Gothic Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting: Key Elements

Gothic Architecture

Gothic architecture, the largest edifice of Middle Ages society, shows a change in Christian sensitivity. It is linked to Neoplatonic philosophy in the concept of light. The cathedral is the house of God and the reflection of heavenly Jerusalem. The formal elements are interrelated. The Romanesque building is the predecessor of the monumental Gothic cathedral, which highlights the upward trend.

Types of Plans

• Basilica: three or five naves, a high transept, and a hypertrophied head with a presbytery, ambulatory, and radial chapels.
• Hall plan.

Facades have needle towers and capitals, and the doors are in gables. Crown-like decorations are rosettes and Gothic tracery. Stained glass appears, and color painting disappears from murals.

Gothic Sculpture

Sculpture is initially dependent on architecture. It enhances mobility and graceful, naturalist models. Gestural realism is obtained by outlining a half-smile. The figures are more voluminous than those of the Romanesque. Sculpture is linked to architecture in pediments, archivolts, thresholds, jambs, canopies, and mainels. It is didactic.

Iconography

Christ: Represented on the tympanum of the final judgment. Christ crucified inspires compassion and draws us closer through pain. Christ in Majesty is surrounded by the four tetramorphs.

The Mother of God: The Virgin Mary with the child develops a more communicative and naturalistic relationship, abandoning the hieratic Romanesque style. The Dormition of the Virgin Mary and the Annunciation show when the angel appeared to the Virgin, telling her that she would be the mother of the Son of God. The Visitation depicts the Mother of God visited by her cousin, St. Elizabeth.

Gothic Painting

The use of windows leads to the disappearance of mural painting. Painting develops on panels, giving rise to the altarpiece. The origin of the altarpiece is in the retrotabulum. There are four styles:

Gothic Styles

1. Linear Gothic: Dominance of the line over color, unreal proportions of figures, flat colors, ambient light without shadows, short perspective marked by neutral or geometric backgrounds, and isocephaly.
2. International Gothic: The tempera technique of drawing on the panel is overturned by color. Details are cared for, foreshortening, volume, and shapes of clothing. Movements are still unrealistic but more active, with sinuous lines and vertical perspective.
3. Italo-Gothic: Predominance of drawing, naturalism and humanization of faces, flat colors with top light, use of natural light, movement of figures, robust volumes, and solid composition. The representation of scenes is influenced by Byzantine painting, such as the Annunciation of the Uffizi.
4. Flemish Gothic: Oil technique exceeds tempera. Rich and varied treatment of light and perspective, and a taste for detailed objects.