French Gothic Cathedrals

The period approximately from 1000 to the late 1300s can be concerned to be the time of full bloom of the Gothic cathedral. As the famous architectural style, the Gothic style was originated from France. In this essay, French gothic and English gothic have been selected to demonstrate how two historical periods can have many differences but still remain true to their own religious variations, architectural features and functions and meanings to create insightful parallels. Five of the French cathedrals and one of the English cathedrals have been selected to represent French and English gothic periods respectively, including Notre-Dame Cathedral (Figure 1), Chartres Cathedral (Figure 2), Amiens Cathedral (Figure 3), Beauvais Cathedral (Figure
The English use of buttresses is relatively converted, while the French use of the buttresses is highly c. Peter Draper used the word “tentative” to describe the English use of flying buttresses (Figure 6) . As for the French use of the buttresses, taking the buttresses at Chartres Cathedral (Figure 7) as examples, they are used on the exterior of cathedrals in order to suggest an aesthetic as well as a functional use, that is to say, making cathedrals look thinner and higher. These flying buttresses are used almost ubiquitously in France, and there is no exception at Beauvais Cathedra. It can be found that emphases on height and length of both English gothic cathedrals and French gothic cathedrals would also have impact on their use of buttresses. On the part of French cathedrals, extraneous supports such as buttressing are indispensable for the height. However, on the part of English cathedrals (Figure 8), its height did not become such an issue. What is more, the use of buttressing usually highlights the vertical rather than the horizontal aspects of the building. This may be the explanation of why the French cathedrals highlight the use of buttressing, but the English cathedrals preferred to hide the use of buttressing under roofing
One of the most notable differences is their preference on verticality versus horizontality, which can be considered to be opposition to each other in style features. They used architectural features such as vertical vault shafts to highlight the height and width of cathedrals. It is also found that although both of them used buttresses, they used in different ways. French gothic cathedrals intend to accentuate the vertical lines of the cathedrals by using the flying buttresses in the exterior, while English gothic cathedrals usually build buttresses in the interior of the cathedrals. Moreover, both of them differ from the facade and east ends of the cathedrals. There were also similarities between them, such as the use of ribbed vaulting and pointed arches. When it comes to the functions and meanings of French and English gothic cathedrals, they have distinctive values. The cathedrals in France are symbol of heaven, but in English it is the symbolic connotation of processions. Through comparing French and English gothic cathedrals, artistic styles, historical influence and functional values help us lay a solid foundation to have a better understanding of the complicated art at that historical