College of Environmental Design
Department of Architecture, UC Berkeley
Architecture Slide Library
Architecture 170 - Fall 1996 - Dell Upton - November 21
I. CHURCH AND SOCIETY.
1. The origins of Gothic architecture. Abbot Suger [1081-1151] and his renovations of the Abbey of St.-Denis, vic. Paris: west front [finished 1140] and choir [finished 1144]. Note: rose window and column figures on west facade; double ambulatory and pointed ribbed vaults in choir. Architecture and light. (Saint-Denis: Plan; Plan of Apse; Facade reconstruction).
2. The cathedral town. New importance of the town in political life, and of the cathedral in the town.
II. THE CATHEDRAL AT CHARTRES.
1. Chartres. The special relationship of Chartres and the Virgin Mary; the Sacred Tunic. Predecessors of Chartres in 858, 1020; the fire of 1134 and the new west front. Construction of the present Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Chartres, 1194-1220. The cathedral as an expression of piety and local identity. Financing the cathedral: roles of relics, corporate gifts, diversion of church and diocesan incomes, royal and noble gifts. The builders; the architect. (Chartres Cathedral: Elevation and details; Aerial view; Interior North Wall; View from S.E.; South Butressing; Interior Vaults).
2. The plan. Double ambulatory, single aisles, short transepts, wall piers, soft edges compared to earlier churches. (Plan)
3. The west front. Conservative massing. The Royal Portal and the architectural role of sculpture in the Gothic cathedral. Note: integration of iconographic and architectural expression; statue columns. (West Facade; West Portal)
4. The main building. Differences between Gothic and Romanesque structures: scale, skeletal vs. "mural" quality; pointed ribbed vaulting. The pointed arch and its implications; pier buttresses and flying buttresses. Experiments in height, light, and rhythm in the early Gothic cathedrals at Laon, 1150s-1214 [note: sexpartite vaults, four-story interior elevation, use of tribune/gallery; simple piers] and Noyon, ca. 1150-1235. (Laon Cathedral: West Facade; Distant View; Interior Vault; Transverse Section).
(For comparison to Romanesque: Saint Foy, Plan; Section).
Chartres as the classic solution to these experiments. Emulation and competition as it affects cathedral design.
III. THE CONCEPT OF THE CATHEDRAL.
The cathedral as a didactic instrument: use of sculpture and glass; interrelationships of these with more abstract concepts. The cathedral as image of the divine world: geometry and the world order; god as architect; light.