Gothic art gradually replaced Romanesque during the second half of the 12th century. Born in Île-de-France, he shone throughout Europe until the early 15th century. Let us know then now, what is Gothic art and what are its main characteristics.
What is Gothic art and what are its main characteristics?
This art is mostly religious , but it is also expressed in civil or military buildings, which benefit from the technical innovations that accompanied the advent of the Gothic style. The systematic use of the vault in crossings of ribs and flying buttresses allowed the erection of high-rise buildings, whose walls are pierced by wide doors, galleries and windows in pointed arches. Light enters these buildings majestically, thus offering an increasingly important advance to the art of stained glass and sculpture.
The first of the great Gothic cathedrals was built in Sens. The Saint-Denis basilica , built during the Carolingian reign and renovated between the 12th and 14th centuries, became one of the great Gothic masterpieces. The style of its decoration announces some of the sculpted achievements of the great cathedrals of Reims, Chartres and the “jewels” of the flamboyant Gothic to come, such as the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris or the cathedral in Strasbourg.
The ribbed vault
The Gothic aesthetic was born from the invention of the ribbed vault . The Gothic vault is defined by the systematic use of arches and double falsework , associated with the warheads. Then it is perfected by breaking the arches. The mandorla shape of the pointed arch and the increasingly slender columns, which rise towards the keystone, characterize the Gothic buildings . An impression of vertical momentum emanates from these virtuous achievements that want to serve above all the power of God and the greatness of his Church.
The first Gothic art
Combining rib vaults and Romanesque tradition, the cathedrals of Angers (1149-1159) and Poitiers (1162) are among the testimonies of primitive Gothic art, more austere and less luminous.
Born in France, Gothic architecture later spread in Great Britain, especially in Canterbury Cathedral , completed in 1185. It also shines in the Holy Roman Empire, where the Romanesque-Gothic style appears. It stands out especially in the Limbourg-sur-Lahn cathedral, which combines the Roman semicircular arch and the Gothic rib vault. Finally, it is in France where the fundamental innovation of Gothic architecture appears: in the nave of Notre Dame de Paris built between 1182 and 1225, the vaults are, for the first time, supported by a series of arches.
The heyday of the Gothic
Gothic art reached its peak during the reign of Saint-Louis (1226-1270) . The reconstruction of Chartres Cathedral powerfully demonstrates the Gothic balance. The flying buttresses and the vaults that cross the rectangular plan ribs constitute the canons of classical Gothic.
At the same time, thanks to the opening of the walls in the architectural innovations of the time, the fresco gradually fades in favor of the stained glass. This opens up to real windows or rose windows, the most famous of which are those in Chartres Cathedral. Classical Gothic also marks monumental sculpture. The two famous ensembles of the Reims Cathedral, the Annunciation and the Visitation (south opening of the central portal), constitute models that permeate all the statues of the time.
Radiant and flamboyant gothic
Over time, the Gothic lines are refined, the buildings are higher and higher, the stone labyrinth more and more complex. The dizzying conquest of sacred space came to a halt after the collapse of the Beauvais Cathedral vault, which peaked at more than 150 meters.
In Paris, the most sumptuous example of this exacerbation of the Gothic style is the Sainte-Chapelle.
The spread of Gothic art
At the end of the 13th century, the Gothic style was adopted throughout Europe . It flourishes in particular in Saint-Urbain de Troyes and in the Saint-Denis nave. The monumental style, which appeared in sculpture during the reign of St. Louis, with the Sainte-Chapelle, will remain in force until the early 14th century. It is found in the sculptures of the Apostolic College of Saint-Jacques-de-l’Hôpital (1319-1327, Paris, Musée de Cluny).
In Spain, Gothic art already developed in the 13th century with the construction of the main Gothic cathedrals that had a clear French influence. This was the case during the reign of Fernando III when the cathedrals of Burgos, León and Toledo were built.
International gothic art
Between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries , although some artists were already introducing Europe into the Renaissance, the prestige of Paris and the mobility of artists favored a wide distribution of Gothic art and imposed its canons. In the field of architecture, certain religious buildings, such as the Milan Cathedral, are the result of international collaboration.
The flourishing of the precious arts reached an unprecedented scale. So much so that, in the collective imagination, some of the works from this period ended up embodying, by themselves, the idea we have of the Middle Ages: the illuminated book Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry (1404-1410) by the Limbourg brothers, the scepter of Charles V (Louvre museum) or the tapestry of La Dame à la Licorne (Cluny museum).
Despite this, the rediscovery of antiquity, associated with many other factors, quickly plunged the Middle Ages into dark entrenchments. Synonymous with the barbarian era, struck by obsolescence by the new treatises on aesthetics and Italian taste, the Gothic gradually disappeared and gave way to the Renaissance that dominated between the 15th and 16th centuries.
