Trendsetters or Rule Breakers?

Within gothic art and architecture, there exist many deviations from the standard style. Both Saint-Maclou in Rouen, France and a cloth guild in Bruges, Belgium serve as prime examples of gothic architecture that are a far cry from Chartres and Notre-Dame.

Saint-Maclou is an example of what is referred to as the flamboyant gothic style that was prominent in the 14^th century. The church differs from stereotypical gothic style in its size and structure. Saint-Maclou stands at 75 feet high and is 180 feet long, much smaller than comparable gothic cathedrals, and its façade is uniquely ornate. The façade boasts five portals with intricately topped doorways and is dominated by the characteristic flamboyant tracery that form screen-like curving patterns that overlay the rest of the structure. This church and its unique and complex model epitomize flamboyant gothic style and accentuate the way in which not all gothic structures were created equal.

Similar to Saint-Maclou in its deviation from gothic norms, the hall of the cloth guild represents a new type of gothic architecture that appeared in the late Middle Ages—namely, one that is secular and reflects the development of urban life in Europe. Constructed as a market and guild hall for Bruges’ cloth makers, the structure serves as a testament to the increasing formation of craft guilds and is an indicator of the importance of artisans and merchants at the time. The architectural components of the structure do not necessarily scream “gothic.” The building does include, however, crenellations, lancet windows, flying buttresses, and pinnacles.

Overall, these two structures represent the variations and diversity found in gothic architecture and illustrate how the style evolved over time.

Saint-Savin-Sur-Gartempe...and I thought my last name was bad...

While studying for our most recent AP art history test, a fellow classmate of mine and I tried to figure out a way to remember the not so pretty name of this beautiful Romanesque church. After half-heartedly muttering something about a saint saving the south by guarding the temperature, we gave up and hoped that the fact that the test was multiple-choice would increase our odds of success.

More so than its name, however, the church is notable for its hall church plan and its painted nave vault. A hall church is one in which the aisles are approximately the same height as the nave, and when combined with tall windows as in Saint-Savin-Sur-Gartempe, the result is more illumination of the nave. This added light accentuates the biblical paintings found on the nave’s continuous vault. These paintings depict scenes primarily from the Old Testament, specifically the first five books, but throughout the rest of the church New Testament themes reign supreme.

Ultimately, not only the church’s name, but also its plan, illumination, paintings, and style are unique.

Tympan-uhmmm?

During our AP art history unit on Romanesque Europe, our class learned to both love and despise (not exactly in that order…) the Romanesque church portal. After viewing many slides, learning about the most commonly depicted motifs, and stumbling over the pronunciation of “voussoirs,” our brilliant teacher Mr. Lovell challenged us to pair off and create our own portal, modeling the tympanum theme after one of the images we had studied. After two class periods of work, here is our final product (see picture above).

We used the tympanum of the center portal of the narthex of La Madeleine in Vézelay, France as our model (see picture above). The church’s tympanum illustrates the Pentecost and mission of the apostles, depicting Christ in a mandorla as the central figure instilling the Holy Spirit in the apostles. So, naturally, our rendition depicts a lion as the king of the jungle…? It’s a stretch, but our portal is at least structurally accurate. We illustrated the trumeau and two jambs as tree trunks and adorned the jambs with ascending serpents. Our voussoirs are depicted as large jungle leaves that create a standard archivolt. For the tympanum we drew a central lion inside a mandorla to represent Christ and surrounded him with stereotypical jungle animals to serve as the twelve apostles. Along the lintel we illustrated groups of people running in fear to the right and left away from Christ, representing humanity awaiting salvation.

Despite our questionable rendition, the assignment was a tremendous help in understanding not only the architecture that makes up Romanesque church portals, but also the crucial role they played in society at the time. Now we know our tympanums from our trumeaus!

The High Cross of Muiredach

In an age of predominately small and personal art, early medieval Irish high crosses stood out as art of grand mass and scale. Towering at eighteen feet, the High Cross of Muiredach is no exception. This high cross erected in a burial ground in Monasterboice, Ireland in 923 is made of sandstone, is considered one of the largest and finest early medieval crosses, and is a prime example of the dual function of crosses as both sculpture and architecture.

The name of this particular high cross comes from an inscription on its base that asks for a prayer for a man named Muiredach who is thought to have been the abbot of a late 5th century Irish monastery in Monasterboice. The cross boasts concave arms with square terminals that are looped by four arcs that form a circle--these characteristics mark the cross as Celtic. Art historians debate the origin of this Celtic symbol that combines a cross with a ring surrounding the intersection. Some believe that the idea came from linking the Christian cross and the circular pagan symbol for the sun, while others think that the inspiration stemmed from crosses carrying victory wreaths around their intersection.

The west and east faces of the high cross of Muiredach depict two different relief images of Christ. The west face illustrates crucified Christ while the east shows Christ risen. Below the risen Christ on the east face, souls of the dead are weighed on scales to enhance the portrayal of Christ as the judge of the world.

Local Art Appreciation

Despite its location amongst various historic and architecturally notable buildings, the Historic Franklin Presbyterian Church is hardly just another figurative face in a crowd. Occupying half a block on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Main Street in Downtown Franklin, the red brick church is the first building that drivers and pedestrians alike see upon entering the historic town from Hillsboro Road. Providing a picturesque backdrop for Starbucks addicts and a place for Sweet Cece’s junkies to enjoy their frozen yogurt, the church is viewed both as a place of worship and as an important part of the small town’s culture.

The Presbyterian Church was initially located by the City Cemetery, but moved to its current location in 1842. The original structure was burned in a fire in 1905, warranting its reconstruction three years later. The church is boarded by buildings on two sides while the others face streets. As a result, the structure lacks a grand main entrance. The side of the church facing Main Street, however, is the most notable view of the structure due to the beautiful stained glass windows and brickwork decoration it boasts.

This façade of the church can be visually divided into three separate parts—namely, a leftward section, a central section, and a rightward section. Stone stairways with wrought iron railings lead to white wooden double doors paneled with stain glass windows that are nestled within arcuated openings in the left and right portions of the structure. In the central section between the doors that flank the structure, a row of three oblong arched stained glass windows immediately capture the viewer’s attention. The stained glass windows do not show narrative Biblical scenes, but rather are filled with bright blues, greens, browns, and purples that form ornamental details. High relief terracotta details are found where the sides of the arches begin to curve to form the rounded top. Above these windows resides a horizontal row of seven small relief brick archways beneath a large triangular relief filled with brickwork detail.

The roofline of the structure from this point of view is not a consistent horizontal line. Rather, the leftward section has the lowest roofline, rising not much higher than the top of the archway, while the central structure has a taller A-line roof, and a rectangular tower rises above the rightward side. The tower boasts a rectangular central stain glass window flanked by two oblong brick archways. Directly above the window, a third, wider brick arch resides. A small, white, metal, cruciform steeple ascends from the top of the tower. Around the tower’s upper edge, square and rectangular sections of brick have been cut out to form notches reminiscent of those found on a stereotypical medieval castle.

Aside from its principle purpose as a place of worship, Historic Franklin’s Presbyterian Church has served as a hospital after the Battle of Franklin, temporarily housed the Franklin Female Institute, been appreciated as a form of local art, and provided people with a shady and picturesque place to watch the hustle and bustle of Main Street go by.

Formal Analysis First Try

The Roman marble copy of Lysippos’s bronze original, Apoxyomenos, standing at just less than seven feet tall in the Musei Vaticani in Rome was sculpted with particular proportions in mind. Contrary to the canon proportions established by Polykleitos in the previous century, Lysippos designed his own canon to create the sculpture Apoxyomenos circa 330 BCE. As a result, the young athlete featured by the sculpture exhibits a more slender, seemingly taller body and a head approximately one-eighth the size of the body.

In addition to introducing altered proportions that gave the sculpted athlete’s body longer and leaner qualities, Lysippos also carved the sculpture with properties that exhibit a sense of action, motion, and energy. The athlete stands in classic contropposto form, with the weight of the statue on the left leg, a relaxed right leg, and a slightly tilted head. Transcending the concept of contropposto, however, Lysippos portrays the athlete in an unbalanced stance and utilizes the positioning of the statue’s arms to create the illusion of motion. Rather than focusing on the pose in which the athlete is depicted, the viewer is able to imagine what action he will complete next.

Furthermore, the Apoxyomenos seems to break free from its surrounding space. Lysippos sculpted the statue in a manner that encourages the viewer to observe it from all perspectives. The frontward extended arm in particular prompts the observer to examine the form from several different angles.

Ekphrasis Practice

True to the impressionistic style to which Impression: Sunrise gave rise, Claude Monet’s Impression: Sunrise conveys a snapshot of a fleeting moment in time, leaving it up to the imagination of the admirer to fill in the precise details. The canvas is filled with soft greens, blues, and grays, personifying the hushed quality of early morning. An ocean fills the foreground with Monet’s short, undisguised brushstrokes as the only elements disturbing the still water. Two small, shadowy boats sparsely occupied are the darkest images in the painting, depicted in a deep navy blue. The boats glide across the water towards the large ships depicted hazily in the background. The brushstrokes used to create the image of the ships’ foggy, gray-blue, tall masts rise until they become part of the sky. The sun sits just inches above the horizon, slightly to the right of the center of the painting. Depicted as a small, circular, bright red ball, the sun casts oranges, reds, and yellows upon a narrow strip of ocean and illuminates the sky just as it would in reality. Monet’s brushstrokes are boldly visible in the painting and the more closely one studies the image, the more evident its imperfections become. From a distance, however, the image becomes strikingly realistic. Ultimately, Monet’s Impression: Sunrise is the epitome of the Impressionistic style and embodies the qualities of movement in its purest form.

Rapid-Fire Analysis

With thirty minutes to analyze and write about one of three of Clare Coyle Taylor's daily colored pencil creations, I immediately gravitate towards the one depicting the most chaotic and colorful scene, titled November 10, 2006.

The colors and abstract shapes are messily confined within a square, and the idea of coloring inside the lines is pushed to the wayside. In some places on the bristol board, Coyle leaves the pencil lines to stand on their own, creating zig-zag scribbles and outlines for other shapes; in others, she masterfully blends the contrasting dark and vibrant colors, giving the colored pencils the qualities and characteristics of pastels.

The colors and shapes of the lines evoke contrasting dark and light emotions. The darker greens, blues, and browns in combination with the inconsistency of the forms induce a feeling of chaos and disorderliness while the vibrant, beautifully blended oranges, reds, yellows, and pinks summon an energetic and cheerful vibe.

A brief history of Coyle's life might provide the viewer with an explanation of the abstract images she creates. Using them as daily activities in therapy, it is possible that Coyle utilizes her artwork as an expression of emotion. Perhaps her inclination to color outside of the lines and eliminate the notion of order is a reflection of what was occurring in her life at the time. Perhaps, not. Perhaps it warrants no explanation at all.