French Gothic. Features of Gothic France

Notre-Dame de Paris CATHEDRAL (Notre-Dame de Paris) is an architectural monument of early French Gothic in Paris on about. Site. Five-nave basilica (1163-1257, length 130 m, width 108 m, interior height 32.5 m) with a transept and two flanking western towers (height 69 m). Stained-glass windows (13th century), sculpture on the facades (c. 1165-1225) and in the choir (13-14th centuries).

The construction of the cathedral began in 1163, thanks to Maurice de Soulis. It was under his leadership that the construction of a giant temple was launched: 5500 m 2. The construction took almost two centuries. Notre Dame Cathedral symbolizes the evolution in Gothic. Its towers, 69 meters high, the clarity of the lines, the design of the building in the shape of a cross, all this was an innovation for that era. 432 windows of the cathedral give extraordinary lightness to the entire architectural ensemble.

Notre Dame d'Amien.

The largest Gothic cathedral in France. It occupies 7760 m 2 , the height of its vaults is 42.5 m, the height of the spire is 112 m. The cathedral was built in the XIII century in the period from 1220 to 1269, it is an example of the "golden age" of cathedrals. The cathedral was built in a record short time after a fire in 1218 on the site of a Romanesque church, which contributed to the creation of harmony and architectural unity of the building. Only the towers were completed at the end of the 14th century. The impressive proportions of the cathedral, its beauty, wealth, its interior decoration are admired by many tourists. It is no coincidence that in 1981 the cathedral was recognized by UNESCO as one of the fifty most impressive architectural masterpieces humanity.

Notre-Dame-de-Chartres.

Among the boundless fields, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Chartres appears like a mirage. This is one of the most famous Gothic cathedrals in the world, built in the middle of the 11th century. The cathedral was semi-destroyed in 1194 by a strong fire. Peasants from neighboring villages harnessed bulls to carts and carried huge blocks of stones for the reconstruction of the cathedral. Only in 1260 the cathedral was reconstructed and had one tower with a spire. Later, in 1513, a second tower appeared, which served as a bell tower.

Despite the external difference in the design of the tower, the cathedral is remarkable for the harmony of the interior. It is in this cathedral that one can trace a smooth transition from the Romanesque to the Gothic style. The cathedral is known for its numerous sculptures, there are 4,000 statues depicting Jesus Christ surrounded by apostles, angels. But a special feature of the cathedral in Chartres are the stained glass windows, where blue color prevails. All stained-glass windows have survived to our time and were not damaged during the war. The giant rose window consists of 12 petals, which diverge into 12 roses. The number 12 is symbolic, it means perfection. The rose window symbolizes the kingdom of heaven and God. Many famous French writers admire the beauty of the cathedral.

Notre-Dame-de-Reims.

The Cathedral of Reims is one of the largest Gothic cathedrals in France. The cathedral in Reims is called the king of all cathedrals. It was built in the period from 1211 to 1285 by five architects who, following each other, nevertheless managed to maintain the architectural unity of the cathedral. Reims Cathedral is famous for having 25 French kings crowned here, from Louis VIII in 1223 to Charles X in 1825. The cathedral has 2300 statues, which are presented throughout the building. 40 statues of "Kings of Reims" reach 5 meters in height. All of them glorify the Virgin Mary and the apostles.

Reims Cathedral also suffered numerous fires, the worst of which was during the bombing in 1914. Currently, the cathedral is under the protection of UNESCO.

Chapter “The Art of France. Gothic art. General history of arts. Volume II. Art of the Middle Ages. Book I. Europe. Authors: A.A. Guber, M.V. Dobroklonsky, Yu.D. Kolpinsky; under the general editorship of Yu.D. Kolpinsky (Moscow, Art State Publishing House, 1960)

Starting from the end of the 12th century. culture and art of medieval France entered its heyday.

The transition of the art of France to the Gothic stage was associated with a general growth of productive forces, the improvement of agriculture, and in particular with the growth of cities, that is, with the development of crafts and trade exchange within the framework of a feudal society. At the same time, the political authority of the royal power was strengthened, a single feudal state was formed, the French nation was born, and its culture was formed. The royal power in the struggle against the arbitrariness of the big lords saw in the growing cities its natural allies, also interested in the elimination of feudal anarchy. The royal power could make trade routes relatively safe, protect the townspeople from harassment and direct robbery by feudal lords, and guarantee city liberties to certain, albeit very narrow limits. Only thanks to the help from the cities, it was possible to annex Normandy (1202-1204), Anjou (1204), part of Poitou (1224), Languedoc (1258) and Champagne (1284) to the royal domain. In the same period, the idea of ​​a feudal order, ensured by centralized power, received strong ideological support from the class of legalists that arose with the support of the kings - lawyers who developed the norms of feudal written law and the principles of government common to the country.

The strengthening of the medieval state under the rule of the king was especially necessary for the ruling classes to suppress numerous uprisings of the popular masses, for example, the so-called Jacquerie, the peasant anti-feudal war in France (14th century). The basis of the feudal system - the exploitation of the peasantry personally dependent on the feudal lords - naturally remained unshakable. At the same time, the royal power also opposed the excessive, from its point of view, claims of cities for political independence. The French city with a guild organization of labor, with merchant corporations remained a feudal city, developing as an integral part of that complex and contradictory whole, which was the medieval French state. Craftsmen and the emerging urban bourgeoisie in those days could not imagine any other social structure than the feudal one. But within the framework of this system, the townspeople tried to achieve the greatest freedoms and privileges.

It was the feudal cities that could and have become centers of the progressive development of culture and art. The progress of culture was unthinkable without a struggle against the authority of the church with its monopoly in all areas of ideology. The ideological attack on the absolute authority of the church took place in accordance with the nature of the entire medieval consciousness within the framework of religious ideas and ideas and could not lead to a consistent and conscious assertion of a secular worldview.

With the growth of cities, the contradictions inherent in feudalism intensified and the ideological struggle intensified, appearing in the usual form of heresies and in the form of philosophical and theological disputes between nominalists and realists. The views of the nominalists contained certain propositions of a materialistic nature. One of the first nominalists was Abelard, a bright representative of the early urban culture (1079-1142), who, according to the apt remark of F. Engels, "the main thing is not the theory itself, but resistance to the authority of the church." France at the end of the 12th century became the center of European education. At the University of Paris - one of the first universities of the Middle Ages - anti-clerical thoughts were expressed.

Then in the cities for the most part northern France, ecclesiastical urban schools arose, becoming centers of more secular education. For its part, the Catholic Church, punishing freethinking with the help of the Inquisition, was forced to turn not only to terror, but also to the theoretical struggle, and transferred the center of its propaganda to the city. There arose the scholastic teaching of Thomas Aquinas (13th century), elevated by the church to the rank of a saint; theology was revived in every possible way, the views of Aristotle, who enjoyed great authority in the Middle Ages, were falsified in accordance with the requirements of Catholicism.

Difficult historical conditions in France in the 13th - 14th centuries. led to a new important progressive step in the development of feudal art - the deepening of humanistic tendencies in it.

However, ideas about the richness of the human soul and personal experiences of a person were intricately intertwined with a complex hierarchy of higher, "heavenly" and lower, "earthly" forces, with a fantastic belief in the world of miracles and in the saints of the Christian religion. Knightly love lyrics also developed in this direction, in which the ever-increasing refinement and conditional sophistication of the nobility-feudal culture proper was combined with attempts to reveal personal feelings, personal experiences. Poets conveyed not only the virtues of the beautiful "lady of the heart", but also described the world of their experiences, analyzing their inner state. In such novel-poems as The Mule Without a Bridle, the chain of fantastic adventures is interrupted by life scenes, and living human feelings invade the artificial world of idealized knightly honor.

In the cities, religious theatrical mysteries coexisted and competed with secular farces full of coarse, naive naturalness. Everywhere there was a struggle and mutual interweaving of the mystical and the rational, the fantastic and the real. But almost always in artistic creation, life, even in images dedicated to Christian legends, was perceived in its complex inconsistency, in an ever-changing balance. The former stable immobility and naive integrity of Romanesque art were left far behind. It is no coincidence that in the 13th century. in French music, the unison is replaced by a complex, differentiated polyphony. Powerful choral church hymns, like the creations of Gothic architecture, acquired inner spiritual richness and dramatic power.

Huge synthetic compositions of French Gothic cathedrals, symbolic in their plots and ideas, personified the earthly and heavenly worlds, expounded the "sacred history" of the human race. At the same time, separate vitally expressive compositions were created within their limits.

Mystical inspirations and deep psychological vitality, monstrous grotesque and loving transmission of ordinary scenes of reality were intricately intertwined in the monumental works of Gothic.

Architecture

The most economically developed regions of northeastern France, Ile de France and Champagne, played the most important role in the formation of Gothic art. After the submission of Normandy to the power of the king, the importance of the main city of Ile de France, then the capital of France - Paris, especially increased, since the mouth of the Seine was within the royal domain, which gave access to the sea. Not only intercity, but also international trade of Paris expanded, which was entirely in the hands of the townspeople. Urban crafts were differentiated and improved, and artisans united in workshops. It is significant that in the middle of the 13th century. Etienne Boileau has already collected about 100 shop charters in Paris in the Book of Crafts (there were about 300 shops in total at that time). In Paris, as in other cities, there was a workshop of masons and sculptors. It is to them, that is, to secular builders, that the development of the design and means of artistic expression of the Gothic style belongs. Stonemasons were not only the executors of bold projects of outstanding architects of their time, but also employees who contributed their skill, creative experience and artistic feeling to the common cause.

In the 19th and 20th centuries some bourgeois scholars have made attempts to prove the non-French origin of Gothic. They found the first rib vaults in England, in Lombardy, they searched for their prototype in Armenia and Ancient Rome. But in the 13th century no one doubted that the Gothic system was developed in France, and called it "building in the French manner."

The main customers were the cities and partly the king, the main type of buildings was the city cathedral instead of the previously dominant monastery church. In the 12th and 13th centuries in France, such a lively ecclesiastical and secular construction unfolded as the country had never experienced. Initially, however, construction innovations were applied in monastic buildings.

The earliest rib vault is usually considered to be the ceiling of the apse of the abbey church in Morianval (1125 - 1130). But here the ribs are built into a massive Romanesque vault, which cannot be considered as lying on them. Ribs as the basis of the frame system were first used in the abbey church of Saint Denis near Paris. To renovate and rebuild the old church, Abbot Suger invited master masons, probably from southern France. With his authority, Suger supported the innovations of the architects he invited, despite the warnings of conservative monastic architects. Of great interest for the history of architecture is the book of Suger with a detailed account of the history of the construction of Saint Denis from 1137 to 1150. First, the facade and the entire western part of the building were rebuilt. The two-tower design developed by Romanesque architects has been preserved (the towers themselves were erected later, in 1151), but the facade received three portals with wide doors opposite each nave. This was done, as Suger colorfully says, in order to avoid a crush. The facade was divided by four buttresses into three fields. In the travey of the vestibule, a lancet vault on ribs was shaded. Then, in 1140, the construction of the choir over the crypt was started. Separated in the Romanesque era, the chapels, located in a wreath around the apse, were turned into slightly protruding semicircles, separated from the outside by powerful buttresses, and inside connected by a double bypass around the choir. Both the bypass and the chapels had a ribbed ceiling. Here, for the first time, the advantages of a frame structure came into play, since it was necessary to cover an irregularly shaped space, which was difficult with the old building system. In the structure of the choir of the Church of Saint Denis, a new understanding of space is expressed, the desire for its unification. By the 40s. 12th c. the experience of using the vault on ribs in the construction of the choir of the cathedral in Sana'a also applies. Nevertheless, the new construction and artistic expressive possibilities inherent in the frame system were consistently revealed at the end of the 12th century. in the cathedrals of Paris and Lana.

French architecture, like the architecture of other Western European countries, went through the stages of early, mature (or high) and late Gothic. In France, early Gothic covers the last, third of the 12th and first quarter of the 13th century. The buildings of this period are somewhat reminiscent of Romanesque architecture by the clarity of their architectural composition and the monumental simplicity of their forms. The most characteristic features of the early Gothic are noticeable in the architecture of the cathedrals in Noyon, Lane and in Notre Dame Cathedral. Monuments of mature Gothic were created from the 20s. and until the end of the 13th century. The most significant of these are the cathedrals at Chartres, Reims, and Amiens. Mature, or high, Gothic is characterized not only by the perfect mastery of the frame structure, but also by high skill in creating rich architectural compositions, with an abundance of sculpture and stained glass windows.

Late Gothic covers the 14th and 15th centuries. However, some of its features - the sophistication and refinement of architectural decoration - made themselves felt already in the monuments of the late 13th century. Sometimes the late Gothic art of the 15th century is distinguished in a special period of the so-called "flaming" Gothic.

Unlike Germany and England, late Gothic in France, devastated by the Hundred Years War, did not develop widely and did not create a large number of significant works. The most interesting monuments of this period include the main facades of the cathedrals in Rouen and Strasbourg. It should be noted that Gothic cathedrals were often built and rebuilt over several decades, and sometimes much longer. Therefore, in the architecture of one building, features of the early and mature stages, and sometimes of the later stages, are usually intertwined. Because of this, the attribution of one or another cathedral to a certain period of the Gothic style is based primarily on the type of the main facade and on the general decision of the plan.

Notre Dame Cathedral (Notre Dame de Paris) is one of the most majestic buildings of early French Gothic. It was founded in 1163. The construction began with the choir, which was completed in 1182, the main building was completed in 1196, the western facade with its portals - mainly by 1208. In some parts, the cathedral was completed until the middle of the 13th century. ., when the wings of the transept received additional grass. At the same time, in order to increase the capacity of the cathedral, chapels were built between strongly protruding buttresses. Together with a wreath of chapels erected a little later, in the 14th century, surrounding the choir, they covered the entire building. Probably the author of building additions in the middle of the 13th century. was the architect Jean de Chelle, who owned the system of light and very elegant flying buttresses that has survived to this day.

The plan of the cathedral represents a decisive step forward from the basilica scheme of Saint Denis. This is a huge five-nave structure, almost without protruding wings of the transept (which, therefore, has only a subordinate meaning), with a double bypass of the choir (corresponding to the two side naves of the longitudinal part), with vaults of six strippings in the main nave and simple cross vaults in the side aisles . Despite the fact that the cathedral was built over a century, it strikes with the organic integrity of its architectural image. The leading value in the whole composition belongs to the main western facade. The proud height of its powerful towers rising above the forest of urban roofs is set off by a small and fragile spire above the crossroads, which replaced the powerful tower typical of Romanesque architecture.

The main façade is notable for the proportionality of majestic scale ratios, the simplicity of the whole. If in the mature Gothic the mass of the facade wall essentially disappears and the structure is revealed by powerful pylons - buttresses and openings of wide portals and huge windows, then in Notre Dame Cathedral the wall retains its significance to a certain extent, but it no longer plays its former defining role (cf. . with the male abbey at Caen).

The western façade of Notre Dame Cathedral, crowned with two mighty towers soaring upwards, is divided into three tiers. The lower, portal tier is, as it were, a plinth that carries the load of the upper two tiers. Its wall, not covered by architectural decoration, gives the impression of stability and strength to the entire structure. Three large deep portals reveal the thickness of a powerful wall, imparting plasticity to it and to the entire tier - a deep internal tension. At the same time, the lancet, perspectively deepened arches of the portals contribute to a very slow, but definite aspiration upwards. The lower tier ends with a frieze-like “gallery of kings” (“The Gallery of Kings” refers to a number of fairly numerous images of the Jewish kings and ancestors of Christ, who very early began to be identified with the French kings.), The rhythm of which, on a reduced scale, repeats the balustrade of the second tier. The gallery and the balustrade emphasize the horizontal divisions, but at the same time they echo with their columns and elongated statues of kings with vertical rhythms, which are more and more intensified in the upper tiers.

The center of the second tier is filled with a large round window, the so-called rose. Above the side portals there are large windows, in pairs embraced by wide and shallow lancet arches - archivolts, as if repeating the pattern of the portals located below; smaller roses are inscribed in the tympanums of the arches. In the second tier, the wall is less accentuated than in the lower one: its overweight massiveness is not at all expressed. The third tier is formed by a high through and light gallery, which consists of elegantly woven lancet arches growing from thin and slender columns. In this gallery, the verticals of the facade are embodied most fully and freely. Rising even further, the viewer's gaze lingers on the cornice, but after that it switches to the majestic rise of the huge slender lancet windows of the towers, the bases of which are hidden by the arcade of the galleries.

The facade and towers form a harmonious ensemble inscribed in a high rectangle, which, combined with the growth of verticals from tier to tier, creates the impression of aspiration upwards. At the same time, each of the tiers, taken separately, is stretched horizontally, and this preserves calm strength and stability in the architecture of the facade. The noble, at first glance simple proportions of the facade, upon closer examination, turn out to be exceptionally rich and complex. Each motif of the facade, with all its crystalline clarity and certainty, enters into diverse interactions - constructive, large-scale, rhythmic - with all the others. Hence that extraordinary combination of clear simplicity and complex richness, which, despite the restoration of the 19th century (Thus, the figures of the “gallery of kings”, badly damaged during the bourgeois revolution of 1789-1794, were replaced in the 20s of the 19th century new from drawings by Viollet le Duc.), distinguishes this first masterpiece of French Gothic.

The facades of the transepts, as already mentioned, are the creation of a developed Gothic (1250-1270). Their more slender and graceful forms, the almost complete absence of a wall plane, the free dynamics of vertically developing architectural forms and a huge openwork rose complement and enrich the expressiveness of the main facade. The facades of the transepts are organically combined with openwork light flying buttresses, which frame the main ship of the cathedral with its 12-meter lancet windows, as if hovering over the surrounding houses (In the 19th century, the old houses surrounding the cathedral were demolished and trees were planted around the cathedral.).

The huge inner space of the central nave (the height under the vaults is 35 m) decisively dominates the low and less illuminated side naves. The interior, like the facade, is imbued with a solemnly austere grandeur, but its architectural rhythms are even more directed upwards, and material weightiness is felt to a lesser extent. The inner walls of the central nave are also divided into three zones. The lower one consists of massive and squat pillars supporting the arcades that separate the central nave from the side ones. The middle zone is formed by empor arches opening into the central nave with wide openings similar in shape to the paired windows of the second tier of the western façade. The lancet archivolt of each span covers three arches. Above the empor arches, forming the third segmentation zone, there are high lancet windows with colored stained-glass windows (the original stained-glass windows of the 13th century have been lost). The higher the tier, the proportions of arches and windows become more slender and elongated upwards. This is emphasized by thin double semi-columns, rapidly taking off from the capitals of the lower tier, between the Empor arches and windows, to the capitals under the heels of the rib vault. In the depths of the central nave, pierced by the flickering light of the stained-glass windows, there is an altar illuminated by the oscillating lights of countless candles and the fabulous radiance of the huge stained-glass windows of the altar part of the temple.

In the design of facades, especially portals, sculpture plays an important role (statues and reliefs in tympanums above the doors of portals). Decorative carving is also extremely widely used in the frame of portals, window openings, cornices, flying buttresses, etc. These decorations either consist of a floral and geometric pattern, or take on the character of fantastic images (drains in the form of dragons opening their mouths, fantastic chimera monsters on balustrades upper tiers), but all of them are characterized by a combination of a plastically voluminous form with an openwork patterned silhouette.

In the design of the interior of the main nave, the role of sculptural decoration is much more modest and subordinate. There are no statues and large relief compositions in the main nave and transept, the decor is mainly reduced to rich carvings of capitals, shading the planes of the walls cut through by high windows. Only in the choral bypass appears a number of reliefs of the 14th century. But sparkling, like gems, stained glass images were endowed with extraordinary artistic power. The transition from the plasticity of sculptural forms to the incorporeality of flickering images on stained-glass windows is due not only to architectural and construction considerations, but to a certain extent also to the fact that in the interior of the cathedral, intended for worship, the correspondence of the situation to the ecstatic and mystical impulses of the worshipers was of greater importance than in the exterior. the appearance of a cathedral, where the assertion of the power and strength of people capable of erecting a building majestically towering over the entire city prevailed over religious ideas and experiences. The builders of the cathedral achieved amazing wealth and diversity in the interpretation of the interior space. When the believer stepped into the central nave and was lost among the huge crowd of worshipers, the grandiose rise upwards of the mighty vaults captured his imagination. The sudden expansion of space upon entering the transept was also striking. The perception of the inner space of the cathedral was unusually sharp, and when moving along the gallery of the second tier and along the side aisles, the shift in the angles of the pillars and arches created a change of impressions full of dynamics. But over all this diversity, the vast space of the central nave, aspiring upward and deep, towards the sanctuary of the altar, still decisively dominated.

The perception of the interior of a Gothic temple by modern man is, of course, free from that intoxication of mystical ecstasy with which the aesthetic experiences of people of the Middle Ages were associated. We clearly feel the artistic power, beauty and richness of spatial forms and rhythms, unfolding like a many-voiced song, now menacingly solemn, now lyrically thoughtful, now gloomy, now jubilant. The greatness of the human spirit and its inspired imagination is the basis of the aesthetic charm of Notre Dame Cathedral and, in general, of all Gothic masterpieces. It is characteristic that the cathedral in that era was for a long time the center of not only religious, but also secular life cities. Lectures were given in it, meetings of representatives of workshops were held, and in the period when the town hall was not erected, meetings of the city magistracy.

Another remarkable early Gothic monument is Lana Cathedral, somewhat more archaic than Notre Dame Cathedral. His project was drawn up around 1160, by 1174 the choir and eastern parts of the transept were completed; the main building and the western facade - in the first years of the 13th century. At the same time, the choir was significantly expanded, which received a rectangular completion instead of a semicircular apse, which is not found anywhere else in France. In terms of plan, the Lansky Cathedral is associated with the Romanesque tradition: it is a three-nave longitudinal room, crossed by a three-nave transept with widely spaced arms. A feature of the interior space is an elegant triforium, located between the spans of the empor and the tier of the upper windows. Such a four-part construction is unusually clear and logical. Massive columns serve as supports, and service semi-columns above their capitals rise in powerful bunches so that each of them is a support for one rib - a motif that later became widespread in mature, or high, Gothic architecture.

The western façade has an appearance unusual for early French Gothic. The overall composition of the heavy architectural masses of the façade, which create strong contrasts of light and shadow, and the partial preservation of the plane of the wall in the second tier are still associated with Romanesque architecture. In the lower tier, porches protrude, attached to three portals and originally communicating with each other. The missing "gallery of kings" was replaced by a deep arcade forming the third tier. Above it are two towers, having several tiers and decorated with openwork corner loggias, more and more slender and light as they approach the top. A low tower is placed above the crossroads, through which light enters abundantly (also a Romanesque motif.). At the south arm of the transept rises another tower, reminiscent of Italian campaniles; already among contemporaries she was famous for her beauty. The architect Villard d'Honnecourt (13th century) said about her: "I have been to many lands, but nowhere have I seen such a tower as in Lana."

The architectural design of the interior of Lansky Cathedral, slender and very beautiful, is consistently Gothic in nature and this differs from the transitional style of the facade.

Among the early Gothic cathedrals worthy of mention are the cathedral in Noyon (1157-1228) and the cathedral in Soissons (1177-1212).

An important role in establishing the architectural principles of the early Gothic and in the gradual transition to mature Gothic architecture was played by Chartres Cathedral, which, like most medieval cathedrals, was rebuilt from a Romanesque church. New construction of the cathedral began in 1194 and was completed in the main by 1260; later, the portals of the side facades were completed. As a result, nothing remained of the old Romanesque building, except for the towers on the western facade, which later received their Gothic completion.

The western façade of Chartres Cathedral retains the large planes of the wall, with the relatively small dimensions of the three portals. The high windows of the second tier have semicircular rather than lancet endings. The third tier is a square of the wall, into which a huge rose is embedded, which contrasts sharply with the massive towers. The entire façade is, as it were, squeezed between these two towers, preserved from the old church, Romanesque in their type, covered with high Gothic lancet tents. Not only the façade, adorned with beautiful sculptures, transitional from the Romanesque to the early Gothic style, but the whole exterior of the building gives a more archaic impression than Notre Dame Cathedral. The exception is the later walls of the choir. Stepped buttresses (with the exception of the buttresses of the choir), placed close to the walls, have an excessive margin of safety and are very massive. However, behind the semi-Romanesque shell, an internal space is hidden, which is a transition from early Gothic to developed, mature Gothic. The visitor, having entered the relatively low gate of the portal and passing the narthex, enters the vast central nave. The high height of the arches that separate the central nave from the side ones makes it possible to perceive the latter as a whole with the space of the central nave. The wall above the arches is not cut through by the empor arcade, and the light arches of the triforium do not destroy, but only enliven its planes. Therefore, the longitudinal body of the three-nave cathedral has a special integrity. A promising row of very high windows, through which the light transformed by stained-glass windows pours, and rapidly flying up to the vaults, bunches of slender semi-columns with their rhythm imperiously attract the one who has entered to the altar. The sudden expansion of space at the intersection of the longitudinal ships with the transept interrupts this purposeful movement, and due to the size of the transept, this feeling is much sharper than in the Paris Cathedral. The gaze is lost in the complex and unexpected transitions between the columns. However, the expanded space of the eastern part of the temple (having five naves instead of three) (The transition after the transept from the three-nave to the five-nave division of the longitudinal part of the building is a feature of most mature Gothic cathedrals. Usually, the empora disappear and the wall of the main nave is divided into three tiers: arcades, triforium, windows.) again directs attention to the sanctuary surrounded by a forest of pillars - the altar.

Chartres Cathedral is remarkable not only for its classical solution of the interior space, but also for the richness of the sculptural decoration of the portals. From the sculptures of Chartres, typical for the French High Gothic, the filling, or, if I may say so, the settlement, of the cathedrals with a whole world of statues and reliefs originates.

Especially rich is the sculptural decoration in the Reims Cathedral - one of the remarkable creations of high Gothic, a classic example of the synthesis of architecture and sculpture of that era. The plan of the cathedral in Reims, with some changes, follows the plan of Chartres Cathedral.

The interior of the Reims Cathedral is typical of French High Gothic churches. Majestic, noble in its proportions, the mighty central nave dominates the side ones. The aesthetic expressiveness of the bold design of the Gothic cathedral is deeply felt and revealed with the utmost clarity. Reims Cathedral was built throughout the 13th century. first by Jean of Orbe, who started the construction of the cathedral in 1210, who managed to build the walls of the choir and begin the construction of the vault. Construction was continued by Jean le Loup (1236-1252), then Gaucher of Reims, and finally, in the last decade of the 13th and early 14th centuries, by Robert of Coucy, who basically completed it. French kings were crowned in Reims Cathedral for a long time.

During the First World War, the cathedral was badly damaged by shelling and fire of the protective lining. The Second World War caused him even more serious damage.

Just as the western façade of Notre Dame is the most perfect of the early Gothic works, so is the façade of Reims Cathedral a classic example of the mature Gothic. Reims Cathedral is striking in its grandeur. The towers, in contrast to the Paris Cathedral, form one whole with an array of facades. From the tier of portals to the tops of the rectangular towers, vertical lines permeate the building and with a rapid increase and acceleration of their rhythm, decisively prevailing over the horizontal lines. It is no coincidence that the builders used wimpergi (stone openwork above the portal and above the window tents-pediments): their lancet ends penetrate into the second tier, breaking the line of the cornice and destroying the edges between the tiers. In the second tier, high lancet windows and a forest of slender columns and pinnacles build up and, as it were, sharpen the vertical aspiration of the facade, a huge rose filling the center of the second tier covered by a wide arch, freely and solemnly ends the theme of smaller roses decorating the portals. Placed above the second tier, the “gallery of kings” prepares, as it were, with its colossal statues, the rise of the towers with their elongated windows.

A peculiar feature of the side facades of the Reims Cathedral are wide and high windows, almost touching each other. Each pair of windows is united by a rose placed under the lancet arch of their common opening. The central and side facades amaze with a bold comparison of the monumental strength and energy of architectural masses and openings with the quivering movement of the forest of flying buttresses, tinacles, arches and arches, pillars and columns that grow out of the mass of the building, from the main elements of its construction, like countless leaves and flowers. cover the mighty branches of the tree, forming its lush crown full of lively movement.

However, the rich architectural decoration does not turn into a self-contained decoration, into a stone lace that hides the structure of a Gothic cathedral. Of course, not all of these countless details are structurally necessary, but they, all in newer and newer variations, repeat and reveal the main aspiration of the building upwards. The viewer either singles out details from a complex ensemble, comparing and pushing them against each other, or submits to the grandiose power of the architectural whole. In this interweaving of diversity and unity lies the difference between the Reims Cathedral and the late Gothic cathedrals, which replaced the pathos of large forms with the sophistication of self-contained details.

The last great creation of the mature Gothic was the Amiens Cathedral, famous in those days for its unusually large central nave - more than 40 meters high and 145 meters long. “Whoever wants to build the most perfect cathedral must take a tower from Chartres, a facade from Paris, a longitudinal ship from Amiens, a sculpture from Reims.” Cathedral designed by Robert de Luzarches during the 13th century. (with the exception of towers completed in the 14th and 15th centuries), in terms of plan it is close to Chartres Cathedral. However, the naves, the transept and the choir have become here relatively less independent parts, subject to a common unity.

The impression of the interior is determined by the greater than in Chartres, the height of the vaults with a relatively smaller width of the main nave and its greater length. The side aisles are so high that the entire space of the longitudinal building seems to be much more united than in Chartres Cathedral. This impression is facilitated by the foundations, which take up relatively little space due to the economy of material brought to the limit. Between the tier of the lower arcades and the tier of windows is the triforium gallery, which has become an independent floor. The interior of the Amiens Cathedral is undoubtedly grandiose and clear, but somewhat monotonous. In its proportions, one feels contrived, striving for exact mathematical ratios. The width and height of the side nave is half the width and height of the main nave; the height of the columns and arches in the main nave is equal to the height of the triforium and windows taken together, the height of the middle nave is three and a half times its width. What is striking in Amiens Cathedral is the consistent and masterful application of formulas already found, rather than the creative quest that imparts such artistic power and immediate charm to the cathedrals of Lape, Paris, Chartres and Reims.

The same is true of the western façade of the Amiens Cathedral, which in its structure represents a variant of the developed Gothic façade. However, its proportions are not quite perfect. Four buttresses frame three fields occupied by portals in the lower tier. The second tier has two parts: a strip of arches with windows and a "gallery of kings". The top of the façade in the middle is occupied by a rose and somewhat squeezed on the sides by two towers, finally completed only in the middle of the 15th century. Amiens Cathedral was the last word of classical French Gothic.

The city of rich weavers Beauvais wanted to surpass Amiens, but failed. The height under the arches of the cathedral, begun in 1225 and almost completed in 1272, was 48 m. However, in 1290 the building partially collapsed. The architect turned the walls into a lace of glass and stone, and from the outside he covered the building with a dense forest of high buttresses and flying buttresses.

Of the buildings of the mature Gothic of a non-cathedral type, court and palace chapels deserve attention, the most remarkable of which is Saint Chapelle in Paris, built in 1243-1248. This building is elegant, full of air and light, and at the same time, despite its small size, monumental. The chapel room has a high base in its lower part, with an abundance of arcades and niches. The high upper part is a frame of pillars supporting light rib vaults. High and narrow piers between the pillars are occupied by openwork binding of windows with beautiful stained-glass windows. The builder of this chapel (perhaps Pierre de Montero) created a beautiful interior that has caused numerous imitations both in France and in England.

In the five-aisled cathedral at Bourges (mid-13th century), with a complex system of flying buttresses, there is no transept, and the façade is divided into five parts with five portals according to five naves. In the 14th century almost no new large cathedrals were erected, mainly work was carried out at the end of the cathedrals of the 13th century. (the towers of the Amiens and Reims cathedrals, the "wreath of chapels" of Notre Dame Cathedral, etc.). From the buildings of the 14th century. mention should be made of the church of Saint-Aven in Rouen. Particularly interesting is its choir with wide and high windows that destroyed the wall and filled the gaps between the pillars. The western facade of the cathedral in Rouen is a typical example of the "flaming" Gothic of the 15th century. It seems to fall apart into elegant, but little connected fragments. A feature of the Rouen Cathedral (as, indeed, of many other churches in Normandy) is an unusually high (about 130 m) openwork tower above the crosshair of the transept (an interesting example of the preservation of the Romanesque tradition, often in Norman architecture). Its see-through stone tent is very typical of the sophisticated virtuosity of the "flaming" Gothic.

A special place in the development of Gothic art is occupied by the architecture and sculpture of Alsace, the French region bordering Germany.

In the conditions of the early stage of the formation of nations, characteristic of the Middle Ages, the traditions of French and German culture were especially closely intertwined in the art of Alsace. Therefore, it is natural that the best works of art in this area are the common artistic heritage of both the French and German people.

At the same time, the remarkable creation of late Gothic architecture - Strasbourg Cathedral, erected according to the plan of German masters, largely develops the peculiar traditions of the German school of Gothic architecture. In the sculptures, especially in the statues of the western facade, the principles and traditions of French art proper are also very strongly expressed.

The cathedral was built for a very long time: from the Romanesque period, it has a choir and a transept; in the spirit of developed Gothic, the longitudinal part was built (until 1276), and part of the western tower (until 1362) and the northern tower (until 1479) bear the features of late Gothic. The western façade was completed in the 14th-15th centuries. in the spirit of late Gothic: the portals are richly decorated with sculpture, a double vimperg is erected above the middle portal, and a huge rose is even higher. The originality of the facade is determined by thin vertical divisions, as if vibrating, like strings, and giving it a "harp-like" appearance. The absence of empora in the internal space is characteristic; new is the use of the triforium zone for an additional tier of windows. The main feature of late Gothic was not the further improvement of Gothic construction, but a refined complication of architectural decoration, in particular the use of decorative details carved from stone, reminiscent of a fluctuating candle flame, which gave reason to call such a direction in late Gothic "flaming" style.

Gothic architecture acquired a special character in the region of Poitou and in some regions of southern France. In Poitou as early as the 11th century. Romanesque style hall churches were developed. With the advent of the Gothic design, the idea arose to apply it while maintaining the old planning principles. This is how the Cathedral of St. Pierre in Poitiers arose, begun in the 1160s, but completed only in the 13th century. Since it was founded by the English King Henry II, and the requirements of the Catholic Mass in England were not so obligatory, the construction plan differs significantly from the cathedrals of northern France: the choir has a rectangular ending, there is no wreath of chapels, the transept is barely marked. In accordance with local traditions, the longitudinal part of the cathedral, consisting of three naves of the same height, has a hall character. It is covered with rib vaults on massive arches. The walls have retained Romanesque solidity: in the lower part they are equipped with blind arches, and in the upper part there are windows that are very simple in form. This interior solution later became widespread, mainly in Germany.

In southern France, the cathedral at Albi is most distinctive. Founded in 1282, it was completed only a century later. This is a rare example for France of a Gothic temple built of brick. From the outside, the building looks like a fortress: a donjon-like tower rises on the western facade, the side walls are reinforced with frequent round buttresses, between which there are very high and narrow window openings. There is no transept in the internal layout, and the buttresses placed partially inside the Building turn the side aisles into a series of isolated chapels. The grandiose, essentially single-room space is covered with rib vaults.

The general rise of the economy of feudal France in the 12th and 13th centuries. and the growth of cities contributed to the flourishing of secular construction. Defensive architecture reached high perfection. An excellent example of it is the fortress walls of the city of Egmort (13th century) that have survived to this day. The architecture of the feudal castle was finally built and improved with a system of successive fortified courtyards with towers, gate structures, drawbridges thrown over a water moat, and a grandiose citadel - a donjon (the castle of Le Beau Murel, etc.). In cramped medieval cities, closed in the ring of their walls, a type of multi-storey residential building developed, compressed from the sides by other houses and overlooking the main facade directly on narrow street. This type of house, with various improvements in the internal layout and an ordered composition of the external facade, lasted until the 19th century. During the late Gothic period, monumental town halls and buildings of rich workshops were created, where the skills developed during the construction of residential buildings were supplemented by techniques borrowed from church and castle architecture. The lag in the formation of the type of monumental town hall is explained by the underdeveloped political life of French cities compared to the de facto independent city-states of Italy and the Netherlands. In the 13th and even in the 14th century. the functions of the town hall and workshop centers were often performed by cathedrals. The construction of town halls was most developed in the 14th and 15th centuries in the cities of northeastern and northern France, inhabited by rich and numerous merchants. In the spirit of late Gothic, the magnificent town hall in Saint Quentin (1351-1509) was made with a large loggia on the lower floor and relatively small windows overlooking the square of the facade, completed with a triple lancet pediment. Due to its elegant proportions and abundance of light decor, the Town Hall makes a festive impression. The town hall at Compiègne, topped by a mighty tower rising from the center of a luxuriously decorated facade, is very magnificent and monumental. It is characteristic that in town halls, residential buildings and other secular buildings, in contrast to the complex lancet completions of church windows, rectangular and simple lancet windows were usually used.

Secular architecture was especially rich medieval Paris. In the following centuries, the almost continuous growth of the capital of France caused the need for expansion and restructuring of public buildings. The buildings of the Parisian town hall, the old royal castle of the Louvre, the residence of the archbishop and many other buildings were converted or demolished; separate surviving old Buildings no longer constitute an ensemble. In cities, the development of which from the 15th century. was not so stormy or stopped altogether, the secular Gothic architecture was preserved to a greater extent. So, the miniature town of Saint Michel, located on a rocky island off the coast of Normandy, has become a kind of "Gothic" reserve. Its general view - a group of ancient buildings crowding around the Gothic cathedral located on the top of the hill, the towers and gates of the city walls form an ensemble that is unforgettable in expressiveness. The attraction of the citadel is also a large knight's hall, the lancet vaults of which rest on two rows of powerful round pillars.

In Korda, a whole street of houses of the 13th-14th centuries has been preserved, in the old quarters of Lana there are many buildings of the 14th-15th centuries.

Among the significant urban structures that have come down to us, the papal castle-palace in Avignon stands out, combining elements of a residential building with castle and church architecture. The heyday of Avignon, one of the major urban medieval centers of southern France, is associated not so much with the natural growth of trade and crafts, but with the fact that it was during the 14th century. the residence of the papal court (The struggle between the French kings and the papacy, which began in the 13th century, ended with the victory of royal power. The pope's residence was transferred from Rome to Avignon. The "Avignon captivity" of the popes lasted 70 years (1308-1378).). Therefore, the main secular building of the city was not the town hall, but the papal palace, begun in 1316. The horizontally stretched building is, at first glance, a random conglomerate of separate asymmetrically located volumes. Depending on the purpose of the interior spaces, the walls protrude forward, recede, become higher or stretch. There is also no unified system of storey divisions: in one part of the castle, small fortress-type windows are located on the facade of several floors, and in the other, high lancet windows overlook the facade. Nevertheless, the papal castle-palace undoubtedly has an artistic unity, and the grouping of the architectural volumes of the building leaves an impression of free balance. The high lancet windows of the right wing of the façade echo the shallow but high blind archivolt niches covering the entire wall of the left side of the building. The more massive and overweight right wing is balanced by a squat quadrangular tower that completes the left side of the building. The whole ensemble is imbued with severe strength and a peculiar grandeur. The palace in Avignon is a transitional type from a castle-fortress to a castle-palace; it has a more medieval character than the town halls of Compiègne or Saint Canton, with their secular and cheerful appearance.

Created in the 14th and in the first half of the 15th century. the castle at Coucy and the castle of the Duke of Berry at Poitiers are already largely palatial. This is especially noticeable in the main hall of the castle of the Duke of Berry with high lancet windows, with a large, full-length triple fireplace and lush, but elegant architectural decoration. Palaces-castles and town halls of the 14th-15th centuries. with their secular, monumentally festive character, they represent the most progressive phenomenon in late Gothic architecture.

In general, however, the second half of the 14th c. was not favorable for extensive construction activity. France was exhausted in the struggle that continued until the middle of the 15th century. Hundred Years War with England. Victory in a difficult war, which revealed the egoism and political short-sightedness of the great feudal lords, was won thanks to the national upsurge of the popular masses of France. The heroine of the liberation struggle, the young peasant woman Joan of Arc, became a vivid embodiment of the patriotic impulse. At the same time, the victory helped the royal power to strengthen its authority and posed a number of complex and new tasks for France, which was restoring its strength. Resumed after the end of the war, from the middle of the 15th century, the growth of cities and extensive construction proceeded in different historical conditions and was essentially connected with new construction and artistic tasks, in the process of solving which the principles and traditions of Gothic architecture began to gradually become obsolete, which by the beginning of the 16th century had exhausted its artistic possibilities.

Sculpture, painting and applied arts

In sculpture, the process of separating the human image from the general ornamental decoration of the wall, begun in Romanesque sculpture, was completed. At the same time, the proportion of statuary sculpture increases both on the facade and in the interior of the cathedral; in relief, as a rule, high, almost round molding dominates. The poses of the statues, their proportions, the rhythms of their movements are even more subtly and thoughtfully connected with the general architectural rhythms, but cease to follow them slavishly.

In Gothic sculpture, an interest in the human character, in the inner world of a person, even though still spiritualistically understood, arose. Therefore, when depicting events from " sacred history» The masters of sculpture and painting, within the framework dictated by religious traditions and the established canons of the compositional scheme, arranged the figures in accordance with a possible life situation and conveyed the experiences of people in a general form.

The enrichment of aesthetic culture was also expressed in the creation of unusually complex sculptural and pictorial cycles-ensembles. If wall painting disappeared along with the large planes of the walls of Romanesque churches, then stained-glass windows filled the lancet windows and openwork roses reached a bright flowering.

Their overall composition retained a largely conditional character. The actual radiance of translucent colored glass and the shimmering of colorful silhouettes predetermined the solemnly decorative nature of stained glass painting. But it was not a cold, lifeless decorative effect. Stained-glass painting is deeply spiritualized painting, imbued with high and solemn excitement. However, unlike Gothic sculpture, stained glass windows with their mighty colorful chords and melodious rhythms gave birth not so much to bodily-plastic as poetic-musical images. The light pouring through the stained-glass windows located high above the crowds connected the worshipers with the external environment surrounding the cathedral, and at the same time, passing through the colored glass, this light was fabulously transformed.

The plastic principle, the vital concreteness of images and characters, received their wide development in sculpture. It should be recalled that in French Gothic, unlike German, statues were relatively rarely placed inside the temple; most often they, with the exception of the “gallery of kings” that performed more decorative functions, are concentrated around the portals, around the entrance pylons, i.e. in the lower, closer to the person zone of the facade.

In a Gothic statue, a gesture, sometimes angular and naive, and sometimes with extraordinary force, reveals the state of mind of the hero to the viewer. An important role is played by draperies, which, unlike Romanesque sculpture, are by no means dissolved in the general pattern of architectural ornamentation. Their movements, sometimes smoothly majestic, sometimes confused, sometimes soft and gentle, are often perceived not so much as a reflection of bodily movements, but as a visible echo of the impulses of the human soul. True, the statues themselves, placed on the consoles extended from the pillars, firmly, like completely material bodies, stand on their supports. However, the moment of dynamic animation, and sometimes the characteristic expressiveness of a gesture in Gothic sculpture usually prevails over the plasticity of harmonically balanced volumes of the human body.

And yet the sculpture of the Gothic, and specifically the French school, is distinguished by its materiality; these are really three-dimensional images, that is, statues in the full sense of the word. Unlike stained-glass windows, they reveal very accurately, and often in detail, the general character of the hero, his state of mind and features of his external physical appearance. At the same time, the masters of French Gothic were characterized by the desire to typify the image. In the best things of the 13th century. it manifested itself with extraordinary force. However, the system of monumentally generalized forms was not based on the idea of ​​a comprehensively developed body, did not seek to preserve the fullness of the vitality of the image, which was so characteristic of the Greek classics. At the same time, the tension of the hero's spiritual world is generally revealed in Gothic sculptures with an extraordinary force for antiquity. Such, for example, is the image of the “Beautiful God” in the Amiens Cathedral, remarkable for its strict grandeur of thought and severely restrained will, or the image of Christ the Wanderer full of sad thoughts.

Ornamental carved decor was also distinguished by its perfection, although it played a subordinate role in interior design compared to sculpture (with the exception of the late Gothic period).

A thin stone wickerwork pattern of a round rose or a binding of lancet windows, acting against the background of light pouring into the temple, is perceived as a graphic black pattern, contrastingly shading the soft sonority of stained-glass windows. In the capitals of pillars and supports, the light rustle of stone vine leaves or ivy branches, as it were, pauses for a moment the rhythms of the bunches of columns directed upwards and, in contrast, sets off their irresistible swiftness. In choral rounds, in the wreath of chapels, the stone pattern became more whimsical and varied, in particular, decoratively framing the hallmarks of numerous reliefs.

Outside, as already mentioned, “both the ornament, and the statues, and the reliefs are usually concentrated on the facades. In the transition from portals, galleries, consoles to less important parts of the architectural whole, the plots of sculptural compositions acquire more and more freedom from religious canons and at the same time more and more fantastic and restless decorativeness, approaching sculptural decoration in interpretation. Such are the chimeras on the towers of some cathedrals. Funny, sometimes not quite decent figures of people, monkeys, as well as fantastic animals and birds, placed in the little visible parts of the temple, surprise with a combination of vitality and decorative conventionality. The stone dragons and lions placed on the cornices, whose open mouths served to drain rainwater, are distinguished by their fantastic character and sharp expressiveness. They are close to the formidable beasts of Issoire and Moissac, but there these beasts occupied an important place in the central composition, having a certain symbolic meaning. In Gothic cathedrals, more real and lively sculptural images pushed them into the background, where they turned into decoration of gutters.

Gothic sculpture originated in the first years of the 13th century, i.e., somewhat later than Gothic architecture took shape. But the development went very quickly, and by the 20s. the process of style formation can be considered complete.

A visual representation of the first steps of the Gothic direction is given by the statue of St. Stephen in the Sansky Cathedral, created at the end of the 12th century. The very restrained movements of the figure are still inscribed in the contour of the rectangular block of the pillar supporting the lintel of the portal. But in general, almost schematically modeled head of the saint has a certain vitality and spirituality.

An excellent example of early Gothic sculptural decoration can be seen in the tympanum of the gate on the western facade of the cathedral at Sendys. Particularly characteristic is the sculptural stamp of the tympanum, which depicts the ascension of Mary. The proportions of the figure of Mary and especially the large-headed angels are still very arbitrary, the anatomical structure is conveyed rather schematically. But the movement of the woman, slowly rising from the bed and as if still half-swept by sleep, is extraordinarily expressive. If the folds of the clothes and the plumage of the angel wings are still very ornamental, then the general rhythm of the excited impulse of the group of angels with Mary awakening from her mortal sleep combines decorative wholeness with psychological expressiveness. The truthfully noticed gesture of the angel supporting Mary does not have the nature of a natural detail that contradicts the ornamental and abstract emotionality of the compositional whole, which is so characteristic of motifs of this kind that appeared from time to time in large works of the Romanesque period.

The next step, connected with the completion of the early Gothic stage of sculpture, was made in the statues and reliefs of the west facade of Notre Dame Cathedral (1210-1225) and the portals of the side facades of Chartres Cathedral. The rich, although partially lost, decoration of Notre Dame Cathedral allows us to trace all the main stages in the development of Gothic sculpture.

The most archaic sculptures on the right portal of the main western façade, apparently dedicated to the childhood of Christ, are very poorly preserved. The central portal was dedicated to the Passion of Christ and the Last Judgment, the right - the history of Mary. The tympanum, depicting the death of Mary and the coronation of her by Christ to the heavenly mistress, which followed the ascension, is distinguished by the strict solemnity of the symmetrical composition, the restrained expression of sparing movements and gestures.

The allegories of the months on the western façade are rather arbitrary and schematic. So, the high relief image of a peasant carrying a sheaf (June) is still very approximately in proportion. At the same time, the figure itself is already firmly leaning on the ground.

Much more artistically significant are the sculptures of the Last Judgment on the same western facade (1220-1230s). Many reliefs, especially the story of the long-suffering Job, are distinguished by severe simplicity, naive seriousness and deep dramatic images. The figures are very material; lapidary modeling vigorously generalizes and simplifies body shapes. The composition, distracting from everything insignificant, artistically reveals the natural connections between the characters. The Gothic master was able to reveal the inner rhythm and deep spirituality of seemingly ordinary gestures and movements. Three people are approaching Job, who is sitting on a fester covered with ulcers, who is comforted and supported by a friend standing next to him. The restrained movements of the bearded man and the woman wrapped in a cloak convey with almost musical expressiveness their sorrowful excitement. The turn of figures slightly inclined forward, the juxtaposition of the outstretched hand of a man and the hand of a woman excitedly pressed to her chest, the flying folds of her clothes and the heavily falling drapery of her companion's cloak create rhythms that are epic in their simplicity and deep spirituality. Sad thought and concentration are expressed in the guise of a man. The image of a woman is the personification of bitter sympathy for the suffering of her neighbor. Behind these two people is a third. His face is full of tender sadness and deep sadness. A tremor runs through the wavy hair of a thoughtfully bowed head, as if from a breath of wind. His image, full of lyricism, gently protruding from the background of the relief, accompanies the plastically convex images of the couple who came to Job. Compositionally and figuratively, he is opposed by an old man standing near Job. The strongly, weightily molded figure of the latter rises above the sufferer as an image of tragic, courageous grief that has gone into itself. The right hand is wearily and tenderly lowered on Job's shoulder. The majestic old man shares with his friend the burden of grief, which has become his grief.

The composition depicting Job shows that the consciousness of the people of that time was already capable of reflecting the moral feelings of a person, the tragedies and sorrows of life itself. This is what made possible the emergence of artistic images that go far beyond the actual church dogmas, religious symbols and personifications. However, such creations of Gothic sculpture cannot be considered only a naive, early form of realism. The difference between them is not so much in quantitative features as in qualitatively different stages of the historical development of art.

The same relief of Job looks primarily as one of the parts of some complex composition, the main meaning of which is the dominant image of the Last Judgment. The human tragedy, expressed in the story of Job, received the right to exist only as one of the episodes designed to explain the main idea of ​​the composition - the idea of ​​resolving the contradictions of life through the atonement of sins on the paths of suffering and repentance and people receiving rewards for virtues and punishment for sins on the Terrible Day. court.

The psychological characteristic in the analyzed relief is given not only in very simple images, devoid of nuances, but also in abstraction from the real situation. The environment as a specific place of action and as an active force that affects a person and bears the imprint of his activity was not yet aesthetically realized by the artists of the Middle Ages either in sculpture (where it was especially difficult) or in monumental painting (Only in the period of late Gothic the image of the real environment and the situation surrounding a person began to acquire importance (Gothic miniature of the 14th century), foreshadowing the transition to a new era in the development of art.). And yet, the conquest of the spiritual world of man, the interest in the simple but important moral relationships of people was a great step forward. Antiquity, with all the skill of creating the image of a beautiful person and with a number of its other truly great achievements, did not give in sculpture and painting images that so deeply reveal the beauty of compassion, sympathy for human sorrow.

The charm of bright maternal tenderness in the image of the Madonna and deep reflections of the restless human spirit in the image of saints and prophets, the moral beauty of mutual love are also deeply revealed for the first time in the art of the Middle Ages, especially in French Gothic sculpture.

In the 20-30s. 13th c. sculptures of the portals of the transept of Chartres Cathedral were created. Of particular interest are the statues that adorn the side sections of the portal of the southern facade.

Compared with the sculptures of the Royal Portal of the same cathedral, which completes the Romanesque period in the history of French medieval sculpture, the statues of the southern facade (for example, the image of St. Stephen) were distinguished by great materiality and, most importantly, although somewhat schematic, but very sharp transmission of characters. The positioning of the figures becomes more stable. The legs of the saints no longer hang down on the beveled console, but rest firmly on its horizontal surface. It is extremely important that the masters of the southern portal sought to individualize the appearance of the saints. They do not simply supplement the relatively schematic representation of a person with signs of age and other features of external difference, but try, somewhat naively, to convey the features of a certain, albeit very generally understood, human character.

In the statues of Saints Gregory, Jerome, and especially the chivalrously noble Stephen and the stern Martin, the Chartres masters took the next step forward. So, the image of St. Martin is undeniably marked by features of restrained energy and concentrated strong will; in the painfully nervous face of St. Gregory, shades of a sad thought are conveyed to a greater extent. The simple gestures of the hands of these three saints, rhythmically juxtaposed, mutually reinforce the plastic expressiveness of the whole group and each figure separately. Noble conciseness of form and restrained expression are characteristic of the sculptures of Chartres Cathedral (for example, "The Sacrifice of Abraham").

The features of the sculpture of the developed, or high, Gothic period are most pronounced in the statues and reliefs of the transept, i.e., side, facades of the Notre Dame Cathedral, in the ensembles of the Amiens and Reims cathedrals. Mastery of layout, strict proportionality and balance of all elements of the ensemble; possession of the figurative expressiveness of rhythm, which grows out of the vital expressiveness of the characters' movements, are characteristic features of the monumental works of mature Gothic. True, the harmonious integrity of large facade compositions was not achieved immediately by the Gothic masters. One of the relatively early portals of the Reims Cathedral is the portal of the Last Judgment (from 1230 to 1240) (The Last Judgment composition was originally intended for the main western facade, and then, in the 40s, was placed on the northern facade. The western the façade was rebuilt in the spirit of mature Gothic during the 1940s-1970s.) suffers from excessive fragmentation of the composition of the tympanum, divided into five tiers. The figures are of different scales, the movements are excessively angular and schematic.

One of the remarkable examples of High Gothic is the sculptural ensemble of the main facade of the Amiens Cathedral (1225-1236). Three portals depict the resurrection of Christ, the coronation of the Mother of God and the Last Judgment (central portal). The solemn formation of monumental statues of saints, prophets and apostles, decorating the mighty pylons of the portals, forms the lower tier of the composition. An idea of ​​the calm grandeur of these statues is given by the statue of St. Firma. Very expressive is the movement of his right hand, raised for blessing; the reliefs of the tympanums themselves are somewhat dry and rigid due, perhaps, to the excessive desire of the sculptors to balance the parts.

Of interest are small reliefs in quatrefoils, placed in the basement of the pylons, which frame the portals. At a distance, they are perceived only as an ornamental decoration, but the viewer who comes closer to the portal begins to clearly distinguish the images of vices and virtues, signs of the zodiac and the labors of the months of the year. Very lifelike in terms of movement, they are masterfully incorporated into the rather awkward quatrefoil format. Such is the old man warming his feet by the hearth (an allegory of winter), the mower and some others. However, the pride of the entire façade, one of the masterpieces of Gothic sculpture in France, is the statue in the central portal - the blessing Christ, popularly nicknamed "The Beautiful God" (le beau Dieu). This is the true ideological and artistic center of the whole huge and complex facade. The figure is placed at the top of the pillar separating the two doors of the main portal. The statue of Christ is an excellent example of the use of the “Gothic” S-curve of the body, which distinguishes the figure from the general vertical rhythms of the architectural structure. This bend acquired in the late Gothic an excessive mannered brokenness, again merging the sculpture with the general restlessly sophisticated rhythm of the architectural pattern. But in the era of High Gothic, such a bend was very restrained and, in fact, only revealed the natural pose of a free-standing human figure.

This statue is characterized by a wide and strong, generalized molding, it would be more accurate to say - felling, since the statue was really cut out of stone. The large, pure surfaces of the sculptural volumes contrast with the restless rhythms of freely and deeply cut folds with the restrained movement of the line that traces the strands of hair and curls of the beard. It would seem that the combination of such plastic properties should lead to the creation of a grammatically restless image. However, this did not happen. All the opposite elements of the plastic form are wisely balanced and create outwardly lapidary in their harsh integrity and at the same time very rich inwardly, at the same time harmoniously majestic and covertly dramatic. The movement of the blessing hand, full of significance, was surprisingly accurately found.

The beautiful, powerfully courageous face of Christ expresses a deep and wise thought. Only the poetically beautiful head of the Reims Christ the Wanderer can be compared with him. The noble clarity of proportions, the wide and soft modeling of the form, the melodiousness of the silhouette, the wavy strands of hair falling over the shoulders, the sad curve of the thin mouth framed by the twists of the mustache, the look that has withdrawn into itself recreate the image of a man with a tender and beautiful soul, engulfed in weary and sad thoughts.

A typical example of art of the second half of the 13th century. is the portal of St. Stephen on the south side of Notre Dame Cathedral (circa 1260-1270). The tympanum, divided into three horizontal zones, depicts the last episodes of the life of the saint, as well as Christ with angels, looking from heaven at the feat of his faithful disciple. In the lowest tier, Stephen is shown being brought before the proconsul. The unjust judge is depicted sitting in a naive and defiant pose; it, just like the angular gesture of the hand of a Roman soldier suffocating a saint, is dictated by the desire to introduce a moment of immediate vitality into the majestically unfolding narrative. However, these gestures are external, somewhat theatrical. They probably resemble the gestures of the actors who once performed "miracles" in front of the portals of the same temple. But on the whole, the restrained movement of the majority of the frieze-like figures of the lower tier perfectly prepares the transition to the more dramatic and contrasting rhythm scenes of the middle tier - the climax in the entire composition of the tympanum. On the left is the stoning of Stephen; on the right is his burial.

For all the opposition of these scenes, the composition does not fall into two parts that are little connected with each other. The dominance of vertical rhythms creates a certain compositional community of different and different plots located in one tier. And yet, the bowed people, with sad solicitude, lowering the body of the martyr into the tomb, and the priest, reciting a prayer with full dignity of calmness, are clearly contrasted with the inexorability of the hands of the executioners raised to strike. Each figure of the tormentors, taken separately, differs only in the crudely naive naturalness of their movements, but in the aggregate their gestures create an expressive rhythmic pattern.

High Gothic masterpieces also include many of the almost countless statues of the Reims Cathedral, created during the 30-70s. 13th c. Such is the beautiful head of a young man on the western portal, close in spirit to the Christ of Amiens, bold and energetic in modeling, creating an image of a strong-willed person imbued with masculine nobility.

The desire for a bright, even sharp transmission of a person's character is a typical feature of Gothic sculpture at the time of its highest heyday. Sometimes, for example, in some heads on the same Western portal, this desire led to an almost caricatured depiction of ugly features. But in the best works of that time, the masters achieved a somewhat lapidary but penetrating transmission of the essential features of a person's spiritual disposition.

On the western façade of the Reims Cathedral, the task of uniting several statues in the spirit of the best principles of High Gothic was also solved. In the two-figure composition "The Meeting of Mary with Elizabeth" (1225-1240), placed on the pylons of the central portal, the so-called portal of the Virgin, the statues of Mary and Elizabeth, standing side by side on separate consoles, are perceived both as separate independent sculptures and as an interconnected pair group. This duality of impression cannot be explained by the inability of the sculptors to create a complete and integral group - in the high relief compositions of tympanums they coped with this task quite successfully. The fact is that the close connection of the portal statues, each carved from a separate pillar-like block, with the architecture still limited the freedom of the sculptor. Therefore, until the late Gothic period, French masters avoided giving statues sharp, stormy gestures or depicting them from strong angles. Nevertheless, the Reims master managed to achieve the relationship of the two figures, firstly, by the general rhythm of the draperies. The graceful play of chiaroscuro in wavy light folds, as it were, envelops the figures of both women with a soft shimmer (The role of drapery was understood differently by the masters of Gothic and classical Greece. In the ancient sculptor, the folds of draperies, without literally repeating the movements of the body itself, were completely conditioned by it, were, as it were, its echo; among the masters of Gothic, the folds primarily conveyed the general emotional state of the image, their rhythms did not depend directly on the movements of the body.). They are united by the general mood - a little excited thoughtfulness. Maria, in fact, does not look at her interlocutor; slightly tilting her clean, gentle face in her direction, she rather listens to the words of Elizabeth. She turned to her and looks at the young woman, emphasizing with a restrained hand gesture the meaning of quietly spoken words (according to the gospel legend, Elizabeth prophesies the great destiny of the future baby Mary).

The Annunciation group is distinguished by a more slender figure, a freer and softer movement of draperies. But next to Mary's calmly smiling gentle face, the modest beauty of her almost timid movements, not devoid of deep poetry and chaste charm, the restless rhythms of the folds of the angel's clothes, the almost jewelry work of his wings and some affectation of the pose give the impression of cold mannerism.

This arose in the 50-70s. a new trend, to some extent consonant with the refined and refined knightly culture, coexisted in sculpture with the main direction of high Gothic. This manner is especially evident in the figures of St. Joseph and Mary ("Bringing the Christ Child into the Temple") of the same western facade. The picturesquely flowing folds, the elegance of elongated figures with small heads, the elegance of poses and gestures, some secularity and crafty coquetry in the figure of Joseph lead us away from the harsh spirituality and inner significance of the images of the previous period.

Remarkable works of the transitional period from high to late Gothic are the sculptures on the west facade of the cathedral in Strasbourg.

In most of the statues of this cathedral, interest in revealing the beauty of the spiritual world of a person, sometimes in a sharp transfer of the general warehouse of character, receives its further expression.

The last feature is somewhat angularly manifested in the images of the prophets of the central portal of the western facade (end of the 13th century), but almost does not make itself felt in the image of an angel, distinguished by its inner nobility and restrained energy. In the composition devoted to the traditional for the Middle Ages allegorical antithesis of reasonable and foolish virgins (end of the 13th century), the problem of the plot and compositional combination of several figures into one group continues to be developed. True, the solution in this case is achieved by somewhat naive means. A self-satisfied smiling tempter holds out an apple to the foolish virgin - a symbol of temptation; she, in response, lifts the veil over her chest. The symbolic meaning of this gesture is clear enough.

Female images, personifying the triumphant church and the defeated synagogue (30s of the 13th century), are distinguished by high spirituality and inner significance.

By the 30s of the 13th century, there is a remarkable relief in the tympanum of the south transept of the Strasbourg Cathedral - “The Assumption of Our Lady”. The expression of common grief in the bowed figures of Christ and the apostles, the calmness of death in the face of Mary are excitingly embodied by the master. However, in the general movement of this scene there is an excess of expression, which indicates the closeness of the composition to those aesthetic and stylistic features that are characteristic not so much of French as of German art.

Decorativeness and a touch of refined mannerism began to appear in French religious sculpture from the last third of the 13th century. widespread phenomenon and prepared the transition to the late Gothic (end of the 13th and 14th centuries). The so-called Gilded Madonna on the pillar of the main entrance of the south facade of Amiens Cathedral (circa 1270) was a monument transitional from mature to late Gothic. The exaggerated curve of the figure, the pomp of coloring, with the abundant use of gilding, a little cutesy grace, the standard smile - all this is already associated with the later stage. The relief with the twelve apostles located above the Madonna, with all the skill of the compositional arrangement of human figures, is distinguished by monotony and dryness. Movement and gestures are conveyed quite clearly, but there is no unity of great experience that would give significance to the composition. They are rather courtiers talking to each other than a group of people captured by a common impulse.

The last phase of the development of sculpture in the 13th century. characterized not only by the well-known loss of the former sublime monumentality, but also by some strengthening of realistic tendencies. How strong the interest in the surrounding reality became, is eloquently evidenced by the appearance of a monumental sculpture of a purely secular nature. An outstanding monument to her are five life-size musicians with various musical instruments in their hands. They sit in niches on the second floor on the facade of the house of the musicians' workshop in Reims (second half of the 13th century). The vibrating, sinuous folds of the draperies are true to the usual manner of the time, but the poses are full of movement, the faces are lively, the general appearance and expression of some faces reach complete naturalness.

The last echo of high gothic is the statue of st. Matthew, apparently the work of a local craftsman from Le Mans (last quarter of the 13th century).

During the late Gothic period, relief was greatly developed. The series of painted reliefs of the choir detour of Notre Dame Cathedral (1318-1344) is typical, for example, the genre-interpreted composition “The Unbelief of Thomas”. Mercilessly restored in subsequent times, the reliefs still give a fairly clear idea of ​​a peculiar increase in realistic moments in the transfer of proportions, gestures, facial expressions, while at the same time shredding the image.

Along with works of this type, late Gothic is also characterized by attempts to continue the traditions of monumental sculpture of High Gothic. The best among such works are the “Coronation of the Madonna” (in the vimperg of the middle portal of the western facade of the Reims Cathedral) and the openwork relief “Ascension of Mary”, charming in its almost jewelry elegance, on the north side of the choir bypass of Notre Dame Cathedral (circa 1319). And yet, in these refined, subtly poetic compositions, there is already a touch of a kind of exhaustion - the anemicity of the medieval culture that has exhausted itself. The former mastery of large monumental compositions was also lost. It is enough to compare the fragmentary sculptures of the western facade of the Rouen Cathedral, arranged in niches, like figurines on a bookcase, with the statues of the Reims facade, in order to clearly understand how much the monumental art of the Gothic has degenerated.

However, the 14th century cannot be considered only the time of the decline of sculpture. The masters of Gothic sculpture in the second half of the 14th century, at a time when the hardships and difficulties of the Hundred Years War sharply reduced the scope of construction work and large artistic commissions, nevertheless managed to show new forces. New artistic phenomena, essentially contradicting the traditions and principles of Gothic art, arose, which, in their consistent development, led during the 15th century. to overcome obsolete medieval conventions, the symbolism of the artistic language, as well as medieval forms of synthesis of architecture and sculpture.

The secular beginning in art grew, interest in portrait sculpture, usually of a memorial purpose, deepened. Typical examples are the portrait statues of Charles V and his wife Joanna (1370s). Sometimes this kind of statue was placed not in temples, but in castles (for example, a portrait statue of the Duchess of Berry in the castle of Poitiers).

In the 13th-14th centuries. Stained glass painting and book miniatures, which had reached high culture and craftsmanship in France, were widespread.

The nature of the technique determined the greater decorativeness and static character of stained-glass windows in comparison with sculpture or miniature. Hence the relative simplicity of plot decisions. Initially, during the Romanesque and early Gothic period, colored glass was connected by a flexible lead frame. For greater strength, parts of the typesetting composition were additionally fastened with iron rods, rigid partitions, which cut the composition into pieces. Later, this lattice was given a curved shape, including it in the general decorative rhythm of the whole.

The use of additional coloring of colored glass made it possible to move from a purely mosaic principle to more picturesque solutions, and along the way to an increase in the size of individual glasses, due to which the lead ligature of the frame was less conspicuous, and the entire stained-glass window acquired lightness and radiant transparency. The lead frame of the stained-glass window also played a certain pictorial role: to some extent, it replaced the pattern, preventing the complete disappearance of the contours in the flickering and brilliance of colored glass penetrated by light.

The main centers of stained glass art were in the 13th century. Chartres and Paris.

Starting from the 14th century. the desire for precision and elegance of the drawing, the pursuit of a special subtlety of shades led to the fact that the pure, sonorous tones of glass completely gave way to painting on glass in mixed tones and with additional etching. Often, artists turned to a combination of black, brown-gray and white tones, that is, to a kind of stained glass grisaille. Imitation of the genre-realist tendencies that were growing in sculpture and miniature, the loss of former colorfulness and decorativeness by the 15th century. caused the decline of stained glass art.

Naturally, due to the fragility of the material, a very small number of stained-glass windows have survived to our time, so it is not possible to present a complete picture of this wonderful art. Nevertheless, there are enough surviving samples to judge their completely unique and high artistic merits.

A relatively large number of stained-glass windows have been preserved in Chartres Cathedral. An excellent example of the transition from the Romanesque to the Gothic style is the image of the Mother of God sitting with the baby on her knees, located in the part of the cathedral that survived the fire in 1194. Against a dark red background, the radiance of Mary's blue clothes softly stands out, acquiring a violet-blue hue on her shoulders, complemented by the deep blue color of the veil thrown over her knees. This basic calm and at the same time sonorous color chord is complemented by a golden-orange scarf lying around the neck and shoulders of Mary, and the golden-brown color of the swarthy faces of the Madonna and Christ. In some places, gold gleams discreetly and sparingly.

The combination of the somewhat frozen hieratic pose of Mary with the clear strength of the solemn coloring forms a complete monumental whole.

A different character is full of harsh expression and internal drama, a more dynamic, diagonal composition - “The Appearance of the Apostle Paul to St. Ambrose” from Le Mans (13th century) with color contrasts and a generalized expressiveness of the silhouette of the apostle, leaning over the bishop immersed in sleep. The stained-glass windows of the cathedral in Bourges (13th century), somewhat archaic in design, are interesting with a simple but energetic combination of deep blue and red colors.

The history of French Gothic miniatures is quite distinctly divided into three periods. The first lasted approximately from 1200 to 1250, the next covered the second half of the century, and the third - the 14th century. The features of the first period, which had a character transitional from the Romanesque to the Gothic style, were largely determined by the influence of the famous French stained-glass windows on the miniature (vertical composition, transparency, purity and brightness of colors). The masterpiece of this style - the psalter of Queen Blanca of Castile (Paris, Arsenal Library) - is decorated with elegant illustrations on smooth gold backgrounds, inscribed in round medallions. Using the created gold, the master created the impression of a shimmering and at the same time dense background, on which figures of saints and scenes from the life of Christ are very plastically painted in elongated oval and semicircular medallions with pink frames.

By the middle of the 13th century. took shape actually Gothic - on the principle of decoration - a miniature. Elements of Gothic architecture - pinnacles, fleurons, phials, lancet arches, roses, etc. - became common ornamental motifs in illustrations. But the numerous details did not lead to fragmentation - the artist designed the entire page of the manuscript as a single compositional whole. The best works of this type include the Saint Louis Psalter (1270), which belongs to the Paris National Library. The pages are decorated with lancet Gothic arches. On one of them, in a strict ornamental frame, there is a clear, beautifully written text and a small miniature enclosed in the outline of an initial: a triple Gothic arch depicts a roof noah's ark. A variety of birds and animals are placed above the barrels and sacks of grain, and Noah, holding out his hands, attracts a dove to him. The small miniatures of the manuscript are unusually expressive in design and are very harmoniously woven into the general outline of the page.

In the last decades of the 13th c. in Paris, the master Honore was especially famous, whose manner is exemplified by the Breviary of Philip the Handsome (1295, Paris, National Library) with miniatures that surprise with their realism.

Slightly tinting the sheet with pink and blue, master Honore carefully entered the text. Behind an elegant frame of ivy, a special world of comic figures was depicted: droleri (semi-fantastic creatures), musicians, hunters chasing the Beast, etc. The artist placed an initial with miniatures across the entire page, for example, an image of the creation of the world.

The French miniature of the developed Gothic period is characterized by the ability to create compositions that sufficiently truthfully convey certain complex situations.

Miniatures of the late 13th-14th centuries. do not just decorate the page, they already supplement and comment on the text, to a certain extent acquiring an illustrative character. Scientific treatises, transcriptions of the works of Aristotle, Plato, stories about Socrates, etc. were widely illustrated. The manuscript on surgery by Roger of Pisa (late 13th century) is interestingly decorated, where stamp miniatures, following one after another, tell about various surgical techniques.

By the 14th century includes the merging of the principles of English and French miniatures, the creation of a single Anglo-French style, although it retained some features typical of each of the countries. Narrative and sometimes social interpretation of plots in English miniatures changed in France in the direction of a greater breadth of coverage of historical problems, the creation of illustrations for works of fiction. The works of the Anglo-French type include the moralizing treatise Sommleroi (beginning of the 14th century) kept in the British Museum.

From the 14th century in France, they began to appreciate more and more the creative individuality - the personality of the artist: not only the numerous names of French poets and prose writers have come down to us, but also the names of the largest miniaturists.

The most typical works of the second half of the 14th century. associated with the workshop of the miniaturist Jean Pucelle, whose works include the Bible dated 1327 by Robert Billing and the famous Belleville Breviary (before 1343) (both manuscripts in the Paris National Library). The style of this master is characterized by the rejection of golden backgrounds and the increased importance of ornamental frames, in which birds, butterflies, dragonflies, and various animals are very vividly depicted among pointed ivy leaves. The color palette is rich. Fantasy is combined with the desire to bring real details of everyday life, vitally convincing details into the miniature.

From the second half of the 14th c. realistic tendencies in the French miniature intensified. Some influence was exerted by the fact that at that time not only professional miniaturists, but also major painters or sculptors took part in illustrating manuscripts. Among them were many immigrants from the north-east of France and from Flanders. The illustration of secular books, numerous lyrical poems, and satirical fables especially developed. The largest monument of the late 14th - early 15th century. are the Great French Chronicles, serving as an encyclopedia of life in France in the late Middle Ages.

The portrait was most often seen in the scenes of offering books, and the miniaturists recreated living, individual images.

The central figures of the French miniature of the last decades of the 14th century. there were two masters: Andre Bonev and Jaquemart de Esden, both Flemings by origin. Bonevé is an artist of great talent, as a miniaturist he is known for a series of prophets and apostles of the psalter of the Duke of Berry (Paris, National Library). The constructiveness and clarity of the image are complemented by the sophistication of the ornament, the use of the most complex decorative details of Gothic architecture. Jaquemart de Esden created the Great Book of Hours, exceptional in terms of subtlety of the artistic expression (Paris, National Library).

The process of miniature development in the 14th century. ends with the work of the so-called Master of Hours Boucicault, named after this capital work (it is possible that this is a native of Bruges, Jean Cohen, who settled in Paris from the end of the 14th century). Familiar with Italian painting, the master abandoned ornamented backgrounds and turned miniatures into tiny paintings. Depicting his scenes indoors or against the background of real landscapes with distant horizons, he used (albeit very approximately) the rules of perspective. Actually, the illustrative moment in miniature ceased to be considered an integral part of the general decor of the book and acquired relative independence. This is precisely an illustration, although subordinate to the overall composition of the book.

Thus, by the end of the 14th century. typical features of European medieval miniatures began to become obsolete, the process of merging miniatures with painting began. But the achievements of the French miniaturists, with their expressive language, sometimes mocking, sometimes lyrical, led to a flourishing in the middle of the 15th century. and another, new type of graphic art - engraving, and then book realistic illustration.

France and in the Gothic period created examples of applied art, remarkable in their diversity and artistic perfection. The decorative traditions of folk, peasant, applied arts were developed and processed mainly by masters of urban craft shops. The artistic features of these works were determined by the commonality of ornamental forms adopted in architecture and in works of artistic craft. The complex and rich architectural decor of the Gothic style was formed on the basis of the creative development of folk arts and crafts and was carried out by artisans. medieval city. But the craftsmen, in turn, turned to the experience of architecture. Their imagination was so captured by it that not only in the decoration of things, but also in their design, a direct imitation of a Gothic cathedral appeared with its towers, as it were, soaring upwards, bunches of columns and ribs, and a kind of rhythmic subordination of volumes. This trend is especially consistently expressed in church utensils, in various kinds of reliquaries, chandeliers, numerous reliquaries, organically included in the temple synthesis of that era. Among them were richly decorated vessels and caskets, traditional in form, which were used as reliquaries. But a large number of objects were also created specially designed for this purpose. Purely reliquary forms primarily include miniature chapels and cathedrals, most often made of silver. The reliquary-chapel is a kind of model of the cathedral, or rather, several of its towers, devoid of spiers, but generously decorated with cast and chased decorative details. Figurines of saints and relics were usually placed inside models of openwork towers. Monster reliquaries were widespread. They were intended to display relics, which were placed in a special crystal goblet, often framed by a very complex structure - an openwork silver model of a Gothic temple. In order for the monster to be better seen, it was mounted on a high leg, similar in shape to the leg of the chalice (communion vessel). The monsters were carried on special stretchers during solemn processions on religious holidays.

However, secular items, which were produced in large quantities in France, mainly in Paris, were designed as original architectural structures. Such, for example, is French Gothic furniture, which stands out among the European furniture of that time in the greatest variety of types and perfection of decoration.

In the 13th -14th centuries. the dwellings of the feudal lords and wealthy townspeople already had quite plentiful furnishings. Chests-chests were placed along the walls, serving at the same time as seats and therefore often equipped with straight backs and armrests. In addition to the usual table, the owner of the house had a desk with a lifting top board for business activities. Very characteristic of the Gothic was the shape of the ceremonial chairs, not wide, with a very high narrow back and high armrests; in such an armchair, a person had to sit only very straight and decorous, in full accordance with the ceremonial secular etiquette of the Middle Ages. Cabinets for various purposes were distinguished by a wide variety of forms. In the dining rooms there was always a tall multi-tiered sideboard; usually its first tier was a small open table, the second was a shallow cabinet closed with doors, the third tier was an open shelf and above it was a very small shelf with a carved openwork back and a carved scallop. Ceremonial dishes were exhibited in such a cabinet: precious - in the closed part, cheaper, copper and faience - on open shelves. Wall cabinets with carved wooden doors and small hanging cabinets were widespread. At that time, the washbasin first appeared. Gothic beds were an imposing structure with a high wooden canopy, from which a canopy was hung.

All pieces of furniture were decorated with carvings, sometimes very generous and varied. Motifs of architectural decor served as the basis of the ornament. The openwork window of the cathedral with complex binding was most often reproduced in wooden carvings on chests and cabinet doors. On custom-made furniture, the coat of arms of the owner was certainly carved. As a rule, the same details of furniture: cabinet doors, small panels and large boards on the front side of the chests were decorated with the same type, but different patterns. The carver's imagination was boundless, he endlessly created more and more new combinations of the main motifs of the Gothic ornament, without resorting to repetition. The decorative richness of Gothic furniture was complemented by fancy metal locks and bright coloring with the inclusion of gilding.

Church furniture was no less decorative. In the cathedrals there were magnificent chests for storing utensils, carved benches and music stands for heavy church books. Often benches were carved from stone directly at the walls of cathedrals. Majestic carved pulpits and confessionals were an indispensable accessory of the church interior.

During the late Middle Ages, large centers of artistic crafts were formed in France, which had global importance. Jewelry by Parisian craftsmen, Parisian espaliers and carved bone items were very famous.

At the end of the 13th century bone carving became almost a French monopoly. In Paris, a huge number of the most diverse things of church and secular use were made. An obligatory detail of the decoration of the home altar in rich city houses was the image of the Madonna and Child carved from bone; in the 14th century Madonna began to resemble a secular elegant lady, coquettishly and gently smiling at her son.

The round sculpture made of bone is stylistically close to the monumental sculpture of Gothic cathedrals, but the material itself, its malleability in processing, the beauty of the polished surface and the fact that miniature plastic is always close to the person, forced the craftsmen to work out the details with particular care, achieving the most refined artistic form. The bone sculpture was painted and supplied with jewelry. Judging by the monuments that have come down to us, the coloring consisted in applying a thin color pattern that emphasized the surface of the polished bone. Gold or gilded crowns and bouquets of semi-precious stones complemented the miniature sculpture.

In the 14th century in Paris, folding ivory icons were made in large quantities. This group of things is a continuation of the art of Romanesque carved double-leaf windows. During the Gothic period, this art reached its highest peak. On folding two-, three- and five-leaf icons, images, partly in relief, partly in almost round sculpture, are arranged in horizontal rows and framed by lancet arches. The theme of the reliefs is mainly gospel stories and the Passion of the Lord. In the center of the fold, as a rule, is placed the Madonna and Child, as graceful and elegant as in a round bone sculpture.

In Paris, many small secular items were also made from ivory: various caskets, drawers, notepads, mirror boxes, knife handles, etc. These things are interesting because they are overwhelmingly decorated with carefully executed plot images. The themes for bone carving, borrowed from fashionable chivalric romances, are entirely secular. Particularly prized were small mirrors with carved bone caps, which usually depicted gallant scenes from Tristan and Isolde or Parsifal.

In the applied art of medieval France, the secular beginning was very strongly manifested. This phenomenon is directly related to the development of knightly and especially burgher culture and the creation of a decorative complex in the design of the interior of a rich castle or town house.

There is a very significant category of jewelry, which was intended to decorate a secular costume. In addition to rings, earrings, agrafs and various necklaces, made by medieval jewelers with great perfection, a constant detail of the medieval ceremonial costume was a variety of pendants, guilds, that is, heraldic images and official signs. The medieval costume had no pockets, so all sorts of little things - keys, small calendars, note cards - were hung from the belts. All these things were carefully decorated and provided with decorative clasps; ladies wore small toiletries on their belts.

The jewelry of medieval France, like all works of Gothic applied art, testifies to an unchanging love for bright, lush colorfulness. Jewelry is usually studded with semi-precious stones in the form of cabochons, with red and golden stones being most valued; rock crystal was used almost on a par with precious stones. Not only bowls, vases and glasses were made from it, but also inserts in jewelry polished in the form of a cabochon.

The artistic crafts of France were exceptionally varied in technique and distinguished by high craftsmanship and precise artistic taste. Their extraordinary flourishing reflected the general rise in handicraft production in the prosperous cities of medieval France, the high labor culture of the French people.

With a relatively primitive manual technique, the slowness of the improvement of tools, the accumulation of personal skills and traditions of labor skill acquired decisive importance. Flexible possession of the material contributed to the increase in the aesthetic value of the thing. Creating utensils for decorating the city cathedral, for decorating the town hall, medieval artisans received precious materials at their disposal, and they were given the full opportunity to reveal with all their generosity the sophistication of their craftsmanship and all the riches of creative imagination.

Since the labor skills and aesthetic tastes of ordinary people were at the heart of the architectural decor, it was quite natural, spontaneously that a remarkable unity of style was formed, which permeated everything, from majestic grandiose cathedrals to any most insignificant household or religious item.

The medieval art of France played a huge role in the history of the art of its people and the peoples of all Western Europe. Its echoes (especially in architecture) lived for a very long time, receding into the past only by the middle of the 16th century.

The great conquests of Gothic art did not go unnoticed. The masters of the Renaissance and subsequent eras, having freed their consciousness from the fetters of religious thinking and the conditional artistic system of the Middle Ages, opened the way for a consistently realistic disclosure of the inner world of man, the dramatic impulses of his spirit and the depiction of the human environment.

At the same time, the achievements of medieval art in general and France in particular have their own unique and enduring aesthetic charm. The grandeur of the cathedrals of Romanesque and Gothic France, the boldness of the creative imagination of sculptors and painters who created synthetic ensembles of unprecedented scope, the deep spirituality and peculiar harmony of French Gothic sculpture, the high skill and noble taste of artisans of medieval France continue to bring people deep aesthetic joy.

A French witty lover once said that "architecture is the art of writing lines into the sky." This paradox reflects the completely correct observation that the architectural contours and silhouettes of buildings enrich our artistic perception of the sky and airspace. Architecture changes the appearance of the sky and the surrounding outdoor space, just as the architectural design of the walls and furnishings change or, rather, create the artistic appearance of the interior space of the interior. This or that pasting of the walls and the furnishings of the room make the room cramped and so on. Architecture is, as it were, the setting of the space of nature. The style of architecture changes the appearance of cities, the worldview of the people who inhabit them.

The Gothic style is beautiful and original, it literally changed medieval architecture. The purpose of my work is to reflect the development of the Gothic style in Western Europe since its inception in France in the middle of the 12th century. In my research, I focus on French Gothic. The most striking example of which is Notre Dame Cathedral. In this article, I spend a full disclosure of the features of the Gothic style, as well as consider the characteristic features of Gothic, embodied in the main cathedral of France - Notre Dame de Paris.

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INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………………..3

CHAPTER 1. GOTHIC AS A STYLE OF MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE…………………………………………………………………………4

1. The emergence of the Gothic style………………………………………..4
2. Distinctive features of the Gothic style……………………...6
3. Gothic Art in France……………………………………11

CHAPTER 2. NOTRE DAME DE PARIS CATHEDRAL…………………………………….15

CHAPTER 3. GOTHIC STYLE IN OTHER COUNTRIES OF WESTERN EUROPE…………………………………………………………………………….22

CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………….29

LIST OF USED LITERATURE……………………………..31

CHAPTER 1. GOTHIC AS A STYLE OF MEDIEVAL ARCHITECTURE

1. The emergence of the Gothic style

The name "Gothic art" comes from the Italian gotico - "Gothic", after the name of the Germanic tribe of the Goths, who came to Italy from the north and captured it in the 4th - 5th centuries. The Italians used the term "Gothic" to describe their ecclesiastical architecture, which was characterized by very tall and ornate buildings. This concept arose during the Renaissance. "Gothic" in those days meant "barbaric". In contrast to the "Roman", Gothic was called art that did not follow ancient traditions, which means that it was not of interest to contemporaries. Such ideas changed only in the 19th century, when the Middle Ages were no longer considered "dark ages" in the history of mankind. However, the name "Gothic" was preserved for European art of the late Middle Ages.

In different European countries, Gothic had its own characteristics and chronological framework, but it flourished in the 13th-14th centuries.

In the history of art, it is customary to distinguish three types of Gothic:

• early
• mature (high)
• late ("flaming")

During this historical period, the role of cities increases, and in art, along with knightly elements, the features of the new culture of the urban bourgeoisie, the burghers, begin to appear. The bulk of the population of medieval cities represented the most rebellious, the freest sections of society. Craftsmen united in independent unions, workshops. Universities sprang up in many cities.

Cathedrals and town halls were erected by order of city communes, but they were built and completed for a very long time - for decades, and even centuries. In Gothic art, in comparison with Romanesque, realistic tendencies are more pronounced, and rationalistic motives are much more noticeable. At this time, the monasteries ceased to play a fundamental role in creative activity, this role passes into the hands of urban craftsmen. These factors became important prerequisites for the emergence of a new style.

The Gothic style in art developed primarily in those countries where the Catholic Church dominated, so the influence of religious motives is very noticeable in the ideology and culture of that era. Gothic art remained largely cult in purpose and religious in theme: it was correlated with eternity, with "higher" irrational forces.

Gothic gradually emerged from Romanesque art. The basis of the Romanesque temple building was thick stone walls, which created a heavy dense volume. This mass was supported by thick, blank walls and balanced by spring arches, pillars and strong architectural details that performed supporting functions. For greater stability of the building, the Romanesque architect increased the thickness and strength of the wall, on which, mainly, his attention was focused. It was the improvement of the support system that was destined to produce a true revolution in the then architecture.

1. Distinctive features of the Gothic style

If we compare typical buildings of the Romanesque style and gothic, then there is a feeling that they are completely opposed to each other. Romanesque buildings are solid and massive, Gothic ones are light and transparent. But if we take the buildings of the transitional period, it is clear that the Gothic originates from Romanesque roots. The search for architects led to the idea to expand and lighten the system of vaults. Solid vaults are replaced by rib ceilings - a system of load-bearing arches. All the airiness, fabulousness of the Gothic structure has a rational basis: it follows from the frame system of construction. This is how through galleries, arcades, huge windows appear.

Having lost its Romanesque thickness as unnecessary, fearlessly cut through by huge windows in bright multi-colored stained-glass windows and disappearing into the lace of carved stone, the wall has lost its defining character in the overall structure of the building. The Gothic building was reduced to an island - a frame that miraculously grew upwards, overcoming earthly gravity and becoming the basis of all Gothic architecture.

When comparing the results of measurements of Gothic and Romanesque buildings, it turned out that for the middle nave Romanesque temple height of 18-20 meters was the limit, and in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-Paris, the earliest in Gothic architecture, the height of the nave reached 32 meters, and in Reims - 38 meters, and finally, in Amiens - 42 meters.

Thus, the Gothic vertical triumphed over the Romanesque horizontal. Gothic cathedrals were not only tall, but also very long: for example, Chartres Cathedral has a length of 130 meters, and the length of the transept is 64 meters long, it takes at least half a kilometer to walk around it, and from every point the cathedral looks different.

Unlike the Romanesque church with its clear, easily visible forms, the Gothic cathedral is boundless, often asymmetrical and even heterogeneous in its parts: each of its facades with its own portal is individual. The walls are not felt, as if they do not exist. Arches, galleries, towers, platforms with arcades, huge windows, and there is an infinitely complex play of openwork forms. And all this space is inhabited - the cathedral is inhabited both inside and outside by a mass of sculptures. So, for example, there are about 10,000 statues in Chartres Cathedral. They occupy not only portals and galleries, but they can also be found on the roof, cornices, under the arches of chapels, on spiral staircases, appear on drainpipes, on consoles. In a word, a Gothic cathedral is a whole world. It really absorbed the world of a medieval city. Many city cathedrals were so large that the entire population of the city could not fill it. Near the cathedral, as a rule, there were shopping arcades. The needs of urban life prompted the architects to transform the closed, thick-walled Romanesque cathedral resembling a fortress into a more spacious one, open to the outside. But for this it was necessary to change the entire structure of the building. And after the change in design, there was also a change in the architectural style.

The turn to Gothic began with architecture, and later spread to sculpture and painting. Architecture has always remained the basis of the medieval synthesis of the arts.

Medieval artists passionately loved pure, bright, sonorous colors. This was reflected in stained-glass windows, and in miniatures, and in the coloring of sculptures. Sculpture in the middle of the century was inseparable from church building. She has great expressiveness. The ultimate tension of spiritual forces is reflected not in faces but in figures, elongated and broken, which creates the impression of a desire to free oneself from the flesh, to reach the secrets of being. Human suffering, purification and exaltation through them into the hidden nerve of Gothic art. There is no peace and tranquility in it, it is permeated with confusion, a high spiritual impulse.

Artists achieve tragic intensity in depicting the suffering of the crucified Christ, God, crushed by his creation and grieving for him. In sculpture, facial features and hands are worked out very subtly. According to the clergy, art should serve as a "bible for the illiterate." The walls of the temples were painted with paintings, from which the stern faces of the saints and God himself looked at the worshipers. Images of the terrible torments of sinners in hell should have led believers to tremble. The high vaults of cathedrals, colored stained-glass windows through which rays of light poured, the solemn sounds of the organ - all this struck the imagination of people, inspired them with the idea of ​​the sanctity of divine power, and turned them to religion.

Often, statues and picturesque images were excessively elongated or greatly shortened. At that time, the laws of perspective were not yet known to artists, so the figures in the paintings seem flat. Medieval masters often gave the figures unnatural poses in order to more strongly convey such religious feelings as faith in God or remorse for sins.

Paintings have been preserved - icons painted on wooden boards using the tempera technique , they are distinguished by bright colors and an abundance of gold. Usually the main character of the picture is in the center, and is larger than the figures standing nearby.

But Gothic masters were able to create quite realistic images that captured a warm human feeling. Softness and lyricism distinguish the figures of Mary Elizabeth, sculpted on the portal of the magnificent Reims Cathedral (Appendix No. 1). The sculptures of the Naumburg Cathedral (Appendix No. 2) in Germany are full of characteristic features, the statue of Margravine Uta is full of lively charms.

In many cases, unique examples of Gothic style art were created by medieval masters whose names have not come down to us. The church-religious nature of the culture of medieval society was reflected in the style and purpose of things.

Gold and silver craftsmen make unique church utensils, decorated with filigree, semi-precious stones, and enamels. Used carvings on ivory. All these different techniques are used to make altar plates, book covers, hand-washing bowls, candlesticks, precessional crosses, chests, and so on.

Changes also affected clothing. In the 12th century, primarily in France, the Romanesque dress, reminiscent of monastic vestments, is gradually replaced by clothes that are close to the figure and more graceful. Rough, uncut in parts clothing of the previous era is replaced by a variety of robes made according to all the laws of tailoring. Gothic fashion, with its close-fitting dress, characteristic posing of the body and way of wearing clothes, can be observed by looking at the monumental figures of saints and kings on the facades and portals of cathedrals, as well as looking at the artistic miniatures of medieval artists.

1.3 Gothic art of France

Gothic, as an architectural style, is characteristic of a certain era throughout Western Europe, but the leading role in its creation, development and implementation belongs to France.

French Gothic, due to special historical conditions, was an expression of the high rise of medieval culture as a whole. Based on the ancient heritage, she developed her own expressive means in architecture, sculpture and stained glass windows. French Gothic reflected the highest ideals, aspirations and disappointments of the most diverse layers of medieval France. Harmony and clarity are characteristic of French Gothic, which made researchers talk about its “Attic” character, but this does not exclude internal pathos, the excitement of feeling penetrating the architectural image. It is so rich that its creators managed to simultaneously use the impact of architectural space, line, plasticity and pure play of color. Thanks to these qualities, French Gothic, despite the stratification of centuries, retains a kind of unity, and the monuments that have come down to us do not seem disharmonious.

The Gothic style originated in the middle of the 12th century in the northern part of France, primarily in the Ile-de-France region, the center of which is Paris, and reached its peak in the first half of the 13th century. Stone Gothic cathedrals received their classical form in France. As a rule, these are 3- and 5-aisled basilicas. with a transverse nave - a transept and a semicircular bypass of the choir, which is adjoined by radial chapels ("crown of chapels"). Their high and spacious interior is illuminated by the colored flickering of stained-glass windows.

The impression of an unstoppable movement up and towards the altar is created by rows of slender pillars, the powerful rise of pointed pointed arches, and the accelerated rhythm of the arcades of the upper gallery. Thanks to the contrast of the high main and semi-dark side aisles, a picturesque richness of aspects arises, a feeling of the infinity of space. On the facades of the cathedrals, lancet arches and rich architectural and plastic decorations vary, the details are patterned wimpers, violets , crabs and so on. Statues on consoles in front of the columns of portals and in their upper arched gallery, reliefs on plinths and in tympanums portals, as well as on capitals columns form an integral symbolic plot system, which includes characters and episodes of Scripture, allegorical images. The best works of Gothic plastic art are the facade statues in the Tent, Reims, Amiens, Strasbourg, they are imbued with spiritualized beauty, sincerity and nobility.

On main square town halls were built with rich decoration, often with a tower, such as the town hall in Saint-Quentin, built in 1351-1509.

Castles turned into majestic palaces with rich interior decoration, like the Papal Palace in Avignon. Mansions of wealthy citizens were built in cities.

In Paris, which in the late Middle Ages became not only the de facto capital of the state, but also the universally recognized center of its cultural life, there were about a hundred guild organizations of artisans, among which masons and sculptors occupied not the last place, and the number of inhabitants by the end of the 12th century reached almost one hundred thousand. which was unimaginable then.

Founded in 1215, the University of Paris became the center of medieval scholarship. It was not for nothing that one of the writers of that time called Paris, where scientists, artists and all those who were thirsty for enlightenment gathered from other countries, "a source that irrigates the circle of the earth." Apart from Paris, Chartres, and the Île-de-France region, the most advanced were the northern provinces; Picardy, Champagne and Normandy - with such flourishing cities as Amiens, Reims and Rouen - true treasures of Gothic art.

Reims Cathedral, where the French kings were crowned, and into which Joan of Arc victoriously brought her banner, together with the equally famous Chartres Cathedral, is the pinnacle of French mature Gothic. As in the Paris Cathedral of Notre-Dame-de-Paris, the main facade is three-tiered, with an openwork rose in the middle and two powerful towers.

But here the vertical easily and at the same time solemnly dominates the horizontal, the tiers almost fade away, and the wall unconditionally capitulates before the grandiose frame of the finest, filigree architecture, which rushes up harmoniously, clearly, without any tension. A light openwork mass is a synthesis of architecture and sculpture, a festive symphony of lancet arches, columns and flourishing, fabulous sculptural decoration.

The abbey of Mont Saint-Michel (Appendix No. 3) in Normandy rises on a rock, which, at high tide, surrounds the sea on all sides.

This is a kind of preserve of Gothic art. From afar, against the backdrop of the expanses of the sea and close, when you look at its walls rushing to the sky, Mont Saint-Michel gives the impression of a truly wonderful creation of human rivers. It is also called "La Mervey", which means miracle or wonder. cloister Abbey of Mont Saint-Michel is one of the pinnacles of Gothic art.

From the architects of the late French Gothic one could hear the following judgment: “Who wants to build the most perfect cathedral, he must take from Chartres (Appendix No. 4) - a tower, from Paris - a facade, from Amiens (Appendix No. 5) - a longitudinal ship, from Reims - sculpture.

But even in these statements, not all the wonderful cathedrals erected in the Gothic era in France are named.

CHAPTER 2. NOTRE DAME DE PARIS CATHEDRAL AS A SAMPLE OF FRENCH GOTHIC

Undoubtedly, the most impressive and most remarkable monument of the early Gothic, which opens a new era in the history of Western European architecture, is the famous Notre Dame Cathedral or Notre Dame de Paris (Appendix No. 6).

Almost six centuries have passed since it was erected, and Paris has been transformed thanks to its slender bulk that reigned over the city. Over the years, the capital of France has grown many times over, adorned with many other monuments famous throughout the world, but Notre Dame de Paris still dominates it, still serves as its symbol. The center of the city has long moved from here, the cathedral has long been no longer the center of its social and political life, and we forget that it was once called upon to personify the idea of ​​a monarchy that triumphed under the patronage of the church.

The first stone of the cathedral was laid in 1163 by the French king and the pope who specially arrived in Paris, and many centuries later, also in the presence of the pope, Napoleon was crowned in Notre Dame de Paris Cathedral. Like the pyramids of Egypt, the Parthenon in Athens or Sophia of Constantinople, Notre Dame de Paris, not only for centuries, but also for millennia, will testify to the ideals and high artistic culture of the people who created it.

Notre Dame de Paris (Appendix No. 7) towered majestically over Paris on the banks of the Seine, not far from the Louvre. The huge square in front of the cathedral is always filled with tourists. Particularly impressive is the queue consisting of tourists seeking to get to the observation deck located on the upper tier of the main facade.

The cathedral impresses with its size - at the same time it can accommodate 9,000 people. The building is 35 meters high, 130 meters long and 108 meters wide. The height of the bell towers is 69 meters. The Emmanuel bell, which is located in the eastern tower, weighs 13 tons, and its tongue is 500 kg. This cathedral has also become not only the soul of the capital, but also the scene of famous events in French history. The square in front of the cathedral is the geographical center of France, and on road signs the distance to any point in France is calculated from the slab near Notre Dame Cathedral. According to the definition of the great writer Victor Hugo, the Paris Cathedral is “a huge stone symphony, a colossal creation of both man and people ... A wonderful result of the combination of all the forces of an entire era, where every stone splashes the fantasy of a worker, taking hundreds of forms, guided by the genius of the artist ... ". The cathedral, the creation of human hands, Hugo likens “the creation of God, from whom it seemed to borrow its dual character: diversity and eternity.

In the 4th century, at approximately the same place where Notre Dame Cathedral is now located, there was a beautiful church of St. Stephen. Fragments of thirty of its marble columns are kept in the Cluny Museum. Two centuries later, another church was erected near this place, dedicating it Mother of God. But this temple was destroyed by the Normans who invaded France. Soon a second church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin was erected on the same spot.

In the XII century, both ancient churches - both St. Stephen's and Our Lady - fell into decay. Seeing the deplorable state of the two main churches on the Ile de la Cité, in the center of the city, the Bishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully, decided to erect one instead. big temple. According to the plan of the bishop, the future cathedral was to surpass in splendor everything that had been built before, and to be worthy of its high purpose - to become the main cathedral dedicated to the Mother of God.

The first stone was laid in 1163 by Pope Alexander III. Construction was completed only in 1330. The consecration of the main altar took place in 1182, and three years later the Jerusalem Patriarch Heracles celebrated the first Mass there.

Notre Dame Cathedral was built over the course of almost two centuries, during the transitional era, when the Romanesque style was gradually replaced by the Gothic style. This is no longer a Romanesque, somewhat squat church, but it is also not a gothic temple directed upwards. Both styles here are combined in harmonious balance.

History has preserved the names of several architects who completed the construction of the temple. In 1257-1270, Jean de Chelle and Pierre de Montreil worked here. In the years 1280-1330, the construction was led by Pierre de Chelles and Jean Ravi. Funds for the construction of the main cathedral of Paris were generously donated by the king, bishops and ordinary citizens.

Powerful and majestic, in perfect harmony of style and form, the facade of the cathedral is divided vertically by pilasters. into three parts, and horizontally - by galleries into three tiers, of which the lower one has three deep portals. Above them is an arcade called the Gallery of the Kings, with 28 statues representing the kings of Israel and Judah.

In the central tier there is a rose window with a diameter of about 10 meters. On both sides of it are two huge arched windows.

The sculptural decoration of the central tier is formed by the statues of the Madonna and Child surrounded by angels - in the center, Adam and Eve - at the edges.

Above is a gallery of narrow arcades intertwining at the top. , which unites two side towers that were never completed, but even without spiers, they fascinate viewers with their lancet twin windows.

Notre Dame de Paris is a basilica with galleries and double side naves. Previously, this design was used very rarely - only in the most important examples of temple architecture, such as the abbey church of Cluny and St. Peter's Cathedral in Rome. This alone is enough to set Notre Dame apart, especially when you consider that even later Gothic cathedrals with double side naves were built only in exceptional cases. Divided in half by longitudinal rows of gigantic columns, these double naves in the apse move to a double outpatient clinic. Radius ambulatory at its eastern point it was forced to be wider than at the points of contact with the side aisles, and this problem was solved by doubling the number of columns and placing triangular vaults close to each other. As a result, the tour of the choirs - the ambulatory of the Notre Dame Cathedral can rightly be proud of its correct form.

A single rhythm throughout the entire space of the interior and the harmony between the straight and rounded lines of the choir are also preserved due to the fact that the arcades of the central nave are equipped with uniform columns.

This is all the more striking because six-blade vaults were used in the central nave of Notre Dame - in all other cathedrals, to support such vaults, alternation of massive supports with thinner ones was used in accordance with how many ribs converged on a point.

Above the main columns of the central nave of Notre Dame rise equally uniform bunches of thin pilasters. There are three pilasters in each beam, regardless of the profile of the vault at the point of its intersection with the supports. This is undoubtedly masked by the fact that there are two girth ribs per bundle of pilasters, and so on. Only in this way could a series of absolutely uniform arches, galleries and windows be built and achieve the highest elegance of arches, galleries and windows and achieve the highest elegance in proportions.

The huge lobes of the six-chamber vaults - much larger than the too closely adjacent sections of the four-chamber vault - are in harmony with the vast planes of the walls. In other words, the creators of Notre Dame did not try to completely open the surface of the wall, but sought to effectively contrast between the visibly thin and flat wall, on the one hand, and the elegant pilasters and ribs of the vaults, on the other. Initially, this technique made an even stronger impression, since the plane of the walls above the galleries was wider, and it was interrupted only by rose windows with rather modest openings. However, this design did not survive, because the cathedral was too dark. Already in the 13th century, he made a redevelopment of the windows adjacent to the crossroads.

During one of the reconstructions, some changes were made to the contrasting system of walls and supports of the central nave of Notre Dame.

Now the spans of the gallery are divided into three parts, and the side walls of the galleries are supported not by round columns, but by flat pilasters. These piers contrast with the pilasters of the central nave (thinner than even the pilasters of the choir) - high monolithic pillars, no longer merging with the wall, as originally.

The theme of the flat surface of the wall is repeated on the western façade of Notre Dame. Since the towers here are crowned with double side naves, they are wider and more stable. Thanks to this, buttresses do not protrude too much forward; moreover, at the level of the first floor, they almost “sink” into the wall, which, on the contrary, protrudes so far forward that the portals go deep into the facade, and do not protrude outward. When looking at this facade, it seems as if in front of us Triumphal Arch from the royal gallery: above the portals along the wall, statues of all French kings lined up in a row, symbolizing the continuity of the dynasty and the strength of the monarchy.

No other example of medieval architecture has such an imposing royal gallery, displaying the succession of monarchs so spectacularly.

Inside the cathedral, an amazing ensemble of stained glass windows is striking. The images on the stained-glass windows are made in accordance with medieval canons. Scenes from the earthly life of the Savior are depicted on the windows of the choir, and fragments from the lives of saints are on the stained-glass windows of the side walls. The stained-glass windows of the high windows of the central nave depict patriarchs, biblical kings, and apostles.

Scenes from the earthly life of the Virgin Mary are placed in the windows of the side chapels. And the stained-glass windows of a huge, 13 meters in diameter window - roses (Appendix No. 8) include about 80 scenes from the Old Testament.

Unfortunately, there are very few genuine ones among the stained-glass windows of the cathedral. Almost all of them are later works, replacing those that were broken and damaged over many centuries. Only the rose window has survived intact to this day. But not only the stained-glass windows, but the cathedral itself could not reach our days: the leaders of the French revolution and the crowd led by them, the temple of Our Lady caused particular malice, and Notre Dame suffered much more than other churches in France.

Heavily damaged during the years of the revolution, the ancient building fell into decay from the end of the 18th century, and in those years when Victor Hugo wrote his famous novel Notre Dame Cathedral, the temple was threatened with complete destruction. In 1841-1864, a complete restoration of the cathedral was carried out. At the same time, the buildings adjacent to the cathedral were broken, and the square that exists today appeared in front of its facade.

One of the most important elements of the cathedral are chimeras. The architect Viollet-le-Duc gave free rein to his imagination and created an surreal world of chimeras - demons looking ironically and thoughtfully at the city spread far below, fantastic and monstrous birds, grotesque figures of evil monsters, peeking out from the most unexpected points.

Perched on a Gothic pinnacle, hiding behind a spire or hanging over a wall ledge, these stone chimeras seem to exist here for centuries - motionless, immersed in thoughts about the fate of humanity swarming down there. Chimeras of the cathedral have an amazing property - you can’t draw, write or photograph near them - next to them people seem to be dead, inexpressive stone statues.

CHAPTER 3. GOTHIC STYLE IN OTHER COUNTRIES OF WESTERN EUROPE

Gothic art in different countries had its own characteristics. The greatest flourishing of the Gothic was in France and Germany, but in Italy and England there are temples and secular buildings that amaze with splendor and perfection. In Germany, the Gothic style developed later than in France. In northeastern Germany, poor in stone suitable for the construction of large buildings, a special brick Gothic arose, sometimes somewhat ponderous, but sometimes very impressive, with remarkable decorative effects.

Without denying the priority of the French, the Germans argue that only in their architecture is the essence of the Gothic style fully revealed and all its possibilities are used, only in their Gothic a breakthrough is really unstoppable, raising the entire mass of the building to the sky, it creates both in its external appearance and under its vaults the impression of something inexplicable and incomprehensible. No wonder the German architects replaced the French rose with an lancet window above the main entrance and violated the side horizontals with buttresses. In French Gothic, though very harmonious, the general measured rhythm restrains the impulse, introduces some kind of framework of reason, logic, and this is to the detriment of the element that is inherent in Gothic architecture.

But the French will say in response that in their Gothic temples the impulse is not restrained, but ordered, which gives the buildings greater clarity and completeness, and at the same time great elegance.

There are two views here, as if incompatible, but those Germans who truly love art admire Reims Cathedral, just like the French who love art just as much - Cologne Cathedral (Appendix No. 9).

"... Cologne smoky bulks" - Alexander Blok wrote. Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol considered this cathedral to be the crowning achievement of Gothic art. The pride of Germany - the Cologne Cathedral was completed only at the end of the last century according to the discovered original plans and working drawings. The pride of France - Amiens Cathedral served as a prototype for Cologne. However, the truly dizzying vertical rush of a grandiose stone mass in Cologne Cathedral gives inspiration to the skill of German architects.

The impulse is just as powerful, but at the same time more concentrated, and therefore more subduing - in the Freiburg Cathedral (Appendix No. 10), an incomparable masterpiece of Germanic Gothic.

Its only tower, as it were, encloses the entire cathedral, its base merges with its facade, from which it draws great strength, which breathes in the openwork tent, victoriously rushing to the sky. No wonder it is believed that this tower is "the highest and clearest revelation of Gothic thought."

French and German cultural traditions have long been intertwined in Alsace. Strasbourg Cathedral, to this day not finished, and, unlike the Freiburg Cathedral, only because it has one tower, reflects the mutual influence of two cultures.

Other traditions developed in England. The conditions that determined the historical development of the English state also determined the nature of English Gothic. Like the countries of mainland Europe, England experienced at the same time an economic boom. However, unlike these countries, the development of the trade industry in England was determined primarily not by the city, but by the countryside, where raw materials intended for export were produced and processed. Not the burghers, but the nobility played the main role in the English economy, which means that urban interests were not of decisive importance in the country. That is why temple construction remained predominantly monastic there, as in Roman times.

The cathedral was erected not in the center of the city, as a symbol of its wealth and glory, but outside the city, where the monastery was located. In France or Germany, the cathedral dominated with all its bulk over the low dwellings of the townspeople. In England, the cathedral harmoniously fit into the landscape, which served as its picturesque frame, and therefore grew, first of all, not in height, but in length, freely located in the bosom of nature. And yet the Gothic style required aspiration to the sky. English architects tried to reveal this aspiration in their own way. Erecting cathedrals more and more elongated in length, they supplied them with lancet arches, repeated many times in the windows, and with the same abundance of vertical wall sashes, with the addition of a third tower, no longer a front one, but located above the crossroads. The stretching of the temple building, its legitimized place among an even picturesque landscape with an emphasis on the verticality of not the architectural whole, but the architectural and decorative details of the facade and interior - these are the distinctive features of English Gothic architecture. This is confirmed by the facades of the cathedrals in Salisbury (Appendix No. 11) or in Lincoln (Appendix No. 12), completely dressed in an uncountable number of vertical details, skillfully combined into a single whole.

But, perhaps, the grandiose interiors of English Gothic temples are even more bizarre - star-shaped, mesh, fan-shaped. Fantastically overgrown bunches of columns, the thinnest ribs, hanging openwork funnels, vertically alternating lattice bindings - such a general take-off and such a lacy symphony that, really, the impression of complete weightlessness of the vaulted ceiling is born. Here, the majestic spirituality of Gothic architecture, as it were, recedes under the most unrestrained, truly inexhaustible decorative effect. And how not to dizzy in Gloucester Cathedral or under the arches of the chapel of King's College in Cambridge,

where everywhere above them arise the most bizarre architectural patterns, reminiscent of the ornamental marvels of ancient Northmbrian miniatures.

The Gothic art of Italy has its own distinctive features. Beautiful churches, magnificent palaces, palazzos, open galleries - loggias with arcades and capitals and picturesque fountains, in which elements of the Gothic style can be recognized, adorned the cities of Italy. Designed for 40,000 worshipers, Milan Cathedral, whose construction began at the end of the 16th century and ended in the 19th century, is the largest of all Gothic cathedrals.

The proximity of France and Germany affected the Milan Cathedral: it was built by French, German, and Italian masters. As a result, excessive splendor prevails in his decorative decoration, especially in the sculptural attire. Be that as it may, a specifically Italian variant of Gothic architecture was not revealed in the grandiose Milanese temple building.

Borrowing some elements of the Gothic style that reigned in neighboring countries, the Italian masters remained alien to its very foundation. The frame system, in which the wall seemed to disappear, would not be to their liking, and the wall retained its specific meaning for them: clearly dissected, not tearing upwards, voluminous, by no means openwork, beautiful in its harmony and balance. It was not the vertical, but the regularity that fascinated Italian architects, even when they built buildings with pointed towers, lancet windows and window frames. Gables, horizontal stripes of multi-colored marble, rich inlays give the Italian facades of that time an iridescent elegance. And in the temple interior, despite the lancet vaults and ribs, as, for example, in the famous Florentine church of Santa Maria Novella (XIII-XIV centuries),

so liked by Michelangelo that he called her his “bride”, one can feel, first of all, a clear balance of architectural forms. Even such masterpieces of the late Middle Ages as the Doge's Palace (Appendix No. 13) the usual architectural principles are decisively violated. A massive block of a huge wall rests on arcades and loggias, wonderful in their slender lightness. But this does not seem unnatural, because the horizontal mass of the wall, as it were, loses its weight under multi-colored marble facing from diagonally placed square slabs.

On the Scandinavian peninsula, the harsh climate has always influenced architecture. Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland were adorned with imposing Gothic cathedrals and castles. But, perhaps, Norwegian wooden architecture is the most original Scandinavian contribution to medieval art, both Romanesque and Gothic. The wooded mountains of the country supplied in abundance the material from which the intricate, slender churches with steep gable roofs and a turret in two or three tiers were created, which all of Norway was proud of. About 30 Norwegian wooden churches, built at the end of the 11th century, have come down to us.

Vertical poles and beams determine the construction of the walls of Norwegian wooden temples. General movement up, emphasized on the roofs by different skates in the form of dragons, gives a unique originality to the silhouette of such buildings. And the wonderful carving of portals with intertwining fantastic monsters clearly testifies to the continuity from those not far off times when the formidable Vikings plowed the seas on their dracars. .

Eastern Europe has its own remarkable monuments of Gothic art. Polish Gothic is peculiar with its strong, laconic construction, picturesque church facades made of red brick, market squares, where everything around is town halls. , pointed residential buildings, was created as part of a single architectural ensemble.

Krakow, the village of the magnificent capital of the Kingdom of Poland, with its numerous monuments of Gothic art, occupies a place of honor among the cities famous for their artistic treasures of the late Middle Ages.

In the eastern regions of Europe, Gothic buildings are often characterized by fortress features, laconicism, and even the severity of forms. Wars with the Teutonic Order stimulated the development of fortress architecture, and the rise of cities led to the flourishing of secular architecture, which is exemplified by the town halls in the Polish cities of Gdansk and Torun. Churches were built mainly of brick (the Church of the Virgin Mary in Krakow) and often decorated with frescoes.

In the XIII-XV centuries, Gothic spread in Hungary (St. Michael's Church in Sopron), the Czech Republic (St. Vitus Cathedral, Charles Bridge, the Old Town Hall and the royal castle of Karlstejn), Slovakia (Cathedral in Kosice), Slovenia (church in Ptuj), Transylvania ( black church in Bashov). In Latvia, the transition to Gothic falls on the XIII-XIV centuries, (Dome Cathedral in Riga). The Gothic appearance of Tillin is determined with the construction of a fortified center - Vyshgorod, and the burgher part of the city with the town hall and the church of Oleviste.

In some European countries, Gothic combined the features of its inherent artistic system with traditions and features born of local historical conditions.

This combination gave rise to a peculiar style in medieval Spain. Almost all of Spain was conquered by the Muslim Moors. The Moors had their own artistic system, very high and refined. After the era of the Reconquista, traces Arab culture almost permeate Spanish culture. The Moorish openwork eight-pointed star reigns on the vaults of Christian cathedrals over the Gothic ribs. The frame does not always triumph over the wall. The facades of the famous 13th-century cathedrals in Burgos and Toledo are luxurious.

The grandiose five-nave Seville Cathedral, erected at the beginning of the 16th century on the site of an Arab mosque, with a bell tower rebuilt from a minaret, which has grown more in width than in height, itself very much resembles a mosque. Is born special style"Mudehar", which combines both Gothic and the art of the Arab East.

In the Netherlands, where thanks to the advantageous geographic location urban trade flourished already in the Roman era. The growth of the burghers caused a rapid secular construction. In the last period of the Middle Ages, it was in the Netherlands that the construction of public buildings - town halls, shopping arcades and warehouses, houses of guild organizations - gained the greatest scope.

The majestic city belfries - veche towers (befroy ), which played an important role in the uprisings of the urban population and served, along with the cathedral, a symbol of the power and wealth of the city, is a remarkable achievement of Dutch architecture (a tower, like a pillar, towering over malls in Bruges, towers in Ypres, Ghent.

CONCLUSION

The Gothic style gradually developed a kind of absolutely logical system of structures and decor, which was most fully revealed in the architecture of the large urban cathedrals of France. This is clearly seen in the Cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. The transition from Romanesque architecture to Gothic architecture made it possible to build buildings whose stability and dimensions depended not on the massiveness of the walls, but on the correct distribution of the center of gravity and the expansion of the vault. This innovation led to the development and improvement of construction equipment, significantly enriched the architecture. Gothic architecture changed the appearance of medieval cities, which were surrounded by battlements with triple gates and towers.

The creation of a unified system of decorative decoration has also transformed everyday culture. The fortifications of castles were improved, and at the same time, living quarters began to be furnished with ever-growing luxury, especially in the late Gothic period, which manifested itself in lush decorativeness, tall lancet windows with bizarre bindings, full-wall triple fireplaces, and so on.

The dwellings of ordinary townspeople - tightly pressed to each other Gothic houses with pointed gable roofs, narrow windows, lancet doorways, arcades, corner turrets created a special, unique flavor. Temple buildings acquired a Gothic vertical. The bulk of the cathedral got rid of its heaviness, and all of it was filled with air and sparkled. The rooms began to seem brighter and more spacious, the walls became less visible. Cathedrals ceased to suppress people, they appeared rather as the embodiment of the active life of the medieval city, which was in full swing around them.

The widespread use of decorative sculpture in the decoration of cathedrals and public buildings contributed to the development of sculpture, and the art of stained glass helped the development of painting. General trends in the development of culture and society have led to the fact that there has been a shift towards more realistic art. Gradually, it moves away from the conventionality of forms, the ascetic severity of the early Gothic, is filled with vital content, and in many countries is coming close to a new stage - the Renaissance.

I would like to finish this term paper on the Gothic style with the lines of N.V. Gogol: “There was an unusual architecture ... - we left it, forgot it, as if it were someone else's, neglected it as clumsy and barbaric. Is it not surprising that three centuries have passed, and Europe, which greedily rushed at everything, greedily adopted everything alien, marveled at ancient miracles, Roman and Byzantine, or dressed them according to its own forms - Europe did not know that among it were miracles ... what in in its depths are the Milan and Cologne cathedrals, and even to this day “the bricks of the unfinished tower of the Strasbourg Münster are flying. Gothic architecture, that Gothic architecture that was formed before the end of the Middle Ages, is a phenomenon such as has never been tormented by the taste and imagination of man.

LIST OF LITERATURE USED

1. Vorontsov A.I. "Excursion of world sights". - Moscow, 1983.
2. Gurevich A.Ya. "Categories of Medieval Culture". - Moscow, 1972.
3. Kryzhanovskaya M.Ya. "The Art of the Western Middle Ages". - Moscow, 1963.
4. Lyaskovskaya O.A. "French Gothic of the 12th–14th Centuries". - Moscow, 1973.
5. Soviet encyclopedia. - Moscow, 1986.
6. Soviet encyclopedic dictionary. - Moscow, 1988.

The rich cultural and historical heritage of France makes the country interesting in terms of tourism in various directions. Gothic architecture is one of the important factors in attracting visitors to the country. Cathedrals designed in this style do not stand out from modern buildings, on the contrary, they emphasize the dignity of the surroundings.

Almost all of them are connected with important milestones in the formation of the state, the formation of cities in the form in which they are known and loved now. Traditionally external features Gothic religious buildings are complemented by appropriate interior decoration. Even without the original goal of visiting a couple of cathedrals, it is difficult to remain indifferent when passing by and not stop at least for a short acquaintance with the world of Gothic architecture.

The most beautiful Gothic cathedrals in France

Gothic style in France. Features of the architecture of temples and churches, photos and descriptions!

reims cathedral

It is named after the city where it is located. Built in the XII century. One of the tallest cathedrals, the towers reach a height of 80 m. It was the coronation site of most French monarchs. At the moment, restoration is underway, which does not interfere with tourism activities. Some elements of the decoration of the cathedral (statues, tapestries, etc.), partially damaged during World War II, are collected in a separate room.

Rouen Cathedral

Located in the city of the same name. Some of its parts were built in different centuries, the oldest is the northern tower, dated 1145. All that remained of it was the walls after the Second World War. The cathedral suffered many times from raids, fires, bad weather. Each time the damaged parts of the facade were restored. The interior decoration is emphasized strict, without unnecessary details. There are ancient statues.

Cathedral of Notre Dame

It is not only a tourist attraction, but also a functioning religious site. Located in Paris, founded in 1163. Here the weddings of monarchs, the transfer of power, memorial services of a state scale took place. Cathedral Square is rich in iconic places: kilometer zero, the prefecture, the Crypt of the porch of Notre Dame, where archaeological artifacts found during excavations near the cathedral are exhibited.

Church of Saint-Vulfran in Abbeville

Founded in 1488. There used to be another religious building on this site. For some time, the church was only a historical monument, but as a result, services began to be held again in 1998. The height of the bell tower is almost 56 m. There are only three floors, the first one has habitually high ceilings. There are also three chapels with personalized richly decorated altars and a mausoleum.

Chartres Cathedral

Located in the city of Chartres, founded in 1145. A rare religious building, preserved unchanged and without major restoration work. 10 thousand sculptures and other elements made of stone and glass make up the decoration of the cathedral. The north and south towers are very different in height and overall style. A special relic is the Shroud of the Virgin Mary. Another feature - astronomical clock XVI century.

Tours Cathedral (Cathedral of Saint Gatian of Tours)

Named after the city where it is the main attraction. Construction began in 1170. The full name includes the name of Saint Gatian, the first bishop of Tours. Although the façade towers look symmetrical from a distance, their heights vary: 68 m and 69 m respectively. Since there used to be another temple here, and later changes were made, the cathedral has some features of the Romanesque era and the Renaissance.

amiens cathedral

It is located in the city of the same name, bears the name of the Mother of God. Built in the first half to the middle of the 13th century. Representative of pure Gothic. The vault height is more than 42 m. The interior is designed in such a way as to visually expand the space, make it brighter and indivisible into sectors. The decoration uses a lot of sculptural elements. Including wood.

Clermont-Ferrand Cathedral

Located in the Auvergne region, named after the Ascension of the Virgin Mary. Founded in 1248. The dark, almost black building contrasts very much with the buildings around and, due to its size and location on top of the hill, can be seen from anywhere. Antique sarcophagi, frescoes of the Middle Ages, valuable liturgical objects, unique elements of wall decoration are the features of the cathedral.

Cathedral of the Holy Cross in Orleans

Construction began in 1601. Repeatedly rebuilt and reconstructed. During World War II, it was slightly damaged, but the main bell fell into disrepair. It was replaced with a new one in 2012. Excavations were carried out in the vicinity to learn more about the stages in the formation of the cathedral. It is indirectly connected with the story of Joan of Arc, who visited him during the siege of the city.

Evreux Cathedral

Located in the city of the same name. Construction began in the 11th century. The current appearance was formed later: the first cathedral burned twice and was rebuilt in the Gothic style. Through a covered gallery, the cathedral is connected with the Bishops' Palace. After the restoration, the bell tower returned to its original place. The interiors contrast with each other: for example, the nave is made in the Romanesque style, while the choir is Gothic.

Abbey of Saint-Denis

Located in the municipality of the same name. Founded in the 12th century. During the existence of religious buildings on this site, 25 French monarchs were buried here. Some of the tombs were destroyed, some were reburied, but then returned to Saint-Denis. Some bones of kings and members of their families ended up in the ossuary of the abbey. Since 2004, the heart of Louis XVII, who never ascended the throne, rests here.

Metz Cathedral

Located in the city of Metz. It has a second name - St. Stephen's Cathedral. Founded in 1240. Its base is a Romanesque church, to which a nave was attached. Later there were choirs and a transverse nave. A bulky building with many pointed columns and narrow towers stands in the square of arms. The cathedral is famous for its wide painted stained-glass windows. 19 of them were made by the artist Chagall.

Nevers Cathedral

Located in the department of Nièvre. Founded in the X century. It has a number of other names, for example, Ser-Cyr Cathedral. The current look is a symbiosis of styles and the consequences of reconstructions. Western apse, choirs, facade walls - Romanesque style, nave - Gothic, facade towers - late Gothic. Each window has a unique painting. Stained-glass windows, as well as other decoration elements, belong to different historical periods.

Strasbourg Cathedral

Located in the city of the same name. Construction began in 1015. For more than a hundred years it was a Lutheran cathedral. Attraction - astronomical clock. They are decorated with all sorts of figures and ornaments. They have many additional features. The square in front of the cathedral is the venue for concerts in the summer. The walls are illuminated in different colors, changing to the tone of the music.

Notre Dame in Lana

The first temple was built here in the 8th century. Later, a building in the Romanesque style appeared. With the development of the city, it was necessary to expand it. There were more Gothic features: the nave, the transept, the choirs. The difference between this Notre Dame and cathedrals in other cities: light walls, so the local limestone was used, and galleries on the sides. Small choir stalls are also unusual, their rectangular shape is typical for the architecture of England.

Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul in Nantes

The first stone was laid in 1434. Prior to that, there were three churches in succession. Construction stretched for more than 450 years. Gradually, Gothic elements absorbed Romanesque features. The walls of the building are almost white. The cathedral is associated with the legend of Bluebeard and with the stories of d'Artagnan. Of particular value is the double gravestone of the representatives of the house de Dreux - a masterpiece of French sculpture.

Cathedral of Saint-Louis in Blois

Founded in 1544. It has features of classicism. It was built in stages over three centuries. One of the chapels was built in the XII century, i.e. to the bookmark Saint-Louis. At the same time, it functioned. The historic stained glass windows have not survived and were replaced with copies in 2000. The crypt contains the sarcophagi of each of the local bishops. Attraction nearby - the castle of Blois.

Cathedral of Saint Peter in Beauvais

Founded in 1225. His Gothic choirs are the highest in existence. To give the cathedral an imposing appearance was one of the goals of the architects. In place of its nave is a Romanesque church. The southern façade is a classic example of late Gothic. The interior and facade decoration have their own peculiarities: carved wooden doors, astronomical clocks rich in details, stained-glass windows, tapestries of the Middle Ages.

Cathedral of Saints Just and Pastor

Construction began in 1272 in Narbonne. The building is listed as unfinished, although service has been conducted here for centuries. Its greyish-brown walls are perfectly inscribed in the architecture of the city with a dense building of streets. Each of the chapels is different in some way: a special altar, a sculptural composition, a collection of paintings on religious themes, items for liturgy, etc.

Bourges Cathedral

Located in Bourges. It was consecrated in 1324, although it continued to be completed. There is no transept, which is not typical for such temples: it does not have a cruciform shape. Since the cathedral was almost not damaged during wars and revolutions, 22 original stained glass windows have been preserved. The crypt contains ancient tombstones in perfect condition. And the astronomical clock has not stopped for more than 500 years.

Abbey Saint-Ouen

Located in Rouen. Founded in 553, it was rebuilt and restored many times. Gothic features appeared in the XIV century. Some buildings of the abbey were used for other purposes: in one city hall, in another factory. Now the premises are used for performances by classical musicians and exhibitions. In the gardens nearby there is a pond with a sculptural composition and a copy of the rune stone.

Basilica of Saint-Nicolas-de-Port

Founded in 1481. The city at that time was called Por. It was built in honor of Lorraine's independence. The church was re-consecrated by Pope Pius XII, after which it became a basilica. After World War II, the restoration took 15 years, including the replacement of almost all stained-glass windows. For nearly 200 years, it has officially been a historical monument of France.

Tula Cathedral (Tul)

Construction began in the 13th century. The façade is entirely in the Gothic style, but subsequently two chapels dating back to the Renaissance period appeared. During the revolution and the Second World War, some elements of decoration were lost, including the destruction of the roof and the organ. There was a monastery nearby. Religious events are not held, a popular tourist attraction.

Cathedral of Saint Cecilia in Albi

Founded in 1282. One of the largest brick buildings in the world. It was originally planned to use it as a fortress. A bell tower and the gates of Dominic of Florence were built nearby. The nave is the widest in the country. Small chapels lined up in a row replaced the classic aisles in the interior. The entrance has been moved to the south side, although in Gothic it is usually located in the west.

Cathedral in Saint-Paul-de-Leon

Located in Brittany. The beginning of construction in its current form is the XII century, before that there was an ancient church here. The choir and the aspid appeared much later than the founded part of the cathedral. Gargoyles on the facade have an unusual appearance. The baptistery is mostly made of oak. The altars of each of the chapels are works of art. The stained glass windows show various scenes from the Bible and the lives of the saints.

Basilica of Saint Michael in Bordeaux

Construction started in the 14th century. Thanks to the bell tower, it is one of the highest cathedrals in France - 114 m. Works of art from different centuries are collected here, including the Pieta with the image of St. Ursula. The local crypt is an independent exhibition hall for sarcophagi and remains found during archaeological excavations nearby.

Church of Saint Eustache

Located in Paris. Date of foundation - 1532. The facade is made mainly in the style of classicism, it is complemented by the Renaissance, and the Gothic can be traced in the details of the interior decoration. The crypt contains the remains of Tiberio Fiorilli, a theater actor who lived in the 17th century. The pride of the church is an organ of 8,000 pipes. When assembling it, elements of old tools were used. Organ concerts are regularly held here.

Dijon Cathedral

Located in the city of the same name. Built at the end of the XIII-beginning of the XIV centuries. Pope Eugene III participated in the consecration of the temple that stood here earlier. The crypt contains the remains of Philip III and part of the relics of St. Venignin, after whom the cathedral bears its official name. The decoration is dominated by asceticism: less decoration than usual. The height of the choir and nave, coupled with stained-glass windows, visually increase the space.

Notre Dame de Senlis

Located in the center of Senlis. Built in the second half of the 12th century. Since then, only the dome has undergone a major alteration, although additional decorative elements appeared until the 18th century. Light limestone was used for the walls. The height of the bell tower is 78 m. An important detail of the interior decoration is the original wall and ceiling paintings. Such frescoes are atypical not only for the present, but also for that time.

Rhodes Cathedral

Located in the city of Rodez. First mentioned in 516. In the past, one of its walls was part of the city wall. The new cathedral began to be rebuilt in the XIII century. The process was extended due to plague, fires and wars. Although it took centuries to complete the work, the style is the same. The bell tower is the most modern of the buildings in the composition. It is decorated with a statue of the Virgin Mary surrounded by four angels.

Northern France is the birthplace of the Gothic, where this architectural style was called "ogival", i.e. pointed arch style. The main building material of Gothic is stone. From it, not only massive racks and thin strong ribs (ribs) of vaults were laid out, but also the richest sculptural decoration of facades, thin openwork window bindings and “roses” (large light hole) were cut out. In the north, brick was also used. Wide window openings are filled with colored stained-glass windows. The main decoration of the interiors of Gothic cathedrals is a complex, sometimes bizarre pattern of vault ribs.

The system of rib vaults made it possible to abandon massive walls, moving to a system of flying buttresses (outer ribs) and buttresses (supports protruding near the wall) that were carried outside the building. Gothic cathedrals in the close building of the city most often opened the gaze to only one entrance facade, the western one, most magnificently decorated. Its high towers served as a guide pointing the way to the cathedral in the cramped narrow streets. Gothic cathedrals were built for a long time. Therefore, some of them have towers of different heights and even different shapes. The most striking monuments of early Gothic are the cathedrals in Paris, Chartres and Bourges, and the cathedrals in Reims and Amiens became the best examples of classical Gothic.

One of the largest buildings of early Gothic France is (Notre Dame de Paris), built in the XII-XIV centuries. The towers of the cathedral have a height of about 70 m, but have remained unfinished. The facades of the cathedral abound with numerous sculptures - from the Fall to the Last Judgment. A huge rose window with a diameter of 13 m is decorated with colored stained-glass windows with scenes from the Old Testament. The famous decorative elements of the cathedral are sculptures of chimeras at the base of the towers. The cathedral is known in the Christian world for its unique relic - the crown of thorns of Jesus Christ.

City Chartres(Center), located southwest of Paris, is famous for its cathedral - a "wonder of the Gothic", rebuilt in the 13th century. from a burnt Romanesque church. The cathedral in Chartres is famous for its stained-glass windows, which show not only scenes from the Old and New Testaments, but also everyday scenes from the life of kings, knights, artisans and even peasants. The southern tower of the cathedral (height 106 m) is considered one of the most beautiful church towers in Europe. The north tower (height 113.5 m) is decorated with an elegant spire in the style of "flaming gothic".

(Center) was built on the site of an old church in the late XII - early XIII centuries. The side chapels were added already in the late Gothic era. The sculptures and stained-glass windows of the cathedral depicting Christ, the Virgin Mary, the Last Judgment and the Apocalypse, angels, Saint Etienne and other saints make a strong impression.

(Champagne-Ardenne) - one of the masterpieces of Gothic, built from the XIII to the XV centuries. The graceful architecture of the cathedral, its bewitching stained-glass windows and lancet arches merge into a single harmonious ensemble. The interior of the cathedral is well lit through the stained-glass windows, the architectural details are decorated with floral ornaments. Reims Cathedral is the traditional place for the coronation of French kings.

(Picardy) in northern France is considered one of the largest "classical" Gothic buildings of the XIII century. However, the tent over the south tower was already completed in the 14th century, and the north tower was completed only at the beginning of the 15th century. The cathedral houses the head of John the Baptist, which, after the capture of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204, ended up in Amiens by the "province of God". Thanks to successful architectural solutions, the cathedral seems to be directed upwards. Its facades are richly decorated with bas-reliefs with scenes from the Old Testament and from the life of the Middle Ages - a total of 4.5 thousand figures! The interior of the cathedral, on the contrary, is characterized by modesty and unpretentiousness.

City of Avignon (Provence-Côte d'Azur), located on the Rhone River, was in the XIV century. The papal residence, for which it is often called the "city of popes." During the reign of the French Popes, the Papal Palace was built - huge, asymmetrical and gloomy. This building dominates the city and clearly contrasts with the houses inside the medieval walls. High walls with hidden narrow windows, powerful lancet arches and wide loopholes make the Papal Palace an impregnable fortress. In old Avignon, the Petit Palace and the Romanesque cathedral Notre-Dame-de-Dome have been preserved.

In the era of mature Gothic, decoration begins to dominate. Vertical articulations become the main ones, the pattern of vaults becomes more complicated. There is an increasing desire for external effects. Gothic cathedrals begin to resemble "frozen rain" or "petrified flames." In the XIII-XV centuries. the chapel of the royal palace was built on the island of Cité in Paris Sainte Chapelle("Holy Chapel"). It was conceived as a repository of relics taken from Constantinople in 1239. The lancet windows of the chapel display a unique collection of stained-glass windows, consisting of 1134 biblical scenes. The openwork "rose" on the facade (XV century) is made in the style of "flaming Gothic". The spire of Sainte-Chapelle is 75 meters high.

Located on a rocky island, Gothic (Lower Normandy), dedicated to the Archangel Michael, is often called one of the "wonders of the world." Benedictian monks founded an abbey here in the 11th century, the construction of which was completed only in the 16th century. The eastern altar part of the abbey was built in the style of "flaming gothic". The vertical walls of the monastery, more like a fortress, look like a natural continuation of the rocky cliffs in the center of the island. The central part, 78 m high, resembles a fairy-tale castle. A small town has formed around the abbey, the only street of which rises in a serpentine to the gates of the monastery. Actually, Mont Saint-Michel becomes an island only during high tides, one of the highest on the planet. At low tide, the water surface of the Gulf of Saint-Malo can only be seen from the observation decks of the monastery.

City Carcassonne(Languedoc-Roussillon) - the largest Gothic fortress in Europe, located at the crossroads of trade routes between the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and Central. The city is surrounded by two rows of mighty fortress walls with 52 observation towers. In the city of Carcassonne, the narrow medieval streets and the Saint-Nazaire Cathedral with its impressive chimeras on the facade and stunning stained-glass windows are of interest.

City Strasbourg(Alsace) has medieval center located on the island grand isle the Ile River, which has preserved the architecture and color of the Gothic period. Here, at a height of 142 m, rises the tower of the Gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame, built in the XII-XV centuries. pink sandstone. Nearby are four ancient churches and the Roan Palace (the former residence of the bishops). In the western part of the island, the picturesque historical quarter of tanners Petit-France ("Little France") with cozy half-timbered houses decorated with fresh flowers has been preserved. Houses built in a special "Alsatian style" have peaked roofs with many dormer windows.

Saint Emilion wine region(Aquitaine) is located on the banks of the Dordogne River, 50 km east of the city of Bordeaux. The name of this area is associated with the name of the monk Emilion, who lived in one of the surrounding caves. When, after his death, he was recognized as a saint, the cave was turned into a church carved into the rock. During the heyday of winemaking in the XI-XIV centuries. Numerous churches and monasteries were built in Saint-Emilion. It is one of the main red wine producing areas in France. Local varieties of wines are characterized by a mild taste and can be stored for a long time.