Gothic” canon. If we recognize, however, that both designs exhibit significant shifts in
interest from those of Chartres, Soissons, Bourges, and Reims, even while being
influenced by them, then the realization that both herald the new decorative complexity
of the Rayonnant becomes possible. Such a reorganization does not privilege them over
later Rayonnant solutions any more than over such precedents as Reims; rather, it restores
to them a measure of originality.
Thus, it is time to question the whole concept of “High Gothic” and to discard both the
deterministic models and concepts of stylistic development based on organic mod els, as
well as value judgments that privilege one aspect of a style above another. The continued
use of the construct prejudices an understanding of the Rayonnant as a distinct and
independent architectural development based on different values. If we discard the notion
of the classic moment of the Gothic style in favor of an understanding of early 13th-
century buildings continuing the rich tradition of experimentation, then structures
previously relegated to the sidelines and excluded from the “High Gothic” assume their
places as varied accomplishments in their own right.
Like most stylistic terms, even “Gothic” itself, “Rayonnant” is a misnomer. Chosen in
the 19th century because the rose window was seen as typifying the style, it has come to
stand for the new direction in Gothic architecture that manifests itself ca. 1225–30.
Rayonnant is the result of a variety of experiments that seem to crystallize in and around
Paris, but they would not have been possible without knowledge of comparable
experiments at Amiens, Troyes, Saint-Nicaise at Reims, and even Royaumont. The
Rayonnant is characterized by a new exploration of the applications of geometry in the
design of window tracery and the systematic application of the principles of window-
tracery design to the entire building, inside and out. Since the design principles are
derived from the elegant screens of window tracery, the emphasis is linear and flat, with a
sense of apparent fragility and brittleness, together with an incisive analytical elegance.
The fragility of window tracery is nevertheless an illusion that results from its linear
qualities and thinness: these thin screens of ornament have withstood countless storms
since their creation.
The linear complexity leads to an abrupt and systematic change of emphasis. All of the
ornament is on these thin screens of tracery; all forms of plasticity are rejected. The
compound piers of Reims and Chartres become the attenuated linear piers of the nave of
Saint-Denis. The linear value of the piers runs up the wall, every layer of which receives
the same unified treatment of incisively carved yet delicate ornament. The substantial
wall structures of previous generations have disintegrated into layers of the thinnest
possible tracery. Even wall passages cease to convey depth, because their two surfaces
are sharply delineated units of surface pattern superimposed in front of one another.
Density and mass even disappear on the exterior, as all surfaces are covered with elegant
tracery or thinned down by sheets of tracery gables. The buildings become thin, elegant,
elongated, and miraculously insubstantial, as at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris or Saint-
Urbain at Troyes. The patterns are rational, logical, and neat—ceaseless explorations of
the almost infinite number of possible patterns to be derived from experiments with the
geometry of circles, squares, and triangles. Design becomes a logical process in which a
series of similar patterns may be repeated and manipulated through a variety of sizes and
scales.
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