St.-Martin-des-Champs, Paris, 1130s Clues in smaller churches in the Ile-de-France Wall buttresses that anticipate flying Gothic buttress: narrow but deep high placing in relation to vault springings Choir of St.-Denis – first flying buttresses? reconstruction of the upper stories
Clues in smaller churches in the Ile-de-France St.-Martin-des-Champs, 1130s Choir of St.-Denis – ring of light
Wilson: Basic principle of Gothic aesthetics derive from the pointed arch – unity through increasing the number and reducing the autonomy of the elements of design
Île de la Cité in Paris – home to cathedral and royal palace
Nôtre-Dame, Paris b , nave , extensive rebuilding in 1220s, transept 1240s-50s façade
Political map of France, 1154Île-de-France region (the royal domain)
Laon Cathedral, France, late 1150s to 1205, choir 1215, façade façade
Original plans of Nôtre-Dame and Laon Cathedral Nôtre-DameLaon Cathedral
Nôtre-Dame Avg. Gothic cathedral Laon Nôtre-Dame – 5 aisle basilica
Nôtre-Dame – original 4-level nave elevation
Nôtre-Dame – illumination
original plan addition of chapels Nôtre-Dame
columnar piers + sexpartite vaulting Nôtre-Dame, Paris Nave
Nôtre-Dame, Paris ChoirDetail of nave elevation at the gallery level
Nôtre-Dame, Paris Detail of choir with old nave elevation (rebuilt in the 19 th century) and 1220s nave elevation
Nôtre-Dame, Paris as considerably rebuilt with 3-part nave elevation and larger clerestory original nave (1155) and buttressing (1180) including flyers windows and new flying buttresses in the 1220s
Cathedral of Laon, commissioned by duke and bishop Gautier de Mortagne (bishop )
Laon Cathedral, France, late 1150s to 1205, choir 1215, façade façade
Laon Cathedral as planned as built
as planned in 1155 Laon CathedralTournai Cathedral, Belgium Romanesque nave and transept early-mid 12 th century Gothic choir,
Laon Cathedral
Laon Cathedral – crossing and transept
Laon Cathedral – transept chapels with polygonal apse main apse originally semi-circular north transept chapel (Lady Chapel)
Laon Cathedral – chapels with polygonal apse semi-circular apse north transept chapel (Lady Chapel) Abbey church of St.-Remi Reims, France, s The polygonal plan manifests a desire for simultaneous multiple images.
Laon Cathedral –four-part nave elevation Tournai Cathedral, Belgium Romanesque nave early-mid 12 th century
String courses + vault responds make a tiered grid Shafts correspond better to the different ribs of the sexpartite vaults Alternating piers (1170s) failed to relate. First inkling of the coming pilier cantonné in High Gothic. Responds are free cylinders, edge- bedded joined with stone rings (“structural honesty”) Laon Cathedral –four-part nave elevation
thick rubble walls allow free lathe-turned cylinders to be attached by stone rings to the walls Laon Cathedral – nave elevation
thick rubble walls allow free lathe-turned cylinders to be attached by stone rings to the walls Laon Cathedral – nave elevationNôtre-Dame – nave elevation
early flying buttresses at Laon too Laon Cathedral – nave elevation solid quadrant arch under roof of gallery buttress rises too high not to have supported flyers originally
Romanesque façade of St.-Denis Paris, Early Gothic façade of Laon Cathedral
Early Gothic façade of Laon Cathedral Oldest full-width rose window (1175) on Laon’s north transept plate tracery
Early Gothic towers of Laon Cathedral facade Villard de Honnecourt’s drawing of Laon Cathedral façade towers, s
Nôtre-DameLaon Cathedral
High Gothic Cathedrals in France
Richard I of England died unexpectedly in 1199 French king Phillip II conquered Normandy and Anjou starting in 1204 Prestige of the French crown grows as of
Chartres Cathedral, b Bourges Cathedral b Gothic nave elevations 12 th -13 th century
Chartres Cathedral (Nôtre-Dame), Chartres, France,
Bourges Cathedral (St.-Étienne), Bourges, France,
Chartres CathedralBourges Cathedral
Chartres Cathedral I. A. What three architectural qualities did the new urban patrons in France want to see combined in their novel sacred spaces of Gothic cathedrals? fuller spatial unity + greater illumination + increased height