medieval catherals

Section 008
Essay question #3 Medieval Cathedrals
Western Europe art of the eleventh and twelfth centuries is identified as Romanesque. Gothic style began in the vicinity of Paris in the mid-1100s. Romanesque began to form and then the Gothic style began to rebuild some of the Romanesque style. Cathedrals were built primarily for the use of worshipping God. In medieval times, the cathedrals were built bigger and more adventurous each time.
The Romanesque styled cathedrals had separate compartments when it came to the chapels and the apse, as where the Gothic styled cathedrals had unified, unbroken space. Some examples of the Romanesque styled cathedrals would be the cathedral of Saint-Lazare at Autun and the Durham Cathedral. The Cathedral of Santiago de Compostela has the Romanesque style. The plan of the church included side aisles that run around the church and form a passage around the apse. The church also had apsidioles arranged along the eastern walls of the transepts and around the apse. This cathedral was composed of multiple modular units. The church of Saint Vincenc at Cardona had four colonettes of the compound piers that reflected the building’s structural elements. The nave of Santiago de Compostela vaults, arches, engaged columns, and pilasters are all firmly knit toghether into a coherent order that recaptures the vocabulary and syntax of Ancient Roman architecture to a remarkable degree. (Jansons 220) Mostly in the Romanesque cathedrals the vaults were mostly barreled. The Abbey church of Cluny had apsidioles, apses, and towers at the east end that created monumental gathering of ever higher forms. (Janson 221) The Gothic style had groin vaults. Some examples of the Gothic style would be West Façade, Laon cathedral, the rebuild of the Chartres cathedral, and the Reims cathedral. The arch type consisted of rounded arches with thick walls, buttresses, for support for Romanesque and Gothic had pointed arches with exterior flying buttresses for support. The exterior portion of the Romanesque was plain with little decoration and solid. The Gothic cathedrals were ornate, delicate with lots of sculpture. Cathedrals of the Gothic style were tall and light filled as where the Romanesque cathedrals were dark and gloomy. The sensory experience was heightened by the decoration, stained glass. It allowed light to soar through all the windows that lit up the cathedral. The light itself demonstrated theological ideas for just as the spirit of God passed through the womb of the virgin, losing nothing of his divinity in the process, so the light passes through the material of the glass and yet maintains its illuminating properties. Thus the stained glass was intended to communicate abstract theological truths, to evoke a sensory experience in which the invisible becomes visible. (Gothic Cathedral) Like the stained glass, sculptures also depicted Biblical scenes. In addition, they also included figures of kings, churchmen and peasants, figures that illustrated the hierarchy of the ordered society. Frequently there were figures representing the virtues and vices, which illustrated the moral order of the medieval world. (Gothic Cathedral)

"Web Assignment | Gothic Cathedral." Gothic Cathedral. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2012. .
Davies, Penelope J., Frima F. Hofrichter, Joesph Jacobs, Anna M. Roberts, and David L. Simon. Janson's Basic History of Western Art. 8th ed. London: Laurence King, 2009. Print.