Gothic style

Gothic Style

Gothic

Westminster Abbey
Location:	Westminster, London

Overview

This article will talk about the Gothic architectural style and its key characteristics. Gothic architecture includes three major different styles as it changed over time: Early Gothic, High Gothic, and Late Gothic.

Background

During the Middle Ages Gothic architecture began its rise to popularity through its use in cathedral construction adding more depth and fragility to the appearance of the buildings. The new Gothic style also allowed for a drastic change in the lighting of the cathedral by using many, often very large, windows.

Early Gothic

The early Gothic period exemplifies the traditional elements of the Gothic style including ribbed vaulting, flying buttresses and pointed arches. The first two of those elements allowed for the massive scale of the Gothic buildings by distributing the weight of the roof entirely onto the walls of the building. A popular design element of this era was the apse, a semicircular section that bulged out from the main form. The apse contained the high alter that was encircled by the ambulatory.

High Gothic

This period is often called "decorated Gothic" as it had the same structural elements of the previous style, but added large amounts of elaborate decorations. The look and feel of the building took precedence over the structural support of the building. This era bithed many of the exterior decorations such as pinnacles, molding, and window tracery.

Late Gothic

This is the most decorated form of Gothic architecture and it is synonymous with the Perpendicular style. The main elements of this style were the wide use of curves along the windows of the buildings and the excessive use of glass, often taking up the majority of the walls/ The geometry of the exterior was overshadowed with gables, pinnacles, porticos. This excess seeped into the interior geometry with the addition of star patterns in the rib vaulting.