Scholasticism, Measure and Light in Gothic Architecture

Ecclesiastical Architecture in Medieval Society

Eschatology

‘Gothic’

originated in present day France

spread to modern day Italy, UK, Spain, Germany, Austria etc

revived in 19c as a ‘style’

‘Gothic’

anatomy and nomenclature

‘Gothic’

development & character

‘Gothic’

differences to Romanesque interior

Perception and appearance of God

iconographic value is reduced

perceiving ‘God’ through His marvels, e.g. light, number, geometry

heightened symbolism of natural phenomena

early ‘Gothic’

St Denis, 1138 -1144

trinity over main entance

Suger of Saint-Denis , supplicant on a medieval window

early ‘Gothic’

Notre Dame, Paris; 1165 - 1200

high ‘Gothic’

Chartres, 1194 -1220

Cathedral of Chartres, western spires

high ‘Gothic’

Rheims; 1211 - 1260

‘Rayonnant Gothic’

Beauvais; 1225 - 1272

‘Gothic’

Bourges; 1195 - 1220

high ‘Gothic’

Amiens; 1220 - 1247

Gothic Architecture and Building

medieval times - medieval ‘architect’

medieval drawing - medieval ‘design’

design and medieval communication

sources of knowledge - exempla, records, surviving tracts

Gothic Architecture and Building

medieval times - medieval ‘architect’

medieval drawing - medieval ‘design’

sources of knowledge

pythagoras

1. Architectura autem constat ex ordinatio, quae graece taxis dicitur, et ex dispositione, hanc autem Graeci diathesin vocitant, et eurythmia et symmetria et decore et distributione quae graece oeconomia dicitur.Translation1. Now architecture consists of order, which in Greek is called taxis, and of arrangement, which the Greeks name diathesis, and of proportion and symmetry and decor and distribution which is called oeconomia.

VITRUVIUS, BOOK I, CHAPTER 2.On what things architecture consists

2. Ordinatio est modica membrorum operis commoditas separatim universique proportionis ad symmetriam comparatio. Haec conponitur ex quantitate, quae graece posotes dicitur. Quantitas autem est modulorum ex ipsius operis sumptio e singulisque membrorum partibus universi operis conveniens effectus.Dispositio autem est rerum apta conlocatio elegansque conpositionibus effectus cum qualitate. Species dispositionis, quae graece dicuntur ideae, sunt hae: ichnographia, orthografia, scaenographia. Ichnographia est circini regulaeque modice continens usus, e qua capiuntur formarum in solis arearum descriptiones. Orthographia autem est erecta frontis imago modiceque picta rationibus operis futuri figura. Item scaenographia et frontis et laterum abscendentium adumbratio ad circinique centrum omnium linearum responsus. Hae nascuntur ex cogitatione et inventione. Cogitatio est cura studii plena et industriae vigilantiaeque effectus propositi cum voluptate. Inventio autem est quaestionum obscurarum explicatio ratioque novae rei vigore mobili reperta. Hae sunt terminationes dispositionum.

Translation

2. Order is the balanced adjustment of the details of the work separately, and, as to the whole, the arrangement of the proportion with a view to a symmetrical result. This is made up of dimension wich in Greek is called posotes. Now dimension is the taking of modules from the parts of the work; and the suitable effect of the whole work arising from the several subdivisions of the parts.Arrangement, however, is the fit assemblage of details, and, arising from this assemblage, the elegant effect of the work and his dimensions, along with a certain quality of character. The kinds of the arrangement (which in Greek are called ideae) are these: ichnography (plan); orthography (elevation); scenography (perspective). Ichnography (plan) demands the competent use of compass and rule; by these plans are laid out upon the site provided. Orthography (elevation), however, is the vertical image of the front, and an figure slightly tinted to show the lines of the future work. Scenography (perspective) also is the shading of the front and the retreating sides, and the correspondence of all lines to the vanishing point, which is the centre of a circle.These three arise from imagination and invention. Imagination rests upon the attention directed with minute and observant fervour to the charming effect proposed. Invention, however, is the solution of obscure problems; the treatment of a new undertaking disclosed by an active intelligence. Such are the outlines of arrangement.

VITRUVIUS, BOOK I, CHAPTER 2.On what things architecture consists

Augustine, St. (354-430 CE)

Syncreticism

faith and reason

christian ‘truth’ and pagan knowledge

Robert Grosseteste

wrote about Optics & Light (de Luce)

wrote about Colour

wrote about Aristotelian empiricism

wrote about mathematics

Syncreticism

peripatetic (aristotlelian) empiricism

neo-platonic ideas,

timaeus - cosmogony, proportion, harmony

republic - light and goodness

medieval aesthetic sensibility

“When the Scholastics spoke about beauty they meant by this an attribute of God. The metaphysics of beauty (in Plotinus, for

instance) and the theory of art were in no way related. ‘Contemporary man’ places an exaggerated value on art because

he has lost the feeling for intelligible beauty which the neo-platonists and the Medievals possessed.... Here we are dealing

with a type of beauty which Aesthetics knows nothing.”

Curtius, E R European Literature and the Latin Middle Ages

medieval aesthetic sensibility

Cistertian and Carthusian influence

mendicant and ascetic

medieval aesthetic sensibility

Cistertian and Carthusian influence

Peter Abelard at Chartres(1079 – 1142) - Neo platonicSt Bernard of Clairvaux (1091 – 1153) - ascetic and mendicant

medieval aesthetic sensibility

St Thomas Aquinasdrawing from Aristotle’s metaphysics

St Thomas Aquinas

transcendental beauty

But the superessential beautiful is called ‘Beauty’ because of the quality which it imparts to all things severally according to their

nature, and because It is the Cause of the harmony and splendour in all things, flashing forth upon them all, like light, the beautifying communications of Its originating ray; and because It

summons all things to fare unto itself (from whence It hath the name ‘fairness’), and because It draws all things togther in a

state of mutual interpenetration.

Dionysius the areopagite, The Divine Names

PROPORTION AND GEOMETRY

ST. AUGUSTINE; PYTHAGORAS, TIMAEUS

Geometrein

geo: earthmetrein: to measure

Earth Measure

Earth MeasureMeasurement and Units

Earth MeasureMeasurement and Units

Measurement and Number

Idealised Measurement

Parallels in nature or cosmogony

Monad1

Natural number

Monad1

Natural number

dyad2

1st stage of creation feminine

32nd stage of creation

MasculineUnion of 1 & 2

5Union of masculine & feminine

Etc….

Proportion & Number

LIGHT

ST. AUGUSTINE; DIONYSIUS, REPUBLIC (VI)

SYMBOL & ALLEGORY

Hylomorphism