John Lobell: Early Christian, Romanesque, Gothic Architecture
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.ย. 2024
- johnlobell.com This is a lecture given in first year architectural history in the school of architecture at Pratt Institute. It is mostly focused on Gothic architecture, looking at it in historical context, then at Gothic structure, and then how it is the "temple form" for Western culture.
What a FANTASTIC lecture! I recommend this to any student of architecture.
Thanks
I very much value your interpretation of historical data that you do throughout the lecture and at the end of it. Thank you for your intellectually beautiful lectures.
Thank you . :-)
YES, thanks for uploading this...this really helps to clear up stuff I could not remember and lost my notes of them!!!!! Your class seem very engaging :)
It would be great if you could enable the closed captions. Thank you for this lecture!
It's by no means clear that the pointed arch was an import from Islam. Islam at this time was actually favoring horseshoe arches and the peculiar stacked arches called double arches as can be seen at the Great Mosque of Cordoba. It would take a careful dating of all early uses of the pointed arches and vaults and domes in Europe to establish that they were all made after the first crusade was called in 1095, and in fact I believe that there are earlier examples of pointed arches to be found in Romanesque buildings. Wikipedia states (without attribution): "The first example of early Gothic arch in Europe is set in Sicily in the Greek fortifications of Gela." These ruins predate Christianity by several centuries! It's particularly suspicious that only the pointed arch would have been borrowed from Islam into what was otherwise a completely organic transition from Romanesque to Gothic styles.
I agree with this comment. I belive that the pointed arch evolved in Europe independently, and that there are two ways in which it came into being.
Firstly, pointed arches were created when two rows of decorative rounded arches in a blind arcade overlapped each other. This occurs as a decorative feature on many English buildings: Ely Cathedral and Canterbury Cathedral being two notable examples. These occur in conjunction with architecture and architectural details (corbels, zig-zags etc) that have no hint of Islamic influence.
Secondly, pointed arches occur in major buildings in situations where they are a structural solution to the differing heights of ribs in a ribbed vault. Pointed transverse arches combined with semi-circular diagonal arches occur first in the arcades at Durham Cathedral, a superb example of late Romanesque. The manner of their use s entirely different from the manner in which pointed arches are used in Islamic architecture. It is clear that they have been used as a clever structural solution which enables the diameter of each arch segment, AND the overall height of the arch (whether pointed or round) to remain the same. To say that the architect could not have devised the solution would be a bit like saying that Brunelleschi could never have built the dome in Florence.
and he completely forgot Byzantine (roman empire of orient) architecture, a major inspiration of Romanesque architecture.
the pointed arch did not need any outside inspiration, nature produce it by itself. the real question: why so much effort to build large vaults?
a nice way to bring in Easter, I enjoy your lecturing style
Early Christianity was not as antagonistic toward adopting pagan forms as later Protestantism. After Christianity was made the state religion and pagan worship was suppressed, Christians unhesitatingly converted many former Roman temples into churches. For new buildings, it is true that they preferred the basilica form because it better suited Christian worship needs. It was also common practice when the church entered a former pagan area to take over the ancient pagan worship sites and place the altars of the new churches directly on the former pagan focal point and preserve the alignments of whatever structure had been there before. Today's Protestants would be horrified, but the church at the time took the attitude that they were converting the pagan sites to Christianity and considered it a great idea.
It's also not really true that Catholics were against having a dome over the congregation. Cathedrals (such as at Florence or Pisa) often had a dome over the crossing, and the main altar at the back of the church in the apse. The problem is more structural than theological. It's quite difficult to build a dome large enough to house a large congregation, whereas building a vault over a long narrow room is much easier to span with vaulting or a timber roof. You also need to take into account that the dome or walls somehow have to be pierced to let in natural light since there was no electricity, and they had no structural steel. The emperor Justinian did build Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (now Istanbul) with a large dome over the congregation and it was considered a technical marvel for centuries afterwards.
where did you get all of this information?
Engaging and informative. A couple of things: Buddhism is all about change; the importance of impermanence is a central understanding. Secondly, any discussion of the Gothic revival should surely involve Pugin?! Thanks for the posting though; I learned a lot.
Sorry for nitpicking. Thanks for publishing what is really quite accurate information for youtube.
Hi,
You seem to know a lot of things about history/architecture.
Do you have any specific book to recommend me ? (related to civilisation, architecture and their history)
Thanks.
+Steve Coelho Yes, my new book, "Visionary Creativity: How New Worlds are Born." You can get it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
No, saints were way too valuable to be cremated! They were buried, and people would come and pray at the gravesite. If the dead saint got a reputation for miraculous healings, his bones would be dug up and what remained would be "translated" (moved) into a magnificent tomb or reliquary inside a chapel of the cathedral. That's why cathedrals needed all those chapels.
+dlwatib Thanks -- next year my lecture will be corrected.
@ 1:09:13 St. John the Divine is not the largest cathedral in the world, no matter what they claim. Wikipedia admits that "The cathedral vies with Liverpool Cathedral for the title of the largest Anglican cathedral and church. It is also the fourth largest Christian church in the world."
St Peter's Basilica in Rome and Basilica of the National Shrine of Our Lady of Aparecida in Brazil share honors for the most cubic volume at 1,200,000 cubic meters. Seville Cathedral is third with 500,000+ cubic meters. St John the Divine is fourth at 480,000. The Liverpool cathedral is longer than St John, but doesn't have as much volume, at 450,000+ cu m. Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal Canada encloses 660,000 cubic meters, but it only has an area of 6,825 square meters (it has an extremely large dome for its size) whereas the other large cathedrals exceed 10,000 square meters in area. Not listed are any of the evangelical megachurches such as Joel Osteen's Lakewood Church in Houston Texas, for which only seating capacities are published.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_largest_church_buildings_in_the_world
+dlwatib thanks
wow a whole medieval architecture summary not mentioning Santiago de Compostela
Thanks for uploading, very interesting! But it does get quite confusing at times here on TH-cam, I assume you use a laser pointer during your presentation, so we can't see what you are pointing on during your explanations here on TH-cam.
Yea, sorry about that. I should use the curser.
One of the small problems with this video, from a point of the general viewer, is that the lecturer never uses the word "Renaissance" or gives a date in relation to the present St Peter's Basilica. This could possibly be very confusing to anyone (coming from outside the lecture series) who did not already know the dates of Michelangelo, Bramante and the newly designed St Peter's.
why description of gothic architecture is not appropriate. Anyone can send me any info
it is true that church as an organization in theory and parctice mediates between god and faithful. but where in Catholic theology does it say that built up architectural dome gives access to god and church only wanted priests under it? be specific and quote with citation, as a real academic scholar would . or did you make that up? why? is that usual practice at Pratt Institute?
Christianity at that time were very different from now... Suger made officialy the gothic architecture (french art) to show the relic to the pelerin in full light to help them believe. (to see to believe)
@@leplombier3272 why don't you list the ways christianity then is "very different from now"? what does abbot suger beliefs about light, has to do with built up architectural dome giving access to god? and church allegedly only wanting priests under it?
all that only showed how ignorant video was, and now how ignorant and irrational your are.
@@sitting_nut suger never build dome. but invented the opus francigenum (gothique architecture named by italian to mock the french)
« Qui que tu sois, si tu veux exalter l'honneur des portes,
N'admire ni l'or ni la dépense, mais le travail de l'œuvre.
L'œuvre noble brille, mais l'œuvre qui brille dans sa noblesse
Devrait illuminer les esprits, afin qu'ils aillent, à travers les vraies lumières,
Vers la vraie lumière, où le Christ est la vraie porte.
Ce que la vraie lumière est à l'intérieur, la porte dorée le détermine ainsi,
L'esprit engourdi s'élève vers le vrai à travers les choses matérielles,
Et plongé d'abord dans l'abîme, à la vue de la lumière, il ressurgit. »
text taking up the themes exposed by Hilduin on the writings of Dionysius the Areopagite that suggested had engraved on the bronze doors of the abey of Saint Denis
___________________
« Le nouveau chevet étant réuni au narthex,
L'église étincelle, éclairée en son vaisseau médian,
Car lumineux est ce qui joint en clarté deux sources de lumière.
L'œuvre fameux resplendit de cette clarté nouvelle.
L'agrandissement fut réalisé de nos jours.
C'est moi Suger qui ait dirigé les travaux. »
(La geste de Louis VI by Suger. Traduction Michel Bur ; Imprimerie nationale 1994)
;)
@@leplombier3272 once again you are displaying your irrational ignorance. i will ask again, what does abbot suger's beliefs, have to do with built up architectural dome giving access to god? and church allegedly only wanting priests under it?
why are you ridiculously spouting latin text here to cover up the fact what you have no relevant point to make with regard to video's false, deeply ignorant, statements about built up architectural dome giving access to god, and church allegedly only wanting priests under it? do explain!
and do list how christianity then was "very different from now", especially with regard to built up architectural dome giving access to god, and church allegedly only wanting priests under it. clearly creators and publishers of video weren't able to be specific and quote with citation any Catholic church theology and theological history, to justify those false, deeply ignorant, statements in video . can you justify such ignorance and falsehoods, without spouting irrelevant latin text?
Yale did see itself as Christian originally. It was started as a seminary, like all the ivy league schools. In this case by Congregationalist ministers.
+dlwatib Thanks -- I will correct that in the future.
Thanks. :-)
@ 1:02:15 Far be it for me to downplay the importance of Christianity in Western culture, but I have to rate Western culture as a synthesis of equal parts Christianity, Classical Greek and Roman civilization, and barbaric invaders from the North and East.
Classical Greek and Roman culture died, not to Christianity, but to the German and Norse tribes and all the other barbarians moving into the former Roman empire. They established first small kingdoms, and then a complex feudal system. What survives today is in large part Frankish, Norman (French Viking), Germanic, and Celtic cultures that adapted the classical Greek and Roman culture to their own needs in Northern Europe. In religion, Christianity supplanted the actual religious beliefs of the populace, but not the mythology, which lived on and gets expressed over and over again in art and architecture. Likewise the Norse and Germanic myths live on in the epic sagas, the art, and the architecture. Every few centuries there is a fresh influx of Roman and Greek revival and another classical Renaissance, first in Italy, then in Great Britain, then in the USA as the Federalist style. Every time that a Western culture aspires to empire, Roman architecture gets revived. It's had more resurrections than Jesus Himself!
Likewise, the Norse and German mythologies get revived by such movements as Nazism to fuel nationalism and whet the thirst for war.
The celt never disappeared.
Gothic architecture is the expression of french middel age thinking definitely shaped by ancient greek philosophy ... at the same time gothic adventure began aristote thinking were rediscovered. (it's the begining of the scolastic a counter courant to neoplatonisim).
Their is nothing about violet leduc and all the reconstruction and readaptation of the gothic architecture during 19century. and not so much about the different form of gothic giving a different meaning to this architecture. (german gothic cathedral are realy different from french one)
nevertheless Thanks for the share good sir.
Hello from france.
I had to stop it when he said that Mary was "more important than God or Jesus." Yes, Mary was and remains an important figure in Christianity, but she is nothing without God. Her entire importance revolves around God, including God in the form of Jesus. She has no power by herself, only the influence that comes from having God's ear, so to speak. She is NEVER worshiped as a goddess, nor was she able to ascend into heaven alone: it is said that God had to reach down and pull her up, hence the assumption of Mary, not ascension under her own power.
The issue is not what you believe, but what the builders of the Gothic cathedrals believed. They are all called "Our Lady of... " Look into it and let me know what you find.
@@johnlobell526 That doesn't mean the builders thought she was more important than God. Every single one of those cathedrals had and still have an altar to God at their core. The sacraments are given to the parisioners from God with a priest as an intermediary. You forgot that the religion which built these cathedrals is still around and still keeps to the same faith.
Yeah, I thought the "Mary more important than God" comment a bit over the top. It is, after all, Christianity, not Marianity. lol. To be sure, we all love Mary tons and tons, (what's not to love, she's totally fabulous) but just cuz many cathedrals bear her name does not mean she actually eclipses God or Jesus. That would be kinda sacrilegious, and the Church kinda frowns on that. There are a lot of St. Peter Cathedrals, and St. John Cathedrals, and you can fill in the _____________, but that doesn't mean they're all more important to our main man Jesus.
@@johnlobell526 hello i'm from france and agree with you. People forget that middel age religious had to constently fight against popular and local (vernacular) faith and incorporate them to convert the population. (has the roman did themself)
It is true that a lot of french at that time were praying he holy maiden. The exacte name is "hyperdulie" named at the Council of Trent 1542
Notre-Dame Cathedral in Puy-en-Velay were at that time (midel age) the center of this cult.
later louis XIII gave his kingdom to mary.
(source french wikipedia) The vow of Louis XIII is a set of promises and acts of devotion made by the King of France Louis XIII between 1632 and 1638. On several occasions, he undertook to consecrate his kingdom to Notre-Dame (the Virgin Mary) , if she granted him the grace of having an heir to succeed him on the throne of France. The pregnancy of Anne of Austria in 1638 was interpreted as the divine answer to her prayers and to those of the queen. The king kept his promise: on February 10, 1638, he signed and published the solemn text of an edict of consecration to Saint-Germain-en-Laye, the king consecrates his kingdom to the Virgin Mary, to thank her for having stopped enemies at the Siege of Corbie in 1636. The future Louis XIV was born on September 1638.
Now you should also talk to them about french galicanism :)
And it's anti-Christian.