Gothic

The Gothic period was a time of ignorance and superstition. The power was held by the church and they were also the ones that withheld the knowledge from the people. The people were in a surfs system. The nobles lived in castles and were supported by their serfs. As long as the people couldn't read they could but interpret the Bible by themselves, so that made them dependent of the church. The church is where we get all the great architecture though. The cathedrals were known as man's upward reach to God in dark years. The lines had a vertical emphasis. One of the first and most famous is Notre Dame. The flying buttress was developed to help support the outer walls while opening up the wall for light. Gargoyles served two purposes: one was to be a protectors for the cathedral, they also spit rain water away from the building.

Pointed arches were the style in the Gothic period. This allowed for an arch to span any desirable space. The column for this time was called a clustered column, if fact it was one column but was carved to resemble many. Because the flying buttresses opened up the outer wall it made it possible for clear story windows to be put in. Stained glass allowed colorful light to enter the interiors. The main colors of the stained glass windows were red, blue, green and purple. The windows told stories from the bible. Because the people didn't know how to read the windows became a teaching tool for the church. One of the most famous windows is the Rose window or wheel window shown to the right. The popular motifs for this time was the qua trefoil and the trefoil. The trefoil symbolizes the god head while the quatrefoil symbolizes the god head and man.