Gothic Revival
“Spira,
spera”.
(Breathe,
hope)
― Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of
Notre Dam
Gothic- represents that aspect of the human emotion which
illustrates the struggle of the people, their anger, their superstitions and
their struggle to live through tough times.
Gothic- be it architecture or art has been a form which
represents the energy of the people who suffered, who were denied justice but
yet sustained hope.
Above all, this expression is a symbol of hope and
liberation.
The Gothic Revival movement is one that, evidently, got
its roots from the original Gothic movement.
This paper shall discuss the genesis of the Gothic
revival.
The Gothic revival movement was a result of many
movements which took place since the 17th century, starting with the
age of enlightenment to romanticism and finally to the Gothic revival.
In this paper, we shall discuss how and which elements,
in every movement since the 17th century, affected the Gothic
revival movement.
Studying the original Gothic movement first is important
in order to understand the key elements of Gothic architecture and how this
particular kind of architecture made the people feel.
The original Gothic style was
actually developed to bring sunshine into people's lives, and especially into
their churches. To get past the accrued definitions of the centuries, it's best
to go back to the very start of the word Gothic, and to the style that bears
the name.
The Goths were a so-called barbaric
tribe who held power in various regions of Europe, between the collapse of the
Roman Empire and the establishment of the Holy Roman Empire (so, from roughly
the fifth to the eighth century). They were not renowned for great achievements
in architecture. As with many art historical terms, “Gothic” came to be applied
to a certain architectural style after the fact.
The style represented giant steps
away from the previous, relatively basic building systems that had prevailed.
The Gothic grew out of the Romanesque architectural style, when both prosperity
and peace allowed for several centuries of cultural development and great
building schemes. From roughly 1000 to 1400, several significant cathedrals and
churches were built, particularly in Britain and France, offering architects
and mason a chance to work out ever more complex problems and daring designs.
The most fundamental element of the
Gothic style of architecture is the pointed arch, which was likely borrowed
from Islamic architecture that would have been seen in Spain at this time. The
pointed arch relieved some of the thrust, and therefore, the stress on other
structural elements. It then became possible to reduce the size of the columns
or piers that supported the arch.
So, rather than having massive,
drum-like columns as in the Romanesque churches, the new columns could be more
slender. This slimness was repeated in the upper levels of the nave, so that
the gallery and clerestory would not seem to overpower the lower arcade. In
fact, the column basically continued all the way to the roof, and became part
of the vault.
In the vault, the pointed arch could
be seen in three dimensions where the ribbed vaulting met in the center of the
ceiling of each bay. This ribbed vaulting is another distinguishing feature of
Gothic architecture. However, it should be noted that prototypes for the
pointed arches and ribbed vaulting were seen first in late-Romanesque
buildings.
The slender columns and lighter
systems of thrust allowed for larger windows and more light. The windows,
tracery, carvings, and ribs make up a dizzying display of decoration that one
encounters in a Gothic church. In late Gothic buildings, almost every surface
is decorated. Although such a building as a whole is ordered and coherent, the
profusion of shapes and patterns can make a sense of order difficult to discern
at first glance.
In human representation, where the Classical style was
both naturalistic and idealistic, the Gothic style was crude, caricature-like,
grotesque and exaggerated. This could be compared “expressionist’ art, a style
pioneered in the late 19th-early 20th century in which the artist seeks to
express emotional experience rather than impressions of the physical world.
It is in the great churches and
cathedrals and in a number of civic buildings that the Gothic style was
expressed most powerfully, its characteristics lending themselves to appeal to
the emotions.
Gothic architecture had a lot to say in terms of human emotion
as well.
The Gothic style
expressed the essence of the Catholic faith, concerned with creating a sense of
the numinous, of the presence of God, while still incorporating older Pagan
(nature-worship) symbolism: gargoyles, elemental spirits whose purpose was to
ward off evil.
Gothic art expressed the apocalyptic
("millennial anxiety," sense that a great day of judgment and/or
catastrophic change is at hand, which some writers see paralleled in our own
age) mood of the period, and the strong belief in the authority of God and the
Church combined with the need to understand the meaning of suffering and death.
From the Gothic style originated the
movement of Gothic revival. The events that triggered the Gothic revival were,
however different from those which triggered the original Gothic movement.
However, there are detailed accounts of the events which led to the Gothic
revival movement, concluding with the probabilities of the genesis of the event
and in what ways the genesis of the Gothic revival movement was similar to that
of the original Gothic movement.
Tracing back the events which led to
the Gothic revival, the first event we come across is the Age of Enlightenment.
The Age of Enlightenment
(or simply the Enlightenment or Age of Reason) was a cultural movement
of intellectuals beginning in late 17th-century Europe emphasizing reason and
individualism rather than tradition. Its purpose
was to reform society using reason, to challenge ideas grounded in tradition
and faith, and to advance knowledge through the scientific method.
Originating in the 17th century, it was sparked by philosophers Francis Bacon (1562-1626), Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677), John Locke (1632–1704), Pierre Bayle (1647–1706), Voltaire (1694–1778)
and physicist Isaac Newton (1643–1727).[3] Ruling princes often endorsed and fostered these
figures and even attempted to apply their ideas of government in what was known
as enlightened absolutism.
The scientific revolution
The Scientific
Revolution is closely tied to the Enlightenment, as its
discoveries overturned many traditional concepts and introduced new
perspectives on nature and man's place within it. The Enlightenment flourished
until about 1790–1800. The history of science during
the Age of Enlightenment traces developments in science and technology during the Age of Reason, when
Enlightenment ideas and ideals were being disseminated across Europe and North America.
Science came to play a leading role in Enlightenment discourse and
thought. Many Enlightenment writers and thinkers had backgrounds in the
sciences and associated scientific advancement with the overthrow of religion
and traditional authority in favour of the development of free speech and
thought.
As with most Enlightenment views, the benefits of science
were not seen universally; Jean-Jacques Rousseau criticized the sciences for distancing man from nature and not
operating to make people happier.
Science during the Enlightenment was dominated by scientific societies
and academies, which had largely replaced universities as centres of scientific
research and development.
The philosophers, during the age of
enlightenment had a great influence on the movement as well.
Amongst the prominent philosophers was John
Locke.
The English
philosopher and political theorist John Locke (1632-1704) laid much of the
groundwork for the Enlightenment and made central contributions to the
development of liberalism.
His essays on
religious tolerance provided an early model for the separation of church and
state.
The separation of the state from the church meant that the beliefs of
the state and hence its people were now independent of the church. This
separation grew, in the years to come with the beginning of the scientific
revolution.
Amongst those who did not completely had faith in the enlightenment
movement, were Immanuel Kant and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. He had a double
relationship with the movement, on one hand he believed that enlightenment
meant the almost blind faith in the
almightiness of human reason. However, Rousseau rejected the tyranny of Reason
and advocated the return to nature and the revival of inner feeling.
In the field of physics, laws governing motion of material objects were
formulated, theory of inertia, gravity were among the other discoveries during
the scientific revolution.
Similarly, important discoveries like the discovery of
elements in nature and a new model of the universe also took place during the
revolution.
The scientific revolution carried forward the ideology of
reason. Everything that man knows is by reason, man’s existence can be defined
through reason. Religion, superstition, and fear were
replaced by reason and knowledge.
With the onset of the scientific revolution, religion
started to take a back seat.
More recently, sociologist and historian of science Steven Shapin opened his
book, The Scientific Revolution,
with the paradoxical statement: "There was no such thing as the Scientific
Revolution, and this is a book about it." Although historians of science
continue to debate the exact meaning of the term, and even its validity, the
scientific revolution still remains a useful concept to interpret the many
changes in science itself.
More than the scientific discoveries, the scientific
revolution was an era that marked the change in relationship between man and
nature, the people’s independence from the church and the prominence of reason.
The discoveries and inventions during the scientific
revolution gave birth to the industrial revolution.
The industrial revolution was an era of mechanization and mass production.
Machines did everything. The machines, however, did not only impact the economy
and social structure, they affected the people as a whole.
They overturned man’s traditional concepts and introduced
a new perspective on nature.
Man’s relationship with
nature hadn’t changed as radically as it had during the industrial revolution.
The age of enlightenment and the scientific revolution were building blocks of
theory which finally gave rise to the industrial revolution in practice.
The impact of mass
production was not just positive. The events that follow in history
(romanticism, catholic and gothic revival) after the industrial revolution
prove this.
Constant mass production and
machine production had left the people with a sense of loss of individuality
and religion. Since the age of enlightenment, although individualism prevailed,
reason had replaced religious belief.
However, the sense of
individualism was lost during the industrial revolution with the onset of mass
production.
Hence what followed the
industrial revolution in the 19th century was a counter
enlightenment movement, where the liberals felt the urge to return to their
roots and felt that the forces of imagination, mystery and sentiment needed to
be revived. These liberals were later called the romantics.
An artistic and intellectual hostility developed towards the industrialization during
the later half of the industrial revolution. This movement emphasized the
importance of nature in art and language in contrast to monstrous factories and
machines.
The liberals stressed upon the importance of the
individual and individualism and this became the slogan of the liberals.
Certain philosophers, however had a different opinion.
From the viewpoint of Marx and Engels, the individual was
a negligible thing in the eyes of the nation. Marx and Engels denied that the
individual played a role in historical evolution. According to them, history
goes its own way. The material productive forces go their own way, developing
independently of the wills of individuals. And historical events come with the
inevitability of a law of nature.
Despite varying opinions, romanticism as a whole, was
seen as a movement, which brought back religion, sentiment and individualism
back.
Romanticism had many offshoot movements, two of them
being the Catholic revival and the Gothic revival.
The Catholic revival was a movement which focused on
bringing back religion into the lives of the people. Having lost its importance
during the age of enlightenment till the industrial revolution, religion in England
needed to be revived. In the form of structure, religion took the aid of gothic
churches, this later came to be known as the Gothic revival movement.
Gothic revival was not
merely a revival of the gothic style to
bring back religion into the lives of the people, it also had something to do
with the style of building as well.
As discussed earlier, the
gothic architecture was symbolic of rebellion. During the catholic revival in
the 19th century, people(the liberals) were shifting from the
idealistic scientific norms and mundane mass production to a more humanistic,
compassionate and emotionally responsive state of mind.
So, when religion needed to
be introduced into the lives of the people, Gothic architecture was chosen as a
physical representation. For Gothic architecture stood for being extreme, seemingly uncontrolled, larger than life, intending to invoke a
strong emotional response, whether awe, pity, compassion, horror or fear.
The tall spire like façade inculcated a
sense of awe and fear with beautiful rose windows, allowing rays of sunlight to
gush into the interiors of the high ceilinged cathedral.
The ribbed vaults and flying buttresses
added a crude and caricature like human touch to the entire built form.
The Gothic style was developed to bring
in more light into the lives of the people.
The slender columns, allowed more light
into the church by providing larger sized windows.
Hence the genesis
of the Gothic revival is an entire cycle, starting from the age of
enlightenment, which brought to light the importance of reason, side tracking
religion, however giving importance to individualism, to the scientific and
industrial revolution which not only emphasized upon the importance of reason
but also lost the element of individualism.
The gothic revival was a reaction to the events, which
took place in the centuries earlier.
Sources
1.http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/search.jsp;jsessionid=8nKMH0MMgax+-QtT7EYu1Q__?Ntt=Gothic+revival+(Literature)--History+and+criticism.&Ntk=Subject_Search_Interface
3.http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/988353?uid=3738256&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21103606755901
4.http://www.thamesandhudson.com/The_Gothic_Revival/9780500203590
6.http://books.google.co.in/books?id=xGBlSmSrt48C&pg=PA131&dq=industrial+revolution+and+gothic+revival&hl=en&sa=X&ei=hl5AU6jYEMG5rgfsx4DYBA&ved=0CEEQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=industrial%20revolution%20and%20gothic%20revival&f=false
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