Questions and Topics We Can Help You To Answer:
Paper Instructions:

In this module, you encountered representative works of French Gothic art and architecture. You gained an understanding of Gothic art and learned the unique vocabulary of Gothic architecture. This module examined style as well as the cultural and intellectual climate that gave rise to the Gothic style.

1. Explain the Chartres Cathedral and Stained-Glass Windows at Chartres Cathedral based on Gothic art and architecture. (200words)

2. Respond to peer's thought(20words each)

    2-1. Peer's thought: When I was 12, I visited Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. Although I was tiny, I remember her beauty well. I was also happy to find out about the differences in construction from Gothic to Romanesque architecture.
Gothic construction, or Gothic architecture, was a popular construction style in the Middle Ages, from the 12th century to the 16th century. The change from the Romanesque architecture that preceded it would be the Gothic arch, a pointing arch with an upward inclination element to God. The slight variation in the shape of the bow opened up new possibilities. In the past, the round Romanesque arch required support from the side of, particularly thick and strong walls. The strength of the walls was so important that they had a few small windows. The pointing arch moved the support downward, allowed for high-rise construction, and did not require such thick walls and small windows. On the contrary - the Gothic structure was characterized by tall and magnificent buildings, very complex, with thinner walls than before, beautiful and easy to look at, and most importantly - large windows full of light.
Light means in the Middle Ages a revelation of the spirit. In high and light construction, the church planners believed then that they glorify God and fill the believers with piety - these structures filled the believer with a sense of majesty and holiness, and he felt as if he was standing before God. The construction of Notre Dame Cathedral began in the 12th century and was completed in the twentieth century and took about two hundred years: 14. It was established under the influence of the other Gothic churches built in those years. The ceiling of the cathedral is built of stone, and on it are wooden screens that hold the vaults that are visible from the outside - the height of the bell towers, is about 70 meters. The most significant architectural movements of the Gothic was the removal of the construction to allow for vast spaces. In Gothic, unlike Romanesque, the arches of the church are more pointed, ornaments and developments are common, such as stained glass windows reminiscent of flowers. In April 2019, the Gothic Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris is one of the most important and beautiful cathedrals in the world, considered one of France's distinctive symbols. Every day tens of thousands of people visit it, it has recently undergone renovations, and they have apparently helped to increase the fire. Its flames spread through the construction scaffolding until parts of the building collapsed. Since the fire broke out, there have been claims that the building has been neglected for a long time.

    2-2. Peer's thought: When first reading through the module, the first thing I thought about was the similarities between the stained glass windows of Gothic architecture, and the mosaics of Early Christian and Byzantine architecture. While they have some stylistic similarities, with flat compositions and and frontal, stiff figures, the similarity I really want to focus on is how the two mediums play with light. The two mediums interact with light differently, but they are both used to create a feeling of being transported to heaven itself.

In many of the mosaics of the Early Christian and Byzantine churches and architecture, the tesserae (pieces of stone, ceramic, or glass that make up a mosaic) wouldn't be placed flat on a wall, but rather tilted to catch the light created by candles or windows to create a shimmering effect. This technique is seen in the Mausoleum of Galla Palacidia, where the mosaics would reflect the light of candles to make the viewer "experience a sense of another world" (Harris 3:49-4:09) This manipulation of light would make the mosaic images feel as though they were moving, as if made out of some supernatural element. Mosaics would also be crafted with bright and expensive colors not available to the common people, very similar to the use of color seen in later Gothic stained glass windows.

With the stained glass windows popularized by Abbot Suger, the technique of manipulating light was different but the intent was the same. When looking at the effect a stained glass window makes, there is no sense of movement as seen in early christian mosaics, but there is still a sort of other worldly colored light that fills the room. This is seen in the choir of the Abbey Church of Saint Denis, where light fills the ambulatory to show Suger's belief that the visual aspects of a church can works as "a way of transporting us to the divine" (Harris 4:53-4:59). Suger believed that opulence and light in the church showed the viewer the glory of the heavens and brought them closer to God, a sentiment seen in other Byzantine and early Christian churches but not as explicitly stated.

To me, the stained glass windows of the Gothic style are a sort of evolution of the mosaics seen in earlier Christian churches. While none of them show as complicated scenes as the mosaics we see in the Mausolem of Galla Palacidia or the Church of San Vitale, they manipulate light in a very powerful way. As opposed to reflecting the light off a colored surface, the stained glass windows, as seen in the Abbey Church of Saint Denis or the Chartres Cathedral, actually change the way light enters a building by filtering it through many differently colored panes of glass that take attention away from the stone walls and columns that surround it. It's sort of a combination of reflective mosaic art work and the gravity defying windows that perforate the dome of the Hagia Sophia, combining two ways one can manipulate light to make one feel as if they are in heaven on earth.