Notes on GOTHIC period - for anyone who missed it........

• Culturally and intellectually, France was the most important country in Europe in the mid 13^th century.  Paris was its shining light, but other large towns like Chartres, Tours, Orleans and Reims were also renowned centers of learning with their own universities and great cathedrals.

The purpose of the cathedral:

The cathedral had 2 purposes –

1)    It was the moist important status symbol of the tow

2)    It served to educate the faithful

Features of the Gothic Style:

·        Pointed arches

·        Ribbed vault

·        Radiating chapels

·        The clustered columns supporting ribs spreading in different directions

·        Flying buttresses, which enabled the insertion of large clerestory (upper level) windows

·        Large stained glass windows

·        Tracery and window moulding

These splendid places of worship must have had an extraordinary effect on ordinary people of the middle ages. Coming as they did from small, dark, cramped houses, it is easy to imagine how the space and beautiful coloured light flickering through the magnificent stained glass windows and falling on the heads of rich as poor alike was seen as God’s grace.

Chartres Cathedral:

• Chartres cathedral, about 50miles from Paris, is considered to be one of the finest examples of the high Gothic style and is one of the greatest of all French Gothic cathedrals.
• It is visible from miles away, but it is only when the visitor comes closer that the buildings of the town clustered at the end of the hill come to view.
• Dedicated to Our Lady, and regarded as the ‘seat of the virgin mary on earth’, Charters was a major pilgrimage site and its most sacred relic was the Santa Camisia, the gown worn by the Virgin Mary during childbirth.
• When the old Romanesque church fell victim to a fire in 1134, the opportunity for the building of a new church was presented, but it was not long before disaster struck again.
• Om 10^th July 1194, another even more terrible fire overwhelmed not just the cathedral but also the town.
• For three days the fire raged and the people of the town could only watch in horror as the lead in the cathedral roof melted and poured down in hot streams, making it impossible to go near the building.
• Eventually, it was possible to see that the west front, with its two towers, had survived, but that the rest of the building was damaged beyond repair.
• To the peoples great despair, their precious relics had also perished.
• Some days later, however, the Sancta Camisia was found in the crypt, unharmed beneath the charred embers.  To the people of Chartres this was a miracle and there was great rejoicing.
• The fire came to be seen as a divine intervention from the Virgin Mary, who clearly desired a new and even more magnificent cathedral.  Huge sums of money were quickly pledged to the rebuilding, and as donations poured in from all over France, rich and poor alike helped by bringing cartloads of building materials up the hill.  Miracles were often reported by those who contributed.
• Chartres today is the best preserved of the major French cathedrals, with its sculpture and most of its stained glass windows intact. 
• Numerous restorations have not altered its elegant beauty.
• It remains as it was when it was rebuilt over 800 years ago – A triumph of Gothic art.
• Structure: The cathedral essentially is a 13^th century building, for such was the enthuasiasm for its rebuilding that it was nearly complete by 1220, a remarkably short time for the construction of medieval cathedrals.  Much of the original 12^th century structure still exists on the west front, but 300years separate the spires, which is immediately obvious form their irregular appearance.  The south spire is the original, plain, early Gothic pyramid dating from the 1140s, but the north tower was replaced following a lightening strike in 1506 with a taller tower and spire in the late gothic.
• Chartres was one of the first large buildings to utilize the full potential of flying buttresses.  There are three levels of them along the nave.  At the first level they take the form of a simple arch; the next level is connected by small columns arranged like spokes of a wheel; a third layer of arches stretch from the top of the buttresses to just below the gutter of the upper nave.
• Interior: The interior is built in the shape of a cross, with a central aisle and transepts forming the arms.  The sheer size is breathtaking.  The spacious nave is the widest in France and offers an unbroken view from the western door towards the magnificent apse in the east.  Clustered slender columns soar dramatically upwards to support the vib vaulting and direct the eye to the massive upper level clerestory windows within them.  These, in combination with the three large rose windows over the west door and both transcepts, further intensify the feeling of light and space.

Chartres Cathedral

EG: of Gothic cathedral –

Notre Dame, in Paris, France.

• The cathedral was completed in 1250 when Paris was developing as the main centre of political power and commerce.  No expense was spared in creating a cathedral with impressive architectural features that would surpass those of all the towns nearby, and the construction was supported and encouraged by King Louis VII himself.
• The aim of the Paris builders was to push the limits of the new style beyond anything yet attempted.  The breadth of the vaults as well as the height at Notre Dame was greater than anything seen thus far. 
• Another important innovation was the combination of triangular ribs with subtle transverse arches.  The result of this technique was an impressively wide interior, which can be seen from the doorway through to the altar without interruption from supporting pillars and is as impressive today as it was then.
• The towers were finished around 1245 and the cathedral was finally completed around 1345
• During the reigns of Louis XIV and Louis XV at the end of the 17^th century , the cathedral underwent major alterations, during which many tombs and stained glass windows were destroyed.  It also suffered during the French revolution of 1793, when many of its sculptures and treasures were destroyed or stolen.
• Napoleon Bonaparte, who had declared the Empire on May 28, 1804, was crowned Emperor at Notre-Dame on December 2, 1804.
• The west front of the cathedral is one of its most notable features, with its two 69-meter (228-feet) tall towers. The South Tower houses the cathedral's famous bell, "Emmanuel." The bell weighs 13 metric tons (over 28,000 pounds), its clapper alone weighs 500 kilograms. The bell is Notre-Dame's oldest, having been recast in 1631.
• The King's Gallery is a line of statues of the 28 Kings of Judah and Israel, which was redesigned by Viollet-le-Duc to replace the statues destroyed during the French Revolution. The revolutionaries mistakenly believed the statues to be French kings instead of biblical kings, so they decapitated them.
• The three west portals of Notre Dame Cathedral are magnificent examples of early Gothic art. Sculpted between 1200 and 1240, they depict scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary, the Last Judgment, and scenes from the life of St. Anne (the Virgin Mary's mother). Many of the statues, especially the larger ones, were destroyed in the Revolution and remade in the 19th century.
• The stained glass windows of the Notre-Dame are very beautiful and a good part of them date from the 13th century when the cathedral was constructed. In this author's opinion, Notre-Dame's collection of stained glass is not as impressive as those at other French cathedrals, such as Chartres and Bourges, and in Paris the best place to enjoy an overall effect of stained glass is probably not Notre Dame but Sainte-Chapelle.

Notre Dame Cathedral