long, round stone vault called a barrel vault or a cross
vault where two barrel vaults intersected (a vault is
simply a curved roof made of masonry). The barrel
vault was used when a transept was added to create a
church plan in the shape of a cross. Although barrel
and cross vaults were technically difficult to construct,
they were considered aesthetically pleasing and techni-
cally proficient. They also had fine acoustics.
Because stone roofs were extremely heavy, Roman-
esque churches required massive pillars and walls to
hold them up. This left little space for windows, mak-
ing Romanesque churches quite dark inside. The mas-
sive walls and pillars gave these churches a sense of
solidity and a look reminiscent of a fortress.The Gothic Cathedral
Begun in the twelfth century and brought to perfection
in the thirteenth, theGothiccathedral remains one of
the great artistic triumphs of the High Middle Ages.
Soaring skyward, as if to reach heaven, it was a fitting
symbol for medieval people’s preoccupation with God.Two fundamental innovations of the twelfth century
made Gothic cathedrals possible. The combination of
ribbed vaults and pointed arches replaced the barrel
vault of Romanesque churches and enabled builders to
make Gothic churches higher than their Romanesque
counterparts. The use of pointed arches and ribbed
vaults created an impression of upward movement, a
sense of weightless upward thrust that implied the
energy of God. Another technical innovation, the flying
buttress, basically a heavy arched pier of stone built
onto the outside of the walls, made it possible to dis-
tribute the weight of the church’s vaulted ceilings out-
ward and downward and thereby eliminate the thick,
heavy walls used in Romanesque churches to hold the
weight of the massive barrel vaults. Thus, Gothic cathe-
drals could be built with thinner walls that were filled
with magnificent stained-glass windows, which created
a play of light inside that varied with the sun at differ-
ent times of the day. The preoccupation with colored
light in Gothic cathedrals was inspired by the belief
that natural light was a symbol of the divine light
of God.
The first fully Gothic church was the
abbey church of Saint-Denis (san-duh-
NEE) near Paris, built between 1140 and
1150 at the inspiration of Suger (soo-
ZHAYR), the monastery’s famous abbot.
A product of northern France, the Gothic
style had spread by the mid-thirteenth
century to England, Spain, Germany, and
virtually all the rest of Europe. The most
brilliant Gothic cathedrals were still to be
found in France—in Paris (Notre-Dame),
Reims, Amiens, and Chartres.
A Gothic cathedral was the work of an
entire community. All classes of society
contributed to its construction. Money
was raised from wealthy townspeople,
who had profited from the new trade and
industries, as well as from kings and
nobles. Master masons, who were both
architects and engineers, designed the
cathedrals, drew up the plans, and super-
vised the work of construction. Stonema-
sons and other craftspeople were paid a
daily wage and provided the skilled labor
to build the cathedrals. A Gothic cathe-
dral symbolized the chief preoccupation
of a medieval Christian community, itsThe Gothic Cathedral.The Gothic cathedral was one of the great artistic
triumphs of the High Middle Ages. Shown here is the cathedral of Notre-Dame
in Paris. Begun in 1163, it was not completed until the beginning of the
fourteenth century.Scala/Art Resource, NYThe Intellectual and Artistic World of the High Middle Ages 217Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. Due to electronic rights, some third party content may be suppressed from the eBook and/or eChapter(s).
Editorial review has deemed that any suppressed content does not materially affect the overall learning experience. Cengage Learning reserves the right to remove additional content at any time if subsequent rights restrictions require it.
`Ìi`ÊÜÌ
ÊÌ
iÊ`iÊÛiÀÃÊvÊ
vÝÊ*ÀÊ* Ê
`ÌÀÊ
/ÊÀiÛiÊÌ
ÃÊÌVi]ÊÛÃÌ\Ê