Rose window

the cathedral’s one hundred and seventy-six stained glass windows, or on any of the four thousand exterior sculptures. The building is completely anonymous. But the legacy of these anonymous builders…

Gislebertus, a french sculptor who made major contributions to the cathedral of Saint Lazare was the sole creator of the lintel sculpture Eve (Encyclopedia Britannica “Giselbertus”). Gislebertus was a well-known sculptor due to his exhibition of expressionism carving and technical proficiency. With the rise of religion and the wide growth of Christianity throughout Europe, Gislebertus had the demonstration of the expressive range relief of Eve. The discovery of Eve was at the north portal of the…

The Durham Cathedral stands out as one of the most elaborate and beautifully constructed cathedrals in England. This very distinct Norman architecture has made many of the English cathedrals very iconic in design dated around this same period. This cathedral, constructed between 1093 and 1133, uses very large columnar piers to support the entire structure from the nave arcades, to the grand central openings, to the large ceiling vaults. From the pictures I can conjure up, the building is…

1) Who was Abbott Suger and why was he important? What surprising “building material” did he use? Abbot Suger is the man behind the visionary masterpiece, Saint Denis, which is a stained-glass piece of work that created historical importance in Cathedral glass structure. He is very important for his early work of gothic architecture and his style inspired many builders for years. The building material he incorporated in his work was the concept of light to reflect a symbol of god inside the…

In this chapter of Murray’s book, he examines gothic cathedrals as objects of desire and the relationships between these objects and their agents of its creation. Using Saint Denis as its main example, Murray uses the writings of three principle agents: the ecclesiastical patron, artisans and financers. For his example of Saint Denis, he focused on the writings, illustrations, and correspondence of Abbot Suger, Gervase of Canterbury, and Villard de Honnecourt. He begins by reflecting on how a…

structurally necessitated by the height of the nave and the unprecedented size of the windows. The height represents a closer proximity to the heavens thereby becoming closer to the…

There are many characteristics that help identify a structure as Gothic. Tall pointed archways, ribbed vaults, flying buttresses, and stained-glass windows are just a few. These characteristics came from wanting to make the buildings taller and more noticeable. Notre Dame de Paris is more than seven hundred years old and it is the only most recent of holy houses to occupy ancient sacred ground. Notre Dame de Paris is the worlds ambassador of gothic cathedrals. This cathedral was finished in 1250…

The Cathedral of St. Paul, designed in 1905 by Emmanuel Louis Masqueray, at the time was referred to as “a modern building” (Cathedral of St. Paul, n.d.). It was designed in the Beaux Arts style popularized between 1893-1929, considered a “revival style” and characterized by heavy ornamentation, large features and “heavy masonry”. Roman arches and columns are often used in this style (Architectural Styles.org, n.d.) That style can be seen in the arches, domes, symmetry and lines. One of the…

As I opened the door to the abandoned, old, haunted house on my street, I started to think that maybe this wasn't such a good idea. I scolded myself for wanting to turn back, and hesitantly stepped inside to explore. My ombre hair and dark brown eyes made me practically camouflage in the tan-brown, wood-paneled foyer, except for my old grey hooded sweatshirt and comfortable red sweat pants. I was the average height for a 16 year old, maybe a little more scrawny and immature. I could feel the…

The bad, which was Chillingworth in the story was represented with the black flower, and the good, which is Hester and Pearl is portrayed with the wild rose bush. The author described the “... ugly edifice… in the soil that had so early borne the black flower of a civilized society, a prison,” (Hawthorne 35) to convey the characteristics of bad. Black in the context directly relates to the devil's name…