Compare and Contrast the Design and Construction of 3 Cathedrals

Compare and Contrast the Design and Construction of three Gothic Religious Buildings from Different Countries

In my essay, I aim to compare and contrast the design and construction of three Gothic religious builds from different countries, the examples I am going to use are Santa Maria Novella (1420), Reims cathedral (c.1200’s) and Salisbury cathedral (c.1220)

Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy was consecrated in 1420 and follows the Italian Gothic style. It once housed the Dominicans, a mendicant order that required vows of poverty and was financially dependent on the public. The church consists of an adjoining cloister and chapter house. The vast interior is based on a basilica plan, designed as a Latin cross to remind us of Christ’s suffering, and is divided into a nave, two aisles surrounded by stained glass windows and a short transept.

The facade was redesigned by Alberti who used the rules of classicism based on Greek and Roman ideals to achieve perfect geometry, rational order and proportion. The facade also recalls Romanesque periods, specifically seen in the alternating of the white marble and green stone. Alberti frames the prior masters tombs with two piers with corinthian capitals and gives the doorway a new magnificence by defining the centre with pilasters topped with a rounded arch and a coffered roof over the entrance. The temple like front is emphasised with a pediment holding squared attached columns, unaligned with the pilasters below, he fills an entablature with squares in order to give the sense of geometric order in spite of that one deviation. Volutes are employed to unite the upper level to the lower, decorative circles echo the rose window in the centre of the building further stressing a sense of symmetry - that round is also repeated in the pediment above where we see a child’s face in the centre of the sun to remind us of Christ’s salvation. Sails are also spotted to remind us, through his faith we may sail to salvation. The medici crest is also seen, highlighting their loyalty to the Medici’s and the fact they are the lesser of two powers.

Inside, the 100 metre long nave gives an impression of austerity and repose, a tromp l’oeil effect is employed through the gradual depression in space as the slender compound piers between the nave and the aisles are ever closer as you go deeper in towards the altar. The clarity of space makes it perfect for preaching, allowing for a booming voice to fill the room with the word of God. It’s articulated by repeated gothic pointed arches small side aisles allow little space for the clere story and none for a triforium. Piers and supporting elements covered in white internarco as well as the lack of a dramatic transition between the nave arcade and wall above evoke a sense of purity and calm. Simple oculi decorate the build alongside providing light.

Gothic went hand-in-hand with the development of the rib vault, a new form effective both for increased ease of construction and also visual clarity in conception of the design whilst bringing a new elegance and elevating the height and maximising fenestration. This discovery is famously represented by the choir of Saint-Denis, whose architect took advantage of the linear character of the rib to re-imagine the relation between each bay of the choir and ambulatory, resulting in the open view so neatly described by Abbot Suger and a reminder of the 40 days Jesus went without food or water.

Reims cathedral with its soaring facade was the site of the coronation of French kings, a place of pilgrimage and worship - representing the heavenly Jerusalem of the Old Testament for the medieval people. It was also the symbolic centre of the Archbishops power among the several dioceses in Northern France. Little was known about who attributed to the architecture of Reims but we do know it was masoned by Jean d’Orbais, Gauchier de Reims, Jean-le-Loup and resurrected roughly between c.1211-c.1275. A fire damaged the cathedral in 1210, they decided to get rid of what was left and a majority of the work is complete in the Gothic style as well as the West front, which is done in Rayonnant Style. In the sculpture and architecture we’re given two styles, showing innovations such as delicate bar and blind tracery. It can still be said that Amien is incomplete; only two of the six spires initially planned to crown the top of the towers were built, nevertheless its unbelievable dimensions still impress.

The form and splendour of Reims cathedral is suitable to serve as the solemn coronation place of the Capetian monarchs of the Ile de France, which was currently engulfed in cathedral rivalry and saw itself as the home to cultural and material superiority of Catholic France. Cathedrals began to steal relics from one another to attract more pilgrims in turn for being the best Cathedral in France and bringing in a bigger income. It was the Bishop of Reims, Saint-Remy whose baptism of Clovis, King of the Franks in the fifth century that had placed the cathedral at the heart of a French royal narrative and the centre of the Gallery of Kings, inspiring the Franks to adopt Catholicism as they believed Clovis was the God given ruler. Louis the Pious was the first king to be coronated in the Cathedral of Reims (1816) and was not immediately followed by his successors, it was only in the early 11th century when Reims finally declared itself as the Coronation cathedral. From then on, with a minor two exceptions, all the kings of France who were coronated were crowned in Reims by the Archbishop.

When the fire had damaged the partly 9th century and Early Gothic cathedral, the decision was made to scrap everything and begin a new build modelled on Chartres. The aim was to excel Chatres, which it does in ornamental ways, often cleverly converting architectural features into parts of a sculptural ensemble. Reims adopted the new three tier elevation, quadripartite vaults, shafted piers and the flying buttresses of Chatres to ensure maximum fenestration and height. However, he animated these structural features with a new emphasis on sculptural enhancement including angels in the external pinnacles, gargoyles to carry rain water off of the roof, decorative crockets and carved vegetation on the portals, pier capitals and friezes. Reims also contains the earliest instances of bar tracery in which the two-light windows form a single glazed opening amounted by a oculus window containing sexfoil tracery in which the linear patterns almost entirely replace solid mass. Tracery is a Gothic invention of the utmost importance, Cathedrals suddenly strived for a vast amount of ‘divine light,’ (Saint Chapelle).

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