FORMAL ESSAY: THE LOGIC OF GOTHIC FORM

Stonework like carved mountains in which demons and saints combat, peasants live out their immoralities, and the critical stories of the bible can be seen firsthand, Gothic architecture is a beautiful tombstone of the dead, hierarchical societies of an illiterate age. Massive arches, intricate and non-symmetrical designs, and unbelievable height are the characteristic features of Gothic structures. The use of a style being its maker, Gothic, as may be guessed from my description, was authored by power, but what may be less obvious is that it was published, so to speak, by illiteracy. By way of its constriction of communication, the illiteracy of the medieval ages caused the Gothic form to become a dominant style for the purposes of communicating and imposing the power of the church and sovereignty upon the lower classes. Clergy and nobility alike utilized architectural style to demonstrate and communicate power through cathedrals, castles, palaces, and homes, a practice that relied on the architecture itself to speak to those under the subjugation of the authority. The features of Gothic architecture were born from a need to socially organize uneducated subjects, meaning that Gothic form acted as an important tool in controlling the masses by giving them physical ideas, or even proof, about how the world or, more realistically, society according to the authority worked. Without illiteracy, the dramatic aesthetic power of Gothic form may not have become as popular throughout Europe. In an interview conducted by Paul Rainbow, Michel Foucault described the relationship of architectural power with human behavior as non-fundamental. Architecture alone, he says, cannot make people behave in certain ways; thus, the condition of the medieval populace as illiterate was probably necessary for Gothic form to have the effect it had upon its subjects and society.

The most important aspect of this architectural control, underlying the basic need to be convincing, was simple and direct communication from the power, God or king, to the subject through emotional and logical appeal. As Foucault discusses in “Beyond Structuralism and Hermeneutics,” power and subject relationships only exist when the subject holds some form of power to resist his or her constraint. In the case of medieval power relationships in Europe, few reigned over many, which actually gave the power of majority to the subjects. At that time, the best tools that nobility or the church possessed for controlling the physical power of the lower masses were their historical domination of the land, and therefore money, as well as their access to knowledge, especially through literature (www.medievality.com). Truly, it is not the fact that the nobility possessed the power of book knowledge but rather that the masses did not possess it that shaped Gothic form; this is to say that the authorities of the time were forced to use images and the effect of our environment upon us to cause the masses to see themselves as subjects in a perfect world where everyone had a place and everything had clear-cut meaning under a natural system of authority.

The need for lucid communication with and direction of the lower classes due to the large imbalance between the number of subjects and the number of authority figures in play was critical. Gothic architecture achieved such communication by becoming book-like, literally readable through detailed images carved or painted on the walls and in the sense of stretching to the heavens imparted by Gothic’s characteristic arches. In becoming readable in this sense, Gothic form also became non-symmetrical, due to the need to use any decorative space to impart different narratives and meanings throughout, and, moreover, it became intrinsically awe-inspiring in its complexity and grandeur. Respect was demanded, therefore, not merely by the logic and grave emotions presented in the style, but also by the vast amounts of time, money, and artistry put into its fabrication. A great supporter of Gothic form, John Ruskin advocated the use of Gothic architecture for this very purpose. As he explains in his essay "The Nature Of Gothic," Ruskin looked upon the "savageness" and “changefulness” of Gothic form as a technique to indicate the subject’s place and instill respect for a perfect society in which subjects were able to partake freely within boundaries.

Venice experienced the Gothic period just as most of Europe experienced it. Churches, palaces, and houses alike were built Gothic with the intention of educating the masses in the ways of societal structure. Walking into the grand Gothic basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, for example, one is drawn to look up to heaven by the lines of the gigantic arches ribbing the cavern and the glow of the imposingly large rose windows at each end of the cross shaped cathedral. Both this lofty atmosphere, that indicated some higher, purer position in respect to the observer, and the visual narratives throughout the basilica, that demonstrated ideal behavior and brought the exalted stories of God to the people, put tools of management by emotional and logical non-lingual communication into the hands of the clergy at the basilica. Although ecclesiastical meanings were far less prominent in the buildings of the state, the Doge’s Palace also utilized Gothic form, as did Ca’ D’Oro, previously home to a wealthy Venetian family. A certain lack of symmetry, even in non-narrative features, and freedom of style that characterize Gothic form’s grotesqueness quickly catches one’s eye amongst the lofty arches of these buildings.

Today Gothic form holds less relevance to the mindsets of the masses, yet it still wields power over us. Gothic buildings seem like shells of the past whose power has not yet worn away. Upon stepping into a beautiful cathedral or Gothic style home I feel awe-struck by the majesty of the height and mass of the spaces in contrast with their weightlessness and delicacy, a feeling that leads me to question myself importance and reflect on the existence of higher orders. Although history shows that art and architecture change with societal evolution, as can even be seen in the various styles of tombs within the Gothic basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, we can step back to read the tombstones of the Gothic period in order to see how medieval societies found order and power in Gothic architecture.