The reasons behind the
development of the
Gothic
style lie in the
pursuit of sensations of
the sublime; to achieve
great height without
apparent great weight
would seem to imitate
religious ambition. Its
development in the north
is partly due to the
availability of good
building stone and soft
stone for carving, but
perhaps more to the
growth of royal
aspiration and power
based in the Île de
France, which, allied
with the papacy,
stimulated the building
of the great
cathedrals
of Paris, Bourges,
Chartres, Laon, Le Mans,
Reims and Amiens in the
twelfth and thirteenth
centuries.
The Gothic phase
began with the building
of the choir of the abbey
of St-Denis near
Paris in 1140, and ran
through to the end of
the fifteenth century.
Architecturally, it
encompasses the
development of wider,
traceried windows of
coloured glass, filling
the wall spaces
liberated by the
refinement of vertical
structure; the
"rose" or
wheel is an early and
especially French
feature in window
tracery. The glass at
Chartres shows better
than anywhere the
concerted architectural
effect of these
developments. Another
distinctive element is
the flying buttress
outside the walls to
resist the outward push
of the vaulting.
In the south, as at
Albi and Angers, the
great churches are
generally broader and
simpler in plan and
external appearance,
with aisles often almost
as high as the nave.
Many secular buildings
survive - some of the
most notable in their
present form being the
work of Viollet-le-Duc,
the pre-eminent
nineteenth-century
restorer - and even
whole towns, for example
Carcassonne and Aigues
Mortes; Avignon has
the bridge and the papal
palace.
Castles, of
necessity, lent
themselves less to the
disappearing walls of
the Gothic style. The Château
de Pierrefonds , as
restored by Viollet, may
be taken as typical. The
walls of many others
disappeared by force,
not whim, as gunpowder
made them obsolete and a
more settled and
subjugated order led to
the development of château-palaces,
such as Châteaudun
(1441) and Blois
. The Château de
Josselin in Brittany
is a marvellous example
of the smaller
fortresses that became
common towards the end
of the Gothic period. In
addition, a series of
colonial settlements,
the bastides , or
fortified towns, of the
English occupation,
remain in the Dordogne
region and are a
refreshing antidote to
triumphal French
bombast.
