GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.

The research paper submitted in complete fulfillment of the course World History-
I for obtaining the degree B.A. L.L.B. (Hons.) during the academic session 2020-
2021.

Submitted by

Dakshita Dubey

Roll No. - 2117

Submitted To:

Dr PriyaDarshini

September, 2020

Chanakya National Law University,

Nyaya Nagar,

Mithapur,

Patna, 800001.
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DECLARATION BY CANDIDATE

I, DAKSHITA DUBEY, student of Chanakya National Law University hereby declare that the
work reported in the B.A.LL.B. (HONS.) Project report entitled: GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
submitted at Chanakya National Law University, Patna is an authentic record of my work carried
out under the supervision of Dr PriyaDarshini. I have not submitted this work elsewhere for any
other degree or diploma. I am responsible for the contents of my Project Report.

NAME: Dakshita Dubey

ROLL NO: 2117

COURSE: B.A. LL.B. (Hons.)

SEMESTER: 2020-2021 (3rd).

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank my faculty of World History- I, Dr PriyaDarshini whose guidance helped
me a lot with structuring of my project. I take this opportunity to express my deep sense of
gratitude for her guidance and encouragement which sustained my efforts on all stages of this
project.

I owe the present accomplishment of my project to my friends, who helped me immensely with
materials throughout the project and without whom I couldn’t have completed it in the present
way.

I would also like to extend my gratitude to my parents and all those unseen hands that helped me
out at every stage of my project.

THANK YOU

NAME: Dakshita Dubey

ROLL NO: 2117

COURSE: B.A. LL.B. (Hons.)

SEMESTER: 2020-2021 (3rd)

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Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................... 5
HISTORY OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.................................................................................. 7
STRUCTURE OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURES ....................................................................... 10
Pointed Arches .......................................................................................................................... 10
Rib Vaults .................................................................................................................................. 11
Later vaults (13th–15th century) ............................................................................................... 11
Columns and Piers .................................................................................................................... 13
Flying Buttresses ....................................................................................................................... 14
Towers and Spires ..................................................................................................................... 14
Tracery ...................................................................................................................................... 15
ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS ............................................................................................... 17
Sculpture.................................................................................................................................... 17
Windows .................................................................................................................................... 17
Synagogues ................................................................................................................................ 19
Mosques ..................................................................................................................................... 19
Civic Architecture ..................................................................................................................... 20
Universities................................................................................................................................ 21
Military Architecture ................................................................................................................. 22
DECLINE AND REVIVAL ......................................................................................................... 22
CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................. 23
BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................................... 23
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INTRODUCTION

Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style that flourished

in Europe during the High and Late Middle Ages.1 It evolved from Romanesque architecture and
was succeeded by Renaissance architecture. It originated in 12th-century
northern France and England as a development of Norman architecture.2 Its popularity lasted into
the 16th century, before which the style was known as Latin: opus Francigenum, lit. 'French work';
the term Gothic was first applied contemptuously during the later Renaissance, by those ambitious
to revive the Grecian orders of architecture.

The defining element of Gothic architecture is the pointed or ogival arch. It is the primary
engineering innovation and the characteristic design component. The use of the pointed arch in
turn led to the development of the pointed rib vault and flying buttresses, combined with
elaborate tracery and stained glass windows.3

Gloucester Cathedral

The term "Gothic architecture" originated as a pejorative description. Giorgio Vasari used the term
"barbarous German style" in his Lives of the Artists to describe what is now considered the Gothic
style4, and in the introduction to the Lives he attributes various architectural features to the Goths,

1
Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (3rd ed.), Oxford University Press
2
The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Oxford University Press.
3
Fraser, Murray, ed. (2018), Sir Banister Fletcher Glossary (21st ed.), Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
and the University of London
4
Vasari, G. The Lives of the Artists. Translated with an introduction and notes by J.C. and P. Bondanella.
Oxford: Oxford University Press (Oxford World's Classics), 1991, pp. 117 & 527
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whom he held responsible for destroying the ancient buildings after they conquered Rome, and
erecting new ones in this style. When Vasari wrote, Italy had experienced a century of building in
the Vitruvian architectural vocabulary of classical orders revived in the Renaissance and seen as
evidence of a new Golden Age of learning and refinement. Vasari was echoed in the 16th century
by François Rabelais, who referred to Goths and Ostrogoths (Gotz and Ostrogotz).5

The polymath architect Christopher Wren was disapproving of the name Gothic for pointed
architecture. He compared it with Islamic architecture, which he called the 'Saracen style', pointing
out that the pointed arch's sophistication was not owed to the Goths but to the Islamic Golden Age.
He wrote6:

“This we now call the Gothic manner of architecture (so the Italians called what was not after the
Roman style) though the Goths were rather destroyers than builders; I think it should with more
reason be called the Saracen style, for these people wanted neither arts nor learning: and after we
in the west lost both, we borrowed again from them, out of their Arabic books, what they with great
diligence had translated from the Greek.”

— Christopher Wren, Report on St Paul's

At the Abbey of Saint-Denis, near Paris, the choir was reconstructed between 1140 and 1144,
drawing together for the first time the developing Gothic architectural features. In doing so, a new
architectural style emerged that internally emphasised verticality in the structural members, and
the effect created by the transmission of light through stained glass windows.

Survivals of medieval Gothic architecture are most common as Christian ecclesiastical

architecture, in the cathedrals, abbeys, and parish churches of Europe. It is also the architecture of
many castles, palaces, town halls, guildhalls, universities and, less prominently today, private
dwellings. Many of the finest examples of mediaeval Gothic architecture are listed
with UNESCO as World Heritage Sites.

With the development of Renaissance architecture in Italy during the mid 15th century, the Gothic
style was supplanted by the new style, but in some regions, notably England and Belgium, Gothic
continued to flourish and develop into the 16th century. A series of Gothic revivals began in mid-

5
https://www.loyola.edu/academics/history/architecture/cga
6
Bolton, A. T., ed. (1925). "St Paul's Cathedral". The Wren Society. Oxford University Press. II: 15–20.
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18th century England, spread through 19th-century Europe and continued, largely for ecclesiastical
and university structures, into the 20th century.

HISTORY OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE

During the Middle Ages, a new style of architecture emerged in Europe. Initially referred to
as Opus Francigenum, or “French Work,” this architectural genre dominated European tastes—
namely, that of the Roman Catholic Church—until the 16th century, when it became known as
“Gothic.”

The Gothic style evolved from Romanesque architecture, a medieval aesthetic characterized by
arches, vaulted ceilings, and small stained glass windows.

Leon Cathedral.

Gothic architecture adopted and adapted these Romanesque elements to produce a new style of
building that featured exaggerated arches, increased vaulting, and enlarged windows. In addition
to reinterpreting these characteristics, however, Gothic architecture also abandoned one key
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feature of Romanesque architecture: thick walls. To construct taller, more delicate buildings with
thinner walls, Gothic architects employed flying buttresses for support. These stone structures
allowed architects to create sky-high cathedrals and churches that evoked ethereality and reached
toward the heavens.

Norman architecture on either side of the English Channel developed in parallel towards Early
Gothic. Gothic features, such as the rib vault, had appeared in England and Normandy in the 11th
century. Rib-vaults were employed in some parts of the cathedral at Durham (1093–) and
in Lessay Abbey in Normandy (1098). However, the first buildings to be considered fully Gothic
are the royal funerary abbey of the French kings, the Abbey of Saint-Denis (1134–44), and the
archiepiscopal cathedral at Sens (1143–63) They were the first buildings to systematically
combine rib vaulting, buttresses, and pointed arches. Most of the characteristics of later Early
English were already present in the lower chevet of Saint-Denis.

Early Gothic triple elevation, Sens Cathedral (1135–1164).

Early English choir, Canterbury Cathedral (1175–1180)

The Duchy of Normandy, part of the Angevin Empire until the 13th century, developed its own
version of Gothic. One of these was the Norman chevet, a small apse or chapel attached to the
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choir at the east end of the church, which typically had a half-dome. The lantern tower was another
common feature in Norman Gothic. One example of early Norman Gothic is Bayeux
Cathedral (1060–70) where the Romanesque cathedral nave and choir were rebuilt into the Gothic
style. Lisieux Cathedral was begun in 1170. Rouen Cathedral (begun 1185) was rebuilt from
Romanesque to Gothic with distinct Norman features, including a lantern tower, deeply moulded
decoration, and high pointed arcades. Coutances Cathedral was remade into Gothic beginning
about 1220. Its most distinctive feature is the octagonal lantern on the crossing of the transept,
decorated with ornamental ribs, and surrounded by sixteen bays and sixteen lancet windows.

Following the destruction by fire of the choir of Canterbury Cathedral in 1174, a group of master
builders was invited to propose plans for the reconstruction. The master-builder William of Sens,
who had worked on Sens Cathedral, won the competition. Work began that same year, but in 1178
William was badly injured by fall from the scaffolding, and returned to France, where he died. His
work was continued by William the Englishman who replaced his French namesake in 1178. The
resulting structure of the choir of Canterbury Cathedral is considered the first work Early English
Gothic. The cathedral churches of Worcester (1175–), Wells (c.1180–), Lincoln (1192–),
and Salisbury (1220–) are all, with Canterbury, major examples. Tiercerons – decorative vaulting
ribs – seem first to be have been used in vaulting at Lincoln Cathedral, installed c.1200. Instead of
a triforium, Early English churches usually retained a gallery.

High Gothic flying buttresses, Metz Cathedral (1220–)

High Gothic (c. 1194–1250) was a brief but very productive period, which produced some of the
great landmarks of Gothic art. The first building in the High Gothic (French: Classique)
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was Chartres Cathedral, an important pilgrimage church south of Paris. The Romanesque cathedral
was destroyed by fire in 1194, but was swiftly rebuilt in the new style, with contributions from
King Philip II of France, Pope Celestine III local gentry, merchants and craftsmen and Richard the
Lionheart, king of England. The builders simplified the elevation used at Notre Dame, eliminated
the tribune galleries, and used flying buttresses to support the upper walls. The walls were filled
with stained glass, mainly depicting the story of the Virgin Mary but also, in a small corner of each
window, illustrating the crafts of the guilds who donated those windows.

STRUCTURE OF GOTHIC ARCHITECTURES

Pointed Arches
One of the common characteristics the Gothic style is the pointed arch, which was widely used
both in structure and decoration. The pointed arch did not originate in Gothic architecture; they
had been employed for centuries in the Near East in pre-Islamic as well as Islamic architecture for
arches, arcades, and ribbed vaults. In Gothic architecture, particularly in the later Gothic styles,
they became the most visible and characteristic element, giving a sensation of verticality and
pointing upward, like the spires. Gothic rib vaults covered the nave, and pointed arches were
commonly used for the arcades, windows, doorways, in the tracery, and especially in the later
Gothic styles decorating the façades.They were also sometimes used for more practical purposes,
such as to bring transverse vaults to the same height as diagonal vaults, as in the nave and aisles
of Durham Cathedral, built in 1093.

Eastern end of Wells Cathedral (begun 1175)

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The Flamboyant Gothic style was particularly known for such lavish pointed details as the arc-en-
accolade, where the pointed arch over a doorway was topped by a pointed sculptural ornament
called a fleuron and by pointed pinnacles on either side. the arches of the doorway were further
decorated with small cabbage-shaped sculptures called "chou-frisés".

Rib Vaults

Structure of an early six-part Gothic rib vault. (Drawing by Eugene Viollet-le-Duc)

The Gothic rib vault was one of the essential elements that made possible the great height and
large windows of the Gothic style. Unlike the semi-circular barrel vault of Roman and
Romanesque buildings, where the weight pressed directly downward, and required thick walls and
small windows, the Gothic rib vault was made of diagonal crossing arched ribs. These ribs directed
the thrust outwards to the corners of the vault, and downwards via slender colonettes and bundled
columns, to the pillars and columns below. The space between the ribs was filled with thin panels
of small pieces of stone, which were much lighter than earlier groin vaults. The outward thrust
against the walls was countered by the weight of buttresses and later flying buttresses. As a result,
the massive thick walls of Romanesque buildings were no longer needed; Since, the vaults were
supported by the columns and piers, the walls could be thinner and higher, and filled with windows.

Later vaults (13th–15th century)

The 14th century brought the invention of several new types of vaults which were more and more
decorative. These vaults often copied the forms form of the elaborate tracery of the Late Gothic
styles. These included the stellar vault, where a group of additional ribs between the principal ribs
forms a star design. The oldest vaults of this kind were found in the crypt of Saint Stephen
at Westminster Palace, built about 1320. A second type was called a reticulated vault, which had
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a network of additional decorative ribs, in triangles and other geometric forms, placed between or
over the traverse ribs. These were first used in the choir of Bristol Cathedral in about 1311.
Another late Gothic form, the fan vault, with ribs spreading upwards and outwards, appeared later
in the 14th century. An example is the cloister of Gloucester Cathedral (c. 1370).

Another new form was the skeleton vault, which appeared in the English Decorated style. It has
an additional network of ribs, like the ribs of an umbrella, which criss-cross the vault but are only
directly attached to it at certain points.

Elaborate vaults also appeared in civic architecture. An example is the ceiling of the grand hall of
Vladimir in Prague Castle in Bohemia designed by Benedikt Ried in 1493. The ribs twist and
intertwine in fantasy patterns, which later critics called "Rococo Gothic”.

Lierne vaults of Gloucester Cathedral (Perpendicular Gothic)

Bremen Cathedral – north aisle, a reticular (net) vault with intersecting ribs.
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Columns and Piers

In Early French Gothic architecture, the capitals of the columns were modeled after Roman
columns of the Corinthian order, with finely-sculpted leaves. They were used in the ambulatory of
the Abbey church of Saint-Denis. According to its builder, the Abbot Suger, they were inspired by
the columns he had seen in the ancient baths in Rome.They were used later at Sens, at Notre-Dame
de Paris and at Canterbury in England.

In early Gothic churches with six-part rib vaults, the columns in the nave alternated with more
massive piers to provide support for the vaults. These clustered columns were used at Chartres,
Amiens, Reims and Bourges, Westminster Abbey and Salisbury Cathedral. Another variation was
a quadrilobe column, shaped like a clover, formed of four attached columns. In England, the
clustered columns were often ornamented with stone rings, as well as columns with carved leaves.

Early Gothic – Alternating columns and piers, Sens Cathedral (12th century)

High Gothic – Clustered columns of Reims Cathedral (13th century)

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Flying Buttresses
An important feature of Gothic architecture was the flying buttress, a half-arch outside the building
which carried the thrust of weight of the roof or vaults inside over a roof or an aisle to a heavy
stone column. The buttresses were placed in rows on either side of the building, and were often
topped by heavy stone pinnacles, both to give extra weight and for additional decoration.

East end of Lincoln Cathedral, with wall buttress, and chapter house with flying buttresses. (1185–1311)

Flying buttresses of Notre Dame de Paris (c. 1230)

Towers and Spires

Towers, spires and fleches were an important feature of Gothic churches. They presented a
dramatic spectacle of great height, helped make their churches the tallest and most visible
buildings in their city, and symbolised the aspirations of their builders toward heaven. They also
had a practical purpose; they often served as bell towers supporting belfries, whose bells told the
time by announcing religious services, warned of fire or enemy attack, and celebrated special
occasions like military victories and coronations. Sometimes the bell tower is built separate from
a church; the best-known example of this is the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
In later periods of Gothic, pointed needle-like spires were often added to the towers, giving them
much greater height. A variation of the spire was the fleche, a slender, spear=like spire, which
was usually placed on the transept where it crossed the nave. They were often made of wood
covered with lead or other metal. They sometimes had open frames, and were decorated with
sculpture. Amiens Cathedral has a flèche. The most famous example was that of Notre-Dame de
Paris. The original flèche of Notre-Dame was built on the crossing of the transept in the middle
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of the 13th century, and housed five bells. It was removed in 1786 during a program to
modernise the cathedral, but was put back in a new form designed by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc.
The new flèche, of wood covered with lead, was decorated with statues of the Apostles; the
figure of St Thomas resembled Viollet-le-Duc. The flèche was destroyed in the 2019 fire, but is
being restored in the same design.

Oxen sculpture in High Gothic towers of Laon Cathedral (13th century)

Abbaye aux Hommes, Caen (tall west towers added in the 13th century)

Tracery

Beauvais Cathedral, south transept (consecrated 1272)

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Tracery is an architectural solution by which windows (or screens, panels, and vaults) are divided
into sections of various proportions by stone bars or ribs of moulding. Pointed arch windows of
Gothic buildings were initially (late 12th–late 13th centuries) lancet windows, a solution typical
of the Early Gothic or First Pointed style and of the Early English Gothic. Plate tracery was the
first type of tracery to be developed, emerging in the later phase of Early Gothic or First Pointed.
Second Pointed is distinguished from First by the appearance of bar–tracery, allowing the
construction of much larger window openings, and the development of Curvilinear, Flowing,
and Reticulated tracery, ultimately contributing to the Flamboyant style. Late Gothic in most of
Europe saw tracery patterns resembling lace develop, while in England Perpendicular
Gothic or Third Pointed preferred plainer vertical mullions and transoms. Tracery is practical as
well as decorative, because the increasingly large windows of Gothic buildings needed maximum
support against the wind.

Tracery was used on both the interior and exterior of buildings. It frequently covered the facades,
and the interior walls of the nave and choir were covered with blind arcades. It also often picked
up and repeated the designs in the stained glass windows. Strasbourg Cathedral has a west front
lavishly ornamented with bar tracery matching the windows.

Lancet Gothic, Ripon Minster west front (begun 1160)

Plate tracery, Lincoln Cathedral "Dean's Eye" rose window (c.1225)

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Influences upon the Gothic Architecture

The Gothic style of architecture was strongly influenced by the Romanesque architecture which
preceded it; by the growing population and wealth of European cities, and by the desire to express
national grandeur. It was also influenced by theological doctrines which called for more light, by
technical improvements in vaulting and buttresses that allowed much greater height and larger
windows, and by the necessity of many churches to accommodate large numbers of pilgrims.

ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS

Sculpture
In Early Gothic churches, following the Romanesque tradition, sculpture appeared on the facade
or west front in the triangular tympanum over the central portal. Gradually, as the style evolved,
the sculpture became more and more prominent, taking over the columns of the portal, and
gradually climbing above the portals, until statues in niches covered the entire facade, as in Wells
Cathedral, to the transepts, and, as at Amiens Cathedral, even on the interior of the façade.

Amiens Cathedral, France.

West portal Annunciation group at Reims

Cathedral with smiling angel at left (13th century)

Windows
Increasing the amount of light in the interior was a primary objective of the founders of the Gothic
movement. Abbot Suger described the new kind of architecture he had created in the east end of
the Saint-Denis: "a circular ring of chapels, by virtue of which the whole church would shine with
the wonderful and uninterrupted light of most luminous windows, pervading the interior beauty.”
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Glass of Sainte-Chapelle depicting a baptism (13th century), now in Cluny Museum.

Abbey of Saint-Denis, Abbot Suger represented at feet of Virgin Mary (12th century)

Religious teachings in the Middle Ages, particularly the writings of Pseudo-Dionysius the
Areopagite, a 6th-century mystic whose book, De Coelesti Hierarchia, was popular among monks
in France, taught that all light was divine. When the Abbot Suger ordered the reconstruction of
choir of the his abbey church at Saint-Denis, he had the builders create seventy windows, admitting
as much light as possible, as the means by which the faithful could be elevated from the material
world to the immaterial world.
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Synagogues

Main portal of the Old New Synagogue, Prague (c. 1270)

Although Christianity played a dominant role in the Gothic sacred architecture, Jewish
communities were present in many European cities during the Middle Ages and they also built
their houses of prayer in the Gothic style. Unfortunately, most of the Gothic synagogues did not
survive, because they were often destroyed in connection with persecution of the Jews (e. g. in
Bamberg, Nürnberg, Regensburg, Vienna). One of the best preserved examples of a Gothic
synagogue is the Old New Synagogue in Prague which was completed around 1270 and never
rebuilt.

Mosques
There are a few mosques in Gothic style. They are Latin Catholic churches converted into
mosques. The conversion implied compromises since Latin churches are oriented towards the East
and mosques are oriented towards Mecca.

• The Arap Mosque in Galata, Istanbul, Turkey.

• Fethija Mosque, in Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Lala Mustafa Pasha Mosque, in Famagusta, Northern Cyprus. It has been later restored in the
Gothic style by British architects.
• Selimiye Mosque, Nicosia, Northern Cyprus.
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The carpet pattern marks the ranks for the faithful to pray towards Mecca (obliquely on the right) in the Selimiye
Mosque of Northern Nicosia.

Civic Architecture
In the 15th century, following the late Gothic period or flamboyant style, elements of Gothic
decoration developed churches began to appear in the town halls of northern France, in Flanders
and in the Netherlands. The Rouen Courthouse in Normandy is representative of Flamboyant
Gothic in France. The Hôtel de Ville of Compiègne has an imposing Gothic bell tower, featuring
a spire surrounded by smaller towers, and its windows are decorated with ornate accolades or
ornamental arches. Similarly flamboyant town halls were found in Arras, Douai, and Saint-
Quentin, Aisne, and in modern Belgium,
in Brussels, Ghent, Bruges, Audenarde, Mons and Leuven
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Belfry of Bruges in Bruges, Belgium (13th c. (lower stages), 15th c. (upper stages)

Universities
The Gothic style was adopted in the late 13th to 15th centuries in early English university
buildings, with inspiration coming from monasteries and manor houses. The oldest existing
example in England is probably the Mob Quad of Merton College at Oxford University,
constructed between 1288 and 1378.

The style was further refined by William of Wykeham, Chancellor of England and founder of New
College, Oxford in 1379. His architect, William Wynford, designed the New College quadrangle
in the 1380s, which combined a hall, chapel, library, and residences for Fellows and
undergraduates. A similar kind of academic cloister was created at Queen's College, Oxford in the
1140s, likely designed by Reginald Ely.

Mob Quad of Merton College, Oxford University (1288–1378)

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Military Architecture
In the 13th century, the design of the castle (French: château fort) evolved in response to contact
with the more sophisticated fortifications of the Byzantine Empire and the Islamic world during
the Crusades. These new fortifications were more geometric, with a central high tower called
a keep (French: donjon) which could be defended even if the curtain walls of the castle were
breached. The donjon of the Château de Vincennes, begun by Philip VI of France was a good
example. It was 52 m (171 ft) high, and, even though within the moat and walls of the fortress, had
its own separate drawbridge to going to higher floor.

Hohenzollern Castle (1454–1461) in Baden-Württemberg, southern Germany.

DECLINE AND REVIVAL

The Gothic style began to be described as outdated, ugly and even barbaric. The term "Gothic"
was first used as a pejorative description. Giorgio Vasari used the term "barbarous German style"
in his 1550 Lives of the Artists to describe what is now considered the Gothic style. In the
introduction to the Lives he attributed various architectural features to the Goths whom he held
responsible for destroying the ancient buildings after they conquered Rome, and erecting new ones
in this style. In the 17th century, Molière also mocked the Gothic style in the 1669 poem La
Gloire: "...the insipid taste of Gothic ornamentation, these odious monstrosities of an ignorant age,
produced by the torrents of barbarism..." The dominant styles in Europe became in turn Italian
Renaissance architecture, Baroque architecture, and the grand classicism of the style Louis XIV.
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The middle of the 19th century was a period marked by the restoration, and in some cases
modification, of ancient monuments and the construction of neo-Gothic edifices such as the nave
of Cologne Cathedral and the Sainte-Clotilde of Paris as speculation of mediaeval architecture
turned to technical consideration. London's Palace of Westminster, St Pancras railway station,
New York's Trinity Church and St Patrick's Cathedral are also famous examples of Gothic Revival
buildings. The style also reached the Far East in the period, for instance the Anglican St John's
Cathedral located at the centre of Victoria City in Central, Hong Kong.

CONCLUSION
The new understanding of architecture and design led to more fantastic examples of vaulting and
ornamentation, and the Early Gothic or Lancet style (from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries)
developed into the Decorated or Rayonnant Gothic (roughly fourteenth century). The ornate
stonework that held the windows–called tracery–became more florid, and other stonework even
more exuberant.

The ribbed vaulting became more complicated and was crossed with lierne ribs into complex webs,
or the addition of cross ribs, called tierceron. As the decoration developed further, the
Perpendicular or International Gothic took over (fifteenth century). Fan vaulting decorated half-
conoid shapes extending from the tops of the columnar ribs.

The slender columns and lighter systems of thrust allowed for larger windows and more light. The
windows, tracery, carvings, and ribs make up a dizzying display of decoration that one encounters
in a Gothic church. In late Gothic buildings, almost every surface is decorated. Although such a
building as a whole is ordered and coherent, the profusion of shapes and patterns can make a sense
of order difficult to discern at first glance.

After the great flowering of Gothic style, tastes again shifted back to the neat, straight lines and
rational geometry of the Classical era. It was in the Renaissance that the name Gothic came to be
applied to this medieval style that seemed vulgar to Renaissance sensibilities. It is still the term we
use today, though hopefully without the implied insult, which negates the amazing leaps of
imagination and engineering that were required to build such edifices.

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Websites:

1. https://smarthistory.org/gothic-architecture-an-introduction/
2. https://www.britannica.com/art/Gothic-architecture
3. https://mymodernmet.com/gothic-architecture-characteristics
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4. https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/medieval-world/gothic-art/beginners-guide-
gothic-art/a/gothic-architecture-an-introduction

Books:

1. A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (3rd ed.), Oxford University

Press.
2. The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Oxford University Press.
3. Sir Banister Fletcher Glossary (21st ed.), Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)
and the University of London.
4. The Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages, Oxford University Press.