Rayonnant style
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Rayonnant style
French style (13th century) that represents the height of Gothic architecture. During this period architects became less interested in achieving great size than in decoration, which took such forms as pinnacles, moldings, and especially window tracery. The style's name reflects the radiating character of the rose window. Other features include the thinning of vertical supporting members, the enlargement of windows, and the combination of the triforium gallery and clerestory into one large glazed area, until walls became largely undifferentiated screens of tracery, mullions, and glass. Amiens Cathedral (122070) is cited as its earliest manifestation. Especially fine achievements include Notre-Dame de Paris, the church of Saint-Urbain in Troyes (founded 1262), and the extraordinary Sainte-Chapelle, Paris (consecrated 1248), Louis IX's palace chapel. cathedral.
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Rayonnant style
Oxford Grove Art:
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Rayonnant Style
Term applied to a particular phase of French Gothic architecture (c. 1230s-1300s) by 19th-century historians who were attempting to divide Gothic into distinct sub-styles based on the changing forms of window tracery. Its general acceptance into the vocabulary of architectural historians resulted from the writings of Enlart, Lasteyrie, Focillon and (most important in English) Robert Branner. Originally intended to refer to the radiating spokes of the enormous rose windows characteristic of the period (e.g. Saint-Denis Abbey, the transepts of Notre-Dame, Paris), 'Rayonnant' came to designate a phase of architectural design and construction involving reduced mass and scale: the prodigious structural and spatial speculations of High Gothic (e.g. the cathedrals of Chartres, Bourges, Amiens and Beauvais) were ignored in favour of concentrating on the delicate two-dimensional effects to be gained through the application of tracery patterns, not just to windows, but also to building structures, to give a brittle, calligraphic texture to the surface of the building. (The term is also applied to a type of ceramic decoration popular in 18th-century France that used radiating symmetrical motifs.)
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McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture & Construction:
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Rayonnant style
The middle phase of French Gothic architecture in the 13th and 14th cent., characterized by radiating lines of tracery.
Columbia Encyclopedia:
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Rayonnant style
Rayonnant style (rā'ənănt), the middle period (c.1240-1350) of French Gothic architecture, so termed from the characteristic radiating tracery of the rose window. In this period many of the great cathedrals were under construction; the builders became bolder and more proficient, emphasizing in every way the vertical elements of the structure. Light and soaring structural skeletons were erected, reducing the size of all supporting members; the enlargement of windows resulted in a drastic reduction of wall surfaces. Bar tracery, displaying elaborate geometrical patterns, supplanted plate tracery. Sculptural ornament turned to greater naturalism and was used more generously. Of this period are the cathedral at Amiens (begun 1220), the Sainte-Chapelle at Paris (1243-46), and the earlier portions of St. Ouen at Rouen (begun 1318). The Rayonnant style spread to other parts of Europe. The scheme was employed in the cathedrals at Cologne, Germany (begun 1248), and Leon, Spain (begun c.1255).
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Britannica Concise Encyclopedia
Britannica Concise Encyclopedia. © 1994-2012 Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. All rights reserved. Read more
Oxford Grove Art
The Concise Grove Dictionary of Art. Copyright © 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc.. All rights reserved.
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McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture & Construction
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of Architecture and Construction. Copyright © 2003 by McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Mentioned in
Robert de Luzarches
(architecture)
Rayonnant
(architecture)
Court style
(architecture)
Sainte-Chapelle
(structure, France)
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