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South German Late Gothic Design and Building Praxis
8.4
St. Vitus Cathedral
Prague Castle
41
Founded in 1344, begun by Matthias of Arras
Peter Parler takes charge in 1353, finishing work underway
(mostly) to Matthias’ design before continuing
according to his own
A High Gothic cathedral into which Late Gothic features
were introduced by Peter Parler. These include the choir
vaults and the sumptuous St. Wenceslas Chapel (1344–
1364). Spectacular flying ribs appear to support the Mosaic
of the Last Judgement (1372) of the Golden Gate
(Figure 49), built by Peter Parler’s successors. The cathedral
also bears a modern stained-glass window of by Alphonse
Mucha (Figure 52).
Introducing St. Vitus, Frankl writes:
The importance of Bohemia in the Late Gothic style
in Germany is due to the personality of the Emperor
Charles IV (1316–78), the son of King John of Bohemia.
…
Though not everyone will have the patience to work
out and visualize [the] geometrical pattern [in the
vaults] and to understand the geometrical principles
involved, anyone can understand that Peter Parler
made two innovations which he developed logically
from the nature of the rib-vault: he turned the whole
vault through 45 degrees, and he added to the existing
types of ribs the new (English) type of the flying
rib. 61
Scope of survey: Keystone levels, VR panoramas.
See drawings and measurements on pages 94–95.
48 (Above) Vault schema illustrated in: Benešovská, Klára. “Das Frühwerk
Peter Parlers am Prager Vietsdom,” Umění. Časopis Ústavu dějin umění
Akademie věd České republiky 47, no. 5 (1999): 355.
46 (p39) South facade of St. Vitus Cathedral
47 (Previous page) Crossing and transept