AMIENS CATHEDRAL Chartres Cathedral was one of the
most influential buildings in the history of architecture. Its builders set
a pattern that many other Gothic architects followed, even if they re-
fined the details. Construction of Amiens Cathedral (FIGS. 18-19to
18-21) began in 1220, while work was still in progress at Chartres.
The architects were Robert de Luzarches, Thomas de Cormont,
and Renaud de Cormont.The builders finished the nave by 1236 and
the radiating chapels by 1247, but work on the choir continued until al-
most 1270. The Amiens elevation (FIGS. 18-10dand 18-19) derived
from the High Gothic formula of Chartres (FIGS. 18-10cand 18-15).
But Amiens Cathedral’s proportions are even more elegant, and the
number and complexity of the lancet windows in both its clerestory
and triforium are even greater. The whole design reflects the builders’
confident use of the complete High Gothic structural vocabulary: the
rectangular-bay system, the four-part rib vault, and a buttressing sys-
tem that permitted almost complete dissolution of heavy masses and
thick weight-bearing walls. At Amiens, the concept of a self-sustaining
skeletal architecture reached full maturity. The remaining stretches of
wall seem to serve no purpose other than to provide a weather screen
for the interior (FIG. 18-20).
Amiens Cathedral is one of the most impressive examples of the
French Gothic obsession with constructing ever taller churches. Using
their new skeletal frames of stone, French builders attempted goals al-
most beyond limit, pushing to new heights with increasingly slender
supports. The nave vaults at Laon rise to a height of about 80 feet, at
Paris 107 feet, and at Chartres 118 feet. Those at Amiens are 144 feet
above the floor (FIG. 18-10). The tense, strong lines of the Amiens
vault ribs converge at the colonnettes and speed down the shell-like
walls to the compound piers. Almost every part of the superstructure
has its corresponding element below. The overall effect is of effortless
strength, of a buoyant lightness not normally associated with stone ar-
chitecture. Viewed directly from below, the choir vaults (FIG. 18-20)
seem like a canopy, tentlike and suspended from bundled masts. The
light flooding in from the clerestory makes the vaults seem even more
insubstantial. The effect recalls another great building, one utterly dif-
ferent from Amiens but where light also plays a defining role: Hagia
Sophia (FIG. 12-4) in Constantinople. Once again, the designers re-
duced the building’s physical mass by structural ingenuity and daring,
and light further dematerializes what remains. If Hagia Sophia is the
perfect expression of Byzantine spirituality in architecture, Amiens,
with its soaring vaults and giant windows admitting divine colored
light, is its Gothic counterpart.
Work began on the Amiens west facade (FIG. 18-21) at the same
time as the nave (1220). Its lower parts reflect the influence of Laon474 Chapter 18 GOTHIC EUROPE18-19Robert de Luzarches, Thomas de Cormont,and
Renaud de Cormont,interior of Amiens Cathedral (looking east),
Amiens, France, begun 1220.
The concept of a self-sustaining skeletal architecture reached full
maturity at Amiens Cathedral. The four-part High Gothic vaults on
pointed arches rise an astounding 144 feet above the nave floor.18-20Robert de Luzarches, Thomas de Cormont,and Renaud
de Cormont,vaults, clerestory, and triforium of the choir of Amiens
Cathedral, Amiens, France, begun 1220.
The Amiens choir vaults resemble a canopy suspended from bundled
masts. The sunlight entering from the clerestory creates the effect of
a buoyant lightness not normally associated with stone architecture.