Gothic And Romanesque Styles Essay ⋆ History Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

The term Romanesque is applied to architecture in medieval Europe during the 11th and 12th centuries which attempted to connect the early Middle Ages with the architecture of the Roman Empire, both in the materials used and in the form achieved. Building on the Norman style, Romanesque became popular and was the first style to be used throughout Europe since Roman times, with examples being found across medieval Europe. Many of these buildings were religious structures, especially cathedrals and churches.

The aspects of the Romanesque style, especially the round arch, make it similar to later Roman design with the use of thick walls, narrow openings, and stone vaulting as a method of support. Columns were replaced by piers, and there was intense use of geometry and rigidity in design. Romanesque cathedral design uses barrel and supporting vaults, and a cruciform layout. This system of construction seems to have first appeared in the Iberian Peninsula with the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela and the cathedral of Jaca being two of the more notable examples.

In France, the abbey of Cluny, which no longer remains, was perhaps the epitome of Romanesque architecture. Elsewhere in Europe, there are many examples of Romanesque architecture in Italy, including the towers at San Gimignano; the cathedrals of Monreale, Palermo, Pisa, and Cefalu in Sicily; and parts of St. Mark’s Cathedral in Venice. In France, the monastery church of

Notre-Dame-du-Port in Clermont-Ferrand, the church at Périgneux in the Dordogne, and the Abbey of Senaque are among many examples.

The Gothic style, from about 1150 until 1250, using the pointed arch, followed from the Romanesque style, with the term Gothic originally being used as a pejorative term in the 1530s to describe buildings, mainly cathedrals, that were seen as “barbaric.” The style actually has nothing to do with the Goths, but rather included characteristic features such as the pointed arch, ribbed vaults, and flying buttresses on the outside of buildings. The earliest significant building in the Gothic style appears to be the abbey church of Saint-Denis, near Paris, built around 1144. It was partially designed by Abbot Suger (1081–1151), who wanted to create a physical representation of his interpretation of Jerusalem and was criticized by contemporaries for his infatuation with the use of light that was to become influential in differentiating the Gothic style from that of the Romanesque. Much of this use of light was achieved by the use of stained glass, and the style started to become popular in northern France and then in England. It gradually spread throughout the rest of France, the Low Countries, Germany, Spain, and some parts of northern Italy.

The major Gothic cathedrals in France are NotreDame de Paris, Amiens cathedral, Beauvais cathedral, Chartres cathedral, Reims cathedral, Rouen cathedral, and the cathedral of Laon. In England, the cathedrals at Canterbury, Ely, Gloucester, Lincoln, Peterborough, Salisbury, and Wells; Westminster Abbey; and York Minster are all in the Gothic style. In Germany and Austria, the main Gothic cathedrals are at Cologne, Freiburg, Regensburg, Ulm, and Vienna; the main ones in Spain are Burgos, León, Seville, and Toledo. In Italy, the cathedrals in Florence, Milan, Orvieto, and Siena are all Gothic in style. In Belgium, Antwerp cathedral is in the Gothic style, with the Town Hall at Ghent, and parts of the Cloth Hall at Ypres being secular representations of Gothic architecture. In Italy the Palazzo Vecchio and the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, and the Doges’ Palace in Venice; and in France part of Carcassonne, part of Mont Saint-Michel, and numerous chateaux are secular buildings in the Gothic style. There was a Gothic revival movement in the mid- 18th century, influencing the building of cathedrals and churches, many university buildings, and major secular and civic buildings.

Bibliography :

Jantzen, Hans. High Gothic: The Classic Cathedrals of Chartres, Reims and Amiens. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984;
Swaan, Wim. The Gothic Cathedral. London: Ferndale Editions, 1981;
Toman, Rolf, ed. Romanesque: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting. Cologne: Könemann, 1997;
Wilson, Christopher. The Gothic Cathedral. London: Thames & Hudson, 1992.

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