architects go to the basilica in saint-denis for the remains of abbot suger's choir, an early essay in gothic architecture, so early in fact it is the birth, or at least one of the births, of gothic. this isn't it.
standing in suger's choir, I accidentally turned the other way and looked down the aisle, built with the nave a hundred years later, a hundred years into the frenzied development of gothic architecture, and I realized there are at least two good reasons to visit saint-denis.
each pier here is subdivided into twelve thin shafts, each shaft playing its separate part in defining bays, arches and vaults as they rise. we might call this the analytical aspect of gothic, except no amount of analysis will bring about an expression of such insistence. notice how the piers or columns proper are nowhere to be seen, the whole lost to the endless repetition of its smallest parts.
by contrast, the nave is all glass and light and apparent clarity - how the gothic builders wanted their work perceived. I preferred the aisles for their shadows and compulsive monomania.
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more words, yada, yada, yada.
Tags: basilique saint-denis paris france gothic cathedral cathédrale abbé abbot suger architecture arkitektur arquitetura arquitectura architectuur architektur architettura jenskristianseier seier+seier creative commons CC
salisbury cathedral 1220-1258.
vertical panorama from trinity chapel, completed 1225.
we have forgotten what religion was. that people came to salisbury believing they were in the presence of the divine, whether in the shape of local saints, the mother mary or the lord himself, called upon by elaborate, processional rituals.
without religion, we have no other word than magic for what this building offered. its magic was supported by the architecture which along the great length of the church changed from the grand spaces of the nave and choir into the much more intimate trinity chapel from where this photo was taken. and as such, any notion that this was the result of some great collaborative, collective effort must go. it was the work of an elite who knew how their work would affect people - master masons and carpenters acting as architects and structural engineers for a wildly ambitious client.
once, in architectural history, the idea was held that english gothic peaked at one time and fell into a decline as if almost necessitating the advent of renaissance architecture. we didn't see that on our trip, neither the peak nor the decline. english gothic went from strength to strength with only priorities changing and hard-won technical advances, achieved through trial and error. there was nothing to suggest this could not have gone on, had it not been stopped by politics - that massive redistribution of wealth and power known as the reformation.
every stone and every line here meant something we have since lost the ability to see. to us the stone is more stone than before, as a clever man once said. yet here in the trinity chapel, the illusionism is still striking; its vaults are no longer held up by solid piers, but rather appear to be floating on air, only held down by marble shafts, thin as rope.
the elite behind such a design were the NASA of their day, with preposterous budgets and ambitions to match. had they been given another century, they would have gone to the moon in a spiky stone vessel.
more words, yada, yada, yada.
Tags: salisbury cathedral gothic early english stone vaults architecture arquitectura architektur arquitetura Architectuur Architettura jenskristianseier seier+seier creative commons CC
salisbury cathedral, wiltshire, england, 1220-1258.
bracing arches at the eastern transept.
Tags: salisbury cathedral gothic early english stone vaults architecture arquitectura architektur arquitetura Architectuur Architettura seier+seier creative commons CC
salisbury cathedral, wiltshire, england, 1220-1258.
nave vaults from a visit the following morning - the cool of early english expressed in grey and black.
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hovedskibets hvælv set næste morgen - den tidlige, engelske gotik er kendt for sin kølighed, her udtrykt i gråt og sort.
Tags: salisbury cathedral gothic early english stone vaults architecture arquitectura architektur arquitetura Architectuur Architettura seier+seier creative commons CC
salisbury cathedral, wiltshire, england, 1220-1258.
tower and spire, completed around 1330.
from the cathedral close, weather clearing up.
Tags: salisbury cathedral gothic decorated stone tower spire architecture arquitectura architektur arquitetura Architectuur Architettura seier+seier creative commons CC