Research Paper on Gothic Modernism

Introduction

Gothic architecture is the artistic form on which the definition of Gothic art was formed, the artistic style comprised between the Romanesque and the Renaissance. It developed in Western Europe - Latin Christianity - in the Late Middle Ages, from the late 12th century until the fifteenth century, although beyond Italy the Gothic survivals continued until the beginning of the sixteenth century.

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At first, the Gothic style was adopted as a national style, a fact that reverberated both in the restoration of medieval monuments and in the appearance of neo-Gothic as the predominant form. However, this fact also influenced the origin of Art Nouveau and Modernism in architecture, which emerged at first as a free interpretation of neo-Gothic forms (Trachtenberg 187). It is not paradoxical that the main European centers where Art Nouveau developed with more intensity were in countries that had assimilated the Gothic as a national style (Spain, France, and Belgium).

During the Late Middle Ages, the cathedral was the symbolic building of Gothic architecture, standing out above the rest of the buildings, a reflection of a new conception of art and in which it was intended to bring the faithful closer to religious and symbolic values (Murphy 55). As a building, the cathedral is also interpreted as an architecture destined to transmit an image of power, be it monarchical, bishop or citizen, compared to the two architectural forms of the High Middle Ages and the feudal power: the castle and the monastery.

This new conception of art and the symbol of power brought with it a new architecture, which required the execution of new construction techniques such as the pointed arch (also called ogival), the ribbed vault or the flying buttress. This new technique can be referred to as Gothic Modernism (Trachtenberg 199). The use of these elements in the Gothic architecture, and mainly in the cathedrals, allowed to build slender and light structures that work with traction and not compression (as in previous Romanesque buildings), which transform the interior space accentuated by the new ordering of supports. The lightening of the structure becomes visible thanks to the realization of stained glass windows that give color and luminosity to the interior of the building.

As a result, we have a Gothic style, the result of a constructive process with the aim of creating a space with a high load of symbolic value. The constructive elements and the way to use them achieve a new sensation different from the Romanesque style of previous centuries. The Gothic vaults no longer work in compression, like the Romanesque, leaning on the walls, but by the concentration of the efforts of the roofs at specific points (Robson-Scot 45). The principle of "inert stability" is replaced by the principle of "balance of forces", that is, the tensile forces replace the compression forces and the equilibrium is obtained by means of loads that convert the various oblique forces into vertical forces. This structural solution is achieved thanks to the ribbed vault, also called nerval or ogival.

Figure 1. The Interior of the Cathedral of Leon. One can see the luminosity and color of the stained glass windows inside the cathedral.

The vault of cruceria is held by two cross-pointed arches, the warheads, being lighter than any other type of vault built to date. The encounters will be the structural nerves, where the roofs of the vaults are supported, with closing and non-structural functions. These nerves will converge on the points of support (pillars or groups of pillars), which, because of the lightness of the structure, have great slenderness (Harris 342). The supports will be constituted by a central cylindrical core surrounded by colonies, which correspond to the arches and nerves of the vaults, each one with its own, according to the principle of Romanesque architecture of which each piece held must correspond to its support.

Figure 2. Coutances cathedral ribbed vault.

In the Gothic architecture, the use of the pointed arch, in the shape of an arrowhead and which replaced the semicircular arch, is generalized. This pointed arch turned out to be more slender and lighter than the semi-circular arch because, thanks to its verticality, it translates less lateral thrusts, which allows more forms that are flexible and save larger lights.

The result of all this is a diaphanous structure created with vertical elements that allow the old load-bearing walls to become only enclosures of the interior space so they can be pierced with large windows, characteristic elements of the Gothic and that filled with light and color the inside of the cathedral (Trachtenberg 200). These windows will evolve to form the wide Gothic hollows covered with beautiful traceries or large rosettes placed on the top of the facades.

This light cover also allows the height of the ship to be higher and to increase the horizontal distance between supports. Due to its elasticity, it allows covering rectangular or trapezoidal spaces of different sizes, in such a way that the sections of the central nave can correspond to those of the lateral naves, although they are of the different surface. That is to say, the structure of the section can repeat serially adapting to different spaces and creating unitary and diaphanous areas.

Figure 3. Ogival arch. Church of Saint-Sauveur de Caen.

Gothic architecture also created a series of architectural elements exterior to the building, designed to balance the structure that already absorbed the horizontal thrusts that could not be contained by the pillars, which are too high. In Gothic modernism, the flying buttress was created, exterior arches that transmit, far from the pillar of support, the efforts exerted by the vault. This effort is transmitted to the bungles or abutments, solid external pillars that act as an isolated abutment that absorbs the thrust of the flying buttress and finally discharges it into the ground (Mattens 43). So that these buttresses and other buttresses have more weight and resistance, they are decorated with pinnacles, elements that meet the constructive and aesthetic purpose. This construction system configures the exterior appearance of the Gothic cathedrals, full of flying buttresses, botales and pinnacles, which is complemented by needles, and gargoyles.

Figure 4. Drawing of the flying buttresses of the Cathedral of Amiens

Framed at the beginning of the classic Gothic, the cathedral of Notre-Dame is the prototype of a gothic cathedral, since in her a new element appears to try to obtain greater elevation and the opening of large windows, the flying buttress. The flying buttress will allow directing the thrusts of the vaults to the outer buttresses, the botareles, with which the opening of large bays and a greater elevation of the interior space of the cathedral will be achieved. As a consequence, it also allows to suppress the interior gallery, and the openings can occupy almost all the wall space

Figure 5. General view of the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral. South view 2008

The invention of this new element, the flying buttress, as well as other architectural elements that would arise in the Gothic, is interpreted in different ways. According to Viollet-le-Duc, responds to the constructive logic, the new elements being as the flying buttress constructive solutions product of a constructive method that responded to a practical need. Other authors, as German scholars of nineteenth-century romanticism, see in the use of the flying buttress a resource to create a deliberate symbolic vision and not a mere structural skeleton, giving an idea of the national spirit of the peoples of the North against the Mediterranean classicism.

In the twentieth century, other authors will see other underlying meanings, such as Erwin Panofsky, who sees a direct relationship between the constructive hierarchy and the civil hierarchy, as well as between the new construction and the new scholastic philosophy that emerged in the late Middle Ages. Otto von Simson sees the light as a constructive principle, the influence of Neoplatonic metaphysics, which enters the cathedral through the huge stained glass windows like the ones seen in the image and that is the product of the use of new construction techniques that allow the walls be simple enclosures and not carriers.

Conclusion

Gothic art has never completely disappeared. Artists and designers continue to use elements of the Gothic style in their work. As elements of the Gothic style, which the artists still use as inspiration in their designs are the gargoyles, architectural and religious features found in the churches from the year 1200 (the rosettes, the stained glass, the cross vaults). Others include floral gothic (the "Fleur de Lys" Gothic symbol), the Gothic texts (typography), the Gothic cathedrals with their slender arches and tall towers, the Gothic religious painting, and many more elements.

Figure 6: The Lantern Lobby

Figure 8: St. George Hall

Works Cited

Harris, Lindsay. Modern Architecture and the Mediterranean: Vernacular Dialogues and Contested Identities. Journal of Design History, Volume 25, Issue 3, 1 August 2012, Pages 341-344.

Mattens, Filip. The Aesthetics of Space: Modern Architecture and Photography. The American Society of Aesthetics, 2011.

Murphy, D. Kevin. Skyscraper Gothic: Medieval Style and Modernist Buildings. University of Virginia Press, 2017.

Robson-Scot, W. D. The Literary Background of the Gothic Revival in Germany. Taylor & Francis, 2010.

Trachtenberg, Marvin. Suger's Miracles, Branner's Bourges: Reflections on "Gothic Architecture" as Medieval Modernism. Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 183-205, 2000.