MODULE III
BRITISH GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE
Westminster abbey
Salisbury cathedral
WEST MINSTER ABBEY (ENGLISH GOTHIC)
Northern
entrance
Chapter house
Western cloisters
entrance buttresses
Extreme length
from west door
to east 161.5 M
INTRODUCTION
In 960AD, a small Benedictine monastery was founded under
the patronage of King Edgar and St. Dunstain.
And in the early 11th century, King Edward (late St. Edward the
confessor) chose this monastery to be greatly enlarged and be a
huge stone church in honor of the apostle, St. Peter. And this
church became known as Westminster and was consecrated on
Dec. 28, 1065.
This explains why there are still traces of round arches and
massive supportive columns of the undercroft and Pyx chamber
in the cloisters suggesting a touch of the early medieval period
style.
Earlier in Henry's reign, on 16th May 1220, he had laid the
foundation stone for a new Lady Chapel at the east end of the
Confessor's church.
THE PYX CHAMBER
The Pyx Chamber is one of the
oldest surviving parts of
Westminster Abbey.
This low vaulted room off the East
Cloister is underneath the monk’s
dormitory, which was built about
1070.
The Chamber was walled off in the
12th century and made into a
treasury in the 13th century, and
possibly used as a sacristy
when Henry III was rebuilding the
main Abbey. The chamber still
possesses its medieval tiled floor and
some tiles from the 11th century.
the original entrance being from the
vestibule of the Chapter House
It is said that Henry's devotion to St Edward the
Confessor later prompted him to build a more magnificent
church in the newest Gothic style, and also to provide a new
shrine for the Saint, near to whom Henry himself could be
buried.
The three master masons supervising the work were
Henry of Reyns, John of Gloucester and Robert of Beverley.
It is not known if Henry was English or French but the
architect was greatly influenced by the new cathedrals at
Reims, Amiens and Chartres, borrowing the ideas of an apse
with radiating chapels and using the characteristic Gothic
features of pointed arches, ribbed vaulting, rose windows and
flying buttresses.
The design is based on the continental system of geometrical
proportion, but its English features include double aisles and a
long nave with wide projecting transepts.
The Abbey has the highest Gothic vault in England (nearly 102
feet) and it was made to seem higher by making the aisles
narrow.
The Englishness is also apparent in
the elaborate mouldings of the main arches,
the lavish use of polished Purbeck marble for the columns and
the overall sculptural decoration.
The east-west axis was determined by the existing position of
the Lady Chapel.
View from western entrance – vaulting of abbey
Choir and organ gallery – view Abbey vaulting – view from the western
from east main entrance
A spacious area between the high altar and the beginning of the quire
was necessary to provide a 'theatre' where coronations could take place.
The stonework, the sculptured roof bosses and the other carvings would
have been brightly colored and the wall arcades may have been
decorated in vermilion and gold.
The walls were adorned with fine paintings, and two, depicting St
Thomas and St Christopher, were rediscovered in the 1930s.
Some of the original colour on the censing angels in the south transept
was discovered at about the same time.
Brilliant ruby and sapphire glass, with heraldic shields set in a grisaille
(or grey monochrome) pattern, filled the windows.
The chapel screens and tombs added to the display of colour.
By 1269 the apse, radiating chapels, transepts and choir were complete
and the new shrine received the bones of St Edward on 13 October.
Plan of the central area – coronation area
When Henry III died in 1272 only one bay of the nave beyond the quire screen
had been completed.
The old nave remained attached to the far higher Gothic building for over a
century until more money became available at the end of the fourteenth
century.
The western section of the nave was then carried on by Abbot Nicholas
Litlyngton .
It was probably Litlyngton who insisted that the general design of Henry III's
masons should be followed thus giving the Abbey great architectural unity.
Master mason Henry Yevele made only minor alterations in the architectural
design but it can be seen on closer inspection that
the diaper (or rosette) decoration on the spandrels(triangle shaped space
between two arches) of the arches was discontinued in the nave, and other
details are not as elaborate as the older work.
In the bay of the nave just to the west of the quire screen can be seen the
junction of the old and new work.
In 1422 Henry was buried at
the eastern end of St Edward's
Chapel. In accordance with
his will, a lavishly sculptured
chantry chapel was built over
the tomb, with two turret
staircases leading to an altar
above.
Height of west towers
Abbot John Islip, died 1532, to top of pinnacles (68
added his own Jesus chapel M)
off the north ambulatory and
finally completed the nave
vaulting and glazed the west
window, but the top parts of
the west towers remained
unfinished. Western towers
NEW LADY CHAPEL
BY HENRY VII
The next great addition to the Abbey was the construction of a
magnificent new Lady Chapel by Henry VII between 1503 and 1519
to replace the 13th century chapel.
This was consecrated on 19th February 1516. The Perpendicular
architecture ( perpendicular gothic) here is in total contrast to the rest
of the Abbey.
No accounts for this building have been found but it is thought that the
architects were Robert Janyns and William Vertue. It has been called
"one of the most perfect buildings ever erected in England" and "the
wonder of the world".
Henry spent lavish sums on its decoration. The glory of the chapel is
its delicately carved fan vaulted roof, with hanging pendants.
These are constructed on half-concealed transverse arches.
All around the chapel are Tudor emblems such as the rose and
portcullis, and nearly one hundred statues of saints still remain in
GOTHIC FEATURES OF WESTMINSTER
ABBEY
FAN VAULTS
PENDANT VAULTS
PIERS
TRANSVERSE RIB
PIERS AND FLYING BUTTRESS
GRID WINDOWS
TRACERY (architectural device by which windows
are divided into sections of various proportions by
ribs or bars)
NEW LADY CHAPEL
BY HENRY VII
HENRY VII chapel
FAN VAULTS
PENDANT VAULTS
PIERS
TRANSVERSE RIB
PIERS AND FLYING BUTTRESS
FLYING BUTTRESS
GRID WINDOWS
CLOISTER AND POET’S
CORNER
Poets
corner
CLOISTER AND POET’S
CORNER
Since the middle ages,
aristocrats were buried
inside the chapels and
monks and people
associated with the
abbey were buried in
the cloisters and other
areas.
Other poets and
writers and musicians
were buried or
memorialized around
place known as poets cloister
corner
The last phase of building of the Abbey was the completion in
1745 of the West Towers in Portland stone, to a design
by Nicholas Hawksmoor, the Abbey's Surveyor. John James,
his successor as Surveyor, finished the work.
Both Wren, William Dickinson and Hawksmoor had put
forward various designs for a central tower, dome or spire on
top of the lantern roof but this was never done.
EXTERIOR AND RESTORATIONS
The exterior fabric of the Abbey has been restored and re-faced
several times in different types of stone.
Wren and his assistant William Dickinson, did a great deal of work,
especially at the north front, followed by Hawksmoor.
Decay was caused by weathering of the Reigate sandstone and
pollution from coal smoke.
The most recent restoration was from 1973-1995.
For new statues at the west front see Hawksmoor's entry on the
website and individual entries for the ten modern martyr
statues: Kolbe, Masemola, Luwum, Elizabeth of Russia, Martin
Luther King Jr, Romero, Esther John, Tapiedi and Zhiming.
ASSIGNMENT
Write short note on:
English gothic features of Westminster abbey
Draw the plan and mark important parts
Find important gothic buildings around
westminister abbey.
