sculpture
Gothic furniture
Suppose you want to arrange a room or office in this Gothic style. Well, the desire is quite commendable: the Gothic style is one of the most recognizable and distinctive art styles, it has some solemnity, festivity, and, however, the monumentality, in which everyone will see what he likes. Someone pleasing vaulted ceiling, some gorgeous stained glass, somebody paid tribute to the Gothic chest or chair, and someone even dare to enter in daily use carved Cabinet bookcase.
The European Gothic style, as an aesthetic tradition in architecture and design originated as an alternative to the Romanesque style: heavy, solid, pragmatic. Built and decorated in the Gothic style monasteries, churches, the town hall have a more elegant silhouette, filled with sculptures, arches, polarome-flying buttresses, ornate carvings, stained glass Windows, etc.
The building, built in the Gothic style, as if towards the sky (this was possible due to the newly invented system of frame construction), there are high Windows, the spires which crown the roof, and inside the room are made out by painting on wood or frescoes, tapestries, fine Flemish carpets. Respectively, the Gothic furniture is simple, elegant, but also subject to the same artistic canons: vaulted ceiling, patterned ornaments, carving in the shape of leaves, shields, and roses. Continue reading
The most magnificent Gothic cathedrals in France
Chartres Cathedral
The Cathedral in Chartres (XII-XIV centuries) is considered one of the most beautiful in Europe. Chartres, where the precious relics of our lady, enjoyed the special protection of king Louis IX, who gave the Cathedral a large window-rose. Stained glass Windows donated to the Cathedral, the artisans of the city.
In the construction of the Cathedral was attended by many people: for example, in 40-ies of the XII century Norman thousands of pilgrims came to Chartres and a few months to destroy stone blocks in the walls of the Cathedral reach two to three meters long and one meter in height. The Western facade is the only thing that survived from an earlier building. Its creation dates to 1170. The façade is adorned with three richly decorated with magnificent stone carvings of the portal belonging to the XII century. From the North and South facades of the building you can see is very typical of French Gothic, a huge, round lace box, in which the openings in lead casements inserted stained glass. The diameter of the Windows of the transept is 13 meters. A screen similar to this entered art history under the name “rose”. It first appeared in the Chartres Cathedral, Continue reading
Gothic rebus
One of the most beautiful buildings of Paris, praised by Victor Hugo, the legends and myths. A mystical image of Notre-Dame-de-Paris became an international symbol of the middle Ages, where magic is intertwined with faith and the deeper meaning of the true doctrine eternally encoded in the unique sculptures and stained glass Windows.
Notre Dame Cathedral, a magnificent structure, is able to simultaneously accommodate up to nine thousand members, is built on the Western edge of the île de La Cité in the XII century.
1. On the site of a pagan temple
For a thousand years before Christ there lived a small Gallic tribe. 400 years later the Romans came here, for which island surrounded by the waters of the Seine, was a natural fortress. On the spot where now stands the Cathedral, they erected the temple of Jupiter. Continue reading