Chapter 6: The Medieval Period Gothic 11001400

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Chapter 6 The Medieval Period
Gothic(1100-1400)
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Chronology

• Visual Arts -
• Notre Dame Cathedral of Paris (1163)
• Wells Cathedral (c. 1190)
• Salisbury Cathedral (c. 1220)
• Amiens Cathedral (c. 1225)
• Reims Cathedral (c. 1225-1299)
• Chartres Cathedral rebuilt (c.1240)
• Giotto (1266-1337)

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Chronology

• Music
• Abbess Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1197)
• Bernart de Ventadorn (fl. 1150-1180)
• Perotin (c. 1150-c. 1240)
• Organum (c. 1182)
• Trouvères, troubadours, and minnesingers (c.
  1200)
• Guillaume de Machaut (c. 1300-1377)

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Chronology

• Historical Figures Events -
• The Crusades (late 11th to late 13th centuries)
• Roger Bacon (1214-1294)
• Magna Carta (1215)
• St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274)
• Dante Alighieri (1265-1321)
• Papacy in Avignon (1305)
• Geoffrey Chaucer (1340-1400)
• Black Death (c. 1348)

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Study Objectives

• Pronunciation Guide (p.102)
• Study how humanism and secularism found their way
  into the arts.
• Learn about the Gothic arch, the skeletal frame
  that made great height and enormous window space
  possible in architecture.
• Understand how polyphonic music became an
  artistic form in which interwoven melodies and
  rhythmic elements produced a skillful interplay.

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General characteristics

• The spiritual attitude that dominated the
  Romanesque age was not as strong and sure during
  the Gothic period.
• Gothic style began in France
• Gradual movement toward humanism
• Focus on accomplishments of humankind
• Intellectualism and religious skepticism that
  eventually caused the separation of Church and
  State
• Artistic consequence was a body of creative art
  that was intellectually ordered and demonstrated
  secular influences but still fundamentally
  expressed the religious fervor of the age

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Scholasticism

• Scientific system of philosophy
• Religious teachings/beliefs could be explained
  and clarified by means of logic and reason
• A product of the medieval university which had
  evolved from earlier monastic schools
• Quadrivium - Mathematics - arithmetic,
  geometry, astronomy and music
• Trivium - rhetoric, grammar and logic
• Subjects were taught as systematic studies -
  reduced to strict rules and formulas.
• Scholastic philosophy systemized salvation
• Worship tended toward empty formalism
• The Church was losing its moral and political
  power, as well as spiritual significance

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Social changes

• Focus on afterlife was weakened by Crusaders
  influenced by cultural and social codes that
  differed with the customs of their own lands
• Crusders new experiences, as well as
  scholasticism made them skeptical of religious
  doctrine that threatened punishment of hell for
  every pleasurable impulse
• Focus on Love for Mary cause/effect in
  development of courtly love
• Poerty and songs of troubadors and trouvères

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Architecture

• Gothic builders solved height limitations
• Developed the pointed arch and flying buttresses
  (half arches that transferred outward thrust to
  piers outside the walls.
• Notre Dame cathedral or Paris example of a
  complete buttressing system (fig. 6.1 6.2,
  p.107,108)
• Abbot Sugers ideas about light and beauty in the
  service of the church was of great importance
• Gothic cathedrals of France
• Reims, Chartres, Notre Dame of Paris, Amiens.
• Gothic cathedral was creation of towns bishops

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Architecture

• English Gothic
• Evolved from French counterpart
• Early English (rather plain style)
• Salisbury cathedral (fig. 6.5, p.112)
• Decorated (more ornate use of carving)
• Perpendicular (style that emphasizes long
  vertical lines)
• Kings College Chapel (colorplate 16)

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Stained Glass

• Windows served many purposes
• Admitted the much-needed light that was almost
  absent in the Romanesque period
• They were magnificent decorations that gave the
  interior a warm atmosphere
• They were a means of instruction
• Stained glass was a craft that developed from the
  stylized mosaics of the Byzantine and Romanesque.
• Window from Chartres Cathedral (colorplate 17)

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Sculpture

• Although essentially treated the same as in
  Romanesque, there was more expressive feeling and
  naturalism
• While sculpture continued to be integral part of
  architecture, Gothic sculptors began to create
  their figures independently of the columns
• Virgin Mary cult influence replaced artistic
  portrayal of Jesus
• Sculpture of Amiens cathedral shows Gothic spirit
  in stone
• Figures of Apostles from portal are set apart
  from the wall position of hands heads make
  them seem more alive and real(fig. 6.7, p. 116)

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Painting

• Painting did not rise to the level of importance
  of sculpture until late in the 13th and 14th
  centuries
• Like architecture sculpture, painting used a
  high degree of symbolism to be used for biblical
  storytelling
• The Annunciation of the Siena Cathedral altar
  (colorplate 18)
• Lamentation of Christ by Giotto (colorplate 19)
• From the fresco Life of Christ on the walls of
  Arena Chapel
• Fresco is a technique of painting on fresh plaster

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Music

• Developments in polyphony, rhythmic organization,
  and form were the major achievements in Gothic
  music
• Polyphony (counterpoint) adds additional melodic
  lines to original chant melodies (cantus firmus)
  - still highly regulated (intellectual/mathmatic)
• Organum was the early form of harmony which is
  the foundation of most Western music.
• Another manifestation of humanism was Gothic
  composers interest in putting their names to
  their works

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Music

• The Mass is the main form for music in the church
• Church music used triple (compound) meter for its
  rhythmic structure to symbolize the Trinity
• Setting would have six or more sections with a
  variety of moods and various contrapuntal
  procedures used in a single work
• Machaut, Kyrie from Notre Dame mass
• (ex. 6.3, p. 123)

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Music

• In contrast to sacred works of the church, there
  is significant secular music from minstrel
  singers in the Gothic period -
• usually of a courtly nature, but many were
  related to religious subjects, especially to the
  love of the Virgin Mary.
• Troubadours, originating in southern France
• Trouvères, from northern France
• Minnesingers, from Germany
• Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1197) among the
  earliest Gothic composers to be known by name

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• Next Time
• Ch. 5 6
• Review for test