16.0: Chapter Introduction

Introduction: Hope Ablaze, Notre Dame Cathedral on Fire

In the spring of 2019, the 850-year-old Notre Dame Cathedral caught fire. People all over the world watched, via news coverage, live streams, and social media, as hungry red flames engulfed the spire and roof of the cathedral. The iconic structure, renewed in the public imagination by Victor Hugo’s novel The Hunchback of Notre Dame in 1831, and popularized for a younger generation with the 1996 Disney film of the same title, was a recognizable global landmark. Even for those who had never been to Notre Dame, to Paris, or even to Europe, witnessing the destruction of the cathedral felt like a global, and even personal, loss.

Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Notre Dame Cathedral on fire, April 15, 2019. Paris, France. (Photo: GodefroyParis, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Towering cathedrals like Notre Dame are the most recognizable legacy of what is today called the Gothic period. With their distinctively ornate and spiky decorations and their dizzying height (the first human-made structures since the pyramids to approach such elevation), they stand today as striking examples of human ingenuity and engineering. They soar heavenward despite being made, like their Romanesque predecessors, of heavy stone. Unlike those Romanesque churches which rested heavily on massive piers, though, Gothic cathedrals transfer that weight to the outside of the building so that the walls can enclose, and seem to dissolve into, characteristic stained glass. They also replaced wooden ceilings with stone vaulting, a deterrent to fire during a time when interiors were lit by torches. However, as the chapter points out, this turned out to be an imperfect solution/deterrent, as many Gothic cathedrals were indeed damaged by fire. In the case of the recent Notre Dame fire, it was the wooden scaffolding under the lead roof, as well as the wooden spire—a 19th century replacement for the 13th century original—that caught flame.

Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Édouard Hocquart, after Antoine Marie Perrot. “Tableau comparatif de la Hauteur des Principaux Monuments,” 1826. Engraving with etching, 17 3/16 × 23 in. (Photo: Yale University Art Gallery, public domain). This illustration compares the heights of the tallest human-made structures in the world at that point, from the Great Pyramids of Giza to the Pantheon in Rome to the spires of Gothic cathedrals across Europe.

Despite its impressive engineering and fantastical silhouettes, Gothic architecture was not always beloved, and even the label “Gothic,” bestowed by the early art historian Giorgio Vasari, was meant not in love but as a sort of a slur. Renaissance Italians like Vasari believed themselves to be experiencing a rebirth of glorious culture that had disappeared with the fall of the Roman Empire—a fall Vasari blamed on northern invading Goths. Vasari found this northern, “Gothic” style to be so different and overly ornate, compared to the simplicity of Roman art, that he considered it “monstrous and barbarous.”

Vasari’s distaste notwithstanding, Gothic architecture distills the full flowering of many themes that have been throughlines between the cultures and periods discussed in this textbook. Gothic cathedrals’ towering height mirrors the same urge that drove the Mesopotamians to build their ziggurats and temples millenia ago: exceeding the limits of earth-bound humanity and approaching the heavens. Like the Sumerian White Temple and the pyramids of Old Kingdom Egypt, they required incredible resources and labor, perhaps given out of faith and belief, but by the same token coerced—often by forced labor, or through taxes and tribute. They represent visible pinnacles of civilization, with the monasteries that often housed these cathedrals, bastions in Western Europe of learning and literacy. They also represent the powerful melding of religion and royal power, as seen with both Constantine and Justinian. This connection between the French crown and Catholicism was so strong that in the wake of the French Revolution in the 18th century, Notre Dame and other cathedrals were defaced and desacralized, or divested of sacred status.

Looking Back to Look Ahead

At the same time that an examination of the Gothic period in Europe allows for revisiting these recurring themes from the past, it also invites a look forward—to what the coming centuries bring. Compared to the earlier western portal of Chartres Cathedral, the jamb statues in the south portal already show a trend toward a more realistic, life-like aesthetic that hints at the more naturalistic sculpture to come. Nakedness—representative only of wretchedness in the Last Judgement Tympanum at the Autun Cathedral, will, with the coming Renaissance, be a means of celebrating the beauty of the human body as it was in Classical Greece and Rome. The architectural innovations and use of glass in Gothic cathedrals will continue to be influential, even for contemporary architecture—secular as well as sacred.

Notre Dame, direly damaged in the 2019 fire, will be rebuilt: even as the charred remains smoked, donations surged in from around the world and the debate began about whether reconstruction should mirror the original structure as closely as possible; incorporate new technologies and techniques; and/or memorialize the past, present, and future in bold and creative ways. With the knowledge you have gained of the objects, cultures, and histories this text has covered, and the skills of looking you have been honing, you too can be part of this global conversation.

Finally, the collective global mourning for a building that the first art historian dismissed, due to his own narrow lens, is a reminder to take the long view. With the conclusion of this half of the introductory art history survey, we encourage you to continue to keep your eyes open, make detailed visual observations, cultivate critical thinking skills, and take time to consider the context of art’s creation.

We hope you continue to approach all of the imagery you see in your life in a thoughtful and inquisitive manner, taking your newly-honed skills in visual analysis, reflective reasoning, and critical thinking, into the rest of your life.

Historiography (Writing History)

Terminology

Like “Romanesque,” Gothic is a term that was applied by later art historians looking at the art and architecture of this time, and as mentioned earlier, it was not intended to be a flattering term. Abbot Suger, who conceived of the new style, did not give it a name, and when its distinctive elements spread throughout what is now France and into the rest of Europe, it became known as opus Francigenum, or the French Style. These days, the word “gothic” might conjure imagery of creepy, decrepit castles or a brooding style of clothing and makeup. However, although today the singularly sculptural architectural stylings—from circular stained glass windows to delicate stonework to vertical spires pointing heavenward and skeleton-like flying buttresses—maybe have grown dark with age and soot, the original intention was airy, light-filled spaces that evoked a space that was neither quite heaven nor entirely terrestrial.

Chapter Overview

The Birth and Spread of the Gothic Style

Most of this chapter will focus on France, where the Gothic style was born and achieved some of its most remarkable iterations. The style spread from there as well, so the chapter will also examine how the so-called “French style” manifested elsewhere in Europe, particularly in England, the Holy Roman Empire, and even in Spain and Prague. The focus will largely be on architecture, which in the Gothic period achieves truly new heights—literally as well as figuratively.

Culturally, the landscape was shifting at the birth of the Gothic period. During the Romanesque period, the trend of people moving away from the countryside and into towns and cities had already begun, and during the Gothic period, this trend increased. The focus of intellectual life moved from remote monasteries to the growing cities, like Paris. Merchants joined together in powerful guilds, or professional associations, to control their business, as did artisans. The first universities were established. Literacy increased, and books written in spoken languages, rather than just Latin, especially courtly romances, became popular. The power of the papacy—the Catholic church as ruled by the pope and bishops—remained strong.

Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\): A political map of Europe in 1199 CE, with nations categorized by cultural heritage of the rulers. (Image: Adhavoc, CC BY-SA 3.0)

This map shows the lay of the land in Europe around 1200. The Papal States and the Kingdom of Sicily make up most of modern-day Italy. Other modern countries were beginning to take shape—Spain and Portugal divided between a collection of Christian kingdoms and the Muslim Umayyad caliphate; bordering it the kingdom of France, a kingdom including what is today Belgium; and next door the Holy Roman Empire, encompassing what is today Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic, and parts of Italy.

Objects overview

This chapter covers some iconic works of art that you have likely seen referenced in popular media, books, movies, and television. This includes art as famous as the Cathedral of Notre Dame at Chartres. as well as lesser-known objects such as the Saint Louis Bible, the Röttgen Pietà, and the Gothic synagogue called The Altneushul. This chapter includes Gothic architecture, sculpture, and illuminated manuscripts, including:

• Abbot Suger’s Basilica of St. Denis, known as the birthplace of the Gothic style
• The Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres with its central tympanum featuring Christ surrounded by symbols of the Evangelists
• Sainte-Chapelle of 1248, which holds the Crown of Thorns, an important relic said to have been worn and touched by Christ
• Saint Louis Bible from c. 1227, which combines intricate illustrations and shortened passages from the Bible in order to concisely express a moral message
• Röttgen Pietà, part of a northern tradition of sculpture emphasizing the humanity of Christ and his very human suffering
• Ely Cathedral in England, which features four styles of English medieval architecture
• The Golden Haggadah, a luxurious and cross-cultural example of a book used to tell the story of Passover that is both an exquisite example of Jewish art and art in the Gothic style

By the time you finish reading this chapter on Gothic art, you should be able to:

• Analyze the origins and spread of the Gothic style
• Distinguish differences and similarities in regional Gothic architecture and artistic styles
• Identify and describe architectural elements common to Gothic churches
• Trace the spread of Gothic style using examples from multiple cultures

Want to know more?

Here are some additional resources you can explore to further your understanding of the art discussed in this chapter.

• University of Waterloo, "Engineering Models: Gothic Cathedrals" [video]
• Smarthistory, "Chartres Cathedral" [video]
• Benjamin Ramm (NYT), "A Controversial Restoration that Wipes Away the Past"
• Rick Steves, "Paris, France: Sainte-Chapelle's Dazzling Interior" [video]
• HistoryWorks, "Capturing Magic: The Making of Stained Glass" [video]
• BBC, How to Build a Cathedral [video]
• An Enduring Icon: Notre-Dame Cathedral, an exhibit on Google Arts & Culture
• Gothic Treasures of France, on Google Arts & Culture
• Gothic Treasures in England, on Google Arts & Culture