Being in school made me dislike learning about art and many different things, now that I get a little bit older I absolutely love learning about as many different things as possible. Thank you for making these very interesting videos again and again, I really appreciate it!
Gothic architecture is my favorite kind of architecture. Every time I see a gothic cathedral, I feel like there is something mysterious that we don't know and probably our ancestors know since they built it.
I read about Gothic style in a book this morning, but the description was not very in-depth. So glad I found your video! I love the conversation style, and all the visual cues you used in the video to guide our attention to the part you are describing, very informative and engaging! Thank you for making content like this to help us learn more about art! :)
Listening and watching you is a quick and a mere escape from my monotonous life to what I really like, art. The terminology you use and the way you describe it on screen enamors me a lot. Much love from Turkey
Thank you for another great video! People may not realise how common these huge gothic beauties are in Western Europe. You find them all over the place.
I love your thorough explanations at @3:23! From a point of visual art, it looks so delicate - but architect back then knew what they were doing and it doubles up as a strong structural system. These buildings last a lifetime; well over centuries even
Thank you so much for this explanation! Amazing architecture! I remember reading about this in Ken Follet's The Pillars of Earth, where the building of cathedrals in the Middle Ages is described
As a first time visitor, I was wondering why they are talking about pointed arches. The explanation that followed had me floored. I didn't know that there was so much depth to Gothic architecture and the thought process in general
Very well done. Pointed arches were in use in romanesque churches but not so lightly. This is a superbly prototypical gothic church of course, but mostly you see buildings with mixed structures and mixed styles.
I love Gothic architecture, especially in northern Europe where it reached it's zenith. Use of sacred geometry and the marvels of the day were/are unsurpassed in structure and aesthetics.
My favorite style of architecture. :) I think man hit his peak with this form of building. I've never set foot in another space that had the effect on me that these cathedrals have. It was a brilliant move from the Romanesque (which can be lovely and impressive), to actually using light and color as 'materials'. I'm sure these cathedrals knocked the socks off 13th cent. visitors, because they still have that effect on most 21st cent. visitors.
Great video essay! Explaining history and architecture as well as culture and the faith that drove people to build structures taking 100-200 years to complete to last 1000 years. What is missing from our cultures now? We throw up trashy buildings in 2-3 years to last 50 years only
What happened to the engineering achievements of the Gothic after that period such as the pointed arches, groin vaults, and buttresses? Did the Renaissance and Baroque forsake those features, or did they just hide them?
These developments remain in use but are transformed and sometimes hidden, for example: St Paul's Cathedral in London hides its flying buttresses: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-BmsejntbXRw.html
I'm so mad about the "bigger windows, thinner walls" remix that popped into my head. I'm not mad about the "light has a magical quality" quote. Minor existential crisis there, it was very satisfying.
Not sure if anybody said it already but at 1:16 it should say "ribbed vault" under pointed arch, instead of groin vault (because that's what you get when you join 4 barrel vaults together, meaning it is actually a romanesque structure)
@alanisdepaz5379 Your correction is not correct. A groin vault can result from the intersection of two rounded vaults, two pointed vaults, or even one pointed and one rounded vault.
pointed arches were taken from the ibn tulun mosque (built in the 9th century) in Egypt by venetian traders their completely islamic in origin @@heliedecastanet1882
They've laid their point across. No need for longer videos with bunch of nonsense embellishments. I personally like this short but full of important information types of videos. Plus, in this way, they can make more short videos than long boring ones.
Gothic to me was always better than neo classical or Greek/ roman classical style. It follows the rules of classicism but with different patterns and more ornament.
In Italy true gothic Style Not Exist Is ronanesque structure whit gothic element . The Milan duomo Is only church Who approaches , the only One beyond the alps. But don't to do 100% the facade have baroque elemnt...
Because the pointed arch in moorish/arabic art isn't structural but decorative. Gothic architecture (aka frankish art) on the other hand was reliant on the structural properties of the pointed arch, its aesthetic properties were only an afterthought. What was achieved in terms of height and space in 13th century european gothic buildings (vaults culminating to 45+ meters, gigantic walls of glass supported by extremely fine walls, absurdly tall structures such as the then spire of Lincoln's cathedral which culminated to 160+ meters) is simply unheard of in the Islamic world. The aims were simply different. Moorish builders were more interested in the horizontality of the space, while their frankish counterparts were interested in verticality. In the latter case the broken arch is capital, while only accessory in the former.
@@remilenoir1271 the pointed arch was especially a creation of style in the islamic period. the rose glass and other styles were inspired by the islamic architecture. aka the frankish art saw this rise only after the crusader period.
@@starcapture3040To claim that gothic art appeared only after the crusades and use that fact to try to prove they are responsible for the rise of gothic architecture, while contact with the islamic world was already well established by that time since the 9th century; is egregious. The pointed arch existed before the arabs and the rose windows come from the occulus, a roman feature of the 5th century basilicae, way before islam was a thing. If I were daring I could even say that the pointed arch in Gothic architecture has absolutely nothing to do with the Arabs, but was in fact the result of the flat projection of two perpendiculary crossing full arches, which was a well understood technique by the first century AD romans and was greatly improved upon in the 11th century by Norman architects, leading to the gothic revolution. I know you're trying to claim the Arabs invented everything (I see you scouring the comment sections of this channel trying to bring the subject of islamic art under each video (even those about naturalistic sculpture,somehow)), perhaps owing to some superiority complex, but this will simply not do.
You mean that the pointed arch and the vaulting techniques and the fluing butress and gothic architecture weren't STOLEN, lock, stock, and barrel from Moslem "saracen" Spain and Sicily and the middle East? 🤔
Not a coincidence, a misunderstanding. The term Gothic was applied to this form of design much later in time than the buildings themselves, in the 19th century-perhaps the late 18th. At that time it was seen as opposing the favored Classical Revival style. The name Gothic was a way to express that this style lacked all of the refinement and rational clarity of the classical. It took some time for the Gothic to be appreciated in its own right and by that time the name had stuck.
@@smarthistoryvideos so, in the years when these "Gothic" buildings were built, they did not yet know that they were Gothic buildings? :D Impressive style for 5-6-7th cent. especially Whitby abbey or Lindisfarne priory. What is very interesting and mysterious is that most of these buildings were built on the ruins of old buildings, much earlier before the Roman Empire.
It's even more complex, the Gothic begins in the 12th century, see our videos on St. Denis and Chartres. Before that was the Romanesque which begins around 1000. Before that, styles are more regional but also influenced by the Byzantine Empire. If you visit our site, smarthistory.org you will find all of this and much more.
A more critical analysis than your oversimplification would reveal that the moorish pointed arch was primarily decorative and could as easily be replaced in moorish buildings by full or horseshoe arches without putting their structural integrity at risk. On the other hand, such pointed arches were absolutely primordial to the structural integrity of gothic buildings, their aesthetic being merely a second thought. Moorish architects wanted to achieve a sense of horizontality. Frankish architects wanted to achieve a sense of verticality. In Moorish architecture this could be served by any kind of arch. Thus making the choice of the pointed arch an aesthetic one. In frankish architecture this could be served best by the pointed arch. Thus making the choice of the pointed arch a structural one.
@Rémi Lenoir .. the Goths were a race of people that lived side by side with the moors as they ruled Europe for 700+ years before being exiled, all architecture after 1492 is up for discussion.
