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!