church, two orders of “mendicants” were created: Dominican and Franciscan. But interest in the experimental knowledge of reality grows uncontrollably in this era of scholasticism, and the philosophical works of Roger Bacon appear next to Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiae. In Bologna, Parma, Salerno, Montpellier, Oxford during the XII-XIII centuries. The first European universities emerge.

Gothic art is entirely associated with the city. City life gives rise to new types of buildings, primarily for civil purposes: the stock exchange, customs, court, hospitals, warehouses, markets, etc. The appearance of the city municipality - the town hall - is taking shape. This is a two- or three-story building with a gallery on the lower floor, with state rooms where the city council and court met - in the second, with utility rooms - in the third. Special attention was given to the watchtower of the town hall (beffroy), which was a symbol of the independence of the republic, just as the city cathedral was a symbol of the well-being of the citizens of the commune. On the square in front of the cathedral, debates, lectures took place, and mysteries were played.

As researchers have correctly noted, Gothic is both the culmination and negation of Romanesque art. It was, as it were, the result of a long evolution of medieval art. This is especially noticeable in religious architecture.

The Gothic temple, retaining the same basilica form as in the Romanesque period, has a new vault design, the basis of which is a frame system with ribs. A ribbed vault makes it possible to cover not only square, but also rectangular and even more complex spans.

This becomes possible because the ribs converge into bundles on supporting pillars, on which the entire load of the floors is now concentrated, in contrast to the Romanesque church, where the entire weight of the floors fell on the walls (hence their thickness and the small size of the windows). Flying buttresses, buttresses and pointed arches actively served this purpose. Flying buttress - 1/4 of an arch thrown from the central, higher nave through low side ones to the outer supports of the walls - buttresses, to which the lateral thrust is transmitted. A pointed arch also reduces the load on the walls: the higher and sharper it is, the less expansion. The new vault led to an inevitable transformation of the interior. The predominant elements in it were: the enormous height, the relatively small thickness of the pillars, in fact, the displacement of the wall by huge expanses of windows, which ultimately led to the appearance of stained glass. Vertical thrusts began to dominate the exterior, the smooth surface of the walls disappeared under the “stone lace”, for the sculpture began to cover the entire temple. This is especially true of France, which has given brilliant examples of the synthesis of sculpture with architecture.

Sculptural decor now fills the entire exterior, representing a kind of sermon: these are scenes from the Holy Scriptures, lives of saints, literary edifying subjects and scenes folk life, sometimes full of humor. An increase in interest in the real world, an appeal to signs of the times, features of everyday life (costume, weapons), and individualization of faces are evidence of an approach to the culture of the Renaissance.

Changes in architecture led to changes in monumental painting. The place of frescoes was taken by stained glass, painting made from pieces of glass (and later simply painting on glass) with a lead outline, known during the Gothic period. A Gothic temple is the creation of many hands, an entire construction team led by a master, or rather, not even one team, but several, and over a long period of time. Special albums of samples were used (like “drawing” among ancient Russian icon painters or miniaturists), a certain set of architectural and sculptural details. But through all the samples and canons, the creative individuality of the masters still made itself felt.

The artistic image of a Gothic temple expresses, first of all, aspiration towards God, the transcendental idea of ​​merging with Him. Incredibly heavy stone vaults are visually transformed into light lace by the art of architects. Daylight, penetrating through colored stained glass windows, becomes mysterious and mystical. Let us remember that Gothic was polychrome: the walls were painted, as were the sculptures. To this multicolor was added the shine of gold, church utensils, and the glow of candles. On the outside, the role of the vertical and the upward thrust were emphasized in everything: sharp triangular impergoons above the portals, phial towers, finishing buttresses. Everything is irrational, atectonic (which, as we will see below, makes Gothic and Baroque similar).

In addition to monumental forms of painting, the Gothic period saw the flowering of books and book art. The 13th-15th centuries were the time of the creation of large scriptoria, no longer monastic, but urban, of a large number of secular books (novels, edifying Christian stories, fables, etc.). Of the liturgical books, the most common are books of hours and psalms, intended mainly for the laity. And worldliness penetrates into the church book, affecting primarily the miniature. Note that the ornament changes its character. Its motifs are the same - floral and geometric, but it is drawn with compasses and a ruler, hence the famous Gothic rosettes, trefoils and quadrifolia.

The art of “small forms” always reflects changes in “big art”. But it is significant that Gothic furniture and utensils, both secular and ecclesiastical, sometimes directly repeat architectural forms in all decorative details.

From the end of the 12th century. France becomes the center of European education. The University of Paris soon took one of the leading places in the scientific life of Europe. In the field of architecture and fine arts France also plays a major role. In the 13th century There are 300 workshops in Paris. The main customer of works of art is no longer the church, but cities, merchant guilds, guild corporations and the king. The main type of building, in turn, became not the monastery church, but the city cathedral.

France, especially its center Ile de France, is rightfully considered the cradle of Gothic art. Back in the 12th century. (1137-1151) during the reconstruction of the Church of Saint Denis, a ribbed vault (circuit and chapels) was first used here. The largest temple of the early Gothic period was Notre Dame Cathedral - the five-nave temple could accommodate up to 9,000 people. It began in 1163 and was completed in 1208. In the middle of the 13th century. side chapels were added and the transverse nave - transept was enlarged (architects Jean de Chelles and Pierre de Montreux), at the end of the 13th - beginning of the 14th century. the choir chapels were added (architect Pierre de Chelles). The western façade in its design served as an example for many subsequent cathedrals: the so-called gallery of kings, large windows with a “rose” in the middle, and two towers rise successively over three perspective portals. The design of Notre Dame Cathedral clearly shows the basic principles of Gothic architecture: the ribbed lancet vault of the central nave, 35 m high, lancet windows, flying buttresses. But all that remains of the ponderous Romanesque architecture are the massive surface of the walls, the squat pillars of the central nave, the predominance of horizontal divisions, heavy towers, and restrained sculptural decoration. The Early Gothic Cathedral in Laon (1174-1226), three-nave with a three-nave transept, also has Romanesque features: semicircular arches, low windows, sparse decor, severe walls, massive supports. A special feature of the Lansky Cathedral is the decoration of the top of the towers with figures of 16 bulls; There is a legend that during the construction of the cathedral, when the strength of the builders was exhausted, a beautiful white bull appeared and helped complete the temple.

Chartres Cathedral (1194-1260) is an example of the transition to mature Gothic and the combination of facades from different periods. The “Royal Portal” of the western façade belongs to the first half of the 12th century, in early XIII V. the southern tower was completed, the northern tower was completed in the 14th century, the interior is Gothic. A brilliant example of mature French Gothic is the cathedral in Reims (1212-1311). Its creators are known different time: Jean d'0rbe, Jean le Loup, Gaucher de Reims, Bernard de Soissons, Robert de Coucy. In the appearance of Reims Cathedral, one can see a desire for verticalism of all lines, which enhances literally a whole “forest” of pinnacles and wimpergs (even the “rose” on the facade has a lancet finish).

The largest and tallest Gothic cathedral in France is Amiens. Its length is 145 m, the height of the vault of the central nave is 42.5. Amiens Cathedral was built over 40 years, from 1218 to 1258, by Robert de Luzarch, Thomas de Cormont and Renaud de Cormont. Amiens Cathedral is often called the "Gothic Parthenon".

By the middle of the 13th century. the scale of construction in France is weakening. The last remarkable creation of Gothic during this period is the chapel of Louis IX (in the heart of Paris, on the Ile de la Cité), the “holy chapel” of Sainte-Chapelle (1243-1248). Its builder is Pierre de Montreau. The single-nave chapel has two tiers: on the lower floor there is the chapel of the Mother of God, in the upper storage there is a reliquary with the crown of thorns of Christ.

Since the 14th century The late Gothic period begins, in France it lasts two centuries (XIV-XV centuries). The 15th century in Gothic architecture is also called Flaming Gothic. Late Gothic buildings are overloaded with decoration, complex decorative carvings and intricate patterns of ribs (Cathedral in Rouen, XIV-XV centuries).

Of the Gothic monasteries, the Abbey of Mont Saint Michel is especially famous on the border of Normandy and Brittany, located on a high cliff as an impregnable fortress.

Feudal castles at the end of the 13th century. were built only with the permission of the king, in the 14th century. this generally becomes the privilege of the king and his entourage; luxuriously decorated palaces appear in castle complexes. Castles are gradually turning into pleasure residences and hunting chateaus.

But urban construction (town halls, workshop buildings, residential buildings) is not decreasing. A private house (15th century) has been preserved - this is the mansion of the banker of King Charles VII, Jacques Coeur, in the city of Bourges.

Gothic - heyday monumental sculpture, in which the importance of statuary plasticity increases, although the figures are not free from the background of the wall. Increasingly, the figure is posed along the so-called “Gothic curve” (S-shaped pose, from the Latin letter “S”): medieval art gives its paraphrase to the Greek chiasmus. In relief, there is a craving for high relief - high relief. A certain canon of composition is developed, certain subjects are intended for certain places in the building. Thus, in the altar part scenes from the life of Christ are depicted, on the southern facade of the transept - the New Testament, on the northern - the Old Testament, on the western facade there is always an image of the “Last Judgment” and the “end of the world”. An example of early Gothic is the sculpture of the western façade of Notre Dame Cathedral (1210-1225); the story of Mary, "The Passion of Christ", "The Last Judgment". The facades of the transept were decorated already in the High Gothic period.

Reims Cathedral

In Chartres Cathedral one can trace the evolution from early Gothic sculpture to the mature Gothic period. Thus, the western façade is decorated with pillar-shaped, vertically elongated static figures standing in strictly frontal poses. Gradually the sculpture separates from the wall and acquires a rounded volume. But even with the constraint of the poses, with the laconicism of the forms, one is struck by the expressiveness of the plasticity, the restrained grandeur of the images, sometimes even the individualization of the appearance appears (St. Jerome, St. George, St. Martin of the portal of the southern facade of the transept). For many decades, not only different artels, but different generations of craftsmen worked in Chartres.

Cathedral in Amiens. Flying buttresses

Gothic is the ability to find
beautiful in the dark and terrible. (c)