FRANCE
❚The birthplace of Gothic art and architecture was Saint-Denis, where Abbot Suger used rib vaults
with pointed arches and stained-glass windows to rebuild the Carolingian royal church. The west
facade of Suger’s church also introduced statue-columns on the portal jambs, which appeared
shortly later on the Royal Portal of Chartres Cathedral. Laon Cathedral is another important
example of Early Gothic (1140–1194) architecture.
❚After a fire in 1194, Chartres Cathedral was rebuilt with flying buttresses, four-part nave vaults, and
a three-story elevation of nave arcade, triforium, and clerestory, setting the pattern for High Gothic
(1194–1300) cathedrals, including Amiens with its 144-foot-high vaults.
❚Flying buttresses made possible huge stained-glass windows. High Gothic windows employ
delicate lead cames and bar tracery. The divine colored light (lux nova) they admitted transformed
the character of church interiors.
❚High Gothic statue-columns broke out of the architectural straitjacket of their Early Gothic
predecessors. At Chartres, Reims, and elsewhere, the sculpted figures move freely and sometimes
converse with their neighbors.
❚The High Gothic Rayonnant court style of Louis IX gave way in the Late Gothic (1300–1500) period
to the Flamboyant style seen at Saint-Maclou at Rouen.
❚Several important examples of secular architecture survive from the Gothic period, including the
bastions and towers of Carcassonne, the hall of the cloth guild in Bruges, and the house of Jacques
Coeur in Bourges.
❚In the 13th century, Paris was the center of production of costly moralized Bibles and other illumi-
nated manuscripts in urban workshops of professional artists, which usurped the role of monastic
scriptoria.
ENGLAND
❚The Parisian Gothic style became the rage in most of Europe during the 13th century, but many
regional styles developed, as in the Romanesque period. English Gothic churches like Salisbury
Cathedral differ from their French counterparts in their wider and shorter facades, flat east ends,
double transepts, and sparing use of flying buttresses.
❚Especially characteristic of English Gothic architecture is the elaboration of architectural patterns,
which often disguise the underlying structure of the buildings. Constructed in the Late Gothic
Perpendicular style, the fan vaults of the chapel of Henry VII transform the logical rib vaults of
French buildings into decorative fancy.
HOLY ROMAN EMPIRE
❚German architects eagerly embraced the French Gothic architectural style at Cologne Cathedral
and elsewhere. German originality manifested itself most clearly in the Gothic period in sculpture,
which often features emotionally charged figures in dramatic poses.
❚Statues of secular historical figures decorate the interiors of Naumburg and Bamberg cathedrals,
signaling a revival of interest in the art of portraiture.
❚Nicholas of Verdun was the leading artist of the Meuse River valley, an area renowned for metal-
and enamelwork. Nicholas’s altars and shrines provide an idea of how sumptuous were the
furnishings of Gothic churches.
THE BIG PICTURE
GOTHIC EUROPE
Royal Portal, Chartres Cathedral,
ca. 1145–1155Amiens Cathedral, begun 1220God as architect of the world,
ca. 1220–1230Salisbury Cathedral, Salisbury,
1220–1258Nicholas of Verdun,
Shrine of the Three Kings,ca. 1190