Gothic Style, Glory of God: Examining religious themes in early Christian art
The Gothic cathedrals of France are awe-inspiring, even to those who know nothing about architecture. But for those who have some knowledge of the subject, the Gothic design is even more fascinating. Gothic cathedrals combined the use of rib vaulting, pointed arches and flying buttresses in order to support the use of stained glass windows. While the great cathedrals at Chartres, Bourges and Notre Dame do all these, comparing these buildings allows one to get a better sense of the Gothic masters. This essay shall examine the exterior and interior of the three cathedrals then examine how Gothic architecture continued to evolve.
The Chartres Cathedral's exterior is unique among Gothic buildings, as its West Portal combines both High Gothic and Romanesque influences. Instead of the traditional pointed arches, we find numerous rounded arches, typical of the Romanesque period. The asymmetry of the towers also shows Chartres' diverse origins: after the fire of 1194, the entire church except the front end survived. The front end was subsequently modified as the north tower was improved later, with more Gothic influence. Notable is the rose window, and the three large lancet windows below it. Chartres has three rose portals, the other two on the north and south sides.
Perhaps what is most important is an examination of the flying buttresses. The cathedral does not employ many flying buttresses, but when it does, these support beams are thick and not too graceful looking. (One website, sacred-destinations.com, says Chartres actually employs "double flying buttresses.") This is because the Chartres architects did not have as much confidence in their new technique as later people would. It is said that Chartres uses perhaps 30 percent more weight in its support than it should. We will see this fact reflected in the interior of Chartres.
Examining Chartres' decorative façade is also important, as it shares some characteristics with the other two Gothic cathedrals. This examination will primarily look at the West, or Royal, portal. As later depicted in Bourges and Notre Dame, Chartres' West portal includes a scene of Jesus from the Book of Revelation. The scene is depicted with relief sculptures, which make use of the entire central bay. In the tympanum, Christ is seated on a throne, his hand extended in blessing. On each side of the tympanum are symbols of the four evangelists. In the lintel, we find the twelve apostles, flanked by two prophets. A guidebook to the Chartres cathedral sheds light on some of the figures in the archivolts: "In the inner archivolt are twelve angels, and in the second and third, the twenty four elders of the Apocalypse holding musical instruments and vials of perfume." The figures in the jambs are a little harder to discern, but the book notes that King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba are among those present.
This decorative scheme is later expanded in the other two cathedrals, usually with a more detailed Last Judgment scene. For instance, Jesus will often be depicted in the trumeau, the central statue, as standing on the heads of two basilisks, a reference to a psalm that declares how the savior will vanquish evil. The decorative scheme extends to the rest of the bay as well. The lintels at Bourges for example feature the damned and the elect - with the elect moving off to stay in the bosom of Abraham, and the damned being fed to demons. On the jambs we will occasionally see Abraham himself, holding small figures of the saved ones close to his heart.
The Bourges Cathedral, more formally known as Cathédrale St-Étienne in Bourges is a UNESCO world heritage site. And for good reason! The church seems to be rising into the air, and from far off it seems more like a palace than a place of worship. Flying buttresses, employed to greater effect here than in Chartres, ring the cathedral's exterior. The buttresses themselves are topped off with spiky, decorative caps added a few centuries after construction but they add to the mystique of the building. In between the buttresses, stained glass windows contribute to the support of the roof. The cathedral's west front is imposing, with bell towers rising from the façade. Unlike in Chartres, where the façade was primarily Romanesque, Bourges' front end exhibits typical Gothic characteristics like deep bays and pointed arches. Indeed, while Chartres' west portal only has four archivolts, Bourges' has six.
But no building is perfect, and Bourges has flaws as well. Its south tower had collapsed at one point in its history and the architects, afraid of a similar disaster, constructed a massive buttress to prop up the tower. The buttress juts out from the side of the cathedral like a wart, breaking the symmetry of the building.
Finally we get to Notre Dame, whose name translates into "Our Lady of Paris." This is one of the world's most popular cathedrals. With a graceful, symmetrical exterior, it's easy to understand why. Similar to Bourges, Notre Dame employs a series of flying buttresses which curl around the cathedral. However, the buttresses are upstaged by the massive rose windows that jut out on each side of the transept. Although the transept roses interrupt the flow of the buttresses, one doesn't mind the interruption as they are so intricately carved.
Notre Dame's symmetrical façade is probably more graceful than Bourges, as it has narrower bell towers and the eyes are drawn to the rose and lancet windows at the center. Depending on your angle, it is possible to see Notre Dame's spire rising above the entire façade, a singular tower which tries to pierce the heavens. This spire is reminiscent of Chartres' exquisitely constructed north tower.
But a comparison among Gothic cathedrals would be incomplete without a study of their interior. The interior of Chartres, for example, is like another world. Entering the nave from the Royal Portal, the visitor is suddenly engulfed in an inky blackness, which is penetrated only by the light of the stained glass windows from above. This light plays a key role in the transept, as when one stands in the crossing, he or she finds themselves at the intersection of light from both rose windows. Even though the South Rose was covered for restoration, light still trailed through the portions of stained glass that were visible.
As previously mentioned, Chartres' builders were careful to add extra support for the tall roof. This results in wide columns along the aisles and a very tall arcade. But while the arcade itself is tall, Chartres' builders put in additional support by creating a clerestory that is just as high albeit from the nave it is difficult to see that the two are the same size. The result is that the triforium is almost an afterthought and quite small in comparison. Despite this, the builders did add some variety in the triforium - the first set of arches, starting from the west end, have three columns while the next have four.
Chartres' builders also employed a special innovation for the cathedral's roof. They used a quadripartite ceiling, which meant that the ceiling was divided into four sail-looking sections by ribs. This type of rib vaulting was surprisingly advanced for this time period but it allowed Chartres to withstand the elements better.
Besides its stained glass windows (which will be addressed in a moment) Chartres has two unique elements: its choir screen and labyrinth. The choir screen, which starts on the south side of the crossing, loops around the ambulatory. Visitors who examine the screen will notice it features 40 scenes from the life of Jesus and Mary. The scenes are intricately carved from wood and are surrounded by framing that looks similar to the cathedral's façade. As one studies each scene, it is possible to pray in the side chapels along the ambulatory as well.
The labyrinth, nearly 1000 feet long, was designed for meditative purposes. Pilgrims would walk or crawl along its path and contemplate the cathedral and their spirituality. The labyrinth can be found by walking slightly past the narthex. Interestingly, a copy of the Chartres labyrinth has recently been placed in San Francisco's Grace Cathedral.
But Chartres is perhaps most beloved for its stained glass windows. These windows, almost all of which are from the 12th century, tell intricate tales, from the Tree of Jesse to the Good Samaritan. The Chartres guidebook notes that there are "one-hundred and sixty seven windows in the cathedral, roses, oculi, and lancets." It is difficult to read many of the windows as they are found in the clerestory, but those found at the arcade level are among the more famous. The three rose windows at Chartres are even more amazing, as they combine numerous intricate patterns to form one fantastic picture. For instance, the West Rose alone has dozens of oculi, which surround a window of Jesus at the Last Judgment. In addition to these intricate patterns, the windows are known for their use of color. One of the windows known as the Blue Virgin, features sky-blue glass pieces which make the Virgin much brighter than the rest of the window.
The cathedral at Bourges has a different atmosphere than Chartres. When one walks inside, it is much brighter, but the cathedral appears more cavernous. This is partly because of Bourges physical dimensions - it is wider than Chartres (the latter's dimensions were restricted by the crypt which survived the fire of 1134) and also appears taller.
Bourges has thinner columns than Chartres does, in part because the builders understood Gothic technique more firmly, but also because Bourges has a total of four aisles, with the aisles furthest from the nave serving as an additional support section. This double aisle technique has allowed Bourges to create two sets of triforiums and clerestories. The lower triforium/clerestory set are located in the far aisle. Interestingly, the triforium and clerestory in these lower sections are not as architecturally detailed as the upper ones. For example note in the picture below how the clerestory on the top section employs three lancet windows and an oculus, while the clerestory below has two rounded lancets and a squat oculus. The triforium on the upper section also has far more columns than the lower one. Inside these inner aisles, one can find chapels that sit between the buttresses.
Bourges supports its cavernous roof with a six-part ceiling, a slightly more primitive version than Chartres' quadripartite arrangement. Bourges also employs a series of candelabras, which hang along the nave. Intriguingly, Bourges has no transept. This means the cathedral is much more cavernous than Chartres simply because when one walks into the nave, the church literally extends all the way to the altar and to the ambulatory beyond and is not interrupted by the horizontal transept.
Perhaps most unique to Bourges is its use of white stained glass windows. These white windows are the reason it is much brighter inside than in Chartres. The cathedral was cleverly designed wherein the white windows were placed higher, while the colored windows were closer to the nave-level. Thus as light floods in from the top of the cathedral, it is still possible to enjoy the stained glass at a level where it is easier to read the stories. Different from Chartres, Bourges only has one rose window, which is unfortunately obscured by the organ at the west end of the church.
Notre Dame is considered the last of the "Pre-Chartres" era cathedrals. Indeed, its interior, while not as dark as Chartres, does not have the same bright quality that Bourges had. Notre Dame is a "very heavy" church, as it has wide, fat columns which support a massive triforium. Indeed, the triforium is so large that one can actually walk around in it. This leaves for a small clerestory with squat windows. Indeed, Notre Dame appears to use its windows both at the clerestory and the chapel/nave level for support. The chapel windows are squat and vary in size, different from Chartres' uniform lancets. Notre Dame's two sets of aisles also allow for support of its six-part ceiling.
Notre Dame's choir section is curious. Unlike Chartres and Bourges, which for the most part have uniform decorations, Notre Dame's choir has been described as "a mess," because it has been redecorated multiple times. A baroque Pieta sits behind the altar, and behind that one can see a gold cross. The cross was placed there in 1993 to remind visitors of the Church's Christian message. One's eyes cannot help but be drawn to the gold cross as soon as they enter the church.
But the masterpieces of Notre Dame's interior are its rose windows. Far more adventurous than Chartres, the builders essentially turned the north and south ends of the transept into walls of glass. The windows are not merely a series of oculi separated by wall - they contain rows of stained glass which are placed together to truly look like a rose, the symbol which Dante said represented God himself.
After comparing the three great Gothic cathedrals at Chartres, Bourges and Notre Dame, it's worth noting how Gothic architecture continued to evolve. Notre Dame's use of rose windows as support were taken to heart at Sainte Chapelle of Paris, where the primary chapel which contained holy relics like the Crown of Thorns, was situated in a building with floor to ceiling windows. This breathtaking sight is truly the height of stained glass window usage.
But stained glass windows also saw an evolution in their artwork, as seen in Bourges. Scenes that were once relegated to small portions of glass took up much larger sections of the window. Some of the chapels in Bourges even displayed stained glass (or more correctly, painted glass) which had whole windows depicting scenes like the Holy Family's journey to Egypt. In these later forms of art, faces were painted with greater accuracy and color was used as if the windows were canvases. Also of importance in Bourges was the use of stone tracing around the windows - here, the architects were able to blend symbols like family crests into the window itself.
Gothic also evolved to a point where every part of the building was used in a decorative fashion. For instance, in Saint Etienne in Paris, we find the use of elaborate spiral staircases which lead to a "double altar" and the use of a decorative, six-part star vault at the point above the crossing. Floor to ceiling, Gothic churches had become works of art.
2,417 words / 8 pages
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