Crucifix Of Maro Guglielmo

Gothic style architecture introduced a number of innovative and efficient techniques, making its awe-inspiring nature possible. When discussing gothic style architecture, two main characteristics come to mind: height and luminosity. At this time, buildings were made of very heavy stone, a difficult material to create large scale buildings without worry of collapse. One technique used to achieve the height of the period was the use of the flying buttress. These distributed the weight of the heavy stone roofs away from the building, as opposed to letting it rest on the side of the building (Morris). The flying buttress would begin at the top of a wall where a groin vault was already distributing weight from the roof, from which the flying buttress would take this force away from the building and onto a stone

Until this time, representations of Christ’s crucifixion displayed his divinity by illustrating him in no state of suffering. These representations are called Christus triumphans, and can be seen in Crucifix of Mastro Guglielmo, pictured to the right. The Röttgen Pietà and other works like it went against this trend, displaying Christ’s suffering through his facial expressions and his malnourished and injured body. This evoked emotions from its viewers in that his worshipers saw him suffer in ways they did, an idea taught by many middle age preachers (Ross). Another popular form of gothic art was the gargoyle. Gargoyles are essentially water spouts, created in the form of various animals and mythical creatures. Seen at Rheims Cathedral among many others, gargoyles had other purposes as well (Strickland, 48). The sculptures acted as guardians of sorts, warding off evil from the building which they resided (Alchin). Secondly, they served to frighten peasants, scaring them into churches and away from the demons outside, thus bringing about emotion from its viewers