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Course: Medieval Europe + Byzantine > Unit 10
Lesson 3: Gothic art in France- Birth of the Gothic: Abbot Suger and the ambulatory at St. Denis
- St. Denis Ambulatory (quiz)
- Chartres Cathedral
- Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres (quiz)
- The Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris (before the fire)
- Reims Cathedral
- Reims Cathedral and World War I
- Amiens Cathedral
- Amiens cathedral
- Sainte-Chapelle, Paris
- Bible moralisée (moralized bibles)
- Saint Louis Bible (moralized bible)
- Saint Louis Bible (moralized bible)
- Humanizing Mary: the Virgin of Jeanne d’Evreux
- Jean le Noir, Bourgot (?), and workshop, Miniature of Christ’s Side Wound and Instruments of the Passion from the Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg
- Ivory casket with scenes from medieval romances
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Amiens Cathedral
Amiens Cathedral, Robert de Luzarches, Thomas de Cormont and Renaud de Cormont, Amiens, France, begun 1220. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- If the figures in the portals were originally painted, why haven't they been repainted for any restorations?(3 votes)
- How would we know what exact colors to repaint them?(7 votes)
- At6:05,when we see the register below Christ,we see the damned being "escorted" into hell...all the figures appear to be male. Is there a specific reason for this?(2 votes)
- An interesting observation. If theological, it said something about a theologian's opinion of women. If political, it may have been something about the men of Aimens being more worthy of hell than the women. If related to the person or persons who did the carving, it may be that he/she/they was better at carving penises than breasts.(3 votes)
Video transcript
(upbeat piano music) - [Beth] We're standing
in the square outside of the beautiful 13th
century Cathedral of Amiens. This is a Gothic masterpiece
both in architecture and in sculpture. - [Steven] This is such a
great example of the Gothic because the front of the
building is not so much a stone wall, but a
kind of complex surface that's almost like lace in
a way that it's opened up. - [Beth] Starting at the bottom, we have these three large doorways and that mirrors what we would find inside the church, a large, central nave and then smaller aisles on either side. But, to call these doors is
such an oversimplification. These are decorated with dozens of figures and almost act like funnels that draw us into the church. - [Steven] Yes, there is
a sense of movement in, but at the same time there's a sense of amplification outward. It's almost as if the
messages of the figures that are carved within these portals, that their voices are amplified
by the multiple arches that radiate outward. - [Beth] And, above the
doorway, we see pointed arches decorated with quatrefoils
and then typically for many Gothic churches,
we see a row of figures standing in niches and this
is called the king's gallery. - [Steven] And, then on
either side, two towers which are actually later additions. - [Beth] And in between
that, a rose window. - [Steven] The king's gallery
functions as a Tree of Jesse. That is, the lineage
of Old Testament kings that Christians believe were
the ancestors of Christ. - [Beth] One way we could
understand this is to think about this left portal as telling us
the stories of a local saint, who would have been especially venerated by the people of Amiens
as their first bishop. On the right we have Mary, the intercessor between mankind and God. And, then in the center, we
see Christ presented to us in three ways. - [Steven] Let's take a
close look at the portal that's devoted to the Virgin Mary. - [Beth] Here we see Mary
holding the Christ child on the trumeau. - [Steven] She's stepping
on a creature that has a human head but attached
to a lizard-like body which represents evil
that she is stamping out. The virgin is so elegantly represented. She holds the Christ
child, her palm is forward as if she's presenting him to us. You can still make out the
blue paint that would have originally covered her dress. - [Beth] So much of the
paint is still visible. You can see reds and blues and golds. - [Steven] She's crowned
because this is a representation of Mary as the Queen of Heaven. And above her we see an
architectural structure that is a kind of tabernacle. And, within it is a representation of the Ark of the Covenant. And, that's the ark that would have held the 10 Commandments. - [Beth] And, on either side of that we see three patriarchs. And, above that in the tympanum, two scenes from the life of the Virgin. The Dormition, or the death of the Virgin. - [Steven] That's on the left. - [Beth] And, on the right, the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Mary was understood to
have been assumed bodily into Heaven and we see
angels lifting her up. - [Steven] Both of those
sculptures, although they tell different stories seem
so similar at first. And, I love the slight distinctions that help us tell one from the other. On the right, Mary is
lifted ever so slightly. - [Beth] And, if we
move up to the very top of the tympanum, we see a
scene that is quite common in Gothic sculpture and
that's the Coronation of the Virgin Mary. Angels are placing a crown on
the head of the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven and
she's surrounded by angels. - [Steven] Let's spend a moment looking at some of the jamb figures
on either side of the doorway. We see the Annunciation. On the left is the
archangel Gabriel announcing to the Virgin Mary that
she will bear Christ. - [Beth] And, then next to
that we see the Visitation. This is Mary being visited
by her cousin Elizabeth who's pregnant with St. John the Baptist. Mary is pregnant with the Christ child. - [Steven] I love the sense of naturalism in these figures, the way in
which they're interacting. This is quite different from
the earlier jamb figures that we see at Chartres where the figures are very separate, very columnar. - [Beth] And, here the
drapery falls quite naturally in folds that appear three-dimensional. But, there's not a lot of
interest here in showing the body underneath the drapery. There is a plainness and
simplicity of the figures in their drapery and in their faces that has been noted by art historians. - [Steven] Just one aside. Below the feet of the
jamb figures there are these architectural
canopies and below that wonderfully complex
figures and in some cases they seem to relate to
the figures above them. For instance, just below the Virgin Mary, you see Eve who's being offered the apple by the devil in the guise of the serpent. - [Beth] Mary is understood
in Christian theology as the second Eve, who with Christ, sets right the original
sin created by Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. - [Steven] We've walked
over to the central portal. Let's start in the very
center with the trumeau. - [Beth] This figure is
known as the Beau Dieu, the Beautiful God and he is beautiful. He looks peaceful, he's
got his right hand raised in the gesture of
blessing, in his left hand he holds a book. - [Steven] And, look how
his drapery points upward towards the Bible, drawing
our eye to the word of God. - [Beth] We get a sense of being blessed as we enter the church. We also note that Christ is
standing on two creatures, one that looks like a lion,
another that looks a dragon or a serpent. So, again that idea of
good overcoming evil. - [Steven] What I find fascinating is that this is the lowest of
three representations of Christ. We also find Christ as
judge in the tympanum and above that an apocalyptic Christ. Let's take a look at the
tympanum more closely. - [Beth] The tympanum
is in a way a warning. - [Steven] Christ sits
as judge, in this case on a low stool. His palms are up and if
you look very closely, you can just make out drops of blood coming from his wounds from the cross. - [Beth] All of these figures
who look very real to us today would have appeared so much more lifelike when they were painted. - [Steven] Christ's
pupils are still painted. His eyes look out at us
with wonderful intensity. - [Beth] So this is the Last Judgment. On the left we see Mary,
on the right St. John, on either side of them angels
holding the instruments of the passion. - [Steven] And, then kneeling
angels at the far corner. In the register just below
Christ, we see the blessed and the damned. The damned are on the
right, they're naked, and they're being forced
by devils into the mouth of Hell itself. - [Beth] Angels above them
brandish fiery swords, pushing them into that mouth of Hell. - [Steven] And, if you
look closely, the figures that are closest to the mouth of Hell, who seem to be trying to turn away, are being pulled in by a devil's arm. - [Beth] And, of course,
escape is impossible. On the left, we see the
blessed who are being escorted in an orderly way into Heaven
where they're being crowned. Angels gently guide them by
placing a hand on their back. And, the angels above them
place crowns on their heads. - [Steven] At the bottom of the tympanum, we see four angels blowing trumpets. They are waking the dead
and we can see souls rising out of their tombs, lifting the heavy stone
slabs from their coffins. Some have their hands in prayer and some seem simply bewildered. Each of these souls will be judged. - [Beth] In the center we see St. Michael who's weighing souls. He's got a scale and on the left side we see a lamb, the Lamb of God, which is understood as Christ. On the right, a demon. And, it looks as though
the weight of the scale is toward the side of the lamb, toward the side of the blessed. So, souls are being weighed
to decide their fate whether they go to Heaven
or they go to Hell. - [Steven] And, if you look very closely, you can see that there's
a demon below the scales who's lifting his arm as if
trying to tip the balance. He's trying to cheat. At the very top we see the
third representation of Christ. But, this is the apocalyptic Christ that comes directly from
the Book of Revelation. - [Beth] And in that book it says, "In his right hand he held seven stars "and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, "double-edge sword. "His face was like the sun shining "in all of its brilliance." - [Steven] And, we see two angels. The angel on the left holds the sun and the angel on the right, the moon. So, the Last Judgment is this division between the blessed and damned. Above the central portal, it's a reminder to everybody entering
and leaving the church, that they can live their life in a way that is is
accordance with God or not. But, we see that also
in the lower registers of the portal. - [Beth] The tympanum is
addressing what will happen in our afterlife based
on the choices we make while we're alive. And, we're reminded of those
choices in the quatrefoils just below the jamb
sculptures where we see, in some cases, representations
of virtues and vices. And the one I love the most is the pair of courage and cowardice. Courage shows us a knight
holding a shield and a sword. - [Steven] And on the shield
we see a representation of a powerful creature. I think that might be a bear. - [Beth] That sword has
been dropped quickly. - [Steven] We see this figure of cowardice turning back startled
by two little animals, a rabbit and a bird. And, he seems to be running away. And, it is a wonderful contrast. But, even though this is carved
in a very light-hearted way, below the surface is a serious message. Those that come into the
church are being reminded that they have choices that
will have powerful consequences in the afterlife. - [Beth] And that the
Virgin Mary is available to intercede on our behalf
and we're reminded of that in the right portal. And, the first bishop of
Amiens is also there for us as we're reminded in the left-hand portal. And, so we have these
tools available to us to aid in our salvation as
we enter the miraculous space of Amiens Cathedral. - [Steven] It's quieter
but surprisingly bright. - [Beth] The stained glass
windows that would have been here in the 13th century don't survive and so we're not quite seeing the interior the way it would have been seen back then. Standing in the nave, the
main, wide, central space of the church, we notice
that there's one aisle on either side. And, when we look down the
nave, we see the holiest part of the church, the east
end where the altar is. - [Steven] If we follow the great piers that do much of the work of the building, supporting the vaulting
above, our eye rises up to the triforium and then to
these massive walls of glass, what art historians call a clerestory. - [Beth] Amiens is a high Gothic church and so this vocabulary
of Gothic architecture is being utilized here to its fullest. And, that clerestory is so important. The idea of letting light into the church, of opening up the walls
and that spiritual quality of light so important to
the Gothic architects. - [Steven] The clerestories themselves are much more elaborate that had been seen in earlier Gothic cathedrals. They're made up of the pair of arches, each with a pair of lancet windows. And, then above there are smaller oculi, in this case round, four-lobed windows. And, above that a larger
round rose window. - [Beth] And, even the spaces
between the double arches and that large rose are
opened up to the light. - [Steven] Now all of this
seems absolutely miraculous. There's this massive stone vault above. How is it possible that
the glass holds that up? Some of the weight is
held up by the piers, but if you look closely
through the now clear glass, you can see the shadows of
one of the great innovations of Gothic architecture,
the flying buttress. This draws the weight
of the vaulting outside so that the interior walls
and the interior piers can be much more slender
than had been possible in earlier forms of architecture. - [Beth] Those buttresses are helping from outside to support the building. - [Steven] And if you look very closely, you'll know that they're
pairs of flying buttresses and that's because the lower
of the two was added later when the great weight of
the cathedral was creating a kind of buckling and this
helped stabilize the structure. - [Beth] This is before
modern engineering. This is a little bit of
trial and error involved by the master builders
who worked on this church, by the way whose names were
mentioned in the labyrinth that once occupied the
crossing of the church. So, there was a recognition
of the importance of these master builders. - [Steven] And, their role in creating an architecture that was
a reflection of Heaven in the earthly sphere. - [Beth] It's important to notice too, that the Gothic architects are making use of the pointed arch which allowed them much greater flexibility
than the round arches used by Romanesque architects. - [Steven] The thrust of a pointed arch pushes down more directly. A rounded arch pushes out more and this allows the
architects to build higher. - [Beth] And we also notice
in Gothic architecture that they're making use
of the ribbed groin vault, yet another technical achievement that allowed the
architects to build so high and to build such vast spaces. So, we have this space that
is incredibly high and open with very thin columns
that support this roof that doesn't appear to
weigh anything at all. - [Steven] The entire space
feels miraculous even today. - [Beth] Romanesque churches in the period before the Gothic, you
walked in and you were met with vast expanses of
walls that were covered with paintings, with murals
that told biblical stories. But, here those walls are opened up. It's the light that is
communicating the divine. - [Steven] A great example
of that can be seen in one of the later
parts of the cathedral. Here the solid wall of
the triforium is opened up and becomes an additional set of windows making the church feel
even more diaphanous. - [Beth] And, as we look at
the piers which are doing much of the work of carrying
the weight of the vault, the way that they appear to
be almost like bundled groups of smaller columns again give
us that sense of lightness, of delicacy, of removing
that sense of weight. - [Steven] Of masking their massiveness. - [Beth] And one of my
favorite parts of the church is the lovely sculpting that
we see on the stringcourse just above the nave
arcade that helps to draw our eye down toward the east end. This is the time when the University of Paris is established. There's a going back
to ancient philosophers especially Aristotle and a desire to unify the kind of logical
thinking found in Aristotle with Christian theological ideas. We know that geometry was very important to Gothic architecture. - [Steven] The idea was that
the church's proportions ought to correspond to
the ideal of Heaven. And one of the ways that
architects would do that is to think about dimensions
that are spoken of in the Bible. And, one of the most famous is Noah's Ark which was known to be 50 cubits. Architectural historians have surmised that the central square of
the church right in the middle of the crossing is the
basis for the proportions of the church as a whole. And, this theory suggests
that that inner square is 50 feet on each side. But, that square is then extended 30 feet on each side in accordance
with the golden section making a great square which
is 110 feet on each side. - [Beth] And so this unit forms
a module that gets repeated through parts of the church. - [Steven] For example,
in order to get the width of the transept of the great crossing that makes the outline of
the church into a cruciform, into the shape of a
cross, one needs to simply take 50% of the great
square and add that again to either side. And, similarly, if you take the diagonal of the great square, that
is the length of the nave. And, again, if you take the
diagonal of the great square and you turn it 90 degrees upward, you have the height of the nave. - [Beth] What all of
this suggests is a desire to unify the church, to
use a system of measurement that is somewhat consistent. - [Steven] But also
based on a kind of ideal that comes from the Bible
because this entire enterprise, this entire cathedral is meant
to represent Heaven on Earth. - [Beth] To lead the human
mind toward the divine and, therefore, toward our salvation. (lively piano music)