Andreea Popescu* MEDIEVAL CATHEDRALS. SYMBOL AND ...

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Andreea Popescu * 

MEDIEVAL CATHEDRALS. 

SYMBOL AND ARCHITECTURE 

RÉSUMÉ 

a cathédrale médiévale a la fonction d’un récipient de l’esprit divin, d’un messager de la parole de 

Dieu. Dans sa qualité de sanctuaire abritant des reliques saintes, la cathédrale est du point de 

vue symbolique une carte de la rédemption. Le croyant commence un pèlerinage spirituel qui a comme 

point de départ le portail occidental du Dernier Jugement et il arrive à l’autel entouré de vitraux. La 

découverte de l’art gothique, c’est-à-dire que Dieu est lumière, a son équivalent dans le principe de la 

verticalité, rendu par la structure interne de la cathédrale. L’art roman interprète les mystères de la 

création divine par l’assimilation de la nature environnante dans la technique de bâtir de l’artiste 

médiéval. La cathédrale consacre l’espace autour d’une communauté. Grâce aux cycles de fresques, aux 

ensembles sculpturales, au chant liturgique, l’homme médiéval s’imprégnait de spiritualité. Le statut 

d’axis mundi donne à la cathédrale la fonction cosmique de liant entre le monde et le ciel. La cathédrale 

a aussi le rôle de rendre Dieu intelligible pour l'homme en lui dévoilant la sacralité de l’espace qui se 

traduit aussi comme une sacralité intellectuelle. Les paroles de Saint Augustine dans son traité De 

musica sont justes: „ Le premier principe esthétique est que la beauté trouve ses origines dans la 

compréhension rationnelle d’un ensemble unitaire qui conduit vers la sagesse. “ La cathédrale 

médiévale, une vraie summa theologica, dévoile à l’homme par ses principes de symétrie et de proportion 

l’essence de la belle création divine. Comprendre le message transmis par une cathédrale est un moyen de 

se sauver. L’homme découvre ainsi que la beauté du monde est en effet la beauté de sa propre âme et 

l’expérience religieuse le ramène dans la sphère du sacre. L’espace devient ainsi l’image d’une vraie 

cathédrale de lumières où l’âme trouve un niveau supérieur de savoir. L’initiation par sacre fait que 

l’homme revient d’une manière symbolique dans le paradis d’où il a été banni. 

In his book entitled The Sacred and the Profane Mircea Eliade notices 

that buildings are a means of consecrating space. Symbolically speaking 

they represent the wish of man to return to the primordial time of the 

divine revelation. A temenos is a centre of the world due to which the 

universe gets stability and harmony. By building man reiterates the 

cosmogonic act which brings him in direct contact with the universe. 

Thus takes place a symbolic transfiguration of the profane space into 

sacred space. The need to maintain the link with sacred space is of a 

religious nature. It symbolises the wish of man to remain close to a 

* Lect. univ. dr. la Universitatea din Bucuresti, Facultatea de Limbi Straine, Catedra 

de Limba Engleza. 

Caietele Institutului Catolic VII (2008, 1), 55-78.

56 Andreea Popescu 

source of sacrality. Unlike profane space which is fragmentary, sacred 

space is homogeneous, which implies a continuity of revelations. 

Entering sacred space is difficult as such places do not let themselves 

be conquered easily. 

A sacred space takes its validity from the permanence of the hierophany that 

once consecrated it. Hierophany did not only sanctify one part of the 

homogeneous profane space: it also ensures for the future the persistence of this 

sacrality. In this region hierophany repeats itself. The area thus becomes an 

eternal source of power and sacrality which allows man who enters it to share the 

power and live this sacrality (Eliade, p. 338). 

Medieval cathedrals play the same role of consecrating the space 

around a community. They gather the ideals of a whole world which 

tries to escape the darkness of the barbarian invasions and evolve 

towards order and harmony. The origins of medieval architecture are 

found in the very origins of Christianity. In ancient Rome the first 

communities illustrated in humble frescoes the symbols of the new 

religion. The places where the Christians chose to create them were the 

temple walls or the catacombs. The form they used was the Greek one, 

being more appropriate to a population that lived in the Greek and 

Roman spirit. The images were however new as instead of the pagan 

pantheon which was already obsolete appeared episodes and characters 

which no longer corresponded to the old myths. Initially this new art 

builds in the dark as Christianity was not yet officially recognised. Yet 

gradually it grows in power and stability. The moment the artists did 

not have to hide away from persecutions any longer the anonymous art 

came to light and started using the ancient temples and basilicas. 

The beginnings of the Middle Ages were characterised by the 

barbarian invasions, by terrible misery and lasted between the fall of the 

Roman Empire and the crusades. Despite the difficult living conditions 

the need for beauty prevailed. Medieval art is the exclusive product of 

the religious communities which first finds a shape in monasteries, 

crossing their walls in order to enter the world. 

In the chaos of moral customs, races, and languages that floated over the burned 

towns and destroyed crops monasteries constituted the only active centres 

(Faure, p. 244). 

The social role of feudal art is obvious. The existence of the great 

cathedrals is linked to the appearance of cities and communes. The

Medieval Cathedrals. Symbol and Architecture 57 

cathedral replaces the monastery which in its closed and isolated space 

no longer corresponds to the expansive need of the medieval man. A 

significant example is the French commune which appeared strictly out 

of social and profitable interests. The commune obliged the medieval 

population to cross the spiritual frontiers that had been established by a 

church that was still prey to the rigid doctrines of the early Middle 

Ages. Due to the communes and the building of cities, medieval art 

acquires a new dimension, a larger one, culminating in the creation of 

national architectural styles like the perpendicular Gothic in England. 

The cathedral appeared together with the great cities, it grew and got a 

definite shape due to them, passing through diverse evolutionary 

stages. Be they Romanesque or Gothic, the cathedrals depended on the 

fate of the cities surrounding them. Being bishoprics they exist as long 

as the ecclesiastical spirit that formed them persists. When the need for 

images, for a visual culture necessary to educate the community 

disappears a written culture will prevail. 

In the Middle Ages however these buildings are essential for the 

development of urban civilisation. Due to the cycles of frescoes, to 

liturgical songs, to the sculptural ensembles the medieval believer was 

impregnated by a religious spirituality which helped him to better 

understand the mysteries of the divinity. The medieval cathedral, that 

genuine Biblia pauperum, is the central point of daily life, of the life of 

man who enters it displaying the humility and the wonder due for the 

greatness of God. 

In a religion in which divine service was the essential ritual the main role of 

God’s house was to offer an appropriate space for the greatness of the divine 

mysteries. Yet the beauty of the forms was not adapted only to the sacred 

character of the liturgical ceremony. The stone church, symbol of the great 

Church, image of the redeemed human race, had to make the believers visualise 

the majesty of Heaven (Vauchez, p. 141). 

The medieval town also plays an important role. It stands for a new 

mentality. The medieval town asserts itself between the Xth and the 

XIIIth centuries during one of the most important processes of 

urbanisation that Europe has ever known. In comparison to the ancient 

communities it is much better situated in the surrounding landscape, 

offering the necessary protection both against natural calamities and 

against the invasions that threatened it.


Among the typical features of the western medieval society nothing is more 

characteristic than the medieval town. No matter its forms of survival the 

medieval town, under its most common aspects, was essentially different from 

the ancient community. More oriented towards commerce and crafts it was also 

better delimited from the surrounding plains. Nevertheless it needed them. It 

often struggled to dominate them or to use them. But the means were different 

than in the case of the classical civilisations which used the model of a political 

and religious centre open to the aristocracy living on the whole territory (Le Goff 

& Schmitt, p. 561). 

Cities appeared due to the interest for commerce, for gatherings and 

fairs which were capable to ensure the economic prosperity necessary 

for the flourishing of culture. The growth of the agricultural 

production and especially the development of guilds also explain the 

growth of the population which characterises this period. The medieval 

market towns are the origin of the great cities of which Paris is the first 

that can be called like that. The medieval town is above everything a 

highly populated community, grouped in a small place, in the middle of 

almost deserted spaces. It is the centre of a system of specific values 

that urge towards the practising of crafts and trades on whose 

flourishing depends also the inclination towards creativity and art. 

Medieval art, including the cathedrals, is tightly linked to the economic 

progress of a certain area. Once money starts to be used the financial 

support provided by towns becomes essential. To make art one needs 

funds, and these are obtained due to economic prosperity. The town is 

also a social organism in which the rich are equal on the social scale 

dominating a homogeneous mass that obeys them. Due to these rich 

people medieval art knows new evolutions as many offer their 

belongings for the building of a cathedral. This community lives in its 

own time, a time governed by the church and marked by the tolling of 

bells calling the believers to the divine service. It is a time that is 

sacralized when man enters a cathedral where divine eternity takes the 

place of the profane time of the daily existence. Thus the commune 

constitutes itself in an institutional and social autonomy. On this 

autonomy depend the guilds and the merchants. Though it is not an 

image of democracy which is often obtained by revolts, urban 

autonomy is the first stage in the separation of the city from the 

medieval village it included. As the place of a bishopric, the city gets 

economic and administrative independence which will allow it to


expand without being hindered by the more primitive rural civilisation. 

The cathedrals that are built in these bourgeois towns are a sign of 

power and authority. They are the centre of a world which gradually 

evolves from the period of transition which characterizes the early 

Middle Ages. Urban mentality replaces rural mentality just like a 

cathedral becomes more important than a monastery. 

The town, as a place of many movements of solidarity, acts as a social promoter 

in order to integrate while at the end of the Middle Ages it acts in the opposite 

way, excluding and marginalising. It welcomes travellers, pilgrims, ill people for 

whom hospitals are built. It contains numerous centres. The town dominates the 

surrounding villages and a more or less large territory, together with a periphery, 

itsef more or less large, where it has economic, legal and political power (Le Goff 

& Schmitt, p. 564-565). 

Medieval art that flourishes in the urban areas is devoted to 

Christianity. Starting with the little stone church which resists to the 

barbarian invasions until the great Gothic cathedral, art obeys the 

interests of the city. Urban theology, as it is understood in the medieval 

culture belonging to the XII-XIIIth centuries, is ambivalent. On the 

one hand it is influenced by the Biblical tradition where many towns 

are punished by God for their sins (e.g. Sodom, Gomorrah, Babylon). 

Saint Bernard de Clairvaux, for instance, urged the people to flee towns 

and to take shelter in the nearby monasteries. On the other hand for 

the intellectual elite of the age the town tries to be the image of 

Jerusalem, the city of God. This ambivalence is also found in the Bible 

which “starting with the Genesis until the Apocalypse displays a 

gradual urbanisation of the other world, replacing paradise, the garden 

of the early ages, with a town of the last days.” (Le Goff & Schmitt, p. 

566). 

In the case of a profound Christian mentality like the medieval one, 

the town has its spiritual centre. A cathedral is the place of an eternal 

pilgrimage as it shows to man the way to find God. In the Romanesque 

Middle Ages man journeyed symbolically to the apse or the 

underground crypt where were buried the saints he prayed to. Their 

miraculous powers are the echo of the wish, of the nostalgia to return 

in the middle of a divine world which offers happiness and trust. The 

form of a cathedral is also symbolical. Heading towards the altar, man 

advances to the east, that is symbolically speaking to Jerusalem. The


wish to start a pilgrimage, to participate in the miracle of the 

Resurrection is the reason for which every church is oriented to the 

east. During the divine service the priest also turns to the altar, 

undergoing a symbolical journey to Jerusalem. 

A medieval cathedral, be it Romanesque or Gothic, is organised on 

some principles. In the northern part where the sun never shines are 

represented images of the Old Testament. It is the world which has not 

yet been touched by the divine light. Even if the New Testament is the 

fulfilment of all the prophecies in the Old Testament, it was still 

believed that the people living in that time were experiencing spiritual 

darkness. In the south where the sun is in full glare there are scenes 

from the Gospels. Natural light is associated with divine light, and 

when the Gothic style is invented man’s need for light becomes an 

essential characteristic of the new art. In the west, where the sun sets, 

there are images of the Last Judgement. The end of the day is the end 

of the world, thus putting an end to a whole cycle of life and death. A 

medieval cathedral becomes thus a map of redemption, showing the 

way towards the holy places and the way in which the believer can 

reach them. It is also a summa theologica as in the concrete beauty of the 

building are found the elements contained in the sermons and the 

sacred texts. A cathedral illustrates the essence of medieval theology, 

displaying the unity and the harmony of the divine creation. The world 

is no longer a chaos, but a cosmos. Entering a cathedral man leaves 

behind his daily worries and the dangers of a troubled and unsafe 

epoch. The church has the role of a sanctuary protecting the persecuted 

ones. Many medieval cathedrals sheltered fugitives or people 

persecuted by the authorities. 

Entering a cathedral medieval man is aware of his privileged position 

which is suggested to him by the cross-form of a church. Advancing 

between the aisles he reaches the middle where he finds himself in full 

light. He is in the light of the sun, but in fact it is God’s light. In 

England, after the Norman conquest, a church was considered a ladder 

towards Heaven, as it is the image of God’s word. This role is also 

justified by the symbol of a cathedral as a pilgrimage place proper. In 

the beginning leaving for a certain sanctuary on a pilgrimage was 

obligatory if man had gravely sinned. Penitence brought him back in 

the community. Later, when the journey lost its penitential meaning,


and due to some reasons for which the person could not go to a certain 

sanctuary, there appeared another way of reconciling with God. Going 

round a cathedral and stopping in some precise points was a reiteration 

of the journey to the holy lands. Repeating the ritual several times 

during a certain period brought absolution from sins. A cathedral thus 

becomes a concrete means to find redemption. The Way of the Cross 

was part of the ritual, implying the consecration of time and space for a 

whole community. 

In his treaty De musica Saint Augustine thinks that the artist is a 

spiritual guide whose mission is to unveil the truth hidden by the 

Scriptures. This truth is not beautiful in itself, but it directs attention to 

the source of all beauty. The cathedral has the role to underline divine 

beauty, to make God intelligible to man. All such constructions are 

built on the principle of equality. Be it Romanesque or Gothic, the 

building impresses by its proportions. In this way the artist is capable 

to master its matter. In the same treaty De musica Saint Augustine says 

that the first aesthetic principle consists in the fact that beauty comes 

from the rational understanding of a unitary whole which leads to 

wisdom. The artist is divinely inspired in his work. 

What are the superior things with the exception of those in which there is the 

supreme, eternal and immutable equality ? There is no change or time for them; 

out of them come the constructed, ordered and modified images in such a way 

so that they should imitate eternity. As terrestrial things are linked to celestial 

things their temporal development is united in a harmonious succession as in an 

universal song (St. Augustine, in Robertson, 117). 

A cathedral is made up of the basic elements which correlate in 

order to form an image of harmony. 

Beauty is the ultimate purpose of the medieval artist who contributes 

in his own way to the glory of God. Human spirit is directly guided by 

divine will as, Saint Augustine says, nothing comes in between the artist 

and his visions (nulla natura interposita). The anonymous medieval 

builder chooses his subjects both from the already existing tradition in 

the building field and from the surrounding reality. He gets his order 

from the commune or the bishop and he has well defined problems to 

solve. Behind him is the Roman-Byzantine tradition, quite confuse and 

which no longer fits the demands of the new architectural style. His 

obligation is to make a construction large enough to contain in it the


population of a town. He finds most helpful the plans he makes with 

the compasses, the lead weight, the tracing square. He has next to him 

other skilful masters, believing in the same faith and who do not have 

the least doubt or existential anxiety. But most of all they are the people 

of their time. The old theory about the naivety and the simplicity of the 

medieval man is not valid any more. These people are characterised by 

pragmatism and by a highly adaptable spirit to reality. 

In an epoch in which architecture quickly evolves the artist must 

innovate, he must have a practical spirit without which his work would 

be in vain. The passage from the Romanesque style to the Gothic style 

is the most important architectural change. The Romanesque system 

proposed a doctrine in which man had to be aware of his sins, he had 

to bow his head with humility to the ground, listening to the voice of 

the priest speaking to him in Latin which he could not understand. The 

sermon was the only part of the divine service which was undertaken in 

the vernacular language. It insisted on the original sin and on the 

necessity that it should be expiated. The Romanesque cathedral is the 

stone image of this doctrine which bears down on man, burying him in 

his fear of eternal damnation. Romanesque art, an ars moriendi, creates a 

tomb-church which covers the underground crypt and its relics. It is 

the low vault under which the poor people come fearfully to listen in 

the dark to the voice of the Church. The Romanesque construction 

closes down on the one who enters it, swallowing him up in its entrails. 

Its austerity derives from the doctrine of Saint Paul who in his letters 

asserted that only the soul has the right to live on condition that it 

never crosses the strict limits of the dogma. Romanesque art is the 

image of an all-powerful Church. It is the image of fierce moral values 

which are characteristic for a rigid world in which genuine life does not 

exist. 

Once mentality is changed in the XIIIth century cathedral art defines 

its principles in a different way. From an ars moriendi oriented towards 

the ground it becomes an ars vivendi opening up to the sky. Opening 

towards the light is the great innovation of the Gothic style. In the 

places where in the Romanesque churches there were no spaces, but 

only compact and thick walls, there appear now luminous windows 

decorated with stained glasses which filter the light of the sun. The 

darkness of the Romanesque crypt, its extraordinary austerity melt in


the verticality, slenderness and harmony of the Gothic pillars. The 

believer no longer looks up towards an angry God who punishes, but 

he heads full of hope towards a loving and merciful one. He raises his 

eyes to the vault which towers above him at incredible heights, he 

visually embraces the huge and luminous nave. He has a feeling of 

ascension, of transgressing his limits. While in the Romanesque 

cathedral there were narrow spaces he now finds the lateral naves, the 

transept, the choir, the apse. Man is aware of his place in the universe, 

of the fact that he is God’s most precious creation. He regains his 

dignity lost in centuries of invasions and epidemics. He can trustfully 

look at the others because they form a community for whom 

redemption is a certainty. Hope is provided by the beauty of the stained 

glasses which in wonderful colours tell the biblical story of pain and 

salvation. 

A common practice in medieval architecture is the juxtaposition of 

images. Thus, a scene from the Old Testament is opposed to one from 

the New Testament so that the viewer should better understand the 

hidden meaning of the image. Visual culture was essential for a 

community which was often illiterate. Just like medieval theatre, which 

was not accidentally played on the parvis of a cathedral, interior 

decorations helped with the spiritual education of the people. A scene 

like The Original Sin was juxtaposed to The Resurrection. Thus 

symbolically was produced the translation of meaning from sin to 

absolution of the viewer himself. Many cathedrals had schools nearby 

which gives them an educational role. In the new system of thinking 

proposed by Gothic art the universe is larger and better organised, and 

the values linked to a cathedral change radically. 

In the Romanesque buildings there was a sort of connection between the 

darkness and the wall, while in the new architecture there is an association 

between structure and light. Indeed, as the elements of this structure have 

obtained more importance than the walls and the vaults, the builders could open 

their constructions and the abundance of light will allow them to give value and 

to plastically justify their compositions. Clarity is necessary in a more organised 

world in which every group has a functional role to play. The lack of clarity, 

darkness, imprecision must be removed (Scobeltzine, p. 277). 

The deep significance of the light, all the slender columns, the 

irresistible verticality are the result of the artist’s wish to bring the light 

inside the building. Abbot Suger, the founder of the abbey of Saint


Denis in France, the first using the Gothic style, sums up in his 

treatises the doctrine about the light. Due to his efforts, “the new, 

transparent choir, built instead the opaque Carolingian apse, will be 

associated with an equally luminous nave and the whole building will be 

flooded in a more brilliant light than before.” (Panofsky, p. 31). 

The light Suger talks about, lux nova, is both the light that floods the 

building and the light of the New Testament. Suger insists on the 

paradigm of words like clarere, clarus, clarificare in his attempt to 

underline the metaphysical meaning of the light. The cathedral is meant 

to guide the spirit which looks for a significance beyond concrete 

perception. Claritas is the word used to express the power to irradiate 

or the brilliance that comes from God. As light must be clear the 

message also must be transparent. The cathedral as an axis mundi is not 

only the centre of the community, but it also provides it with the most 

important lessons needed for the polishing of the human spirit. If in 

Romanesque art man still lives in the surrounding darkness, in Gothic 

art he is the centre receiving and irradiating light. 

The two major architectural styles of the Middle Ages, Romanesque 

and Gothic, are characterised by some specific features that distinguish 

them in the context of medieval ecclesiastical art. 

Thus Romanesque art inherits the Cistercian principles of asceticism, 

nevertheless adding its own innovations. A Romanesque cathedral is 

austere, but it contains sculptures and paintings made by the great 

artists of the epoch. Romanesque art has its origins in the classical 

tradition on which it put the foundations of the first stone churches in 

the west. In a more general understanding of the term Romanesque 

means the period from the middle of the XI th century to the beginning 

of the XIII th century. Stimulated by economic prosperity, by relative 

stability and demographic growth, Romanesque art continues to build 

its monasteries and cathedrals. The Romanesque artist is more 

interested to create abstract structures of the order that he proposes. 

Romanesque cathedrals have round windows that support the weight 

of the whole ensemble. The windows have the role to brighten the 

interior and not to embellish the construction which is very austere. 

Romanesque architecture is characterised either by vast luminous 

surfaces, the economy of details and decorations, or by the 

predominance of the chiaroscuro, the depth of the nave or the sculpted


surfaces which create forms and expressions of exceptional variety. The 

great innovations of Romanesque art are the system of tribunes and the 

portals or the capitals decorated with rich sculptures. Romanesque 

cathedrals combine the severity of the plans and forms with the 

richness and the liberty of expression of the decorations. 

Coming after Carolingian art with its preference for abstract forms and the 

neglect for the human figure, Romanesque sculpture gave back to man his place 

as main subject of art; the main subject, but not the only subject like in the 

Antiquity. Man returns to art accompanied by the totality of nature (Tatarkiewicz, 

p. 209). 

Romanesque art owes much to the development of the vault. In the 

beginning the construction of the Christian basilicas is reduced to 

relatively small buildings and to crypts. The first basilicas have wooden 

roofs. The development and the organisation of the basilical plan are 

the essential features of Romanesque art. 

The concentrated plan, imitated after the old funeral monuments, adapted to 

Christian art for the dynastic chapels and for baptisteries, finds in Romanesque 

art a new vitality in the imitation of the dome built by emperor Constantine over 

the Holy Sepulchre (Focillon, p. 121). 

Romanesque churches, with some exceptions in Italy and 

Normandy, support the arched vault, obliging the artist to strengthen 

the walls that supported the weight of the whole building in order to 

counterbalance the pressure of the exterior. Reducing the openings in 

the walls to minimum, which depends on the same problem, 

contributes to the sober but yet impressive light of the edifices. 

Another feature is provided by the large deambulatories with lateral 

chapels especially built to facilitate the access to the holy relics. 

A Romanesque cathedral has three or five naves. It has a simple or a 

double transept on which open oriented chapels. The lateral 

prolongations of the transept form a transversal church which is 

included in the main building. It allows for a permanent passage to the 

interior of the edifice from the gates of the western portal to the apse 

and back again. The most important part of a Romanesque cathedral is 

the apse as it contains the shrines of the saints. Sometimes the relics are 

preserved in crypts similar to the martyrium in the primitive churches. 

The apses are usually grouped around the deambulatory, thus allowing 

an easier passage for the pilgrims. An important role is played by the


tribunes due to the necessity of equilibrium and the distribution of the 

light. They are not only ways of access destined to the circulation of 

people, but they create a true superior church surrounding the nave and 

often receiving large numbers of people in their vast openings. 

Romanesque architecture is a combination of volumes as early roman art used to 

be, but it uses more varied and more scholarly devices. One must situate himself 

in the apse or outside it in order to understand these measures and progress. 

From the roof of the chapels to the one of the apse and from here to the 

superior level that supports the lantern tower and up to the point of the spire, the 

view floats like in a permanent ascension during which each stone stair is a 

measure of space (Focillon, p. 127). 

Some churches allow for an abundance of decorations which 

nevertheless does not transgress the strict limits imposed by the 

architectural monument. Romanesque sculpture has its own features. 

The sculpted figures on the portals seem to be part of the wall that 

surrounds them. The accent is placed on the face and the hands, the 

Romanesque artist is not interested in a more complex movement. The 

predilect subjects of Romanesque sculpture coincide with the austere 

doctrine that inspires their creator. Most frequent are the Last 

Judgement, the image of God punishing the world. Romanesque 

cathedrals are characterised by the richness of images and of the 

exterior decorations. It is a whole world that lives, swarms and attracts 

the person looking at it. The complexity of Romanesque art is given by 

the original combination between austerity and picturesque, by the 

vitality of the represented images. 

Romanesque art must make the church speak, must satisfy the necessities of a 

rich iconography and at the same time place it in space without weakening the 

monumental masses and their functions. On top of a column had to be raised 

not one or two figures that could be easily combined – Christ in glory, Saint 

Anna and Saint Elisabeth, Adam and Eve –, but the more numerous characters 

from the cycle of birth, of the Flight into Egypt or of the Last Supper (Focillon, 

p. 172-173). 

The continuity of movements and of the sculpted figures, the direct 

relationship with the stone mass, the multiplications and the 

prolongations of the decorations create compact systems in which 

nothing is isolated without breaking the unity of the ensemble. 

Architectural conformity and geometrical schemes are essential features 

of Romanesque architecture. Symmetry is given by the well-defined


placement of the images, by the ordered frames which establish and 

mould the composition on the ornament. 

Opposed to Romanesque art Gothic art brings a different way of 

shaping the forms of a cathedral. In the Middle Ages it was called “the 

French style” and it reflects the scholastics of the age. The doctrines of 

medieval scholastics are either building traditions, or are spread in 

different treatises read by the Gothic architects. It is highly unlikely that 

the Gothic builders read the philosophical books of the time, but they 

go to school or to church, they listen to sermons, they participate in 

public debates. The Gothic architect is a cultivated man who uses the 

principles of his edifice from the ideas he has heard in the debates. 

Gothic art is more intellectualised than Romanesque art which is closer 

to nature. 

The key of the new aesthetic is found in the words of Saint Thomas 

Aquinas who considers as most important the concepts of order and 

clarity. Divine nature gathers all things according to some clear rules, so 

that all should be organised, each thing maintaining its specific purity 

even in the structures where it enters in reciprocal combinations. Saint 

Thomas insists on the idea that “the spirit must base its knowledge on 

the sensible world”. This theory originates in the Platonic distinction 

between the material and the sensible worlds. In the same way the 

artistic representations in the Gothic cathedrals are images of divine 

beauty that they represent according to human models. 

Like the Romanesque cathedral, the Gothic one has the form of a 

cross which corresponds to an initiatic pattern. It starts from the 

Crucifixion, it passes through Resurrection and Ascension and it 

reaches Redemption. Thus the western facade with its central portal 

corresponds to a threshold that leads man to eternity. The cathedral is 

also the stone image of medieval metaphysics, of the theories about 

number, measure and weight. Both the aesthetics and the medieval 

theology originate in the Christian artistic principles developed in the 

early Middle Ages. Christian philosophy, enriched by the works of 

Plato, Saint Augustine and Boethius, stresses the concept of change of 

the material values into the immutable beauty of the cosmos. The 

medieval architect transforms these common qualities in divine order 

as the spirit contains in it the exemplary plan of the universe. 

According to medieval philosophy, the universe is organised on a


perfect hierarchical structure. The origin of this thinking is found again 

in the Platonic theory about cosmic order. The forms of creation are 

compared to the perfection of the forms that are found in the mind of 

the Creator. Human life, physical or spiritual, constitutes a microcosm 

which is the reduced image of the divine macrocosm. Human soul 

finds its harmony in the divine reason which in its turn is formed by 

the material world and by the universal order. The harmonious and 

homogeneous structures of the Gothic are the result of the wellestablished 

laws of proportion. All elements play the same role one 

towards the other thus reaching unity. The elements divide and 

combine according to mathematical laws of proportion in order to 

produce the substance of the universal soul. The principle of symmetry 

is taken by the medieval artist from the treatises of Saint Augustine 

who considers mathematics, geometry and music as the three ways to 

understand the universe. The world unveils both its moral and its 

physical structures and together they achieve cosmic unity. Medieval 

man must always discover the conclusion of the message transmitted to 

him as being the truth and he must not guess it by applying hypotheses. 

The aim of the edifice is to open the road to the truth. 

The proportions given to some elements, defined strictly from a 

mathematical point of view, serve for the delimitations of the concept 

of division which is found in the Platonic dialogue Timaeus. Plato 

considers that the vision on the universe depends on the way in which 

man succeeds in delimiting the different aspects of the world in order 

to establish their true value and to give them the place they deserve in 

the harmonious structure of the universe. In the same way the structure 

of a cathedral depends on several different elements which put together 

create unity. Gothic architecture defines itself as a balanced game 

between functional elements. The visible representations of the 

construction form the harmonious pattern of geometrical 

configurations which constitute the interior of a Gothic cathedral. 

Using the principle of symmetry the medieval architect builds the 

interior of the edifice as a mirror to the exterior. A cathedral is a vast 

system of divisions, subdivisions and multiplications that help with the 

clear explanation of the message. 

Thus is produced a movement from the concrete representations to 

the sacred reality of the principles that give meaning and moral value to


the existence. The medieval architect cultivates reason not only because 

it gives him the opportunity to build a stable edifice, but also because it 

is a way to come close to the divinity. As the artist knows that what he 

does is a good thing, the structure of a cathedral stresses the patterns 

that form it, showing the deliberate display of its components. Gothic 

architecture unveils the way in which creation functions and not what 

creation really is. It is based on visual logic which brings together the 

constitutive elements in a harmonious unity. In the Gothic cathedrals 

the nave is the most accomplished as it has that absolute quality, that 

certain logic which the light passing through the stained glasses makes 

even more beautiful. Thus the created forms are linked to each other 

and they transform the whole construction in a homogeneous 

expression of the artistic sensibility. 

The beginnings of Gothic art are found in the abbey of Saint Denis 

in Paris. The discovery of the new art initiated by abbot Suger is that 

God is light. Each being participates in the process of the creation of 

light. To have the light means to share in the divine spirit, to be the 

light-bearer and to give it to the others as well. Wherever the stained 

glass can be introduced in the wall frame, the light floods in the nave. 

What in the beginning used to be a small window gradually grows until 

it covers all the space between the pillars. According to abbot Suger, 

light is necessary to worship God, therefore the interior of the 

cathedral must be very large in order to allow for a disciplined 

movement of the believers. The importance given to light is found in 

the philosophical treatises of the age, in the works of Saint 

Bonaventura or Albertus Magnus who created a special aesthetics 

entitled the aesthetics of light. 

Light is the radical energy, the primary form and the link among all substances. 

There is a spiritual light which is for the intelligible things what corporal light is 

for the sensible things (Gilson, p. 437). 

Due to the light which floods the Gothic cathedral, the believer has 

not only the possibility to better understand the theological meaning, 

but also to perceive the fact that it is built for him so that he should 

find the light in his own soul. Primordial light takes the shape of all 

things, becoming origin of life and cause of existence. It is transformed 

in the light of knowledge and of reason for all that lives on earth.


In the divine intellect is any form which is only potential in the primary matter 

and this is possible due to the knowledge that this intellect has about the form, as 

he knows it and because he knows it. This is the beginning both to explain the 

existence of the intelligible things for a created intellect and to explain the 

intellects able to know these things. By creating the world, God gives distinct 

forms to matter and these forms are images of the divine universal things 

(Gilson, p. 473). 

Human soul is a copy of the divine soul. It is open to illumination 

and to the knowledge of the universe. Abbot Suger proposes the same 

doctrine, of knowing the world through art. The aesthetics of light 

inspired the abbot who for the first time in France enlarges the main 

nave, gives up the tribune system and introduces the coloured stained 

glasses in the large windows framed in the walls. The essence of the 

new theology proposed by Suger is the Incarnation. It combines in a 

subtle way the image of God from the Gospels (more human and 

closer to the believers’ soul) with the one found in the Eucharist (more 

abstract and harder to decipher). Thus is achieved a clarification of the 

divine ideal from texts and symbolic representations. A Gothic 

cathedral offers an image of unity around a central idea. The light 

coming from God puts each being in its own place. In its turn each 

being represents God in its own way. Beauty and kindness are 

illustrated by the light of the new faith. The whole universe is made up 

of light, all radiations returning to God who unites them in a general 

image of His love for man. The luminous creation implies a progressive 

return to the divine being from where all begins. The circle closes 

because God cumulates all beings in Himself both visible and invisible. 

At the successive levels of the hierarchy the visible things reflect the 

light even better. All is based on the symmetry laws debated not only in 

the philosophical treatises, but also in the sermons, liturgies and the 

sacred texts. Beauty does not exist in separate elements, but in the 

harmonious proportion of the parts. “The universal essence of beauty 

exists in the splendour of the form which dominates the proportioned 

parts of the matter.” (Gilson, p. 441). 

A cathedral signifies the unity of the universe in stone with an accent 

put on the moral lesson taught to the person who enters such a 

building. Medieval man in the Gothic age is fascinated by colours, 

stained glasses and windows. They do not have only a functional role 

like in Romanesque art, they also tell a story. Often the biblical


episodes form a continuous text creating what may be called “the Bible 

of the poor.” The English poet John Milton gave them the most 

beautiful name: “storied windows”. The light coming through each 

window symbolises the love of God for man. The sparkle of light 

found in every being reflects the light in the world, bringing 

redemption for the one that can see beyond appearances. Gothic art is 

based on the principle of opening and illuminating. Abbot Suger 

considers that “the beautiful creation shines with nobility. It illuminates 

the spirit and guides it to the true light for which Christ is only the 

gate.” (Suger, in Duby, p. 67). 

The art of the stained glasses reaches its climax in the high Gothic 

period of the XIIIth – XIVth centuries. A cathedral is a reasoned 

universe, and the form that it has starts from a judgement over space, 

the forces that influence it and equilibrium. The stained glass, the most 

beautiful achievement of Gothic art, with the bright clearness that 

characterises it, has intimate and profound values. There are two types 

of painting for a stained glass: the one that imitates the sunlight like a 

game of light and shadow, giving the illusion of a space shaped in its 

profundity, and the one which uses natural light in its own purposes, 

gives it a special artistic quality, introduces it in the space of the 

representation and by the artifice of transparency or of the golden 

backgrounds combines and creates an original light. In the latter case 

natural light becomes an artistic achievement due to the craft and the 

inventiveness of the medieval artist. The tradition of the stained glasses 

exists in France from the time of the Merovingian dynasty, though a 

long time it was believed that it was brought from the Orient along 

with the crusades. It is true that the Arabs knew the technique to 

incastrate coloured glass in the window frames. In the abbey of Saint 

Denis in Paris the numerous biblical or legendary characters, the variety 

of the human forms, the abundance of life, the activity of the guilds, all 

are found in these genuine tapestries made of glass and light. At the 

level of the composition there is a difference between the technique of 

the XIIth century and its continuations in the high Gothic age. Thus in 

the beginning was preferred an intense narrative of the episodes which 

should deeply impress the viewer. Later the choice is in favour of 

greatness and realism. The colours of the stained glasses have their own 

significance guiding the viewer in the deciphering of the message.


The cold nuances of the background, which tend towards a violet harmony, 

emphasize the warmth and the translucent solidity of the other parts, nuances of 

bright red as are not found even in the golden paintings, nuances of rich and 

deep green. Even when violet creates a nocturnal effect, there is still place for 

shining light (Focillon, p. 169). 

The stained glasses of Chartres and their extraordinary blue, those of 

Notre Dame in Paris which in the huge roses of the transept resemble 

the chariots of fire in the Bible, the wonderful achievements of York or 

Westminster are only some examples of this art which brings to 

perfection the aesthetic thinking of the age. The image of life they 

contain in their network belongs to the celestial dimension of light. 

Together with the art of the stained glasses the Gothic style has 

another important achievement: the column-statues. They are found on 

the portals of the cathedrals. They demonstrate that the image of man 

can be associated to a vertical element. The images are made according 

to the dimensions and the proportions of the columns they are applied 

to, the head supporting the capital while the inferior part of the body 

identifies itself with the column it leans against. In comparison to the 

Romanesque statues which have to conform to a certain space, thus 

acquiring the strangest forms, the column-statues of the Gothic art do 

not have to adapt to a certain space. Space arranges itself according to 

the statue and confers it liberty of expression, harmony and realism. 

The effects of light and shadows offer an ornamental interpretation to 

the figures, be they biblical characters, kings or bishops. They are 

immobile and the gesture by which they keep next to their body the 

book, the sceptre or the coat is always the same. The realism of Gothic 

art is due to the inclination of the artists towards the beauty of the 

colour and of the form. Art has to represent the power, kindness and 

wisdom of God. Consequently it has to be beautiful and spiritualised 

because this is how divine creation is and the ideal of every artist is to 

render it as truly as possible. 

The beauty they wanted to give to the body was not the beauty that a body had 

in real life, but it was a borrowed beauty. The bodies were made beautiful by 

emphasizing the beauty of the soul. To the latter we owe the proportions of the 

Gothic figures (Tatarkiewicz, p. 214). 

In this art the principle of verticality is essential. Just like the vault of 

the main nave rises to impressive heights, stressing the wish for


ascension of the medieval man, the column-statues give back to man 

his dignity. The spirit is freed from its terrestrial links and it sees the 

beauty of the divine creation. In this way the cathedral really becomes 

an axis mundi uniting the two dimensions. 

An essential role in the change of mentality was certainly played by 

the travels which opened the human spirit to new horizons. Due to the 

crusades the poor Occident heard about the mysterious Orient full of 

wonderful legends. The Orient gave to the medieval man the feeling 

that the world was larger than he thought and that there were no limits 

for the universe which could not be contained in one religion. The 

fundamental opening brought by the crusades is found in the 

miraculous lands, the wonderful tales influencing the medieval 

mentality. In art this opening towards the imaginary is illustrated by 

fantastic animals, gargoyles and the strange apparitions which populate 

a cathedral. 

In his book entitled The Fantastic Middle Ages Jurgis Baltrusaitis 

analyses gargoyles as the strange decorations for a Gothic cathedral. 

Initially this element is simply a functional one as it serves for the 

evacuation of rain. Later it becomes one of the characteristic aspects of 

European Gothic. 

A number of strange, unknown or little known creatures appear and spread in 

the Gothic imaginary in the XIIth century. They are especially monsters obtained 

by combinations of heads (Baltrusaitis, p. 14). 

These strange apparitions are associated with remote universes, with 

worlds and parallel dimensions of the supernatural. Their emerging into 

reality shows the tight relationship that medieval man has with the 

other world. Originating in classical antiquity, the fantastic animals, the 

Gothic monsters that decorate the Gothic cathedrals are 

representations of an evil that must be defeated. Their public exposure, 

unveiling the grotesque which characterises them renders them 

inoffensive. The classic type of gargoyles is that of a human head, with 

no body and two animal paws put one over the other. The principle 

according to which they function is that of the mobile faces which 

appear along the whole body. The faces are presented in different 

attitudes, many of them grotesque and naturalistic: laughing, grinning, 

frowning. Although they seem strange in an art that cultivates beauty, 

the gargoyles emphasize the variety of the divine creation which in its


multiplicity includes both the ugly and the beautiful. On the other hand 

these statues called by Baltrusaitis Gothic gryls have aesthetic function. 

Just like in the treatises of Saint Thomas Aquinas where evil is the 

absence of good, ugliness is the absence of beauty. Juxtaposing the two 

aesthetic categories there appears a parallel between the two 

representations. Appreciating a beautiful object is made in comparison 

with an ugly one, just like evil opposes to good. The believer is offered 

two images of the world from which to choose for his spiritual 

fulfilment. 

If Romanesque art was austere in its impressive simplicity, Gothic 

art discovers the power of the imaginary, of the fantastic, associating 

the Biblical saints with legendary creatures. It is perfectly normal for 

the medieval man who dreams now about the treasures of the Orient. 

The travel of the Polo family from Venice is only one example of 

entrance in that miraculous space. 

Cathedral art cannot be separated from the cult of images which in 

the Middle Ages has great importance. The notion of image is reflected 

in the medieval conception about man and world. It is found both in 

the figurative objects (stained glasses, sculptures) and in the literary 

works (theatre). Images create imagination, namely that ability to 

visualise the unknown or the invisible. In literature the trope is allegory, 

in art the technique is similitude. The religious experience of the 

medieval man is made up of dreams, visions, meditations on the after 

world. In cathedral art appears the attempt to portray both the 

unknown material world, the aim of the travellers, and the spiritual 

world known from the sermons and the sacred texts. Medieval culture 

is therefore a culture of images carrying strong Christian influences. 

Due to them the believer moved farther and farther from the ancient 

idolatry which was forbidden. A significant example for the importance 

of images in medieval art is the crucifix. There are two types of 

representation which correspond to the two architectural styles. In 

Romanesque art Christ is rendered in His glory with a crown of light 

over His head and perpendicular legs, fixed by separate nails. It is the 

image of God risen above suffering and who redeems by His simple 

presence. It is an abstract image, detached from the reality of the 

moment. It corresponds to a mentality found at the limits of the 

doctrine imposed by Saint Bernard and by the Cistercian order for


whom life was based on the fight between light and darkness. Sin is 

inherent to man who has to make penitence in order to find God. The 

simplicity of the forms and the pure lines in a Cistercian cathedral are 

the result of the wish to keep intact the asceticism proper for a very 

strict morality. 

Opposed to the Romanesque crucifix the Gothic one is much more 

expressive. Christ is represented in the specific S-shaped form, figuring 

an image of pain. He is the Son of Man who redeems by His suffering. 

The legs are placed one above the other, fixed by the same nail. The 

image is concrete and it corresponds to a mentality which tries to 

recuperate the Biblical truth. It is wished to be a lesson of genuine 

morality. The Gothic conception about light does not exclude a close 

reading of the Gospels. The medieval image renders 

the visible in the invisible, God in man, absence in concreteness, the past and the 

future in the present. It thus reiterates in its own way the mystery of the 

Incarnation as it endows with presence, identity, matter and body whatever is 

transcendent and inaccessible (Le Goff & Schmitt, p. 321). 

The meaning of an image is given by its link to the surrounding 

space which must be analysed in its complexity, by the arrangement of 

the elements on the surface where the narrated episode is rendered. 

The general meaning does not depend only on one aspect, but it 

contains all the significances which can be linked to a certain 

representation. Most images are simultaneous and ambivalent, because 

they display more meanings at the same time, they can combine 

between themselves in order to create a new image, they can be 

juxtaposed in order to facilitate the analogy. In a medieval cathedral 

images also have an educational role. The religious representation can 

help with a better identification between the believer and God or the 

saint he is praying to. Once reaching the sanctuary, the medieval 

pilgrim identifies himself symbolically with the local saint due to his 

faith. In the same way, watching with devotion at an icon or a painting 

having a religious subject there appears a communion between the 

viewer and that work of art. Symbolically speaking man enters “inside“ 

that work of art becoming part of the narrative scheme. Faith or simple 

admiration for the beauty of an image facilitates the transfer of 

sensibility from the anonymous artist to the viewer. Man becomes part 

of the Biblical story as a character in the narrative pattern.


Another domain having the same function is theatre. In this case the 

medieval cathedral plays the role of a background. Many of the 

medieval mysteries or miracles were staged in front of a cathedral. The 

place was called parvis coming from the French word paradis and it 

denominated the strictly limited space before the entrance of a 

cathedral. The building offered authority and authenticity to the play, 

assuring the entrance to a “virtual paradise” to those who understood 

the meaning of the play. Redemption through literature is a discovery 

of the medieval world. The wagon on whose boards played the actors 

is an image of the world, just like the cathedral is a map of salvation. 

Moreover, religious medieval theatre was played in the language of the 

country so that the public could better understand the story. It 

completed as a welcomed variation the texts of the sermons which 

used a more abstract language. Due to the staging on the parvis of the 

architectural ensemble the sacred and the profane mingled to offer the 

spectator a complex image of the world. For instance, in 1260 before 

the cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris was staged the play Le Miracle de 

Théophile written by the French poet Rutebeuf, or another play called Le 

Vrai Mystère de la Passion by Arnoul Gréban which lasted four days and 

involved several hundred actors. 

Inspired by the surrounding reality, the medieval artist transforms 

the cathedral into the image of a whole world and its rights for hope 

and life. A cathedral exists due to its builders, just like the architect 

designing its plans and the masters raising it live through it. From 

generation to generation the method of building changes and there 

appear new techniques of using the matter which bring innovations. An 

ogive is raised over a semicircular vault, the form of the towers is 

modified, there appear new chapels, a transept started in one style is 

continued in a different one. Thus appears unity in diversity, a theme 

with many variations which is the art of the medieval cathedrals. Each 

country contributes in its own way to the improving of a certain style. 

Thus one can distinguish between German Gothic which is more 

austere and Italian Gothic which is more luminous and cheerful. The 

growing wave of expressive forms contains the reality which is the only 

source of inspiration for the builders. The saints belonging to the 

gallery of column-statues have the face of the people met by the artists 

in the street or in the field, living models for old stories. An important


exception is the fact that God the Father is almost never figured in the 

sculpture of the cathedrals. Humility and respect prevented the artists 

to attempt such representations. 

Not only people are represented in the church decorations. Animals 

and plants populate this complex and heterogeneous world. The 

slender columns of the Gothic, the lace interweaving of the vaults 

belong to the trees and the vegetation from the forests that surrounded 

a village or a town. The light that flickers in the stained glasses, their 

wonderful colours of blue, yellow, green or red are the colours of the 

sun, of the waters, of the cultivated fields. Just like the exterior world is 

full of life, in the same way a cathedral comes to life due to the genius 

of the artist. The anonymous builders are influenced by what they see, 

leaving free their creative talent. They innovate according to the 

possibilities of a certain construction. The cathedral is no longer only 

the stone representation of a theological doctrine, it becomes the image 

of the medieval mentality in its best and most picturesque form. The 

cathedral 

is human, traditional, revolutionary and deeply opposed to the authoritative and 

moralising principle of Christianity which considers itself definitely organised, as 

it expresses moral ideas in the most sensitive way and because it translates in the 

most delicate way the doctrines which assert the royal character of the pure spirit. 

A cathedral regains human nature, the nature of the world it exists in. It loves the 

artist, as he, though weak, proves to have great courage. He describes paradise to 

the other people with the trees, the waters and the clouds he sees when he raises 

his eyes to the sky or when he gets out through the gates of his city carrying the 

fruit and the vegetables he brings from the countryside together with the animals 

that share his destiny. The cathedral achieves the equilibrium between the 

common power of the people and the allegorical building whose creation has 

been prepared by the Christian philosophy for more than a thousand years 

(Faure, p. 294-295). 

Both in Romanesque and in Gothic art there is the same need to 

innovate the theological doctrine, which sometimes is too abstract and 

hard to understand for the common people. The medieval artist 

describes a world which due to its imagination and creative spirit raises 

the mentality of the epoch to a level of knowledge never reached 

before. Simple reality is sublimated in the ineffable art of the medieval 

artists and the genuine wonders which the medieval cathedrals are.


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Durand, Jannic. L’Art au Moyen Age. Paris, Editions Larousse-Bordas, 1999. 

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