Gothic
Gotico
architectural style of the Hight Middle Ages in Western Europe, which emergerd from the Romanesque and Byzantine forms in France during the late 12th centry.
stile architettonico dell'Alto Medioevo in Europa occidentale, nato dalle forme romaniche e bizantine in Francia alla fine del XII secolo.
The architectural style of the Hight Middle Ages in Western Europe, which emergerd from the Romanesque and Byzantine forms in France during the late 12th centry. Its great works are cathedrals, characterized by the pointed arch, the rib vault, the development of the exteerior flying buttress, and the gradual reduction of the walls to a system of richly decorated fenestration. Gothic architecture lasted untill the 16th century, when it was succeeded by the classical forms of the Renaissance. In France and Germany one speaks of Early, High and Late Gothic, the French middle phase is referred to as Rayonnat, the late phase as Flamboyant. In English architecture the usual divisions are Early English, Decorated and Perpendicular. Ch. H. Moore (in: Development and Character of Gothic Architecture, I, 8) tried to define the style: … the whole scheme of the building is determined by, and its whole strength is made to reside in a finely organized and frankly confessed framework rather than in walls. This framework, made up of piers, arches and buttresses, is freed from every unnecessary incumbrance of wall and is rendered as light in all its parts as is compatible with strength…