Main content
Course: Medieval Europe + Byzantine > Unit 10
Lesson 3: Gothic art in France- Birth of the Gothic: Abbot Suger and the ambulatory at St. Denis
- St. Denis Ambulatory (quiz)
- Chartres Cathedral
- Cathedral of Notre Dame de Chartres (quiz)
- The Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris (before the fire)
- Reims Cathedral
- Reims Cathedral and World War I
- Amiens Cathedral
- Amiens cathedral
- Sainte-Chapelle, Paris
- Bible moralisée (moralized bibles)
- Saint Louis Bible (moralized bible)
- Saint Louis Bible (moralized bible)
- Humanizing Mary: the Virgin of Jeanne d’Evreux
- Jean le Noir, Bourgot (?), and workshop, Miniature of Christ’s Side Wound and Instruments of the Passion from the Prayer Book of Bonne of Luxembourg
- Ivory casket with scenes from medieval romances
© 2024 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
The Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris (before the fire)
Notre-Dame de Paris, an iconic Gothic cathedral, symbolizes both spiritual and worldly power. Its towering stature, achieved with flying buttresses, surpassed all other churches of its time. Filled with light from expansive windows, the cathedral's interior evokes a sense of wonder. Despite suffering damage during the French Revolution, Notre-Dame continues to be a beloved historical landmark. The Cathedral of Notre-Dame, Paris, begun 1163 (recorded before the fire). speakers: Dr. Beth Harris and Dr. Steven Zucker. Created by Beth Harris and Steven Zucker.
Want to join the conversation?
- I think there is much more to learn from this article than just simply reading(6 votes)
- Why is there a war during the times in France during the revolution?(3 votes)
- Revolutions are resisted by the people in power. The revolutionaries operate by violence. Mao Tze-tung famously said that "A revolution is not a dinner party."(2 votes)
- Buttresses are perpendicular to the cathedral wall? Nt parallel?(3 votes)
- Yes, they are perpendicular, if they were parallel then many of the structures would fall.(2 votes)
- Who burnt the building?(2 votes)
- Nobody "burnt the building". The fire's start was traced to a welding or cutting torch being used in the process of some repairs and rebuilding. It was a common type of industrial accident. Nobody did this on purpose.(3 votes)
- What if the structure would be able to last a little bit longer?(3 votes)
Video transcript
(jazzy piano music) - [Steven] The ancient Romans founded the city of Paris in the middle of a river on an island called the Ile de la Cite, and that's where we're standing in front of one of the
great Gothic cathedrals, Notre-Dame de Paris. - [Beth] So we're really
in the heart of Paris, the theological center of Paris, with the church of Notre-Dame, but also the political center of, we're right near the Louvre, which was the Palace of the King. - [Steven] And before the Louvre, the King's Palace was even
closer to this cathedral. The cathedral is a potent symbol, both of theological power,
but also of worldly power. - [Beth] And so it makes sense that the church was attacked
during the French Revolution. We can see it in the background of Delacroix Liberty Leading the People, that image of a revolution. - [Steven] That's right, from
1830 and in that painting, we can actually see the symbol
of revolutionary France, the tri-color flag, flying
from one of the towers. And of course before
that revolution in 1830, Napoleon had been crowned
here as Emperor of France, and so there really is this
powerful, historical tradition that begins in the medieval world, but goes right up to the modern. Notre-Dame de Paris was the
tallest gothic cathedral when it was built. It out-stripped all of the
previous gothic churches and was taller even
than the largest church in the world at that
point, which was at Cluny. - [Beth] And the gothic architects employed a number of methods
to achieve that verticality. The most obvious among them
are the flying buttresses. - [Steven] So these are
beautiful external skeletal forms that help take the lateral weight that is produced by the massive vaulting, the massive stone roof and
draws it outside the church so that the inside of the church, the walls of the church, can be opened up and as much light can be
brought in as possible. - [Beth] The gothic architects wanted to open up the walls to windows. - [Steven] And of course,
glass is not weight-bearing. Glass can't support the weight
of, especially, the vaulting. And here's the important issue, is they can't bring the
weight straight down because it actually pushes out, and therefore, you need to
have fairly massive walls, or in this case, buttresses
and flying buttresses. So the difference between a
buttress and a flying buttress is pretty straightforward. A buttress is a solid
masonry wall perpendicular to the walls of the cathedral that's meant to keep the walls themselves from being pushed outward. A flying buttress is not a solid wall. Really, it's just a rib that allows for the thrust to be brought down into the more solid mass
of the buttress below. - [Beth] And we can see
that all around Notre-Dame. - [Steven] Now much of this was
restored in the 19th century but it's important to understand that the church has
been under construction and renovation since it was begun. - [Beth] Well, there were
several building campaigns just in the 12th and the 13th century. - [Steven] And moving up to
the 14th century and onward, a series of changes. - [Beth] It's really not unusual for a gothic church to have
such a long building campaign. And then they were often restored later in the 19th and in the 20th century. - [Steven] This church looks spectacular though now, doesn't it? - [Beth] It does, and
clearly, a lot of people today are enjoying it. - [Steven] When you first walk in and you look down the length of the nave, you're in this long,
narrow, very tall space. And that's in part because
the three part elevation is closed off to you from that angle as one looks down the
length of the church. But as you walk down,
especially the aisles, the full width of the church
in its complexity open up. - [Beth] And the way that this
shrinks the walls of stone and replaces it with walls of glass felt really miraculous, I think. - [Steven] If you look
up at the clerestory, you have these panes of glass, these sheathes of light
that seem to almost float. And there is really a
sense of the miraculous. Then as you move down to the gallery, you've got an unprecedented
delicacy in the columns, that seem to miraculously
support everything above it, including the vaulting,
but of course, in truth, the weight is borne outward. And then as you move
down to the first level, the part of the church
that's doing the real work, you can see those huge buttresses that had been made into separate chapels in the 13th century. If you look at the giant piers, that really a series of bundled columns, many of which soar all
the way to the roof. - [Beth] And they're bundling together all of these narrow elements, one loses sight of just how
massive those piers are. - [Steven] That's the brilliance
of this kind of masking and this emphasis on verticality,
this emphasis on line, all of these key
characteristics of the gothic. - [Beth] That soaring quality, that almost feels as
though it's lifting you up toward the heavenly.