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Lesson Plans
Art History ©1999
by Marilyn Stokstad
Focus Lesson 10
Chapter 16: "Gothic Art"
AP* Course Description
- Ancient Through Medieval
- Gothic
Key Components
- Instructor's Resource Manual with Tests, Vol. I: pp. 50–54, 74–76, 179–185, 228–233
- Study Guide, Vol. I: pp. 126–140
Key Web Sites
Given the changing nature of the Internet, you may wish to preview these sites. Check the Online Companion Web site for updated information and links to other sites.
Key Words and Terms
- rib vaulting
- column statue
- lancets
- ambulatory
- engaged columns
- apsidal chapels
- pinnacles
- grisaille
- trumeau
- crocket
- parapet
- bridge
- portcullis
- parapet walk
- antependia
- altarpiece
- gesso
- punchwork
- sinopia
- groin vault
- flying buttress
- Latin-cross plan
- rib vaults
- colonnettes
- buttress pier
- finials
- trefoil
- bar tracery
- tierceron
- stockade
- barbican
- postern
- turret
- predella
- retablo
- tempera
- buon fresco
- rose window
- triforium
- side aisles
- arcades
- crossing
- gabled
- cames
- quatrefoil
- mullions
- crenellated
- lists
- drawbridge
- battlement
- mensa
- triptych
- hall church
- rood screen
- giornata
Suggested Pacing
Allow two weeks to teach the Gothic period, with numerous important cathedrals requiring attention. A large portion of the Gothic chapter is devoted to painting in Italy, which some teachers prefer to teach as part of an Early Renaissance unit. You might consider beginning the Renaissance with Giotto, who appears in this chapter and the next.
Test Strategy
Students must learn to identify the four most important French cathedrals: Notre-Dame, Chartre, Reims, and Amiens. The differences in their facades and plans is frequently tested, and requires students to have a keen eye for detail, as well as a good working knowledge of the important parts of the cathedral. Students should be able to differentiate between the cathedrals solely by looking at their sculptural decoration or stained glass.
Key Concepts
- Gothic vs. Romanesque
Now that the Gothic style has been introduced, the ways in which it differs from the Romanesque style need to be defined and examined. New elements of Gothic architecture, such as flying buttresses and rose windows, should also be studied carefully. - Regional differences
The stylistic differences between the Gothic architecture of various regions is important for students to know. Especially noteworthy is the French versus the English Gothic, but Italy and the territory that would become Germany also exhibited individual characteristics. The reasons behind these trends, to the extent to which they are known, should be examined. For example, the Italian Gothic was influenced strongly by the nearby remains of Classical architecture and the warmer, sunnier climate. - Birth of European painting
This chapter ends with a lengthy examination of Italian painting, both fresco and on panels. The beginning of the traditions that will carry into the Renaissance should be discussed at this time, both from a technical standpoint and an aesthetic one. A comparison of Cimabue and Giotto (pp. 602–604), for instance, is a good way to enter into a renewed discussion of connoisseurship, which we first used to distinguish between Prehistoric cave paintings from different sites.
Summing Up Student Understanding
Give students a diagram of the exterior and interior of a Gothic cathedral and ask them to label the architectural and decorative features that they studied in this chapter (p. 558). You may wish to give them a list of terms to use.
When students have finished labeling, ask them to write five paragraphs, each describing the evolution of a separate feature they labeled. They should trace the origins of some of the features back through the Romanesque period to the Early Christian period and back to antiquity. Some likely features to be discussed are the:
- buttress
- triforium
- arch
- apse
- clerestory
- portal
All of these features can be followed back at least as far as ancient Rome. Challenge students to search their books and their notes for examples from the periods they have studied to illustrate earlier stages in the evolution of the features they have chosen to describe. If possible, students should try to explain the deeper forces that caused the evolution they are witnessing in the development of the cathedral form. Two questions you might ask them are:
- Why did arches change from rounded in Romanesque and earlier styles to pointed in the Gothic?
- Why did buttresses become increasingly emphasized, finally leading to the flying buttresses observed in Gothic architecture?