The Legacy of the High Gothic Achievement: the Rayonnant Mode

1. The Legacy of the High Gothic Achievement: the RayonnantMode

2. I. Perfection of the High Gothic Cathedral in the Rayonnant style High Gothic (1195-1230) = period of unresolved experimentation Reims Cathedral, 1211-90 Bourges Cathedral, 1211-90

3. I. Perfection lies in a new visionary period = Rayonnant style (1230-1350) Amiens Cathedral (Nôtre-Dame), Amiens, France, 1220-1269

4. I. A. Context: French king the pre-eminent ruler in Western Europe in 1200 Nôtre-Dame, Paris French King Philip-Augustus (r. 1180-1223) façade design 1200-10

5. I. A. 1. Long reign of Louis IX (1226-1270), St. Louis, makes Paris a cultural capital The Ste.-Chapelle (Holy Chapel), commissioned by Louis IX for the Royal Palace, Paris

6. I. A. 2. Start of the new court style, Rayonnant (“radiating”), with the rebuilding of St.-Denis’ upper choir, nave and transept in 1231 Abbey church of St.-Denis, Paris, 1231-50 St.-Denis – upper choir, b. 1231 St.-Denis – north transept, b. 1250

7. I. B. Formal analysis and modernist structure: In what ways is Amiens Cathedral still like the classic design of Chartres? Amiens Cathedral, 1220-1269, first architect Robert de Luzarches an elevational system rather than a true wall

8. I. B. Early Christian Romanesque Gothic S. Sabina Speyer Cathedral Amiens Cathedral

9. I. B. Chartres Cathedral Amiens Cathedral piers taller & wider apart but similar thickness

10. I. C. Rayonnant style – qualities of a new visionary aesthetic in an influential new phase of Gothic Abbey church of St Nicaise, Reims, France, b. 1231 Decorative vocabulary becomes architectural (gables, crockets, small pinnacles) Mixture of blind and open tracery

11. I. C. 1. extreme verticality steeply proportioned High Gothic cathedrals: comparative height and design of buttressing Chartres Bourges Reims Amiens

12. I. C. 1. continuous vault responds Amiens Cathedral – nave St.-Denis – nave

13. I. C. 2. virtually autonomous arching structures instead of wall bar tracery – intensely modernist device plate tracery = pierced stone bar tracery = Rayonnantstyle Amiens Cathedral – rose window on south transept Chartres Cathedral

14. I. C. 3. Extreme structural lightness screening effects like superimposed tracery Amiens Cathedral

15. I. C. 3. screening effects – clerestory mullions extend into triforium St.-Denis, Paris, 1231-50 Amiens Cathedral

16. I. C. 4. extreme levels of illumination Lowered roof over the aisle vaults makes a glazed triforium possible glazed triforium Amiens Cathedral

17. II. Gothic façade – confronting a new design problem Early Christian Romanesque Gothic Santa Sabina Amiens Cathedral Speyer Cathedral

18. II. Chartres Cathedral (façade begun as Romanesque) Amiens Cathedral (Rayonnant Gothic façade)

19. II. A. How is a unified Gothic exterior articulated all around the building? Amiens Cathedral

20. II. A. 1. How does the facade reconcile twin-towered idea with basilical section of the building? Amiens Cathedral

21. II. A. 1. Portals: encyclopedic story of the Christian salvation. Amiens Cathedral

22. II. A. 1. Amiens Cathedral Zodiac and Labors of the Months

23. II. C. 2.

24. IV. Symbolic architecture in the Gothic (medieval modernist) style Ste-Chapelle (palace chapel of French kings), Paris, France,1241-48

25. IV. A. What are the components of this palatine chapel for the French monarch? about the Ste-Chapelle

26. IV. A. Ste-Chapelle, Upper Chapel Ste-Chapelle, Lower Chapel

27. IV. B. How does the Ste-Chapelle epitomize the French Gothic Court or Rayonnant style in terms of: 1. interior elevation? IV. B. 2. vaulting? steeply proportioned continuous vault responds Ste-Chapelle

28. IV. B. 3. elevational system and buttressing? 20.5 m.

29. IV. B. 3. Decorative vocabulary becomes architectural (gables, crockets, small pinnacles) St Nicaise, Reims, France, 1231 Ste-Chapelle

30. IV. B. 4. tracery? bar tracery – intensely modernist device Ste-Chapelle

31. IV. C. How did the designers give the king and his entourage the sensation that they hovered in the heavens (clerestory)? Chartres Cathedral Ste-Chapelle clerestorey triforium clerestorey nave arcade dado zone

32. IV. C. Ste.-Chapelle Chartres Cathedral clerestorey triforium nave arcade

33. IV. D. Symbolism . . . 1. How did Paris become the “New Jerusalem” and what role did the Ste-Chapelle play? Gauthier Cornut: “There can be no doubt that . . . the true Solomon (i.e., Louis IX), the peacemaker, proceeds to a second incarnation.” Jerusalem Paris Nôtre-Dame Cathedral Ste-Chapelle Holy Sepulchre Temple of Solomon

34. IV. D. 2. What relics was it built to house? Pope Innocent IV: “The Lord has crowned you (Louis IX) with His Crown of Thorns.” Ste-Chapelle Passion relics on display in the shrine Passion relics on display

35. IV. D. 3. What church furnishing did the Ste.-Chapelle aggrandize? Romanesque reliquary of Ste.-Foi a Gothic reliquary Ste-Chapelle

36. IV. D. 4. How did the materials and ornament make the case for Louis IX as the rightful king of Christendom? Ste-Chapelle dado zone: Christ’s first soldiersrepresented enamels and stone Early martyrs in the dado zone

37. IV. D. 4. Christ’s first soldiers (Apostles) in stone as transition zone Apostles as pillars of the church Ste-Chapelle

38. IV. D. 4. Passion relics hover in clerestorey (“from the material to the immaterial”) Translation of the Passion relics into Paris by Louis IX Ste-Chapelle

39. IV. D. 4. Louis IX hovers in clerestorey (“from the material to the immaterial”) Louis IX brings Passion relics to Paris Solomon worships false idol of his wives