GOTHIC ART & ARCHITECTURE

Gothic art is a style of painting, architecture, and sculpture that began in Paris the middle of the 12th century and showed up throughout Europe all the way into the 1500s. The architectural style's definitive feature is the pointed arch, while the definitive feature of Gothic painting and sculpture is naturalism.

Wat Yansangwararam

Wat Yansangwararam is the biggest Pattaya temple which showcases beautiful Thai architecture, including ornate pavilions and statues. Spanning 145 acres, this temple also has a serene garden and a large lake, making it an ideal spot to relax. The main temple of the building is unique in design, unlike other temples in Pattaya.

The Well of Moses

In this view of the hexagonally shaped Well of Moses, one sees two of the six figures that surround the monumental edifice. The biblical King David, holding a scroll in his left hand, is visible at the left, while the Prophet Jeremiah, holding up a large book from which a scroll unfurls, is pictured on the right. Standing atop thin columns between the human figures, three angels are partially visible, their flaring wings creating the fount of the well. The fount was meant to convey not only the Well of Moses in Egypt but also the living water of the Christian faith, symbolized in baptism. A kind of sacred history is conveyed in the gathering of these figures, each connected to the word of God through the scrolls that he holds.

With its naturalistic human figures, powerfully conveying physical presence and individualized expressions, while denoting courtly elegance in the flowing rhythm of draperies and scrolls, this work innovatively exemplified the International Gothic Style. The Carthusian Monastery in Dijon commissioned the work from the artist who was the court artist for Phillip the Bold of Burgundy. The original structure was more complex, as the center of the well included a pier, carved with prophets and angels, and a cross rising from the depths to tower over the well, but only the well itself has survived. Originally the sculpture was painted and gilded by Jean Malouel, traces of which are visible in the blue bands of David’s robe and Jeremiah’s green sleeve, which would have created a more animated and lively effect. The sculptor has conveyed his subjects’ importance while also depicting their different personalities: David’s sense of strong but relaxed authority and Jeremiah’s pensiveness.

Sluter’s innovative three-dimensional and emotionally expressive figures had a noted influence upon Northern European Renaissance artists, including Rogier Van der Weyden, Matthias Grünewald, and Albrecht Dürer.

The Gothic Era

City-states and feudal kingdoms dotted Europe, and the power of the Catholic church continued to grow during the Gothic era. With increasing prosperity and more stable governments, cultural changes included the early formations of universities, like the University of Paris in 1150, and the proliferation of Catholic orders, like the Franciscan and Dominicans. The monks and theologians ushered in a new Humanism that sought to reconcile Platonic ideals and Church theology. The humanism at this time saw man as part of a complex hierarchy, divinely ordered by God whose ultimate nature surpassed reason.

Increasing trade led to the growth of many urban centers, and the local Cathedral became a sign of civic pride. At the same time, noble patronage began to play a primary role in building projects, as stained glass windows and portals emphasized the identification of the king as a kind of earthly representation of divine authority, as seen in the “royal portal” reserved for nobility and high ranking church officials. Some Gothic churches took decades to build, contributing both to the economy of the town and to the expansion of the necessary guilds that represented the various trades involved in construction and design. Most of the Early Gothic architects, sculptors, and designers of stained glass windows were anonymous, and it is only later in the High Gothic period that architects and artists known as “masters” became identified.

The architecture that informed the Gothic period drew upon a number of influences, including Romanesque, Byzantine, and Middle Eastern.

Romanesque

Romanesque churches from the 10th to the 12^th centuries are noted for their use of barrel vaults, rounded arches, towers, and their thick walls, pillars and piers. Housing the relics of saints, the churches were part of the pilgrimage routes that extended throughout Europe, as the faithful visited the holy sites to seek forgiveness for their sins and attain the promise of Heaven.

Gothic architecture retained the Romanesque western façade as the entrance to the church with its two towers, three portals and sculptural works in the tympanum, a half circle area above the door, as well as its cruciform plan. While Gothic churches continued the religious tradition of the pilgrimage path, their new style reflected a new economic and political reality.

The Pointed Arch and Middle Eastern Architecture

The pointed arch was a noted element of Middle Eastern architecture beginning in the 7^th century, as seen in the Al-Aqsa Mosque (780) in Jerusalem. Widely deployed in the building of mosques and palaces like the fortress of Al-Ukhaidir (775), the pointed arch was found throughout the Middle East, North Africa, Andalucia (modern day Spain), and Sicily. As architectural critic Jonathan Meades wrote, these early examples “would in the 12^th century become the quintessential architecture of Christendom.” As the Pope and Catholic rulers sought to extend the range of Christianity in the Middle Ages through the Crusades, knowledge of Middle Eastern architecture became more common among Europeans.

The pointed arch made the Gothic style possible, as it could be used for asymmetrical spaces and to intersect columns at a sharp angle thus displacing the weight into the columns and lightening the walls. The structure also became key to a number of subsequent Gothic innovations, including the lancet arch, creating a high, narrow, and steeply pointed opening; the equilateral arch, widening the arch to allow for more circular forms in stained glass; and the flamboyant arch, primarily used in windows and traceries for decorative effect.

Flying Buttresses and Byzantine Architecture

The flying buttress was used in a few important and influential Byzantine structures. The buttress employed a massive column or pier, situated away from the building’s wall, and a “flyer,” an arch that, extending from the wall to the pier, displaced the weight-bearing load from the wall. The Basilica of San Vitale (547) in Ravenna, Italy, pioneered an early use of the flying buttress. The Basilica was famous for its mosaics and was a powerful symbol of the Byzantine Empire and the Roman Empire before it. As a result, it became a model for later architecture. The Emperor Charlemagne, who established the Holy Roman Empire in 799 and was dubbed “the father of Europe,” designed his Palatine Chapel in Aachen, Germany, after the Basilica of San Vitale.

Early Gothic: Basilica of Saint-Denis (1144)

The Basilica of Saint-Denis (1135-1144), near Paris, pioneered the Gothic style. Abbot Suger led the rebuilding of the church, a venerated site where Saint Denis was martyred and where almost every French monarch since the 7^th century had been buried. A noted scholar, friend, and advisor to King Louis VI and then Louis VII, Suger was influenced by the works of Pseudo-Dionysius the Aeropagite, a 5^th-6^th century Christian philosopher and mystic. Pseudo-Dionysius believed that any aspect of earthly light was an aspect of divine light, a belief with which Suger concurred. Suger felt that the new Gothic style would lift up the soul to God. His design envisioned a soaring verticality, and key to this was the use of the pointed arch that allowed for a vaulted ceiling and thinner walls that could contain numerous stained glass windows. The Church of Saint-Denis became the model for the Gothic style of architecture, spreading throughout Europe.

THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW: Gothic architecture originated in the 12th century in the Île-de-France and Picardy regions of France. The style was inspired by the theories of the Syrian monk Dionysius the Areopagite, who wrote about the divine nature of light

THINGS YOU MAY WANT TO SAVE: Your line drawings of local churches.

ZENTRAVELER SAYS: Get off the couch and see for yourself some of the best Gothic Archicture in the world.

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