Geometric Patterns from Churches & Cathedrals


Book Description

Patterns from churches and cathedrals that are explored and demonstrated so that they can be used in your own designs. Perfect follow up activities for school and other youth trips to these magnificent places. Robert Field has travelled extensively and has taken his camera and a keen eye with him wherever he has gone. Many people will be both suprised and delighted by the sheer number and variety of interesting patterns that he has discovered. This is one of a series of Geometric Patterns books that will appeal both to those who have a particular interest in the topic covered but also to those who are looking for a rich resource of pattern designs.




Cathedral


Book Description

This richly illustrated book shows the intricate step-by-step process of an imaginary cathedral's growth.




Medieval Graffiti


Book Description

A fascinating guide to decoding the secret language of the churches of England through the medieval carved markings and personal etchings found on our church walls from archaeologist Matthew Champion. 'Rare, lovely glimmers of everyday life in the Middle Ages.' -- The Sunday Times 'A fascinating and enjoyable read' -- ***** Reader review 'Superb' -- ***** Reader review 'Riveting' -- ***** Reader review 'Compelling, moving and fascinating' -- ***** Reader review ***************************************************************************************************** Our churches are full of hidden messages from years gone by and for centuries these carved writings and artworks have lain largely unnoticed. Having launched a nationwide survey to gather the best examples, archaeologist Matthew Champion shines a spotlight on a forgotten world of ships, prayers for good fortune, satirical cartoons, charms, curses, windmills, word puzzles, architectural plans and heraldic designs. Here are strange medieval beasts, knights battling unseen dragons, ships sailing across lime-washed oceans and demons who stalk the walls. Latin prayers for the dead jostle with medieval curses, builders' accounts and slanderous comments concerning a long-dead archdeacon. Strange and complex geometric designs, created to ward off the 'evil eye' and thwart the works of the devil, share church pillars with the heraldic shields of England's medieval nobility. Giving a voice to the secret graffiti artists of Medieval times, this engaging, enthralling and - at times - eye-opening book, with a glossary of key terms and a county-by-county directory of key churches, will put this often overlooked period in a whole new light.




The 50 Greatest Churches and Cathedrals


Book Description

Cathedrals and great churches are among the most iconic sights of the world's towns and cities. Visible from miles around, the cathedrals of Canterbury, St Paul's, Chartres and St Stephen's in Vienna dominate their skylines. Others surprise by their statistics: Salisbury has Britain's tallest spire, Wells the largest display of medieval sculptures in the world, while King's College Chapel in Cambridge boasts the largest fan vaulting in existence. Not all are ancient: Dresden's reconstructed Frauenkirche opened in 2005 and Gaudi's masterpiece in Barcelona is still under construction. Award-winning travel writer Sue Dobson gives us a highly personal tour of their highlights.




Heavenly Vaults


Book Description

The author documents photographically more than eighty Romanesque and Gothic vaults from medieval churches, cathedrals, and basilicas.







The Geometry of Creation


Book Description

The flowering of Gothic architecture depended to a striking extent on the use of drawing as a tool of design. By drawing precise "blueprints" with simple tools such as the compass and straightedge, Gothic draftsmen were able to develop a linearized architecture of unprecedented complexity and sophistication. Examination of their surviving drawings can provide valuable and remarkably intimate information about the Gothic design process. Gothic drawings include compass pricks, uninked construction lines, and other telltale traces of the draftsman's geometrically based working method. The proportions of the drawings, moreover, are those actually intended by the designer, uncompromised by errors introduced in the construction process. All of these features make these drawings ideal subjects for the study of Gothic design practice, but their geometry has to date received little systematic attention. This book offers a new perspective on Gothic architectural creativity. It shows, in a series of rigorous geometrical case studies, how Gothic design evolved over time, in two senses: in the hours of the draftsman's labor, and across the centuries of the late Middle Ages. In each case study, a series of computer graphics show in unprecedented detail how a medieval designer could have developed his architectural concept step by step, using only basic geometrical operations. Taken together, these analyses demonstrate both remarkable methodological continuity across the Gothic era, and the progressive development of new and sophisticated permutations on venerable design themes. This rich tradition ultimately gave way in the Renaissance not because of any inherent problem with Gothic architecture, but because the visual language of Classicism appealed more directly to the pretensions of Humanist princes than the more abstract geometrical order of Gothic design, as the book's final chapter demonstrates.




The Secret Language of Churches & Cathedrals


Book Description

Who is depicted in that stained glass window? What is the significance of those geometric figures? Why are there fierce-looking beasts carved amidst all that beauty? Is there a deeper purpose behind the play of light and space in the nave? Why is there a pelican on the lectern and ornate foliage on the pillars? The largely illiterate medieval audience could read the symbols of churches and cathedrals and recognise the meanings and stories deliberately encoded into them. For worshippers these were places of religious education and an awe-inspiring feast that satisfied both the senses and the soul. Today, in an age less attuned to iconography, such places of worship are often seen merely as magnificent works of architecture. This book restores the lost spiritual meaning of these fine and fascinating buildings. The Secret Language of Churches & Cathedrals provides a three-part illustrated key by which modern visitors can understand the layout, fabric and decorative symbolism of Christian sacred structures - thereby bringing back to life their original atmosphere of awe and sanctity. Part One is an analysis of structural features, outside and in, from spires and domes to clerestories and brasses. Part Two is a theme-by-theme guide, which identifies significant figures, scenes, stories, animals, flowers, and the use of numbers, letters and patterns in paintings, carvings and sculpture. Part Three is a historical decoder, revealing the evolution of styles - from basilicas through Byzantine, Romanesque, Gothic and beyond. For all those who seek to know more about Christian art and architecture, this richly illustrated book will instruct and delight in equal measure.




The 50 Greatest Churches and Cathedrals of Great Britain


Book Description

Britain is well-known for its churches and cathedrals; buildings of great architecture and religious grandeur that form many of our recognisable skylines. But these grand structures are also full of facts, histories and stories that you may not have been aware of. Did you know that there are only three cathedrals in Britain without a ringing bell? Or that St Davids Cathedral, nestled away in a Welsh valley, has a very unique choir, where the top line is sung only by female choristers, aged eight to eighteen? How about that the Great Pyramids in Egypt were the world's tallest structures for over 3,870 years, until the construction of Lincoln Cathedral in 1311? Award-wining travel writer and editor Sue Dobson takes us on a journey around the United Kingdom, showing us her highlights while providing fascinating details and stories along the way.




Plotting Gothic


Book Description

"Three eyewitnesses of Gothic. Villard de Honnecourt: ymagier and interlocutor ; Possessing Villard ; The role of the interlocutor in the Villard enterprise ; Animating the artifact ; Animating the beholder ; Controlling the artifact ; Conclusion: deceit and desire in the Villard enterprise ; Gervase of Canterbury: cronicus and logistics man ; Storytelling ; Mnemonics: remembering the old ; The means of production: controlling the new ; Old and new reconciled ; Apocryphal storytelling: a building that "speaks" ; Conclusion: signs, miracles, and illusionism ; Suger, abbot of S-Denis, and the rhetoric of persuasion: manipulating reality and producing meaning ; Rhetorical structure of de consecratione: manipulated dialectic ; Production of the text: from oral to written ; Making connections ; Production of the new church, production of salvation ; Apocryphal stories ; Conclusion: the abbot who spoke the building -- Staking out the plot. Interlocutor and monument ; Material contexts: the means of production ; How on earth did they do that? ; Economic means ; Reading the signs: construction history ; The production of meaning ; Similitude to nature; local roots ; Similitude to other buildings ; Modernism and reason ; An image of heaven ; Conclusion -- Animating the plot. Picturing the three agents of construction ; The cathedral as object of desire ; Triangulating desire ; The gap between vision and realization ; Compression and expansion: plotting ; My desire ; Conclusion: Gothic plots' synchronic, diachronic, and spatial."




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