The Matter of Gothic

Winchester Cathedral

This essay intends to complete a tripartite overview of the underlying principles of Gothic architecture. The first, The Spirit of Gothic, contemplated various aspects of its beauty and sublimity, the animating principle that draws us in and leaves us in awe. This was followed by The Form of Gothic, exploring the organising principle that makes the Gothic so uniquely identifiable. However, what remains to articulate is the generating principle, a consideration of the material, the very stuff the Gothic is made of. First and foremost, Gothic is an architecture of self-supporting masonry, typically stone. Nevertheless, other materials such as timber, metal, and glass have their secondary application. As construction and articulation ought to vary with the material employed we'll explore how all of these take the best advantage of their respective physical properties in turn.

Stone

Freiburg Minster

Gothic is above all an architecture conceived and articulated in stone, taking full advantage of its properties, most notably its incredible compressive strength, density and weight. In elevation, buttressed walls with large openings are in fact stronger than solid ones and the buttresses diminish in projection corresponding to their height. Flying buttresses are the greatest visual example of this, revealing in their construction the lines of force, as the gravitational thrust of the roof is directed through the masonry to the foundations and earth below.

Amiens Cathedral

In the interior of the monumental great cathedrals, further support for the ceiling is provided from clustered piers which are composed of multiple colonnettes rather than an colossal column so as to maintain an human proportion with the increase of scale. Ribs spring from the caps of the colonnettes as well as the corbels integrated into the buttressed walls, meeting at a boss acting as a keystone at the centres of the pointed groin vaulting. The spandrels between the ribs can be made of a thin layer of stone to complete the ceiling as they support no structural load. A combination of all of these methods permit the walls to be pushed higher even while being opened up.

Spires and pinnacles are similarly composed at different scales. The tower and turret respectively are square in plan and each is covered with a pyramid structure to shelter it from the elements. Spires serve a religious function, towers for the ringing of bells whereas the more diminutive pinnacles add critical weight to further stabalise the buttresses precisely where it is required.

Burgos Cathedral

Timber

Notre Dame de Paris

As one might expect, carpentry played a major role even in the predominantly masonry construction of Gothic architecture. Aside from the supportive role of such equipment as scaffolding, workbenches, and various tools an indispensable use of timber framing was to build the centering for arches and vaults, acting as temporary supports until the masonry was completed. A permanent application of timber framing is the hidden thought highly complex structural support for the roof that protects the vulnerable stone ceilings from the elements. 

Not all Gothic carpentry work is temporary or hidden from view. Elements such as doors, pulpits, and screens are typically made of wood. In domestic architecture the use of highly ornamental barge boards are used to protect the gable ends of buildings from water intrusion whereas in small churches, collegiate, and civic architecture it is more common to encounter splendid timber ceilings that look entirely differently than stone owing to the high tensile strength of wood as a material.

St Agnes Church, Cawston

 

Metal and Glass

Aside from the masons and timber framers, perhaps the next most important craft of Gothic architecture is plumbing, referring to the craftsmen who work with plumbum, or lead. Lead was used extensively as a means of protection from water intrusion including gutters and downspouts, flashing, and especially the incredibly durable lead roofs, some of which have lasted for centuries with minimal maintenance. 

Ely Cathedral

 

Wrought iron is another metal that finds extensive uses for hinges and other types of door and window hardware. It likewise features prominently in screens and stairs, the combination of strength and malleability of iron as a material allowing almost unrestricted ornamental expression.

"Love" by Philip Webb

Of course Gothic architecture is intimately associated with the light that its construction permitted to penetrate the building. Gothic windows, with their thousands of panes be they clear, stained, or coloured is a signature feature of the style. I'll leave you with an humble example, one of my favourites from a little Red House in Bexleyheath.

Contributed by Patrick Webb

The Status of the Traditional Craftsman

By any conceivable measure, low. Often young people who are trying to figure out their life will ask me if traditional craft might be a viable path for them. My response is basically as follows: if social status is important to your sense of identity, don't walk away from pursuing craft...run and never look back. 

There are a few diminished, crumbling legacy infrastructures in place for learning craft sporadically limping along around the globe. Nowadays these typically function as half way houses for wayward youths. However, for most folks pursuing a life as a traditional craftsman there is no support, it's by and large a self-directed process. Obviously, there is very little in the way of a traditional craft culture remaining in the modern, industrialised world. This was certainly my experience in learning traditional plasterwork. Years of experimentation, trips at great expense to the UK, France, Italy, Morocco to try an pick up dribs and drabs of knowledge from folks who are struggling for their own existence and only half-willing to tolerate your presence. Why should they share anything with you, their hard earned pearls before swine? Not exactly a recipe for the next Michelangelo.

Then there is the architectural side of things. Once again, plan on doing the heavy lifting yourself, pouring over old out-of-print books, learning the geometry inside and out that gives form to your material. Don't count on any support from the architectural establishment or academia. There is an hierarchy in place and you'll always be at the bottom of it. It's not personal, actually you're not thought of in terms of an individual at all. One must understand that a traditional craftsman is not a professional. They're literally unentitled. Most lack an university education and if they do well, it's even worse. Fools. What a waste. So it's now standard practise that craftsmen are expected to sign non-disclosure agreements having the work of their hands be the intellectual property of others whilst the professionals get to appropriate and display said "work" as their own.

Yes, I've heard the arguments that some craftsmen earn a better living than some college educated folks. First, this is mostly bollocks. Typically one can work for low to mediocre wages for a semi-industrialised craft business. True enough, the owner of that business, who more likely than not knows nothing about the craft, never getting his hands dirty, might be making good money and getting awards, praise, and respect. The craftman doing the work? Not so much. Alternatively, the independent path of "the man in the van" isn't better off. He either has to have the entire infrastructure of a large business to function (insurances, incorporation, licensing, accountants, etc.) or he is by legal definition a criminal living an off-the-books, black market life.

So if you're a young person that is really into craft but social status is also very important to you I would suggest you pursue a path of being a traditional architect, preservation technologist, or if you're entrepreneurial, ambitious, and have access to capital maybe even buy a craft-like business in the manufacturing industry. You can make some good money and will have an identity in society that is respectable while fulfilling your craft fetish. Win win. However, if you're very good at math, dexterous, anti-social, value your independence, not giving two shits about what other people think then perhaps you can join the counter-culture, throw your life away into the decades-long process of mastering a traditional craft. Heaven knows there are plenty of spaces open.

Contributed by Patrick Webb

The Mythological Craftsman ― Part II, Classical Greece

Alexander Rothaug - The Three Fates

"Chaos was first of all, but next appeared broad-bosomed Earth, sure standing-place for all the Gods who live on snowy Olympus peak, and misty Tartarus, in a recess of broad-pathed earth and Love, most beautiful of all the deathless gods." ― Hesiod, Theogony

Quite different from the Christian conception of a God who creates the physical universe ex-nihilo (out of nothing) or the strikingly similar (some might say compatible) scientific theory of a Big Bang, the ancient Greek view held that matter is eternal, that it always existed. The primal state of matter was personified as Chaos, literally a chasm or abyss to indicate something infinite, shadowy, alive, and perhaps even conscious. A number of primal entities, powerful yet primitive deities were said to emerge from her into independent being. There was an initial bringing into an orderly arrangement of the unformed matter originating in Chaos by these primal entities. Notable among these figures are the Moirai or Fates, depicted as weavers who through their craft set limits thereby imposing a natural law and order that formalises a "cosmos" to which even the Titan and Olympian gods were subject.

The Demiurge

Constantin Hansen - Prometheus

It is into this existing cosmos that the Olympian gods make their debut. Chief among them is Zeus (Jupiter), also known as "Zeu pater" exalting his role as both father and pattern maker. Zeus was not a creator of things ex-nihilo, instead he was depicted as an artificer of existing material that continued the project of increasing physical order in the cosmos as well as in human activity through law and justice. Plato in the Timaeus describes this activity as the work of the "demiurge", literally meaning a working man or craftsman. The later neoplatonist philosopher Plotinus directly identifies this demiurge fashioner of the world with Zeus. At times Zeus' interventions were direct; however, more commonly he would command other gods and titans to do his bidding. A preeminent example of this is the creation or fashioning of men and women.

William Bouguereau

Pandore

Zeus had commanded the titan brothers Prometheus and Epimethus to fashion mortal creatures to fill the earth. Epimethus took the lead with the animals whereas Prometheus held a particular interest in man whom he sculpted in his own image out of a mixture of elements of the very earth, smoothing the contours with his own tears. His handiwork complete, Prometheus called upon Athena to animate the clay so that it became a living man. Prometheus was very proud of and jealous for mankind, famously stealing the divine fire from Zeus on their behalf. Furthermore, he raided the workshops of Hephaistos and Athena to supply man with all the tools for craftsmanship. Displeased with Prometheus' actions, Zeus subsequently commanded Hephaistos to fashion woman which he sculpted from the earth following Promethus' example. Once again, Athena breathed life into her; the Olympians in turn all provided her with a parting gift, hence her name "Pandora" meaning many gifts. Thus both man and woman are presented in Greek myth as artefacts, crafted objects made by and separate from the divine.

Gods of Craft

"As when a man adds gold to a silver vessel, a craftsman taught by Hephaistos and Athena to master his art through all its range, so that everything that he makes is beautiful." ― Homer, The Odyssey

Theodoor van Thulden

The Forge of Vulcan

All of the Olympians at one time or another are shown to be capable craftsmen and artists, reflective of the value placed on craft and the respect accorded the craftsman in ancient Greece. Nevertheless, Hephaistos and Athena are particularly renown for both their skill as well as their generosity with mankind. Hephaistos was considered primarily as a metalsmith of bronze; his eternal forge located within Mount Etna. Additionally, the arts of carpentry and stonework are likewise credited to him. Hephaistos was a lover of philosophy and the arts that helped to civilise mankind by bringing him forth from the cave, equipping him for a societal life in houses of his own construction.

Athena was likewise known by the title "Ergane", meaning "worker" thereby highlighting her role as mistress and patron of architecture, the arts and crafts. She was particularly skilled in weaving, an echo of the Moirai who weave the very cosmos. Likewise she held great expertise in carpentry, instructing a number of men in shipbuilding and famously in the building of the wooden horse that led to Greek victory in the Trojan war. Athena was quite generous with her skills and had the reputation of being the most personal of the gods with mankind, always seeking their enculturation and betterment. Though a virgin goddess, she was the one to endow life to the first man and woman and thus has been rightly construed as a mother figure who perhaps elides the sharp distinction between god and man. Naturally, she was the patron goddess of ancient Athens and the Parthenon dedicated to her was the centrepiece and crowning jewel of the acropolis temple complex.

The Heroic Craftsman

Frederic Leighton

Icarus and Daedalus 1869

The Parthenon is widely acknowledged as among the mostly finely crafted buildings in human history as contemporary restoration attempts are bearing out. It was constructed under the direction of Iktinos‎ and Callicrates, two architects each of whom quite literally was an arch (master) tektōn (craftsman) that is to say master masons. They were assisted by significant contributions of the great sculptor Phidias placed in charge of the carved decorations. The Athenian philosopher Socrates would have witnessed the erection of the Parthenon from start to finish in his lifetime. Socrates' father was a stone carver and he proudly claimed descent from the hero craftsman Daidalos so ultimately Hephaestus himself! Daidalos was by far the greatest craftsman of mythical antiquity credited with initiating the tradition of humanistic lifelike statuary. He was commissioned by King Minos of Crete to design the labyrinth containing the Minotaur who subsequently locked him up within so its secrets could not be revealed. Undaunted, Daidalos proceeded to fashion wings for he and his son Ikaros by which they make their escape, tragically so for Ikaros. Burying his grief, Daidalos continued on to Sicily where he constructed a temple to Apollo.

Unfortunately, this crowning zenith of admiration for the craftsman ensconced in religion, myth, and culture was not to endure in waning Classical Greek or for that matter Western civilisation. The craftsman possessing skills such as the tektōn or ergos were initially distinguished from the thetes (foreign day labourers) or dmoes (slaves and serfs). Yet, the distinction collapses a mere two generations later as Aristotle makes his case for why banausoi (a derogatory term for so-called vulgar artisans) should never be allowed citizenship: "Now we speak of several forms of slave; for the sorts of work are several. One sort is that done by menials: as the term indicates, these are persons who live by their hands; the vulgar artisan is among them...those who provide necessaries for an individual are slaves, and those who provide them for society are handicraftsmen." Aristotle further expounds on why craftsmen should be considered the very lowest form of subhuman, even below slaves as he offers his justificaiton: "For a slave shares his master’s life, whereas a vulgar craftsman is at a greater remove."

In our next essay in the series we'll explore Judaic cosmological foundation stories and biblical perspectives on the role and value of the craftsman.


Contributed by Patrick Webb