A short introduction to Gothic Architecture:
When talking about Gothic Architecture — the architecture of Medieval Europe between the 12th and 16th centuries — people tend to focus on the outward appearance of buildings.
We say Gothic Architecture is about things like pointed arches, flying buttresses, and gargoyles.
But there is more to Gothic Architecture than that.
Because people didn't just decide to create "Gothic" cathedrals — these buildings, and every part of them, were the logical conclusion of a whole worldview.
Such was the argument made by a writer called John Ruskin in 1853.
His essay "On the Nature of Gothic" was wildly popular and influential — it's probably the best explanation of Gothic Architecture ever written.
He argued it had six essential elements which, though not individually unique, are all only fully united in the Gothic:
1. Savageness
By Savageness Ruskin meant that, in the Middle Ages, craftsmen and sculptors were not expected to make "perfect" work.
When decorating a cathedral they were free to create what they liked, to the best of their ability.
The art was truthful rather than perfect.
As a result lots of Gothic art is "imperfect", especially when compared to Classical or Renaissance sculpture.
But, Ruskin argued, that was part of its beauty.
Imperfection is itself a law both of nature and humanity — Gothic art, therefore, is more fundamentally human.
More importantly, Ruskin argued that the imperfection of Gothic Architecture represented the creative freedom of the people who had made it — a freedom which workers in the 19th century did not have, and which even today is rare.
Gothic imperfection as a symbol of liberty.
2. Changefulness
Because Medieval masons were given freedom to create their own work — without the "rules" of Classical design — Gothic architecture is inevitably filled with variety.
Go into any Gothic cathedral and look at the details; they are always different, everywhere.
And this Changefulness didn't only apply to decoration — it also applied to the overall form of a building.
Most Gothic cathedrals are assymetrical and, more incredibly, every single Gothic cathedral is totally unique in shape, layout, and general design.
3. Naturalism
Simple enough: Medieval people found great delight in nature — in flowers, foliage, trees, fruits, birds, and fish.
Hence, because the masons could pursue their own creative inclinations, Gothic architecture is inevitably filled with floral decoration.
4. Grotesqueness
The most famous quality of Gothic architecture.
People in the Middle Ages were fascinated by the fantastical and macabre, somehow uniting things that were both hilarious and terrifying at once.
Think of Hieronymus Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights:
The equivalent of Bosch's wild art is the gargoyles, grotesques, and misericords of Gothic Architecture — the inexplicable beasts crowding round the towers and the strange faces peering up at you.
Nightmarish, vulgar, darkly funny, and delightful all at once.
5. Rigidity
Whereas Egyptian, Greek, or Roman architecture was fundamentally horizontal, Gothic architecture was fundamentally vertical.
This is partly because it was based on the arch — the pointed arch, specifically — rather than the post and lintel.
Ruskin explains well:
And so Gothic Architecture inevitably soars upwards, almost like a tree.
Ruskin argued that the pointed arches and vaults —which, as said, led to this uniquely living quality of the Gothic — were a result of both religion and temperament, of a unity between hurriedness and joy.
6. Redundance
Ruskin also called this "generosity", and by it he was referring to the overwhelming profusion of sculpture, detail, and decoration in Gothic Architecture.
Nothing was left untouched — every surface was an opportunity for some delightful design or hidden message.
To take joy in creating abundant decoration and to know that others will delight in them also, and thus not to think of oneself as better than giving the people what they love, can only result from real humility.
Gothic sculptors were generous in design because they were humble.
And so the sheer variety of Gothic Architecture, the richness of its decoration — from the mightiest of its towers to the lowliest of its benches — is another result of the freedom of Medieval masons.
You can see how Gothic Architecture represents, above all, a worldview.
And they are Ruskin's six elements of Gothic.
His essay should be read in full, of course, but the broader point is that all architecture, Gothic or otherwise, is not about outward form so much as mindset.
The former, always and everywhere, flows inevitably from the latter.
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