Gothic Architecture Essay -- Gothic Cathedrals

Architecture has always been an integral part of the society and its culture. It not simply defines the space of the community that it participates in but it also shapes the communitys place in history. Moreover, historians all over the world have found severeitecture playing a key role while they study the communities in condemnation periods. Architecture helps the historian decipher the civilizations daily life and the values they hold. The historians are able to decipher as such by looking at the recurring structural feature and ornamental feature of certain buildings of certain measure period. Some of the significant feature of the building usually defines the political regime or the religious values of the civilization. During the 12th and the 13th century, a certain time period where the religious faith of Christianity were instilled throughout most of the western civilization. The time when mostly Gothic dominated the realm of expression. Gothic was everywhere it was in painting, in sculpture, and primarily in architecture. Gothic architecture can understood thoroughly through the study in the form of cathedrals of that time. The cathedral stands as the most all-inclusive of the various trends that was brought along with the gothic architecture. If there was a cataclysmic event during that time where every thing was destroyed except the cathedrals, they alone could help us define the values and all the questions about the time period. It is interesting story that the cathedrals try to tell with scholasticism, politics, and the religion under the influential umbrella of the Christian ideology. maculation it was a very practical and expressive on its own rights a magnificent feat in engineering and symbolically the most notable part... ...ry of Art. capital of the United Kingdom Phaidon Press.info.com. (2012). gothic architecture. Retrieved 2013, from info.com http//topics.info.com/Gothic-Architecture_2245Morris, E. (2011). Exploring castles. R etrieved 2013, from http//www.exploring-castles.com/characteristics_of_gothic_architecture.html.Uq_mxmRDt95Panofsky, E. (n.d.). Abbot Suger, On Consecration. Princetom vinversity press.Salvadori, M. (1980). Why Buildings Stand Up. In M. Salvadori, Why Buildings Stand Up (p. 213). McGraw-Hill.unknown. (n.d.). Gothic Cathedrals. Retrieved 2013, from History of western civilization http//mason.gmu.edu/ddonald/imageassignment/cathedral.htmVerde, T. (2012, may). saudiaramcoworld. Retrieved from the point of the arch (This article appeared on pages 34-43 of the print edition of Saudi Aramco World) http//www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/201203/the.point.of.the.arch.htm