Study asthetic culture in the middle age from Gothic
Architecture
By Zhang Benliang
A Thesis Submitted to
The School of English and International Studies Hebei Economic and Commercial University In partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the degree of bachelor
Supervised by Mu Shihang
摘要
哥特式建筑作为西方三大建筑风格之一，代表着中世纪的时代特征，神圣的奥秘，崇高的威严，华丽的感官效果所造成的天国世界的吸引力。哥特式风格作为一种艺术风格，使得中世纪西方的各种艺术形式——雕刻、绘画、家具及各种工艺美术，甚至是书法都具有了自身鲜明的特点。它的价值早已超过了建筑本身，成为中世纪的精神象征，影响了中世纪的审美，更影响了今天我们对建筑的理解和对审美的体验。
Abstract
As one of the three architectural styles in the medieval West, Gothic architecture represents characteristics of the time, the sacred mysteries, noble dignity, gorgeous sensory effects caused by the heaven of the world’s attractiveness. As an art style, Gothic style making the medieval western art forms-sculpture, paintings, furniture and various arts and crafts , and even calligraphy has its own distinct characteristics. Its value has long exceeded the building itself , has become a symbol of the spirit of the middle ages , the aesthetic impact of the middle ages , but also affect our understanding of architecture and the aesthetic experience nowadays.
Key words: Gothic, aesthetic
Table of Contents
Ⅰ. The history of Gothic ……………………………………… 1.1. A brief introduction to the Gothic …………………... 1.2. The Gothic architecture rise ………………………… Ⅱ. The Gothic architecture and the aesthetic culture…………
2.1. The love and beauty of the Gothic architecture ……… 2.2. From the Gothic architecture to the aesthetic culture Of the middle age ………………………………… Conclusion…………………………………………………..
Ⅰ. The history of Gothic
1.1. A brief introduction to the Gothic
The term Gothic was first used during the later Renaissance, and as a term of contempt. Says Vasari, "Then arose new architects who after the manner of their barbarous nations erected buildings in that style which we call Gothic", while Evelyn but expresses the mental attitude of his own time when he writes, "The ancient Greek and Roman architecture answered all the perfections required in a faultless and accomplished building" -- but the Goths and Vandals destroyed these and "introduced in their stead a certain fantastical and licentious manner of building: congestions of heavy, dark, melancholy, monkish piles, without any just proportion, use or beauty." For the first time, an attempt was made to destroy an instinctive and, so far as Europe was concerned, an almost universal form of art, and to substitute in its place another built up by artificial rules and premeditated theories; it was necessary, therefore, that the ground should be cleared of a once luxuriant growth that still showed signs of vitality, and to effect this the schools of Vignola, Palladio, and Wren were compelled to throw scorn on the art they were determined to discredit. As ignorant of the true habitat of the style as they were of its nature, the Italians of the Renaissance called it the "maniera Tedesca", and since to them the word Goth implied the perfection of barbarism, it is but natural that they should have applied it to a style they desired to destroy. The style ceased, for the particular type of civilization it expressed had come to an end; but the name remained, and when, early in the nineteenth century, the beginnings of a new epoch brought new apologists, the old title was taken over as the only one available, and since then constant efforts have been made to define it more exactly, to give it a new significance, or to substitute in its place a term more expressive of the idea to be conveyed.
1.2. The Gothic architecture rise
The naissance of Gothic architecture is Ile de area France south to the Paris centre firstly, which is prevailed in the catholic church. The style of Gothic expended to British, Germeny , Spain and Italy. During the period that Gothic architecture was very popular, the sculpture, painting, furniture and various craftworks came into being with vivid characters which is called Gothic. Some years later, the Gothic became an art style that represented the middle age. Frome 12 to 13cengtury, Gothic architecture, became a new tide in West Europe, not only influence the aesthetic culture of Europe in the middle age. But the modern building and human’s aesthetic experience.
The Gothic church was developed from Le Style Roman church, but different from it. Franchman found how to build with bricks like Roman from 10 to 12 century; so it called Le Style Roman, which means to follow after the Roman. The Gothic church took use of Cross Vault, Fly Coupons and Long Column, which makes the building grand from the appearance and clear in the church. The magnificent is filled in everything like Bell Tower, Fly Coupons and the numberous columns. All in all, the Gothic church is represented for the desire to paradise.
The Gothic church’s outside is complex but the inside is very simple. In the church, we can see the structure clearly without too many decorations. However, the church would carry forward the doxy by paintings and sculptures, and the people would also accepted the sense of beauty and joviality. Then another art came into being, which is the Stained-glass windows.
Ⅱ. The Gothic architecture and the aesthetic culture 2.1. The love and beauty of the Gothic architecture
The sun shined into the church multicoloured, which can also shined into the believers’ incenter
and strength their believes to the church. The Christian frightened people during the Roman period and before, on the contrary, the church gave people dignity and hope for paradise in the Gothic period. The God turned from the Crucial Judicator-Jesus to the most kind mother-Virgin Mary. The believers can’t stand the asceticism any more, and they became to pursuit the wealthy and enjoyment. What’s more, they would never regard beauty as evil again and accept the arts. The Gothic church is so strong and the houses round in looks like dust. The babies would receive the ablution after they were born; when they are old enough to get marry, they would also go to the church. When they get some blame, they will confess in the church, too. The church is filled in human’ life. So, the church is not only a symbol for God, but a place for human’s mind.
2.2. From the Gothic architecture to the aesthetic culture of the middle age
As a kind of art, architecture is not only buildings. The grandiose church experienced all weathers, which is a symbol of nation, noble and religion’s power; which witnessed the human’s scence and technology development; and which concluded the human’s creativity of arts and sense of beauty. The Gothic, Roman and Byzantium are the three prominent kinds of architecture, which are all filled with the mid-age features, the holy sense, the great stateliness and the strong attraction. They stand for the mid-age spirits and became the main art style in the middle age.
This kind of spititial symbol escape from descrimbing the human; because the God and paradise is the end and dominate people and their spirit, which can’t be expressed by vision. The mid -age aesthetic is concentrated on the building itself, so there became a special architecture culture world. To adapt this, there come into being a new suit of pattern contained religion and arts. The pattern strengthen the formal beauty, for example, the harmonious order, the vivid color and the symmetric integral. The pattern emphasizes the indwelling beauty that is expressed by the architecture form. All the expression from the architecture would enter into the human’s incenter. Without that, the form is just rubbish.
The Gothic architecture’s brilliance and the human’s soul formed the highest standard of mid-age artistic form, which is mysterious and holy, and which should be depended on the perfect artistic form. At last, the art became a kind of mysterious symbolism. For the moment, the art is not just the art and the architecture is not building any more. They are symbol of deity and the form. And then, the relationship between man and man turned into another relationship between man and God. When man respect the art which symbols that man respect God, which leads to a consequence that the architecture is very flourishing. The mid-age art is a special complex object. On one hand, the mysterious symbolism is main idea that art firstly pursued. On the other hand, the form beauty is still existed, developed from Roman art and expressed even more beautiful than the Roman art. The perfect form and grand spirit combined into a feather that the mid-age religion art is the main.
There is also some paradox in theory. The middle age need a perfect art form, but the form can’t be the art itself, and the form is just a kind of symbol. When the architectures with paintings and sculptures were finished a church according to the ideal standard, they also finished an object that denied itself. According to the theologist Augustine’s theory, the art creativity is not reflection of real object, it is dummy. The real quality of art if not the realism itself, but the dummy and imaginary, which became the condition that made the man believe what art is. If there is some who is interested in the art and need it, where there would be necessary of the art’s existence and there would be real art. However, the real art depends on imaginary and dummy. If the horse is imaginary, the picture of the horse would never be real. The metashysical idea prepared for the
mentalism and formalistic art. The mid-age art, is one of the western aesthetic special representations, changed the tradition of Greek and Roman art. Gradually, the mid-age art formed its own special style and system, and blended in the man’s conception and idea. Above all, in the mid-age, the church bound up the development of art. But the art reached its own destination at last.
Conclusion
The appearance of Gothic architecture is a symbol that the mid-age Europe is close to collapse. The theocratic power did not control anything, meanwhile, the civic culture and humanism were awakening. The mid-age art developed for more than one thousand years. About 14 and 15 century, the European Renaissance began to strike it. The art is full of suffocating and frightened elevation, awfulness, holiness and mystery, which is attached importance to again now. The Gothic influenced not only the architecture, but the music, dressing, furniture and so on.
Reference
[1]. Michael Camille, ed. Gothic Art. New York: Modern Art library, 2004.
[2]. Li Jianquen, ed. Medieval Western Art. China: China Renmin University Press, 2004. [3]. Xie Guangyun, ed. History of world Culture. China: Anhui University Press, 2004.
河北经贸大学经济管理学院
毕业论文
题目：《从哥特式建筑看中世纪审美文化》
系别：英语学院 文法系 专业： 英 语 姓名： 张奔亮 班级：英语（4）班 学号：[1**********]5
定稿日期2012年6月7日
Study asthetic culture in the middle age from Gothic
Architecture
By Zhang Benliang
A Thesis Submitted to
The School of English and International Studies Hebei Economic and Commercial University In partial fulfillment of the requirements
For the degree of bachelor
Supervised by Mu Shihang
摘要
哥特式建筑作为西方三大建筑风格之一，代表着中世纪的时代特征，神圣的奥秘，崇高的威严，华丽的感官效果所造成的天国世界的吸引力。哥特式风格作为一种艺术风格，使得中世纪西方的各种艺术形式——雕刻、绘画、家具及各种工艺美术，甚至是书法都具有了自身鲜明的特点。它的价值早已超过了建筑本身，成为中世纪的精神象征，影响了中世纪的审美，更影响了今天我们对建筑的理解和对审美的体验。
Abstract
As one of the three architectural styles in the medieval West, Gothic architecture represents characteristics of the time, the sacred mysteries, noble dignity, gorgeous sensory effects caused by the heaven of the world’s attractiveness. As an art style, Gothic style making the medieval western art forms-sculpture, paintings, furniture and various arts and crafts , and even calligraphy has its own distinct characteristics. Its value has long exceeded the building itself , has become a symbol of the spirit of the middle ages , the aesthetic impact of the middle ages , but also affect our understanding of architecture and the aesthetic experience nowadays.
Key words: Gothic, aesthetic
Table of Contents
Ⅰ. The history of Gothic ……………………………………… 1.1. A brief introduction to the Gothic …………………... 1.2. The Gothic architecture rise ………………………… Ⅱ. The Gothic architecture and the aesthetic culture…………
2.1. The love and beauty of the Gothic architecture ……… 2.2. From the Gothic architecture to the aesthetic culture Of the middle age ………………………………… Conclusion…………………………………………………..
Ⅰ. The history of Gothic
1.1. A brief introduction to the Gothic
The term Gothic was first used during the later Renaissance, and as a term of contempt. Says Vasari, "Then arose new architects who after the manner of their barbarous nations erected buildings in that style which we call Gothic", while Evelyn but expresses the mental attitude of his own time when he writes, "The ancient Greek and Roman architecture answered all the perfections required in a faultless and accomplished building" -- but the Goths and Vandals destroyed these and "introduced in their stead a certain fantastical and licentious manner of building: congestions of heavy, dark, melancholy, monkish piles, without any just proportion, use or beauty." For the first time, an attempt was made to destroy an instinctive and, so far as Europe was concerned, an almost universal form of art, and to substitute in its place another built up by artificial rules and premeditated theories; it was necessary, therefore, that the ground should be cleared of a once luxuriant growth that still showed signs of vitality, and to effect this the schools of Vignola, Palladio, and Wren were compelled to throw scorn on the art they were determined to discredit. As ignorant of the true habitat of the style as they were of its nature, the Italians of the Renaissance called it the "maniera Tedesca", and since to them the word Goth implied the perfection of barbarism, it is but natural that they should have applied it to a style they desired to destroy. The style ceased, for the particular type of civilization it expressed had come to an end; but the name remained, and when, early in the nineteenth century, the beginnings of a new epoch brought new apologists, the old title was taken over as the only one available, and since then constant efforts have been made to define it more exactly, to give it a new significance, or to substitute in its place a term more expressive of the idea to be conveyed.
1.2. The Gothic architecture rise
The naissance of Gothic architecture is Ile de area France south to the Paris centre firstly, which is prevailed in the catholic church. The style of Gothic expended to British, Germeny , Spain and Italy. During the period that Gothic architecture was very popular, the sculpture, painting, furniture and various craftworks came into being with vivid characters which is called Gothic. Some years later, the Gothic became an art style that represented the middle age. Frome 12 to 13cengtury, Gothic architecture, became a new tide in West Europe, not only influence the aesthetic culture of Europe in the middle age. But the modern building and human’s aesthetic experience.
The Gothic church was developed from Le Style Roman church, but different from it. Franchman found how to build with bricks like Roman from 10 to 12 century; so it called Le Style Roman, which means to follow after the Roman. The Gothic church took use of Cross Vault, Fly Coupons and Long Column, which makes the building grand from the appearance and clear in the church. The magnificent is filled in everything like Bell Tower, Fly Coupons and the numberous columns. All in all, the Gothic church is represented for the desire to paradise.
The Gothic church’s outside is complex but the inside is very simple. In the church, we can see the structure clearly without too many decorations. However, the church would carry forward the doxy by paintings and sculptures, and the people would also accepted the sense of beauty and joviality. Then another art came into being, which is the Stained-glass windows.
Ⅱ. The Gothic architecture and the aesthetic culture 2.1. The love and beauty of the Gothic architecture
The sun shined into the church multicoloured, which can also shined into the believers’ incenter
and strength their believes to the church. The Christian frightened people during the Roman period and before, on the contrary, the church gave people dignity and hope for paradise in the Gothic period. The God turned from the Crucial Judicator-Jesus to the most kind mother-Virgin Mary. The believers can’t stand the asceticism any more, and they became to pursuit the wealthy and enjoyment. What’s more, they would never regard beauty as evil again and accept the arts. The Gothic church is so strong and the houses round in looks like dust. The babies would receive the ablution after they were born; when they are old enough to get marry, they would also go to the church. When they get some blame, they will confess in the church, too. The church is filled in human’ life. So, the church is not only a symbol for God, but a place for human’s mind.
2.2. From the Gothic architecture to the aesthetic culture of the middle age
As a kind of art, architecture is not only buildings. The grandiose church experienced all weathers, which is a symbol of nation, noble and religion’s power; which witnessed the human’s scence and technology development; and which concluded the human’s creativity of arts and sense of beauty. The Gothic, Roman and Byzantium are the three prominent kinds of architecture, which are all filled with the mid-age features, the holy sense, the great stateliness and the strong attraction. They stand for the mid-age spirits and became the main art style in the middle age.
This kind of spititial symbol escape from descrimbing the human; because the God and paradise is the end and dominate people and their spirit, which can’t be expressed by vision. The mid -age aesthetic is concentrated on the building itself, so there became a special architecture culture world. To adapt this, there come into being a new suit of pattern contained religion and arts. The pattern strengthen the formal beauty, for example, the harmonious order, the vivid color and the symmetric integral. The pattern emphasizes the indwelling beauty that is expressed by the architecture form. All the expression from the architecture would enter into the human’s incenter. Without that, the form is just rubbish.
The Gothic architecture’s brilliance and the human’s soul formed the highest standard of mid-age artistic form, which is mysterious and holy, and which should be depended on the perfect artistic form. At last, the art became a kind of mysterious symbolism. For the moment, the art is not just the art and the architecture is not building any more. They are symbol of deity and the form. And then, the relationship between man and man turned into another relationship between man and God. When man respect the art which symbols that man respect God, which leads to a consequence that the architecture is very flourishing. The mid-age art is a special complex object. On one hand, the mysterious symbolism is main idea that art firstly pursued. On the other hand, the form beauty is still existed, developed from Roman art and expressed even more beautiful than the Roman art. The perfect form and grand spirit combined into a feather that the mid-age religion art is the main.
There is also some paradox in theory. The middle age need a perfect art form, but the form can’t be the art itself, and the form is just a kind of symbol. When the architectures with paintings and sculptures were finished a church according to the ideal standard, they also finished an object that denied itself. According to the theologist Augustine’s theory, the art creativity is not reflection of real object, it is dummy. The real quality of art if not the realism itself, but the dummy and imaginary, which became the condition that made the man believe what art is. If there is some who is interested in the art and need it, where there would be necessary of the art’s existence and there would be real art. However, the real art depends on imaginary and dummy. If the horse is imaginary, the picture of the horse would never be real. The metashysical idea prepared for the
mentalism and formalistic art. The mid-age art, is one of the western aesthetic special representations, changed the tradition of Greek and Roman art. Gradually, the mid-age art formed its own special style and system, and blended in the man’s conception and idea. Above all, in the mid-age, the church bound up the development of art. But the art reached its own destination at last.
Conclusion
The appearance of Gothic architecture is a symbol that the mid-age Europe is close to collapse. The theocratic power did not control anything, meanwhile, the civic culture and humanism were awakening. The mid-age art developed for more than one thousand years. About 14 and 15 century, the European Renaissance began to strike it. The art is full of suffocating and frightened elevation, awfulness, holiness and mystery, which is attached importance to again now. The Gothic influenced not only the architecture, but the music, dressing, furniture and so on.
Reference
[1]. Michael Camille, ed. Gothic Art. New York: Modern Art library, 2004.
[2]. Li Jianquen, ed. Medieval Western Art. China: China Renmin University Press, 2004. [3]. Xie Guangyun, ed. History of world Culture. China: Anhui University Press, 2004.
河北经贸大学经济管理学院
毕业论文
题目：《从哥特式建筑看中世纪审美文化》
系别：英语学院 文法系 专业： 英 语 姓名： 张奔亮 班级：英语（4）班 学号：[1**********]5
定稿日期2012年6月7日