Synth. Numero 2

Alright, here we go! I decided that for this one I wanted to take a look deeper into the observations of my classmates about the Romanesque and Gothic architectural styles. I will say that I know Carolyn did a thorough job of her research so I'm going to use her quote first. She, like myself, noticed that clearly, "Both [the] Romanesque and Gothic style has a certain ornate radiance...but [the] Gothic seemed to be the next evolutionary step." And this is a valid point. I know that I personally will agree with her, but i like the clean, simple and austere lines of the Romanesque style better myself. I also liked the way Carlos looked more into the spirit of worship and compared the two styles on the basis of not only appearance but also by the way people worshiped under the different roofs. He says, "the Romanesque style of architecture was very restrained...[t]he people that created these Cathedrals were more concerned with the worship of God as being an intimate practice rather than an external practice. Because of this type of belief, the construction of their Cathedrals ran along the same line. Such as, smaller buildings to take up less space for meditation distracting furniture and smaller windows to keep out the meditation distracting sun or the peering eyes of agonistic peasants." I like the way he looks at things. It is very important that the peasantry not have anything else to focus on and it's also more important to focus on God and not on your surroundings. Will those help you when you die? Hell no! And there are few better examples of the Gothic flare and pomp than that of the stained glass window. I think Anjy will give you an idea of how tedious this whole process was, she was a glass pane maker, after all. And as she says, "One of the pieces of art work in the churches that fascinates me the most is the stained glass windows. Has anyone ever taken a stained glass class before? I did for two years and even though I was pretty good at it, let me tell you it is hard. It used to take me about seven hours to make a twelve piece product. The only tools you need is a glass cutter, lead, and solder iron. Sometimes it would take me seven tries to cut out a piece that is an awkward shape. (An awkward shape is pretty much any shape but a square). After you spend literally four hours cutting and grinding your pieces to perfection, you have to wrap each one with lead then solder each piece together. Then you have to "mud" the pieces. This basically means you mix almost like a cement mixture and spread it on your piece. This hardens the piece so it can withstand pressure. I am not sure if this is the same process they used back when they were building these Gothic cathedrals, but I can imagine that is was very different. When I go into cathedrals I am flabbergasted at the windows, because I don't think many people realize the process it must have taken to create them. I cannot imagine cutting out all of these intricate pieces." As she shows, the tools are simple but the process is both tedious and labor-intensive. Maybe this is why only the most ornate cathedrals had the huge stained glass windows like the Rose Window. It does stand to reason. At any rate, I think you can see that there are a good deal of different views on the matter of cathedral as art and architecture. I always find it refreshing to see things from a new point of view and each of these three helped my to see that a cathedral as a whole is a massive undertaking with many ramifications built right into the design.