HEAVENLY MANSIONS

The Medieval Gothic Cathedrals are the most beautiful religious buildings the
Christian World has created.Their breathtaking material appearance is a symbol of the
Christian faith as they literally try to reach Heaven.The distrust of the world of images and
belief in the absolute validity of mathematical relationships were invoke the sacred geometry
to bring the Gothic Cathedral into existence as a Heavenly City here on Earth. In 1136 in
St.Denis,Ile-de-France a new facade introduced a new architectural element, the first Rose
Window.And the rest is History.

Science of good modulation:

Without the principate of number, as Augustine calls it in his De Musica, the cosmos
would return to chaos.The ability to lead the mind from the world of appearances to the
contemplation of the divine order is what the Middle Ages called the ’anagogical’ function of
geometry.Only beauty can ever satisfy.In beauty figures, in figures proportion and in
proportion number.The beautiful two main characteristics are,consonance of parts or
proportion and luminosity.For him, music and architecture are sisters,both are children of
number.As architecture mirrors eternal harmony, as music echoes it.Augustine uses
architecture, as he does music to show that number, as apparent in the simplier proportions
that are based on the ’perfect’ ratios is the source of all aesthetic perfection.Harmony and
proportion can actually lead the soul to the experience of God.
Medieval architecture in the solemn language of its forms,and it is not altogether without the
imitations of the divine presense.The icons and the sacred reality they represents.

Augustine’s authority shaped the Middle Ages.His philosophy of beauty was seized upon two
powerful intellectual movements in France.One is the group of eminent Platonists (School of
Chartes) and the other is antispeculative and ascetic trend (Citeaux and Clairvaux).
Thierry of Chartes considered may the most renowed philosopher of Europe with enormous
political and spiritual influence of his contemporary.Bernard of Clairvaux artistic views are
usually described as puritan.
It not only permeated Augustine’s cosmological and aesthetic speculations but reached to the
core of his theological experience.French civilization in the twelfth century may be described
as the synthesis of these two trends which never been connected but Gothic art would not
have come into existence without the cosmology cultivated at Chartes and without the
spirituality of Clairvaux.

The Cathedral School of Chartes:

Chartes was primarily interested in theological and cosmological questions,to be
solved by means of a synthesis of Platonic and Christian idea appoached in a spirit of
tolerance and respect for the thought of antiquity.The emphasis on mathematics, particularly
geometry and the aesthetic consequences of this thought.Mathematics was considered the link
between God and the World, the magical tool that would unlock the secrets of both.
The harmony is establishes throughout the cosmos is represented, not only a musical
compositon but also an artistic one, more specifically as a work of architecture.
Identifying the Platonic world soul with wold harmony, he first interprets the ancient notions
of a music of spheres as referring to the ’heavenly habitations’ where angels and saints ’in the
ineffable sweetness of harmonic modulation render eternal praise toGod’.God is considered as
a master builder and the indissoluble stability of the cosmos is grounded in perfect proportion.
Must not the ideal curch be constructed according to the laws of universe?
Applications of the perfect proportions, determined by rigid geometrical means, became a
technical necessity as well as an aesthetic postulate if the building as to be stable as well as
beautiful.The significance of these views in the history of architecture are that a professional
architect in a classical sense became to exist and no longer considered a mere craftsman but a
scientist.God himself came to be represented in Gothic art and literature as the Creator who
composed the universe according to geometrical laws.It is only by observing these same laws
that architecture became a science in Augustine’s sense.Submitting to geometry the medieval
architect felt that he was imitating the work of his divine master.
The cathedral is perhaps best understood as a model of medieval universe, designed in an
attempt to reproduce the structure of the universe, a significance that transcends its beauty and
practical purpose as a place of public worship.Dual symbolism which is at once a model of
the cosmos and an image of the Celestial City.
On the other hand, theologically the creation appeared as the first of God’s self-
revelations.The medieval man percieved innumerable mystical correspondences and only he
who understood these, understood the ultimate meaning and structure of the cosmos.The
Biblical description of the Heavenly city is pervaded and tranfigured by the vision of an
ineffable harmony.The Gothic sanctuary replaces the Romanesque graphic expression of the
structural system the painted representation of heaven.In the singular perfection of its
proportion, this ordered system presented an object of mystical contemplation applying the
very order of Heaven and Earth. No longer content with the mere image of truth but insisting
upon the realization of its laws. Gothic in the aesthetics,technical and symbolic aspects of its
design was primarily not physical but metaphysical principle connected with the metaphisics
of ’measure and number and weight’.

The monastic house of Citeaux and Clairvaux:

Bernard considered Augustine the greatest theological authority atfer the Apostles.It
was not that the enjoyment of musical consonances subsequently led Augustine to interpret
these as symbols of theological truth, but the consonances were for him echoes of such truth
and the enjoyment that the senses derive from musical harmony.Bernard’s attitude towards
music was quite similar.What he demands of ecclesiastical music is radiate truth that is
’sound’ the great Christian virtues.Its should please the ear and move the heart, a golden
mean that wholesomely affect man’s entire nature.
He condemns the anthromorphic and zoomorphic imagery of Romanesque sclupture and also
against the immense height and immoderate length and width of churches as incompatible
with the spirit of monastic humility.The iconophobic bias he expressed in regard to the
representational arts led to prohibition of illumination in Cistercian manuscripts and to the
exclusion of all imagery.He prepare for the mystical perception of divine truth, spiritual
contemplation in which the world of senses had no place and where the relatively crude
imagery seemed to be without purpose and indeed confusing.
He admits that nonmonastic sanctuaries such as cathedrals have to make concessions to the
sensuous imagination of the laity.

Influences and the development of Gothic:

The monastery should have met the economic challenge because its no longer
corresponded to the taste of the age.Calmer and firmer mode of composition became to
use,straight lines meeting at right angles were now preferred to undulating curves.Figures and
scenes became serene, quiet and monumental and tectonic values gain a new sense.The new
style emerged stimultaneously in France and England, in Germany and Italy.
The impression mostly caused by Byzantine art,the particular apprecition of and sensibility
for qualities, the ability to re-create certain aspects of the aesthetic structure.
This style however was still firmly entrenched in many centers of religious art survived with
particular tenacity in France,where elegant formalism attests a highly sophisticated taste
rather than deep religious emotion.The dissapearance of the representational arts seems to
have cleared the way for an unexcelled purity and perfection of construction and architectural
proportion which is the most conspicious aesthetic achievement of Cistercian architecture.
The medieval experience and philosophy of beauty are not primarily derived from sense
impressions.To the medieval thinker beauty was not a value independent of others, but rather
a radiance of truth, the splendor of ontological perfection and that quality of things which
reflects their origin in God.
This aesthetic preference reflected in the decorative arts with their delight in glittering objects,
shiny materials and polished surfaces.
The development of the stained-glass window replaced the opaque walls with transparent
ones.Luminosity as a feature became demanded.
.According to the Platonizing metaphisics of the Middle Ages, light is the most noble of
natural phenomena, the least material, the closest approximation to pure form.Creative
principle in all things, most active in the Heavenly spheres and it causes growth here on Earth.
St. Augustine developed the notion that intellectual perception results from an act of
illumination in which the divine intellect enlightens the human mind.As an aesthetic
value,light was the essence of the medieval experience of beauty and faith.

Gothic architecture as we seen was conceived and was defined as applied geometry.Such
important elements as the pointed arch, sequence of identical, oblong bays, buttressing arches
visible above the roofs are encouraged the eye to sweep heavenwards from wall to vaulted
ceiling.Gohic architecture may be described as two trends growing from the same soil and
realizing the same religious and aesthetic postulates.
Gothic distinguished itself from Romanesque with its handling of space.The great change
from Romanesque to Gothic was the sturdy and massive proportions released with the
introduction of a lighter stone. With the fusion of separate divisions and the dissapearance of
the aisles the congregation gathered into one united body.The bays of the nave are covered at
right angles by vaulting so bay after bay becomes more rapid and no longer static.The chancel
is now found upon the same level as the nave.
The cathedral returns to the single-directional layout, in which the west end remains clearly a
facade, an entrance and the gateway, and no longer has any independent spaces.The Gothic
church building independent of its meaning as a heavenly city with the symbolism that shows
on many levels.

(Canterbury Cathedral) (Durham Cathedral)

(St.Denise Abbey, Paris – interior )

St.Denis Abbey near Paris considered as being the first Gothic building (1136-
1140).Commenced by Abbot Suger and marks the beginning of the Gothic tendency in
architecture and its transition from the Romanesque style.His aims was entirely opposed to
the puritanism of Bernard and he developed a new conception of ritual imagery.The cathedral
that Suger built became a vessel for his new conception of the meaning of the church as a
heavenly capital.
Western Gothic arose in northern French region of Ile-de-France,Champagne, Normandy and
Picardy however the formative principle of the Gothic was already set in Normandy.
In 1040-67 the abbey church of Jumiéges introduced a new arrangement of walls.Churhes in
Caen developed further with a new structural character in relation to the wall by the play of
light and shadow.Another important achievement is to be found in the technique of vault
building.The pointed arch became to use which was adaptable to the most varied forms of the
ground plan.Can be widely or narrowly separated, can be of different length or widths without
disturbing the harmony of the whole.Wider spaces can be covered and the ratio of vertical
stress and lateral thrust is entirely altered so that the vertical pressure is greater and the
horizontal is less.The constructional principale of Gothic depends on the almost complete
relief of exterior walls from the vertical and horizontal stresses of the arch.The ribs which has
previously been bonded into the keystones constitute an independent cross element which is
statically balanced even without the in-filling arched surfaces and stands of itself.

(St. Bartholomew-the-Great – West Smithfield – London)

St.Bartholomew-the-Great:
St.Bartholomew-the-Great is one of London’s oldest churches.It was founded in 1123
as an Augustinian priory.One of the few buildings which are survived the Great Fire of
London in 1666.
Impressive example of Norman church architecture, with round arches and billet molding
running continuously from pier to pier in the choir. The most notable feature within the
church is the tomb of the founder and first prior, Hic Jacet Raherus.
Bit dark inside but the entering shafts of light combined with the magnificent stonework and
the massive columns give this church quite a 'presence'.At the transept there are four arches,
two pointed and two round which enable them to fit in lesser space.
The multi-storied nave arcade with the columns and curved arches, above the triforium
arcades, passages and the celestory windows, the beautiful ambulatory and the semi-circled
cloister behind the altar are illustrate the massive strength of the early Norman architecture.
The Norman arcade and triforium of the choir are a striking example of the sturdiness of the
Romanesque style.
It seems that there were two apsidal or side chapels which also had apses and a Lady Chapel
was added at the east end at a later date. On the south side of the church lay the conventual
buildings which surrounded the cloister. The plan was the standard Benedictine plan in which
the domestic buildings followed the style of the church. The whole establishment was closely
interrelated in all its parts and formed on harmonious and dignified whole.
The great arches of the main arcade are raised upon massive cylindrical piers and are
crowned with a series of capitals of billet moulding which follows the curve of the arches and
connects them.In this way restores the proportion to the design.
The main vault of St Bartholomew's is absent but the early type of barrel vault may be seen
at St John's chapel where it spans the nave and ends in a half dome over the apse. This is the
feature of Romanesque architecture which kept. During the 18th century the church was used
as a hospital fot the poor, warehouse, a store, an inn and a blacksmith's forge. The facade of
the church, a mixture of styles due to various additions through the ages. Norman masonry is
visible in the cloister to the right of the church door, a brick built Jacobean tower (containing
a pre-Reformation set of bells) rises above, and the porch is a Victorian work by Sir Aston
Webb. The light airiness of Wren, and the pretentions of the Victorians, cannot be seen here.
What you have is superb Norman glory.The old quire now serving as a nave, the old
sanctuary as a chancel, and north and south aisles with bays divided by massive Romanesque
columns.

(Westminster Abbey –London -)

Westminster Abbey:
The Westminster Abbey was designed by the royal master mason, Henry de Reyns
(Rheims). We do not know if he was French or English, though he had certainly studied a
number of continental churches. Westminster Abbey is more French in style than any other
English church.
The Abbey does show on a grander often exaggerated and more consistent scale certain
characteristics which can only be found occasionally before it was built therefore it has been
considered as a revolutionary building with two remarkable innovation.First of all it returned
to the apse and ambulatory plan which had only ceased to be used since the early twelfth
century furthermore a strange inteference might be discovered that the aisles and the eastern
chapels may have been completed some time before 1245 when the royal building work by
Henry III was begun.
The main vessel 31m high would be the tallest in England.The design of the internal elevation
of the main vessels of the church consist of a tall, acutely pointed arcade, a tribune with its
own external windows and a clerestory.
In the choir the vaulting is quadripartite and has a longitudinal ridge rib also wall ribs.The
stilted wall rib that present at Westminster, the mass of masonry at the springing of the vault
would normally be the case in France known as tas de charge.This is French architectural
practice but with a strong British accent.
These latter are very stilted in the French fashion as so the bearing surfaces of the clerestory
wall which makes possible to have wide windows.There are four polygonal chapels set to the
ambulatory modelled on the Cathedral of Amiens.The transepts have both eastern and western
aisles and are little wider than the nave.
Another important innovation at Westminster is the character of the window treatment.The
actual handling of the stonework is what is known as bar tracery, is not made by piercing
apertures in the stone filling of the window but by filling the head of the window opening
with a skeleton construction of arches.This method appears at Reims about 1212.
The detail treatment of the interiors is extremely remarkable.The piers are entirely of Purbeck
marble and have moulded caps, the main arches of the arcade and the spandrels between them
covered with diaper.The arches of the tribune storey are built double in order to carry the very
thick wall of the clerestory level.The mouldings of the tribune arches are even more
elaborately treated with decorative carvings. Westminster Abbey is the coronation-church of
the sovereigns and the resting place of the monarchs and outstanding citizens of Britain. It is a
premier historical monument tied more closely to every major event in England's history than
any other historical structure in Great Britain.

Metaphysical concepts do not readily spark the artist’s imagination.The visions of

Plato, Augustine and Dionysus had to aquire a pericular relevance beyond the realm of
abstract speculation before they call for artistic expression.The metaphysics of music aquired
such significance by being absorbed into the religious movement led by St.Bernard.By being
made the basis of the first cosmological system, Platonism dazzled the entire age.
The birth of Gothic results from the joined impact of these ideas.
 Bibliography

Louis Grodecki: Gothic Architecture- (History of world architecture)

Contributions by Anne Prache& Roland Recht,copyright 1978 by Electa Editrice, Milan.
Paperback edition first published in GB in 1986.Faber&Faber Ltd.

Geoffrey Webb: Architecture in Britain, The Middle Ages

The Pelican History of Art, edited by Nikolaus Pevsner,
Published by Penguin Books Ltd.Middlesex, 1956.

Hans H. Hofshatter: Living Architecture:Gothic

Reword by Guy Derbarats,edited by Henri Stierlin,plans by Jean Durret
Printed in Switzerland, photo composition:Filmsatz AG,Berne
Published in GB in 1970 by Macdonald and Co.Ltd.

O.von Simson:The Gothic Cathedral

New Material copyright, 1962 by Bollingen Foundation,second edition revised with
additions,1962, published by Bollingen Foundation, New York, NY.
Manufactured in USA by Kingsport Press INC.,Kingsport, Tennesse
Designed by Andor Braun

Links

www.ourpasthistory.com/England/st-bartholomew-the-great
www.storyoflondon.com
www.geocities.com/margademmers/stbarth/index.html
www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/westminster-abbey/henry-iii-gothic-church