Editing Gothic architecture (section)

==Influences==

===Romanesque and Norman influence===
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File:Durham Cathedral. Interior.jpg|The transition from [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] to Gothic styles is visible at the [[Durham Cathedral]] in [[England]], (1093-1104. Early Gothic rib vaults are combined with round arches and other Romanesque features. 
File:Abbaye de Lessay - transept sud 2.JPG|The south transept of [[Lessay Abbey]] in [[Normandy]] (1064–1178)
File:Cefalu Cathedral interior BW 2012-10-11 12-07-53.jpg|[[Cefalù Cathedral]] built in Norman [[Sicily]] (1131–1267)
File:MonrealeCathedral-pjt1.jpg|Nave of [[Monreale Cathedral]] in Norman [[Sicily]] (1172–1267)
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[[Romanesque architecture]] and [[Norman architecture]] had a major influence upon Gothic architecture. The plan of the Gothic cathedral was based upon the plan of the ancient Roman [[basilica]], which was adopted by Romanesque architecture. The [[Latin cross]] form, with a [[nave]] and transept, choir, disambulatory, and radiating chapels, came from the Romanesque model. The grand arcades of columns separating the central vessel of the [[nave]] from the collateral aisles, the [[triforium]] over the grand arcades, and the windows high on the walls allowing light into the nave were all also adapted from the Romanesque model. The portal with a [[tympanum (architecture)|tympanum]] filled with sculpture was another characteristic Romanesque feature, as was the use of the buttress to support the walls from the outside. Gothic architects improved them by adding the [[flying buttress]] with high arches connecting the buttresses to the upper walls. In the interior, Romanesque architecture used the [[barrel vault]] with a round arch to cover the nave, and a [[groin vault]] when two barrel vaults met at right angles. These vaults were the immediate ancestors of the Gothic rib vault. One of the first use of the Gothic rib vaults to cover a nave was in the Romanesque [[Durham Cathedral]], (1093–1104).<ref name="auto">Weber, Patrick, ''Histoire de l'Architecture'' (2018), pp. 35–37</ref>

[[Norman Architecture]], similar to the Romanesque style, also influenced the Gothic style. Early examples are found in [[Lessay Abbey]] in Normandy, which also featured early rib vaults in the nave similar to the Gothic vaults. [[Cefalu Cathedral]] (1131–1267) in Sicily, built when Sicily was under Norman rule, is another interesting example. It featured pointed arches and large Gothic rib vaults combined with ornamental mosaic decoration.<ref name="auto" />

Romanesque architecture had become a pan-European style and manner of construction, affecting buildings in countries as far apart as [[Ireland]] and [[Croatia]], and [[Sweden]] and [[Sicily]]. The same wide geographic area was then affected by the development of Gothic architecture, but the acceptance of the Gothic style and methods of construction differed from place to place, as did the expressions of Gothic taste. The proximity of some regions meant that modern country borders did not define divisions of style. Many different factors like geographical/geological, economic, social, or political situations caused the regional differences in the great abbey churches and cathedrals of the Romanesque period that would often become even more apparent in the Gothic. For example, studies of the population statistics reveals disparities such as the multitude of churches, abbeys, and cathedrals in northern [[France]] while in more urbanised regions construction activity of a similar scale was reserved to a few important cities. Such an example comes from Roberto López, wherein the French city of [[Amiens]] was able to fund its architectural projects whereas [[Cologne]] could not because of the economic inequality of the two.{{sfn|Grodecki|1977|pp=25–26}} This wealth, concentrated in rich monasteries and noble families, would eventually spread certain Italian, Catalan, and Hanseatic bankers.{{sfn|Grodecki|1977|p=25}} This would be amended when the economic hardships of the 13th century were no longer felt, allowing [[Normandy]], [[Tuscany]], [[Flanders]], and the southern [[Rhineland]] to enter into competition with France.{{sfn|Grodecki|1977|p=26}}

===Islamic influence===
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File:Al-Ukhaidir Fortess.jpg|[[Al-Ukhaidir Fortress]] (completed 775 AD), Iraq
File:Jerusalem-2013-Al-Aqsa Mosque 04.jpg|[[Al-Aqsa Mosque]], Jerusalem
File:Cordoba, la Mezquita - Cúpula de la Maqsura.jpg|Vaulted central dome of [[Cordoba Cathedral|Cordoba Mosque-Cathedral]], Spain (784–987 A.D.). Ribs decorate the [[Pendentives]] which support the dome.
File:C (203).JPG|[[Delal|Delal Bridge]], Iraq
File:Ar^Raqqa SYRIE 324.jpg|Arches at [[Al-Raqqah]], Syria
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The pointed arch, one of the defining attributes of Gothic, was earlier featured in [[Islamic architecture]],<ref name="BF">Banister Fletcher, ''A History of Architecture on the Comparative Method''.{{page needed|date=April 2020}}</ref> Though it did not have the same functions. Precursor of pointed arch appeared in [[Byzantine architecture|Byzantine]] and [[Sasanian architecture|Sassanian]] architectures, This was evidenced in early church building in [[Syria]] and occasional secular structures, like the [[Karamagara Bridge]]; in Sassanian architecture, employed in palace and sacred construction. These pre-Islamic arches were decorative rather than structural in their function.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dcuPAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA56|title=Technology, Tradition and Survival: Aspects of Material Culture in the Middle East and Central Asia|last1=Tapper|first1=Richard|last2=McLachlan|first2=Keith|date=2004-11-23|publisher=Routledge|isbn=9781135777029|language=en}}</ref><ref name="Warren1991">{{cite journal|last=Warren|first=John|year=1991|title=Creswell's Use of the Theory of Dating by the Acuteness of the Pointed Arches in Early Muslim Architecture|periodical=Muqarnas|volume=8|pages=59–65 (61–63)|doi=10.2307/1523154|jstor=1523154|publisher=BRILL}}</ref><ref>Petersen, Andrew (2002-03-11). Dictionary of Islamic Architecture, pp. 295-296. Routledge. {{ISBN|978-0-203-20387-3}}.</ref> The pointed arch as an architectonic principle was first clearly established in Islamic architecture; as an architectonic principle, the pointed arch was entirely alien to the pre-Islamic world.<ref name="Bloom">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VgwkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PP69|title=Early Islamic Art and Architecture|last=Bloom|first=Jonathan M.|date=2017-05-15|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=9781351942584|page=69}}</ref> Use of the pointed arch seems to have taken off dramatically in Islamic architecture. It begins to appear throughout the Islamic world in close succession after its adoption in the late Umayyad or early Abbasid period. Some examples are the [[Al-Ukhaidir Fortress|Al-Ukhaidir Palace]] (775 AD), the Abbasid reconstruction of the [[Al-Aqsa Mosque|Al-Aqsa mosque]] in 780 AD, the [[White Mosque, Ramla|Ramlah Cisterns]] (789 AD), the [[Great Mosque of Samarra]] (851 AD), and the [[Mosque of Ibn Tulun]] (879 AD) in Cairo. It also appears in one of the early reconstructions of the [[Great Mosque of Kairouan]] in Tunisia, and the Mosque–Cathedral of Córdoba in 987 AD. The pointed arch had already been used in Syria, but in the mosque of Ibn Tulun we have one of the earliest examples of its use on an extensive scale, some centuries before it was exploited in the West by the Gothic architects.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Islamic Art|last=Rice|first=David T.|publisher=Thames & Hudson|year=1979|isbn=9780500201503|pages=[https://archive.org/details/islamicartworldo00davi/page/45 45]|url=https://archive.org/details/islamicartworldo00davi/page/45}}</ref>

A kind of [[rib vault]] was also used in Islamic architecture, for example in the ceiling of the [[Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba]]. In Cordoba, the dome was supported by [[pendentives]], which connected the dome to the arches below. The pendentives were decorated with ribs. Unlike the Gothic rib vault, the Islamic ribs were purely decorative; they did not extend outside of the vault, and they were not part of the structure supporting the roof.

The military and [[Islamic world contributions to Medieval Europe|cultural contacts with]] the [[medieval Islamic world]], including the [[Norman conquest of southern Italy|Norman conquest]] of [[History of Islam in southern Italy|Islamic Sicily]] in 1090, the [[Crusades]] (beginning 1096), and the [[Al-Andalus|Islamic presence in Spain]], may have influenced [[Medieval Europe]]'s adoption of the pointed arch.{{sfn|Scott|2003|p=113}}{{sfn|Bony|1983|p=17}} Another feature of Gothic architecture, a kind of rib vault, had also earlier appeared in Islamic architecture, and spread to Western Europe via [[Al-Andalus|Islamic Spain]] and [[Emirate of Sicily|Sicily]].<ref name="Bloom" /><ref name="Giese-Vogeli">{{cite book|last=Giese-Vögeli|first=Francine|title=Das islamische Rippengewölbe : Ursprung, Form, Verbreitung |trans-title=Islamic rib vaults: Origins, form, spread|date=2007|publisher=Gebr. Mann|location=Berlin|isbn=978-3-7861-2550-1}}</ref> The early rib vaults in Spain were used to support cupolas, and were decorative. The dome of the Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba was supported by pendentives, rather than the vault. These were frequently used in [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] and [[Byzantine architecture]], as in the dome of [[Hagia Sophia]] in Istanbul, which also was supported by pendentives. The Gothic rib vault, among other features, such as the flying buttress, have their antecedents in [[Romanesque architecture|Romanesque]] architecture, such as [[Durham Cathedral]], constructed between 1093 and 1096.{{sfn|Scott|2003|p=113}}{{sfn|Mignon|2015|p=10}}

In those parts of the [[Western Mediterranean]] subject to Islamic control or influence, rich regional variants arose, fusing Romanesque and later Gothic traditions with [[Islamic architecture|Islamic]] decorative forms. For example, in [[Monreale Cathedral|Monreale]] and [[Cefalù Cathedral]]s, the [[Alcázar of Seville]], and [[Teruel Cathedral]].<ref>Harvey, L. P. (1992). "Islamic Spain, 1250 to 1500." Chicago : University of Chicago Press. {{ISBN|0-226-31960-1}}; Boswell, John (1978). Royal Treasure: Muslim Communities Under the Crown of Aragon in the Fourteenth Century. Yale University Press. {{ISBN|0-300-02090-2}}.</ref>

=== Armenian influence ===
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File:Odzun cupola.jpg|Cupola of [[Odzun Basilica]] in [[Armenia]], supported by [[squinch]] vaulting, an early form of [[pendentive]]. (8th century)
File:Ani-Cathedral, Ruine.jpeg|The Armenian [[cathedral of Ani]], completed in the early 11th century.
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A number of scholars have cited the [[Armenia]]n [[Cathedral of Ani]], completed 1001 or 1010, as a possible influence on the Gothic, especially due to its use of pointed arches and cluster [[pier (architecture)|piers]].{{sfn|Lang|1980|p=223|ps=: "With this experience behind him, it is not surprising that [[Trdat the Architect|Trdat]]'s creation of the Cathedral at [[Ani]] turned out to be a masterpiece. Even without its dome, the cathedral amazes the onlooker. Technically, it is far ahead of the contemporary [[Anglo-Saxon architecture|Anglo-Saxon]] and [[Norman architecture]] of Europe. Already, pointed arches and clustered piers, whose appearance together is considered one of the hallmarks of mature Gothic architecture, are found in this remote corner of the Christian East."}}<ref>{{cite journal|last=Kite|first=Stephen|title='South Opposed to East and North': Adrian Stokes and Josef Strzygowski. A study in the aesthetics and historiography of Orientalism|journal=[[Art History (journal)|Art History]]|date=September 2003|volume=26|issue=4|pages=505–533|quote=To Near Eastern scholars the [[Armenia]]n [[Ani Cathedral|cathedral at]] [[Ani]] (989–1001), designed by [[Trdat the Architect|Trdat]] (972–1036), seemed to anticipate Gothic.|doi=10.1111/j.0141-6790.2003.02604002.x}}</ref>{{sfn|Stewart|1959|p=80|ps=: "The most important examples of [[Armenian architecture]] are to be found at [[Ani]], the capital, and the most important of these is [[Ani Cathedral|the cathedral]]. [...] The most interesting features of this building are its pointed arches and vaults and the clustering or coupling of the columns in the Gothic manner."}}{{sfn|Rice|1972|p=179|ps=: "The interior of [[Ani Cathedral|Ani cathedral]], a longitudinal stone building with pointed vaults and a central dome, built about 1001, is astonishingly Gothic in every detail, and numerous other equally close parallels could be cited."}} However, other scholars such as [[Sirarpie Der Nersessian]], who rejected this notion as she argued that the pointed arches did not serve the same function of supporting the vault.{{sfn|Garsoïan|2015|p=300}} Lucy Der Manuelian contends that some [[Armenians]] (historically documented as being in Western Europe in the [[Middle Ages]]){{sfn|Grodecki|1977|p=37}} could have brought the knowledge and technique employed at Ani to the west.{{sfn|Der Manuelian|2001|p=7}}