Gothic Art

2. Why “Ghotic”?
 Ironically, the term Gothic was first given to this
period by the great Renaissance artist, Raphael (1483-
1520).
 He believed that the artwork, architecture and
sculpture produced during the 12th and 13th centuries
was strongly influenced by the barbarian Goths.

3. Gothic Style
 The original Gothic style was actually developed to
bring sunshine into people's lives, and especially into
their churches.
 Gothic churches were designed to humble man and
glorify God.
 Yet, with its innovative engineering, the Gothic style
really was a testament to human ingenuity.

4.  Its main form of expression was architecture - exemplified
by the great Gothic cathedrals of Northern France.
 In Gothic design, the planar forms of the previous
Romanesque idiom were replaced by a new focus on
line. And its soaring arches and buttresses permitted
the opening up of walls for unprecedently huge
windows of stained glass filled with beautifully
inspirational translucent images of Biblical art, far
surpassing anything that wall painting or mosaic art
had to offer.

5. Saint Chapel
 The easiest difference to see
between the two styles is that
while Romanesque churches
have round arches, Gothic
churches have pointed
arches.
 Gothic cathedralshave many
more windows, and much
bigger windows, and so they
are not dark like Romanesque
churches.

6. Notre-Dame Cathedral
(1163-1345)
 Gothic has a far nobler
meaning especially
when pertaining to art
history.
 The Gothic style was
best manifested in its
large stone cathedrals.
 A sterling example of
this is the Cathedral of
Notre Dame in Paris.

8. Chartres Cathedral
 The term originated with
the Gothic Architecture
which developed in France
from about 1137 with the
rebuilding of the Abbey
Church of St. Denis.
 The earliest Gothic art was
monumental sculpture, on
the walls of Cathedrals
and abbeys.

9.  Illuminated manuscripts represent the most complete
record of Gothic painting.
 During these centuries, the intent of art and
architecture was to edify the body of believers and
glorify God.
 As Pope Gregory the Great had proclaimed in the sixth
century, the Church believed that artistic renderings of
biblical stories and saints upon its walls were there to
inspire and to encourage those in the congregations,
especially those who could not read.

10.  Gothic art, being exclusively religious art, lent
powerful tangible weight to the growing power of the
Church in Rome.
 This not only inspired the public, as well as its secular
leaders but also it firmly established the connection
between religion and art, which was one of the
foundations of the Italian Renaissance.
 It has a unique combination of existing technologies
established the emergence of a new building style.
These technologies were the ogival or pointed arch,
the ribbed vault, and the flying buttress.

11. Fundamentals of Gothic
Architecture
 There are three things that make Gothic
architecture Gothic:
 The pointed arch
 The ribbed vault
 The flying buttress

12. The Pointed Arch
 The most fundamental
element of the Gothic style
of architecture is the
pointed arch, which was
likely borrowed from
Islamic architecture that
would have been seen in
Spain at this time.
 The pointed arch relieved
some of the thrust, and
therefore, the stress on
other structural elements.

13. Chartres Cathedral
 The pointed arch is
considered one of the
defining characteristics
of medieval churches
constructed in the
Gothic style.
 Pointed arches were
used to direct weight
onto load-bearing
columns at a sharp
angle, thus allowing for
much taller vaulted
ceilings.

14. Pointed Ribbed Vault
 A ribbed vault is an arched
form created by the
intersection of two or three
barrel vaults used to support
the weight of walls or a ceiling
or roof.
 Using a combination of
pointed arches and ribbed
vaulting allowed cathedral
walls to be built thinner,
higher, and allowed more
space for openings, such as
doorways and windows.

15. Ribbed vault in Cathedral
Nueva de Plasencia,
Plasencia, Spain
 Unlike previous
churches constructed
in the bulky
Romanesque style,
the interior of Gothic
churches seemed
open, more spacious,
and lighter.

16. Vaulted ceiling in Pelplin Abbey,
Poland
 In central Europe, the
ribs of Gothic ceilings
evolved into beautiful
star and net patterns.

17. Flying Buttress
 The flying buttress is a masonry arch extending off the
outside of a building, often along the length of the
nave of a cathedral, which transfers the thrust of the
roof outwards and down to a pier.
 This architectural invention that allowed for the
creation of the great soaring, light-filled, Gothic
cathedrals of medieval Europe.

18.  A flying buttress is made
up of two parts: the
buttress, a large masonry
block; and the “flyer,” an
arch spanning between the
buttress and the exterior
wall.
 The purpose of
any buttress is to resist
the lateral forces pushing a
wall outwards (which may
arise from stone vaulted
ceilings or from wind-
loading on roofs) by
redirecting them to the
ground.

19. Saint Remi Basilica, Reims,
France
Notre Dame, Paris

20. Gothic architecture
 Architecture was the most important and original
art form during the Gothic period.
 Gothic architecture was very unified in design.
 The principal structural characteristics of Gothic
architecture arose out of medieval masons' efforts to
solve the problems associated with supporting heavy
masonry ceiling vaults over wide spans.

22.  Example of Gothic
architecture include in
Paris, Notre Dame
which is not only
functional but also
aesthetic in design.
 The church also has a
rose window, large
windows and side
aisles for monks , nuns
and priests to use as
processionals. Notre-Dame Cathedral
(1163-1345)

24. Chartres Cathedral, Chartres,
France (c.1194-1250)
 Whereas, the
Romanesque Period
portrayed the saints as
rigid and
expressionless, the
Gothic Period strived
to show the human
side of the saints.

25. Saint-Denis western portals
 The most important examples
of stone sculpture to survive
are on portals, as in the
church of Saint-Denis whose
western portals (constructed
1137-40) , combined features
that remained common
throughout the Gothic period:
a carved tympanum; carved
figures arranged in the
voussoirs, or wedge-shaped
pieces, of the arch; and more
figurative carvings attached to
the sides of the portal.

26. Castles
Bellver Castle, Majorca, Spain,
1309–40
 The visual characteristics and
structural engineering of
Gothic architecture were also
used to build great castles
and fortifications.
 These monumental
buildings were planned for
defense and administration,
but also for their
psychological impact on the
local population.

27. Gothic sculpture took on its own superb qualities,
far more agile and weightless when compared with
the heaviness of the more somber Romanesque
era.

28.  Gothic sculpture was
closely tied to architecture,
since it was used primarily
to decorate the exteriors of
cathedrals and other
religious buildings.
 These new stone carved
figures seemed to have
vitality and individual
personalities.

29. Amiens south transept
portal
 The earliest Gothic
sculptures were stone
figures of saints and
the Holy Family used
to decorate the
doorways, or portals, of
cathedrals in France
and elsewhere.

30. Chartres Cathedral (c.1194-1250)
The kings of the Old
Testament are depicted in
the jamb statues.

31.  During the later 12th and
the early 13th centuries
became more relaxed
and natural looking.
 These figures, instead of
all of them being the
same, as in the past, now
have individualize faces
and figures, as well as
full, flowing clothing
and natural poses and
gestures.

32. Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament), centre portal of the
west facade of Chartres Cathedral, Chartres,
France, c. 1140–50.

33. Gothic painting followed the same stylistic evolution as did
sculpture; from stiff, simple, hieratic forms toward more
relaxed and natural ones.

34. Duccio Maesta
 These paintings display
an emphasis on flowing,
curving lines, minute
detail, and refined
decoration, and gold was
often applied to the
panel as background
colour.
 Painting was usually
done on small areas
until it began to be used
in decorating the
ornamental panel
behind the an altar in
the cathedrals.

35. The Altarpiece of the Three
Kings by Stephan Lochner.
 Instead, for colour effects,
Gothic architects relied on
stained-glass windows,
which had now become very
much larger than in the
Romanesque period.
 In other painting genres the
new style had a significant
impact: thus, altarpiece art
and illuminated
manuscripts were all
revitalized by the Gothic
idiom.

36. Très Riches Heures du duc de
Berry (c. 1409–16) by the Limbourg
brothers
 The calendar
illustrations in the Très
Riches Heures du duc
de Berry (c. 1409–16) by
the Limbourg brothers,
who worked at the
court of Jean de France,
duc de Berry, are
perhaps the most
eloquent statements of
the International
Gothic style as well as
the best known of all
manuscript
illuminations.

37. Early Gothic Painting in France
Bibles Moralisees
 Early Gothic painting moved away
from Byzantine art towards greater
naturalism, taking the form of a
softer, more realistic style, whose
general characteristics endured
until the middle of the 13th century.
 In France, the idiom is especially
noticeable in a series of
magnificent Bibles Moralisees -
biblical manuscripts containing
excerpts from the Bible
accompanied by moral
interpretations and illustrations
arranged like stained glass windows
- completed for the French royal
court c.1230-40.

38. The Annunciation
 In France mostly religious
painting was done to
illustrate manuscripts.
 In this work the angel,
Gabriel is telling the Virgin
Mary that she will be the
mother of Christ. The words
are the responses of Mary to
the angel. The border is filled
with flowers, nature, birds
and intricate designs.

39. The Triumph of Death
 In late Gothic painting of the
14th and 15th centuries
secular subjects such as
hunting scenes, chivalric
themes, and depictions of
historical events also
appeared.
 The Triumph of Death is a
fresco in the Regional Gallery
of Palazzo Abatellis in
Palermo, southern Italy.

40. Stained glass
 Stained glass was an integral part of Gothic
architecture.
 The colors are usually reds and blues and as a result
the church is darkened inside. Artists began adding
the donors in their stained glass windows appearing
with saints, and religious figures.

41.  The Gothic age produced
the great cathedrals of
Europe and brought a full
flowering of stained glass
windows.
 Churches became taller
and lighter, walls thinned
and stained glass was used
to fill the increasingly
larger openings in them.
Chartres Cathedral of Notre-
Dame stained glass

42.  Stained glass windows are
often viewed as translucent
pictures
 Gothic stained glass windows
are a complex mosaic of bits
of colored glass joined with
lead into an intricate pattern
illustrating biblical stories
and saints lives.
 Viewed from the ground,
they appear not as a picture
but as a network of black
lines and colored light.

43. Illuminated Manuscript
 An illuminated manuscript
is a manuscript in which
the text is supplemented
by the addition of
decoration, such as
decorated initials, borders
and miniature
illustrations.
 Usually done in important
books, for the rich. For
instance, the Bible.

44. Conclusion:
Therefore, Gothic art shows to us that their work of art
especially their cathedrals is not only to inspired the public,
but also to established the connection between religion and art.
Their Gothic churches were designed to humble man and
glorify God. It were rendered into awe-inspiring places of
piety and worship, as a result of their phenomenal gothic
design. It has a unique combination of existing
technologies established the emergence of a new building
style. The pointed arch, flying buttress and ribbed vault.
First and foremost they developed a ribbed vault, in which
arching and intersecting stone ribs support a vaulted
ceiling surface that is composed of mere thin stone panels.

45. John Michael Tamsi
 While making our report, it makes me realize how
beautiful the churches are. I’ve realize that we should
take care of them because it depicts our religion and
beliefs in life. While gathering information about this
topic, I am sure that we are able to work amazing
cathedrals because we have the resources or shall I say
the technologies that will able to help us to create
amazing structures and lets prove to the world that we
will do better than the past generations.

46. El Jane Claire I. Abella
 I am not an enthusiastic fan when it comes to designs and
styles. Especially when it comes to the appreciation of how
patterns are contrive in churches and cathedrals. As I’ve
learned from the works of art in Gothic Art, in which most
or their art works are cathedrals is that it’s not intended
only to inspire but also to show the connection between
religion and arts through the cathedrals they've built. The
information I've seen put me to amazement and
admiration. I never thought that they are capable enough
of making these amazing infrastructures since they lack
modern equipments back then. But because of their beliefs
they’re able to create a amazing cathedrals that are now
appreciated by people.

47.  Even if their art work was look down at first but it didn’t
stopped them to create such an amazing cathedrals . It’s
true that we cannot please others to like our work but
Gothic Art shows me that whatever may people say, don’t
get affected by it, don’t give them the satisfaction of seeing
you give up your work of art and judge your beliefs in life.
Others may not appreciate your works but eventually time
will come that they will appreciate it just like what
happened to Gothic Art. I’ve also realized that the design is
made not only to satisfy the eyes of the viewers but also for
another purpose. I guess one would be to inspire people
like me that arts need not only to be seen but also to use as
an instrument to depict one's culture and in a way helps
them understand.

48. Ian Rey Empedrado
 Studying Gothic Art as our focused topic under medieval
age, made me realized that this is not only about the art of
designing and creating buildings. Although, Architecture
was the dominant expression of Gothic times but Gothic
artists were also able to create their own styles in paintings
and sculptures. I also realized that most of the churches we
see today have something in common of its Gothic styles.
this is one of the manifestations that their artworks still
exist nowadays. In this topic, i learned that art is like
having a workout, that must have a goal! In order for you to
gain and loss weight, you must exert hardwork, sacrifice
and have patience for you to have a better result.

49. Amira Monica Reyson.
 Well at first, I'm really not familiar about the "GOTHIC" for
I'm not interested about it and I find it boring reading
"History". But while doing the research I find it very
interesting. Know why? Because of the research I was able
to take a glimpse of the Gothic Arts and i find it really
amazing. I discovered new learning which can be added to
my to my vocabulary. And because of my research i can
now say that the word History might be a little boring to
my ear and eyes but when you took a glimpse of it, it will
give you a feeling of excitement, excitement to learn about
it. To learn how brilliant they were. To learn how brilliant
their architects are to made such a an amazing designs.
How I wish to have their ability too so that i can make my
own too. I can even now tell what art they used in
structuring the building.