Wren mentions Europe's architectural debt to the Saracens no fewer than twelve times in his writings. The term ‘Saracen’ was still in use in the 18th century and it typically referred to all Muslims, including the Arabs and Berbers. Wren was the first to popularize the belief that it was not the Europeans, but the Saracens that had created the Gothic style. This we now call the Gothic manner of architecture (so the Italians called what was not after the Roman style) though the Goths were rather destroyers than builders I think it should with more reason be called the Saracen style, for these people wanted neither arts nor learning: and after we in the west lost both, we borrowed again from them, out of their Arabic books, what they with great diligence had translated from the Greeks. He compared it to Islamic architecture, which he called the ' Saracen style', pointing out that the pointed arch's sophistication was not owed to the Goths but to the Islamic Golden Age. The polymath architect Christopher Wren disapproved of the name Gothic for pointed architecture. Vasari was echoed in the 16th century by François Rabelais, who referred to Goths and Ostrogoths ( Gotz and Ostrogotz). The assumption that classical architecture was better than Gothic architecture was widespread and proved difficult to defeat. Thus the Gothic style, being in opposition to classical architecture, from that point of view was associated with the destruction of advancement and sophistication. When Vasari wrote, Italy had experienced a century of building in the Vitruvian architectural vocabulary of classical orders revived in the Renaissance and seen as evidence of a new Golden Age of learning and refinement. Giorgio Vasari used the term "barbarous German style" in his Lives of the Artists to describe what is now considered the Gothic style, and in the introduction to the Lives he attributes various architectural features to the Goths, whom he held responsible for destroying the ancient buildings after they conquered Rome, and erecting new ones in this style. The term "Gothic architecture" originated as a pejorative description. Medieval contemporaries described the style as Latin: opus Francigenum, lit.'French work' or ' Frankish work', as opus modernum, 'modern work', novum opus, 'new work', or as Italian: maniera tedesca, lit.'German style'. Gothic architecture is also known as ogival architecture. A series of Gothic revivals began in mid-18th century England, spread through 19th-century Europe and continued, largely for churches and university buildings, into the 20th century. With the development of Renaissance architecture in Italy during the mid-15th century, the Gothic style was supplanted by the new style, but in some regions, notably England and Belgium, Gothic continued to flourish and develop into the 16th century. Many of the finest examples of medieval Gothic architecture are listed by UNESCO as World Heritage Sites. It is also the architecture of many castles, palaces, town halls, guildhalls, universities and, less prominently today, private dwellings. Ĭommon examples are found in Christian ecclesiastical architecture, and Gothic cathedrals and churches, as well as abbeys, and parish churches. In doing so, a new architectural style emerged that emphasized verticality and the effect created by the transmission of light through stained glass windows. Īt the Abbey of Saint-Denis, near Paris, the choir was reconstructed between 11, drawing together for the first time the developing Gothic architectural features. The use of the pointed arch in turn led to the development of the pointed rib vault and flying buttresses, combined with elaborate tracery and stained glass windows. The defining design element of Gothic architecture is the pointed or ogival arch. 'French work') the term Gothic was first applied contemptuously during the later Renaissance, by those ambitious to revive the architecture of classical antiquity. The style at the time was sometimes known as opus Francigenum ( lit. It originated in the Île-de-France and Picardy regions of northern France. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. Tympanum of Rouen Cathedral (15th century)
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |