Gothic Discussion

I reviewed Natalie's blog and she did a great job showing the Cathedrals and the stained glass and flower windows that are featured in most of them.  She showed a great picture of Notre Dame in Chartes Cathedral and the stained glass.  Also I loved the current applications of Gothic Style she showed, it gave me a good idea of how key features are displayed.  I also read Melanie's blog and she did a great job of comparing Gothic Architecture to Romanesque Architecture.  I realized that even though Romanesque influenced Gothic, they have two different focuses.  As Melanie described, the Gothic time period is designed to feel light and heavenly while the Romanesque time period is darker.

Gothic

   

The Gothic time period was very similar to the Romanesque time period with lots of influences from the arches.  While the Romanesque period had more of a rounded arch, Goth arches were more pointed. The churches were intended to look like heaven and light, while in Romanesque the churches were thick, dark, and heavy.

Romanesque Arch

Different Styles of Arches

Also during this Gothic time period, there were key features that were introduced such as: the pointed arch, ribbed vault, and fly buttress.  They had tall windows with stained glass and many other decorative features.  One of the things I thought most interesting was that gargoyles were introduced during this time period.  They were part of the architecture and represented warding away the demons from the churches. 

Example of ribbed Vault

Flying Buttresses

Lastly, many cathedrals were being built with these styles.  Some of the most famous cathedrals with this style of architecture are St. Denis from France, Notre Dame at Chartes,  Notre Dame at Paris, Wells Cathedral and many more. Modern styles of Gothic furniture and rooms exampling these styles are shown below.

St.Denis Cathedral

Response to Islamic Design

I read Emily's and Lindsay's blogs about Islamic design.  Emily's blog had some good opinions about the Taj Mahal. It is one of the most amazing and popular structures built today.  The features in this building are so extravagant and detailed.  Emily had some great descriptions on the design of the place and how it commits to a true Islamic design.  Lindsay did a great job of describing the key interior features from this time period.  She mentioned the horseshoe arcs, ogival arcs, and muqarnas-filled niches and domes.  She also mentioned the detail in the Mosque by Sultan Ahmed, which was crazy designs.  There was over 20,000 tiles put into the dome.  Both of these blogs hit the key features from the Islamic time period.  Many magnificent mosques were built and were the models for certain buildings today.  Overall, Islamic design gave great influence to some of the buildings we have today.

Islamic

Similar to the Romanesque time period, the Islamic period was a very religious time period.  While before, they were practicing in Churches, now they were building grand Mosques to practice in.  The Mosques were a huge place for groups to worship and were being created because of Mohammad.  Mohammad's farm was the first recognized mosque and and set precedent to all the other mosques.  They usually contained a courtyard, perimeter wall, and a covered wall of columns.  There are a few mosques that stood out most noticeably, they are the Great Mosque of Kairouan in North Africa, Mosque of Sultan Ahmed in Turkey, and the Taj Mahal of India.  First off, the the Great Mosque of Kairouan was located in Tunisia, North Africa.  This mosque had columns of horseshoe arches lined on the exterior walls of the building.  Also had about 115 feet tall minarets that went up to three stories high.
 
Nest, the Sultan Ahmed of Istanbul, Turkey.  This was also known as the "blue Mosque".  These mosques are different from other stages of religious buildings because they lighter in color and specialize in texture rather than dark, rich colors.  The interiors are more bright instead of rich with gold and bronze.  There were so many different elements put into this building including over 20,000 types of tiles.
 
Lastly, the Taj Mahal  located in Agra, India was created and designed because a distraught emperor missed his favorite wife.  It is one of the most famous mosques that was built during this time period.
 
All of the mosques were generally designed with lots of minarets,arches, and geometric tiles.  The coloring schemes were lighter than the Byzantine and Romanesque time periods.   There are current applications seen throughout homes nowadays:
 

Some furniture based on the Islamic time period.
The legs of this table are similar to the arch designs
in some of the mosques that were built.

This video is a short video of the Alhambra palace which was also built during this time period and carries a lot of key features similar to the other mosques.