Vocabulary
Villard de Honnecourt lived in 13th century France best known for his portfolio of 33 parchment leaves(animal skin) containing approximately 250 drawings preserved in Paris from about the 1230s. It is located now in theBibliothéque Nationale. The portfolio contains a wide range of religious and secular figures suitable for sculpture, and architectual plans, elevations and details. Most of Villard's fame comes from the uniqueness of his drawings and 19th-century inventiveness in having "erected churches throughout the length and breadth of Christendom." However, there arent any documentary evidence that he designed or built any church anywhere, or that he was in fact an architect.
A fan vault looks like fan-shaped clusters of ribs all of the same curve and spaced, springing from slender columns( Mostly resembles a fan). Sometimes it forms pendant knobs at the centre of the ceiling. This formed was widely used in the Perpendicular Gothic styles.
The Gothic Revival is a European architectural movement which began in the 1740s in England. Admirers of neo-Gothic styles sought to revive medieval forms. The movement had significant influence in Europe and North America, with perhaps more Gothic architecture built in the 19th and 20th centuries.
HallenKirche or hall church is a church with a nave and side aisles of similar height. Unlike the basilica that lets light through a clerestory, a hall church is lit through windows on the side walls.
Pietá is a masterpiece by Michaelangelo. This art piece is a renaissance sculpture made of marble in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City(Italy). It was commisioned for the French cardinal Jean de Billheres, who was a representative in Rome. Originally, the Pietá was for the cardinal's funeral monument until it was moved to the basilica in Italy. It depicts the body of Jesus on the lap of his mother Mary after the Crucifixion. The theme is of Northern origin, popular by that time in France but not yet in Italy. It holds Renaissance ideals of classical beauty with naturalism.
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Doge's Palace, Venice, Italy, b. 1340-1345, expanded and remodeled 1424-1438
The Palazzo Ducale, or Doge’s Palace, was the seat of the government of Venice for centuries. In addition to housing the elected ruler of Venice for life called the Doge, it was the venue for its law courts, its civil administration, and bureaucracy. But after the relocation of these facilities across the Bridge of Sighs, it became the city jail.
The system of elected doges lasted for 1000 years, from 697AD to 1789. The Serene Republic guarded fiercely against hereditary rule, even though we will see that this principle utilized to the advantage of the ruling classes. The doge presided over the committees and thus played a huge role in steering policy; the concept of rule for life was to establish stability. But the Venetians worried of the corruption that joined a lifetime of power established a complex system of checks on the Doge to ensure his uncorrupted leadership. All of his mail was read first by the censor; all foreign personnel of a high stature were received in committee rather than by the doge alone.
The palace’s most impressive room, the Sala del Maggior Consiglio (the Hall of the Great Council), has frieze of paintings of the first 76 doges … with the exception of Marino Faliero (or Marin Falier).
*Fun Fact* - Marino Faliero plot an act to declare himself the prince in 1355, one year after he had been appointed to be the 55th doge. His hatred for the nobility and his age was not supported among them. He pleaded guilty, was beheaded, mutilated and condemned to Damnatio Memoriae, whereas all traces of a person would be expunged from history or memory. Thus, his place on the wall of paintings is empty, covered only by a black veil.
First raised in the ninth century, it was rebuilt many times thereafter, and it was with the construction of the Sala del Maggior Consiglio in 1340 that the present building really took shape. Work continued until 1420, largely under the guidance of architect and sculptor Filippo Calendario.
One of the many acts of vandalism perpetrated by Napoleon upon Venice was the destruction of the sculptures of Foscari and his lions here. The 36 capitals on the lower colonnade of the building have carvings of beasts, flowers and representations of the months of the year. Didactic moral sculptures represent scenes such as Adam and Eve with the Archangel Gabriel, and so on.
Milan Cathedral, Italy, b. 1386
The Duomo, Milan's cathedral, is one of the largest churches in the world. The elegant marble structure contains approximately 135 spires and 3,400 statues. Commissioned in 1386, by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the Duomo was not finished until the early 1800s. The building began life as a Gothic cathedral, but over the centuries the designs went through several modifications, and the finished Duomo is a strange mixture of styles. The central one of its five great doors is bordered with a low-bas-relief of birds and fruits and beasts and insects, which are carved out of the marble that they seem like living creatures-- and the figures are so numerous and the design so complex, that one might study it a week without exhausting its interest...everywhere that a niche or a perch can be found about the enormous building, from summit to base, there is a marble statue.
Strolling on the roof of the one of the largest Catholic cathedrals in the world.
The central one of its five great doors is bordered with a low-bas-relief of birds and fruits and beasts and insects, which are carved out of the marble that they seem like living creatures-- and the figures are so numerous and the design so complex, that one might study it a week without exhausting its interest...everywhere that a niche or a perch can be found about the enormous building, from summit to base, there is a marble statue.
View from roof.
On the roof, rank by rank of carved marble flagstones stand magnificently. The statue on the top of each was the size of a large man, although they all looked like dolls from the perception on the streets.
The Duomo in all its pointy Gothic glory by night.
Great pillars, side aisle and side altar.
The cathedral's five wide naves are reflected in the hierarchic openings of the facade. Even the transepts have aisles.
A view of the choir
East side of the Duomo, with choir windows.
The great windows of the choir are reputed to be the largest in the world.
Detail of choir window.
Saint Ambrose built a new basilica in the beginning of the 5th century, with an adjoining basilica added in 836. When a fire damaged both buildings in 1075, they were rebuilt as the Duomo.
In 1386 the archbishop, Antonio da Saluzzo, began the new project. Even now, some uncarved blocks remain to be turned into sculpture. Gothic construction on the rest of the Duomo was largely complete in the 1880s. The Duomo has been under major renovations and cleaning for several years. Works should be completed by early 2009. The huge building is made of brick faced with marble from the quarries that Gian Galeazzo Visconti donated in perpetuity to the cathedral chapter.
The sculpture known as the Death of the Virgin is a painting by an Italian known as Caravaggio. Done from 1604-1606.
Gothic art told a narrative story through pictures, both Christian and secular.
"Virgin of Paris." Even though the bodies of Mary and Christ are extended and ethereal, the Infant Christ remains a baby, playing with his mother's veil.
