Review: Gothic Architecture by Robert Branner; Medieval Architecture. European Architecture 600-1200 by Howard Saalman

The monograph is devoted to the literary and scientific heritage of the famous French writer, historian, philosopher, thinker, diplomat and statesman F. R. de Chateaubriand, whose scientific works were practically unknown to the Russian reader for many decades. Being the founder of French romanticism and laying the main elements of this direction of culture, F. R. de Chateaubriand nevertheless causes numerous disputes and questions. The monograph shows the process of formation of the writer's romantic worldview on the example of his early works, which still retain traces of the literature of the XVIII century and already carry new romantic trends of the XIX century. The author also presents the facts of the writer's biography and analyzes a number of his historical works devoted to medieval France. From the Renaissance until the end of the XVIII century, one of the elements of medieval architecture and Christian religion-Gothic architecture — was perceived as something negative, barbaric, rude, completely inconsistent with the aesthetics of the XVI — XVIII centuries. F. R. de Chateaubriand was one of the first researchers who discovered the beauty of Gothic churches and the color of national history to the mass reader at the turn of the XVIII—XIX centuries. The rehabilitation of Gothic architecture was accomplished by F. R. de Chateaubriand in his Treatise "the genius of Christianity". The famous "forest theory" of the origin of Gothic helped to "remove" negative assessments of the middle Ages and influenced the formation and development of romanticism both in France and in other European countries. It was F. R. de Chateaubriand's idea of the relationship between medieval architecture and Christian consciousness that influenced all the subsequent development and formation of the history of medieval art. For a wide range of readers interested in the history of literature.

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Die Capella Speciosa in Klosterneuburg 2. Teil: Vergleichende Studien zur Pfalzkapelle Herzog Leopolds VI. von Österreich

10.1553/978oeaw78378 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Mario Schwarz ◽

Tibor Rostás

Keyword(s):

Building Materials ◽

Mystical Experience ◽

Medieval Architecture ◽

Gothic Architecture ◽

Royal Court ◽

Beatific Vision ◽

The People ◽

Private Devotion ◽

Vergleichende Studien

The Capella Speciosa has to be seen as an exportation of the type of Gothic architecture that characterised the architecture of the royal court in France at the time. As the work of French architects, the chapel occupies a unique position within the medieval architecture of Austria. The close similarities to the choir chapels of the cathedral at Reims and the details found in the cathedral at Auxerre enable a precise dating. If we trace the development of chapels in France, we see that there was a distinct intensification of architectural narratives at that time. The veneration of relics in private devotion went from being a mere testament to scholasticism to being a mystical experience. The Capella Speciosa thus has to be understood in the same way as the French Saintes-Chapelles. Its refined structures, like the walkway in which relics were displayed, the exquisite nature of the building materials and the quality of the architectural sculptures combined to facilitate a more spiritual form of veneration within an all-encompassing work of art. For Duke Leopold VI, the Capella Speciosa was not only a magnificent shrine in which to house his collection of relics but was also a place in which he experienced a mystical beatific vision. In the second part of this book, French works of architecture built near the royal court in Hungary are presented, in which High Gothic forms can be discerned from as early as around 1220. Is there a connection between these central European works of architecture? What historical circumstances led to them being built? What do we know about the people who commissioned the buildings and the master builders? What do the connections between the structural elements and the details reveal? And what does the mysterious figure of Villard de Honnecort and his momentous journey to Hungary have to do with all of this? Tibor Rostás explores the subject in nine chapters, taking a variety of approaches. The appendix to the book contains a summary of the results of research into red marble.

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Angelic Work: The Medieval Sensibilities of Dorothy L. Sayers

Journal of Inklings Studies ◽

10.3366/ink.2013.3.2.7 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 3 (2) ◽

pp. 111-132

Author(s):

Crystal Downing

Keyword(s):

Medieval Architecture ◽

Gothic Architecture ◽

Medieval Church ◽

Detective Novels ◽

The Church ◽

The Way ◽

New View

After establishing Dorothy L. Sayers’s interest in medieval culture, this essay narrows its focus to Gothic architecture, arguing that Sayers’s fascination with medieval churches helped transform her view of the Church Universal. While a student at Oxford, Sayers echoed the modernist sensibilities of her time, valuing medieval architecture for the way it revealed the “sweetness and light” of culture. After two decades and several detective novels, Sayers began to see medieval architecture differently. Her novel The Nine Tailors provided a key to unlock her vision, and her play The Zeal of Thy House provided the keystone to uphold her new view of Christianity. These works led Sayers to look beyond ecclesiastical monuments to what they represent: a gathering of believers working to carry each other’s burdens as stones carry the arches upholding a medieval church.

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Gothic Architecture Illustrated: the Drawings of Thomas Rickman in New York

The Antiquaries Journal ◽

10.1017/s0003581500027207 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 65 (2) ◽

pp. 427-433 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Megan Aldrich

Keyword(s):

New York ◽

Fine Arts ◽

Columbia University ◽

Medieval Architecture ◽

Gothic Architecture

In the Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library of Columbia University in New York is an interleaved second (1819) edition of Thomas Rickman's An Attempt to Discriminate the Styles of English Architecture. This volume contains sixty-six relatively unknown illustrations of medieval architecture in Rickman's hand which can be dated to the later 1830s. It was discovered that many of these drawings in the Avery Library were either traced outright or modelled after plates from well-known contemporary works on architecture, in particular the works of John Britton. There is reason to think that Rickman may have purchased the rights to Britton 's plates and other sources, revised them, and had intended to reprint them as lithographs to illustrate afifth edition of An Attempt.

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“Ars sine scientia” or rather “Ars sine geometria”? The debate of 1400 on the elevation of Milan cathedral

Resourceedings ◽

10.21625/resourceedings.v2i3.627 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 65

Author(s):

Giulia Ceriani Sebregondi

Keyword(s):

Architectural Theory ◽

Building Site ◽

Gothic Architecture ◽

Sacred Architecture ◽

Architecture And Literature ◽

History Of ◽

The One ◽

The Relationship ◽

James Ackerman ◽

European Architecture

The construction of Milan Cathedral from 1386 was one of the most important episodes in the history of Italian and European architecture because of the uniqueness of the building itself — the largest Gothic church ever constructed in Italy — and because of the presence of some of the most authoritative architects of the late Fourteenth and Fifteenth centuries in Europe (Lombard, French, German).The documentation about the discussions on how to build the Duomo in the late Trecento and early Quattrocento, especially on the structural choices to be made and the different Lombard and Northern building-site practices, made famous to English readers in a celebrated article by James Ackerman, is extraordinarily rich and extensive, permitting considerations on the relationship between medieval architectural ideals and an actual project.The paper focuses on the famous discussions of 1400, in part a re-run of those of 1392. It will be argued that famous criticism by the French expert Jean Mignot of Milanese architects involving the terms ars and scientia could have a very different meaning from the one generally accepted in the literature. Consequently, it will result that Mignot wanted to return to the original project proposed by Gabriele Stornaloco, which embodied the desired correspondence between the sacred architecture and the perfect God’s world.All of which, could be of some interest to medievalists in general, and to those concerned with architectural theory and with the relationship between Gothic architecture and literature in particular.

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Tas-de-charge – An Essential Part of Gothic Vault

Periodica Polytechnica Architecture ◽

10.3311/ppar.16889 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Krisztina Fehér

Keyword(s):

Architectural Theory ◽

Medieval Architecture ◽

Gothic Architecture ◽

Multiple Loads ◽

Empirical Learning ◽

Dynamic Development ◽

Stone Block ◽

Particular Solution ◽

The Creation ◽

Architectural Knowledge

Gothic architecture can be viewed from several perspectives, including stylistic aspects, architectural theory, and structural analysis.As Gothic architecture is a skeletal construction, it is essential to achieve an equilibrium with the multiple loads and forces. Medieval master masons' architectural knowledge was firmly based on empirical learning, which stimulated the dynamic development of structural innovations.This paper emphasises and describes a particular type of vault springer, one of the most complicated and sensitive parts of Gothic construction. Known as tas-de-charge, it became especially characteristic of high Gothic architecture. According to its principle, the springer's lower courses contain the merged vault nerves and are carved from one single stone block in each course. The beds of these courses are not radial as those of the average voussoirs, but horizontal. Without the concept of tas-de-charge, the development of late Gothic vaults could not be imaginable. This particular solution made possible the creation of elegantly narrow imposts supporting the vault ribs, the double arch and the formerets. So far, tas-de-charge has not been a focus of interest in the historiography of Hungarian medieval architecture; however, it appears that it was commonly applied in our late Romanesque and early Gothic monuments.

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