Transcript Chapter 10 - The High Middle Ages

High Middle Ages: The Search for Synthesis
Outline Chapter 10
Outline Chapter 10: High Middle Ages: The Search For Synthesis
The Significance of Paris
The Gothic Style
Suger's Building Program for Saint Denis
The Mysticism of Light
The Many Meanings of the Gothic Cathedral
Music: The School of Notre Dame
Scholastism
The Rise of the Universities
Francis of Assisi
Thomas Aquinas
Dante's Divine Comedy
Timeline Chapter 10
Timeline Chapter 10: High Middle Ages: The Search For Synthesis
1121 Abelard, Sic et Non; birth of Scholasticism
1140 Abbot Suger begins rebuilding Abbey Church of Saint Denis;
Gothic style evolves: use of pointed arch, flying buttress,
and window tracery
c. 1163 Oxford University founded
1194 Chartres Cathedral destroyed by fire; rebuilding begins 1195
(ends 1260)
c. 1209
Cambridge University founded
1215 Magna Carta, limiting powers of king, signed in England
1220-1269
Cathedral of Amiens
c. 1220
Growth begins of mendicant friars;
Franciscans, Dominicans
c. 1224-1226 Saint Francis of Assisi, "Canticle of Brother Sun"
c. 1267-1273 Aquinas, Summa Theologica
1301-1321
Dante, Divine Comedy
Urbanization and the Rise of the Middle Class
The High Middle Ages saw the growth of a number of institutions that
stood in sharp contrast to those of the Carolingian period. Foremost
was the rise of the city. Urbanization brought with it a lessening of the
importance of monastic life as a cultural center and the emergence of
the influence of the bishop and the cathedral school. The increased
need for a "knowledge class" triggered an expansion in education that
would eventually lead to the university of scholars. Urbanization also
warred against the old feudal values; it fostered trade and commerce;
it made possible the growth of what today we would call a
"middle class" who stood on the social ladder between the rural
peasant/city worker and the landed royalty or hereditary aristocracy.
Intellectual Ferment and Advance
The twelfth and thirteenth centuries were times of intense intellectual
ferment and advance. New sources of knowledge came through
Arabic sources either as original contributions
(e.g., in medicine and science) or in the form of lost works of the
classical past (e.g., the writings of Aristotle) to fuel the work of scholars.
Advances in technology as "spinoffs" from the ambitious plans of
both Romanesque and Gothic architects had their impact.
The increase of a money economy aided the growth of artistic and
musical culture.
Rationality in the Service of God
One conspicuous characteristic of medieval culture was its belief
that everything knowable could be expressed in a manageable and
rational whole. Whether it appeared in stone (Chartres) or technical
prose (Thomas Aquinas) or in poetry (Dante), the medieval mind saw
hierarchy, order, intelligibility, and, above all, God in all of observable
creation. This hierarchy expressed itself in its emphasis on advancing
steps of understanding. The sculptural program of Chartres, for
example, is a revelation of the Old Testament figures who point us to
their proper fulfillment in the New. In the theology of Aquinas we move
from the plane of natural reason to a fuller truth taught by revelation.
In Dante we progress from an awareness of our sinful nature to an
intuition into the nature of God. In all of these cases the emphasis is
on harmony and gradation and a final purpose of all knowledge,
which is to become aware of God. In that sense, at least, much of
medieval culture could be said to be oriented in an otherworldly manner.
GOTHIC CATHEDRALS AND
ABBOT SUGER- (SOO – JAY)
• Massive front hall (narthex) or vestibule in between have
and west entrance of cathedral
• Rose window – perfect shapes of Christian works in
circles or squares
• Royal portals – entrances arches of the façade (front)
• Twin towers – historical lineage from French kings;
provides balanced frame for Rose windows
• Ribbed vault
• Large glass windows
• Flying buttresses – supporting armatures to transmit the
thrust of the vault or roof to an outer support
• Strong Vertical Themes
Portrait of Suger from St. Denis
Portrait of Suger, Abbot of Saint-Denis Infancy Window,
Annunciation Panel, c 1140
Diagram of Nave
St. Denis
St Denis, Interior
View of the choir and north transept at St. Denis.
St Denis, Interior
St Denis, Exterior
Gothic Cathedral Construction
This diagram shows the main sections of a Gothic cathedral.
Chapel of Sainte Chapelle, Paris, France, 1243 - 1248
Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France, 1194 to 1260.
Chartres Cathedral, exterior, main facade
Chartres Cathedral, exterior, side with facade
Chartres Cathedral, interior, clerestory, stained glass
Chartres Cathedral, beasts of the Apocalypse—lion, ox
Chartres Cathedral, stained-glass window, early 13th
century.
Amiens Cathedral,
Saint Francis of Assisi
Berlinghieri, St. Francis Altarpiece (c. 1235)
Tempera on wood, Church of San Francesco, Pescia.
St. Thomas Aquinas
Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas and the Allegory of the Sciences -- Sacred and Secular
Left Wall, Spanish Chapel, Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy
Fresco painted by Andrea di Bonaiuta
Dante’s Divine Comedy
Hell - a terrifying representation of Hell that certainly inspired Dante when he
wrote his Divine Comedy. Florence Cathedral, mosaic