GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE. The name applied to a style of architecture is a misnomer, since the Goths never created any architecture of their own. It has, however, come into general use to designate comprehen sively the medieval architecture of northern and western Europe of the period from 1150 to 1500, because in the 16th century the Renais sance writers and artists looked upon all medi aval architecture as ((barbarous° because dif ferent from antique classical models, and at tributed its origin to the Goths who overran large areas in Europe in the ((Dark Ages.° The name thus became too firmly fixed to be dis placed, in spite of its unscientific origin.
Definition.— While some writers deny that any one name can properly be applied to so vast a body of architecture as is commonly in cluded under the name of Gothic, the following definition of the term is sufficiently compre hensive to cover the styles to which it is com monly applied and sufficiently specific to exclude all others: Gothic architecture is that style which grew up in northern and western Eu rope, from germinant principles previously de veloped in the so-called Romanesque styles, taking on new forms and extended applications in progressive solutions of the problem of the construction and decoration of church edifices vaulted throughout in stone, especially of churches having three or five aisles whereof the central one was loftier than the others and was lighted by a clearstory. The style thus de veloped, first of all and to the highest perfec tion in northern France, was varied in the sev eral countries to which it spread, and its forms were applied to a great variety of buildings, both religious and secular. Its fundamental structural principles were the employment of ribbed grotned vaults to cover the several aisles, the concentration of loads and thrusts at particular points, and the special disposition of masonry at those points to support the loads and resist the thrusts, with a corresponding re duction of the massiveness of walls elsewhere. The controlling principle of the design was the frank expression everywhere of the actual structural framework. The decoration was of two kinds: first, the adornment of the struc tural members by moldings and carving; sec ondly, pictorial, didactic and symbolic adorn ment by means of sculpture, stained glass and painting. Applied ornament in stucco, marble sheathing and mosaic is wholly wanting, except in Italy. The characteristic features developed in this architecture were the ribbed vault, the flying arch, buttress and pinnacle, the pointed arch, clustered piers, traceried windows and towers with spires. As the style spread to re gions where timber was abundant, scientifically designed ceiling-roofs of wood were often substituted for stone vaults, and in other re gions brick was used for walls and vaults in stead of stone; but even in these the concen tration of strains, the frank expression of the structure and the employment of the character istic forms and decoration of the style justify their inclusion under the general name of Gothic.
Historic Development.— By the middle of the 12th century the monastic builders of north ern France had developed the ribbed groined vault, of both the four-part and six-part type (see VAULTING) sufficiently to enable them to vault successfully the high, broad central aisles of a remarkable series of large and lofty churches with clearstories; they had begun to use the pointed arch with increasing frequency, i and the flying arch and buttress, in a some what crude form, had appeared in a number of churches. But the masonry was still massive, the windows small, and the dead weight of the structure throughout was the main reliance for its stability. What distinguishes the early
Gothic buildings is the systematic effort to divide the loads from the thrusts, and to con centrate the resistance to the latter in deep buttresses against• the outside walls, transmit ting the vault-thrusts to these by flying half arches across the intervening aisle-roofs. The clearstory walls and the piers and arches carry ing them could then be made much lighter, and the side-aisle walls between the buttresses re duced to mere screen walls.. This lightening of the walls was greatly helped by increasing the size of the windows, which increase was further stimulated by the development of stained glass, and tracery was devised in order to divide these larger windows into narrower windows or alights," because wide areas of stained glass are impracticable and unsafe. In this scientific development of structural light ness the pointed arch was found to be the most flexible and adaptable form, and soon displaced completely the round arch, while the greater lightness of construction without loss of stability made possible a marked increase of height. Accompanying all this progress in what may be called the engineering of church building there was at least an equal advance in artistic taste, in elegance of execution, in refinement of de tail, in decoration by figure-sculpture, orna mental carving and stained glass, and in the design of the tracery of the great window openings. In the carving the classic and By zantine traditions of the Romanesque period were rapidly outgrown; suggestions of orna mental form were drawn from nature, espe daily from the foliage of common plants, and religious symbolism added a world of new con ceptions in carved stone, in which beasts, birds, human figures, monsters and grotesques, ingeni ously and often humorously worked into capi tals, corbels, moldings and other details, served at once an allegorical and decorative purpose. The portals of churches were made deep and vast and peopled with saints, angels, apostles and martyrs, and the windows glowed with brilliant pictures of Biblical scenes and reli gious allegories. This transformation of eccle siastical architecture was effected mainly in the building of great cathedral churches. Dur ing the second half of the 12th century the French bishops acquired much of the power and prestige previously held by the abbots of the great Benedictine monasteries, and attracted to their aid the people especially of the episcopal cities, where the new cathedrals arose, not merely as bishops' churches but also as civic enterprises, as great peoples' churches, rivaling and surpassing even such noble abbeys as that of Saint Denis. Between 1130 and 1200 the cathedrals of Bayeux, Bayonne, Laon, Lisieux, Noyon, Poitiers, Senlis and Soissons were en tirely rebuilt, or their rebuilding begun ; while wholly new cathedrals were begun at Bourges, Chartres, Paris and Tours. During the follow ing half century the great cathedrals of Amiens, Auxerre, Coutances, Evreux, Reims and Rouen were begun, besides many fine parish churches and royal chapels like the exquisite Sainte Chapelle at Paris. As the style developed it was applied to a great variety of buildings; it advanced in decorative richness, but slowly declined in power with the diminished demand for new cathedrals, of which only one, that at Albi, was erected in the 14th century. Chapels, parish churches like Saint Ouen and Saint Maclou at Rouen, were erected in the later phase of the style, called from the flame-like curves of its tracery and earlier buildings were partly remodeled in the same period, like the choir of the Abbey of Mont Saint Michel, the facade of Rouen, and the transept fronts of Beauvais.