The period approximately from 1000 to the late 1300s can be concerned to be the time of full bloom of the Gothic cathedral. As the famous architectural style, the Gothic style was originated from France. In this essay, French gothic and English gothic have been selected to demonstrate how two historical periods can have many differences but still remain true to their own religious variations, architectural features and functions and meanings to create insightful parallels.
Five of the French cathedrals and one of the English cathedrals have been selected to represent French and English gothic periods respectively, including Notre-Dame Cathedral (Figure 1), Chartres Cathedral (Figure 2), Amiens Cathedral (Figure 3), Beauvais Cathedral (Figure 4), Salisbury Cathedral (Figure 5). Although English gothic was derived from French gothic and was prevalent later than in France, this research paper is intended to explore the similarities and distinctions between them. Figure 4 Beauvais Cathedral
Figure 5 Salisbury Cathedral First of all, the peference of French and English Gothic cathedrals on verticality or horizontality is one of the most notable differences found between them. In another word, the features of the cathedral put emphasis on a critical focus on either height or length. For example, the propensity of French for pursuing height can be discovered in cathedrals such as Notre-Dame Cathedral. The height of vaults of its nave is about thirty-three meters off the ground, at that time which was deemed shockingly high.
The heights of French cathedrals increased gradually, both Chartres Cathedral and Amiens Cathedral are getting higher over time. However, the height of Beauvais Cathedral reaches its ultimate peak, and becomes the tallest one among all of French Gothic cathedrals, at around forty-nine meters, which is tall enough to put American’s the statue of liberty in it. What would a visitor feel when he enter this cathedral? The intense feelings depicted by Winkle seem to be “truly magical” in the first impression, while followed by a sense of crisis generated from realization of the exaggerated height.
Owning to its incredible height, the cathedral has had to go through two major structural accidents and massive reconstruction. French verticality finally arrives at its limitation. Moreover, the height of each of the cathedrals was then embellished and visually extended by employing the architectural features. Of various artistic elements, including pointed arches, vertical piece of stones between two windows, all play a part to expand the rule of vertical lines.
In addition, the surface of the vertical degree also plays an important role in the visual perception, because the vertical buttresses are easy to subvert the other horizontal lines. In contrast English Gothic cathedrals, they were inclined to make their length more noticeable. For example, Salisbury Cathedral located in England is around one hundred and forty-five meters in length, most of which gained from the height of its nave . By comparison, French cathedrals were weighed down by its height; the nave of Chartres Cathedral is only around seventy-two meters in length.
In addition, when compares the emphases in proportion of Amiens Cathedral with Salisbury Cathedral, their distinction seem to be so evident. Although Amiens Cathedral is three meters wider than Salisbury Cathedral, it is over fifteen meters higher than Salisbury Cathedral, which makes their proportions totally different from each other. As a matter of fact, the English cathedrals seemed to give less attention about its height at all. The vaults of French Beauvais Cathedral reached to around forty-nine meters in height, while Salisbury Cathedral is only half of its height, twenty-six meters.
The result of comparison shows that French gothic cathedrals put emphasis on verticality, but English tend to focus on horizontality. Similar as French gothic cathedrals, the English use the expression of architectural features to display its horizontality, which could be found in many of English gothic cathedrals at that time, including Salisbury as well. Another distinguished distinction between French and English Gothic cathedrals led by their inclination in height versus length affect their use of buttresses.
The English use of buttresses is relatively converted, while the French use of the buttresses is highly c. Peter Draper used the word “tentative” to describe the English use of flying buttresses (Figure 6) . As for the French use of the buttresses, taking the buttresses at Chartres Cathedral (Figure 7) as examples, they are used on the exterior of cathedrals in order to suggest an aesthetic as well as a functional use, that is to say, making cathedrals look thinner and higher. These flying buttresses are used almost ubiquitously in France, and there is no exception at Beauvais Cathedra.
It can be found that emphases on height and length of both English gothic cathedrals and French gothic cathedrals would also have impact on their use of buttresses. On the part of French cathedrals, extraneous supports such as buttressing are indispensable for the height. However, on the part of English cathedrals (Figure 8), its height did not become such an issue. What is more, the use of buttressing usually highlights the vertical rather than the horizontal aspects of the building.
This may be the explanation of why the French cathedrals highlight the use of buttressing, but the English cathedrals preferred to hide the use of buttressing under roofing . Figure 8 Salisbury Cathedral flying buttress Last but not least, there remain two other differences between French and English Gothic cathedrals, which are their facades and east ends. First of all, the facades of French and English cathedrals greatly differ from each other in vision and composition. The facades of French gothic cathedrals seem to be able to reflect their interior order. In contrast, the facades of
English gothic cathedrals seem to have little connection to the building behind it and the portals are very small. Salisbury Cathedral, for example, has produced such kind of planarity by the use of continuous arch and religious sculptures. Secondly, their east ends were designed dissimilar as well. In French gothic cathedrals, east ends of cathedrals were generally illustrated by rounded winding corridor, which are illustrated by squared east ends with its English gothic cathedrals counterparts. Salisbury Cathedral is the typical example that uses a squared east end with lancet windows for decoration.
There are also many similarities between French gothic cathedrals and English Gothic cathedrals. Firstly, in their designs both of them use the ubiquitous pointed arch (Figure 11). Chartres Cathedral (Figure 12), Amiens Cathedral (Figure 13) and Salisbury Cathedral (Figure 14), all of them use the pointed arches but in different ways. In these cathedrals, it is obvious to see there are repeatedly use of pointed arch. The pointed arches are used in the arcades, the lancet windows of the corridors as well as on the ceiling of the dome.
In the second place, both of them use ribbed vaulting made of stone ceilings in their designs. All three of them use a large number of ribbed vaulting so as to divide the stone ceiling into different sections. inted arch of Amiens Cathedral Figure 14 pointed arch of Salisbury Cathedral When it comes to the differing emphases of their functions and meanings, the fierce competitive environment of French cathedrals at that time has pushed the cathedrals to new peaks, while the mild competitive environment of England were concentrating on the competition of length.
French gothic cathedrals were pushed by one another into the higher level, which can be observed by the continuously rising height of the cathedrals. In the early thirteenth century in France, NotreDame Cathedral’s staggering height of thirty-three meters was overwhelmed by Chartres Cathedral in a short time at thirty four meters, yet Amiens Cathedral has reached to forty-two meters in height at the end of the thirteenth century. Secondly, French gothic cathedrals were under the pressure of the surrounding towns.
The middle-aged population boomed between the years 1000 and 1328, and doubled the population that resided in urban areas. French gothic cathedrals located in the middle of the town were encountering danger of being “marginalized. ” Those are the reasons of building the new cathedrals. Thirdly, some cathedrals had the added pressure of geography, such as the immense Beauvais, which stands out only owning to its height . In this way French gothic cathedrals were competing not only with the surrounding cathedrals, but also with the surrounding towns.
In contrast, English gothic cathedrals were under a different kind of situation and pressure. Constructed by Bishop Richard Poor so as to extend a new land, Salisbury Cathedral is a good example. Under these circumstances, the cathedral could be built to be an individual Episcopal City to the adjoining town . Although the English cathedrals did not have the same pressures as French cathedrals, they were still in competition with each other. Verticality and horizontality in the interior of French and English Gothic cathedrals also has relations with their application of functions and meanings.
Because cathedrals are regarded as symbol of Heaven, French gothic cathedrals focus on verticality to purse a symbolic meaning. To English gothic cathedrals, it has functional values to internal emphasis of horizontality. In conclusion, there are many similarities and differences found between the Gothic cathedrals of France and England, causes of which are complicated due to different historical background, religious belief and artistic styles. One of the most notable differences is their preference on verticality versus horizontality, which can be considered to be opposition to each other in style features.
They used architectural features such as vertical vault shafts to highlight the height and width of cathedrals. It is also found that although both of them used buttresses, they used in different ways. French gothic cathedrals intend to accentuate the vertical lines of the cathedrals by using the flying buttresses in the exterior, while English gothic cathedrals usually build buttresses in the interior of the cathedrals. Moreover, both of them differ from the facade and east ends of the cathedrals.
There were also similarities between them, such as the use of ribbed vaulting and pointed arches. When it comes to the functions and meanings of French and English gothic cathedrals, they have distinctive values. The cathedrals in France are symbol of heaven, but in English it is the symbolic connotation of processions. Through comparing French and English gothic cathedrals, artistic styles, historical influence and functional values help us lay a solid foundation to have a better understanding of the complicated art at that historical period.
