Stained glass

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…

Marvin Trachtenberg, “Suger’s Miracles, Branner’s Bourges: Reflections on “Gothic Architecture” as Medieval Modernism”, Gesta, 39.2 (2000)m 183-205. In his article, Marvin Trachtenberg aims to redefine our understanding of words like “modern” and “historicism” in regards to Gothic architecture. To prove his point, he uses Suger’s St. Denis along with Bourges Cathedral as examples, but he begins with a lengthy investigation into the language we use to describe Gothic architecture, including the…

While Pirenne exaggerated Gregory while explaining a strong Merovingian poetic tradition, he takes Gregory’s writing too literally when he describes 6th century Frankish architecture and makes a claim contrary to archeological evidence concerning Merovingian architectural prowess. The Frankish city Clermont, according to Pirenne, was “marked by Byzantine luxury,” (Pirenne, 134). In this case, Gregory agrees with Pirenne, describing the church walls as, “adorned with many kinds of marble,”…

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…

As a young girl growing up in NYC when I first was afforded the opportunity to see this cathedral I remember thinking how massive and overwhelming this building was, especially when entering through ornately carved archways, massive portals which measure 18 feet high, six feet wide, and weighs three tons and, under the watchful eyes of Jesus Christ. Over the years, because this structure is a part of the neighborhood panorama, the beauty of the structure promotes a sense of the purity and…

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…

Roger E. Reynolds, “Liturgy and the Monument”, in Artistic Integration in Gothic Buildings (Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press, 1995), 57-68. In his article, Roger Reynolds argues that liturgy and cathedrals and a relationship of mutual adaptation. He argues that they would each adapt their forms and traditions to the other depending on which preceded in each specific case, (i.e. an older building with contemporary liturgy, or a new building being built to fit liturgical…

Romanesque art obtained its title as a result of the extensive usage of stone vaulting and stone sculpture within the architectural development of churches (Kleiner, 2012). The Romanesque age is the first era that earned its title as a result of an artistic style since Archaic and Classical Greece (Kleiner, 2012). In the 11th and 12th century European architecture embraced a medieval style that incorporated Roman design in which historians titled Romanesque (Kleiner, 2012). The ecclesiastical…

house. People looked at this type of architecture as it was the medieval days. The windows were one of the most important pieces for this styled house. These windows were really tall and wide. These windows were panes of glass which supposedly makes the building light up more. The glass was most of the time in a criss-crossed pattern. Architects worked harder on this type…

sense as, stained glass windows, paintings, ceilings, statues or sculptures, even the architectural design of the building itself. It wasn’t until the twelfth century that producing stained glass became an art form like sculpture or painting. In the medieval period many churchgoers were illiterate, so the stories in the stained glass were not just for design they were ways of delivering messages to all viewers. “Stained glass embedded religious beliefs into the very walls”(History of stained…