January+23+-+The+Gothic+and+Late+Middle+Ages

Chapter Summary

Paris dominated the later Middle Ages. It was the seat of the French Government, overseen by King Louis IX (r. 1226-1270), who became associated with fairness and justice. He continued a remarkable building program in Paris. The relative security and productivity of Louis's reign could not sustained. One factor was the crippling expense of the Hundred Years' War. As the rulers increased taxes to fight a losing war, the citizens rebelled. Charles V (41364-1380) was the first to use the Louvre as a royal residence. He also started what would eventually become France's great national library, erected new walls around the city, and erected the Bastille. At this time the population of Paris numbered 150,000, an extremely large city considering that only a few years earlier nearly half of its inhabitants had been wiped out by the plague.

The term Gothic refers to the style of visual arts and culture that first developed about 1140 and reached its zenith in the thirteenth century. By the middle of the sixteenth century, the Gothic style was at an end in France, although it continued to influence artists in Germany and England until the seventeenth century. What is now called "Gothic art" referred to architecture. This was the age of great cathedrals of northern Europe. The Gothic style developed out of the Romanesque. Gothic buildings rise to the heavens. Airy and delicate, they have a soaring quality. The tremendous height of the buildings was a reflection of religious ideals and enthusiasm. Gothic innovations include: pointed arches and vaults; ribs; and flying buttresses. The Gothic style began at the royal abbey of saint-Denis, located just north of Paris. The Gothic style was introduced there by Abbot Suger (1081-01151) around 1140. Suger was an eccentric and egocentric Benedictine monk. Without solid walls and massive supports, Gothic space flows freely and areas merge with each other. The celebrated cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-Paris, located in the heart of Paris, is an example of the first phase of Gothic style.In the 1180s, flying buttresses were introduced at Notre Dame. From this time forward, flying buttresses would play an important structural and visual role in Gothic architecture. The cathedral of Notre Dame in Chartres, more vertical and airy than earlier cathedrals is an example of high Gothic style.



It was the first cathedral to be planned with flying buttresses. The soaring and sophisticated cathedral of NOtre-Dame in Amiens, France represents the climax of the High Gothic style. Built between 1220 and 1270, with the nave reaching a height of 139 feet, the height of the cathedral was a source of city pride. By the middle of the thirteenth century a new "Rayonnant" style of Gothic style had begun to emerge. The key to this style, and the crowing example is Sainte-Chapelle. The building is a cage of glass and stone which appears to defy the laws of gravity. Saint-Maclou in Rouen, France, a small parish church, is the paradigm of the flamboyant Gothic style, the final phase in the development of Gothic architecture. The phase got its name from the mesh of flame like curving stone tracery. Surfaces became covered with a great profusion of lace-like ornamentation.



The French Gothic style spread rapidly outside France. In England, Early Gothic is represented by Salisbury Cathedral, built between 1220 and 1270, which is sprawling and makes little use of flying buttresses. Somewhat more adventurous is Westminster Abbey in London, built from 1503 to 1519, in which elaborate designs cover the entire ceiling, an indication of the English inclination towards the architectural extreme. Italy was only superficially affected by the Gothic style. The single most important construction work carried out during the Gothic era in Florence was on the cathedral, which favors large wall surfaces with an emphasis on the horizontal. The most Gothic of Italian cathedrals is the Milan Cathedral, begun in 1386, with its plethora of pinnacles and delicate decoration.

Among the earliest Gothic sculpture is that at Chartres Cathedral. Stone column figures, ca. 1145-55, perpetuate the distortion seen in Romanesque figures, but no longer have the frantic animation. The High Gothic figures at the Reims Cathedral, dated to the 1230s, are descendants of the column figures at Chartres, but rather than standing rigid, they interact with one another. The famous devotional image of the Virgin Mary known as the Notre-Dame-de-Paris, a marble statue that dates from the early fourteenth century, stands at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris. This image of Mary is very different from the stiff unapproachable images of her created during the Romanesque era. Gargoyles are a special category of medieval sculpture. The true gargoyle, a characteristic feature of Romanesque and especially Gothic buildings, is actually a waterspout.



Manuscript illumination reached its peak in the Gothic era. In the years around 1400, a single style now referred to as the "International Style" was popular throughout Europe. It was known for bright, contrasting colors, elongated figures, and opulent elegance. Gothic architecture often featured stained glass. The colored light that floods the interior of Gothic buildings through stained-glass windows had special religious importance in the Middle Ages. Chartres Cathedral, with more than 150 thirteenth-century windows, is famous for its stained-glass windows. The Sainte-Chapelle in Paris is a major monument for the study of stained glass. Also characteristic of the Gothic era, tapestries were a form of insulation as well as decoration. One of the most famous medieval tapestries is the set known as the Unicorn Tapestries, made n Brussels around 1500.

As the Middle Ages progressed, the Roman Catholic Church started to lower its opposition to the works of pagan writers, forging a more open intellectual climate. Secular learning was seen as a necessary foundation for the more advanced states of religious contemplation. The universities were evolving into major centers of learning, with the University of Paris leading the way. About eighty institutions of higher learning existed by the end of the Middle ages. Using Aristotle's focus on the natural world to explain how God's wisdom is revealed, the Dominican friar St. Thomas Aquinas (1125-1274) effected a synthesis of Aristotelian philosophy and Catholic religious thought. Two who refused to accept Aquinas's grand synthesis were Duns Scotus (1265-1308) and William of Ockham (1285-1349), both of whom were Franciscan friars. Francis of Assisi founded the Franciscan order in 1209, and it had already grown to be a powerful movement within the medieval Church by the time of his death in 1226. One of the most important features of the order was its imposition of poverty on its members.

The most celebrated literary work of the Middle Ages is the epic poem "The Divine Comedy" by the Italian poet Dante Alighieri (1265-1321). In the poem, Dante ascends through Hell and Purgatory to Heaven. One of the most notable features of the poem is the suggestion that the punishment should match the sin. The influence of the poem cannot be overstated. It was first mentioned in English by Chaucer in the fourteenth century, and in the twentieth century it has continued to influence poets such as T. S. Eliot.

The eruption of the Black Death in 1347-51 and again in 1388-90 devastated Europe. However, this devastation was almost matched by the Hundred Years' War, where soldiers died in unprecedented numbers. IN the midst of these crises, there was a growing interest in nature and naturalism. This growth is demonstrated by a comparison of the sculpture of Nicola Pisano and his son Giovannin half a century later. The greater naturalism in the son's work is demonstrated by less crowding, a greater sense of space, and an increased attention tot he setting. If the visual arts were becoming more naturalistic by the end of the fourteenth century, literature achieved something of the same effect for forsaking Latin for the spoken language of the day. This is especially true of the work of Giovanni Bocaccio (1313-1375) and his most famous prose work, The Decameron, which is written int he vernacular Tuscan of his time. English poet Geoffrey Chaucer (ca. 1342-1400), in Canterbury Tales, demonstrates his wit and observation throughout the work, and everywhere in it one finds a vitality that reveals a remarkable appreciation of life from its lowest and bawdiest aspects to its most elegant and spiritual manifestations. One of the outstanding women writers of the later Middle ages was Christine de Pizan (1364 - ca. 1431). In her numerous works of prose and poetry, she consistently argued for the wider recognition of women's status and abilities. While urging women to accept their place in the hierarchy of the time, she also encouraged them to fulfill their potential - intellectually, socially, and spiritually - by developing nobility of soul. In the fourteenth century, medieval music underwent significant changes, including the displacement of church music by secular music. Drinking songs and the music that drew on the everyday began to be composed and preformed as often s devotional music inspired by religious faith.

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Do the Chapter 12 assignment.