Medieval Cathedral Case Study

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The Medieval Cathedral in its Cultural Setting 1. How was the medieval cathedral related to its: a.) political b.) economic c.) social, and d.) religious setting? The cathedrals built during the medieval era were related to many aspects of medieval life due to the fact that the construction of a single cathedral was such a large production, let alone the construction of dozens upon dozens in Europe’s towns and cities. In alignment with a political standpoint a cathedral was an important building to have in any major city because they were often used for “the most secular matters” to discuss city business and things of the sort. In doing this most of the cities with large cathedrals did not have to build a city hall therefore saving valuable…show more content…
For example, “The cloth merchant, the stonecutter, the wheelwright, and the carpenter each had himself depicted in a medallion in the lower part of the window donated by his guild, as close as possible, as it were, to future client” as a type of “advertisement” encouraging their own economic growth. The growth of the size of a church or cathedral came from a different, very social, aspect of medieval life. After the construction of a new cathedral the people of a city nearby suddenly felt driven to build something bigger, and better than that of the neighboring cities or even cities that were dozens of miles away. This stemmed from a very primitive desire to break records causing an epidemic of cathedrals to break out across medieval Europe. So not only were the “Bourgeois civic pride, the desire to conquer new worlds, and merchants' vexed souls” all contributing to the success of the cathedral crusade, The Church was also encouraging all of these indulgences of fabric to help build God’s House in fact “the Christian church, by contrast, demanded that her faithful contribute to the constructions of churches large enough for the populace to have access.” From this it is safe to say that this cathedral construction boom originating from very selfish points of trying to outdo their fellow Christians was embraced by the church as a way to gain support, by political figures as a place to meet and discuss and take care of business…show more content…
Would you say that contemporary architecture is as closely related to its environment as the cathedral was? Why or why not? Explain. I would say that contemporary architecture is just as related to its environment as the cathedrals were, although they are environmentally connected for two similar reasons that are different at the same time. Today’s contemporary architecture has a lot of focus on “organic architecture that tries to blend with the environment around it by being more curvy and sometimes incorporating plants into the structural design” as arthistoryarchive.com says. This type of architecture is focused around on bringing the outside in by using lots and lots of windows which was also a defining factor of the gothic cathedrals of the medieval era. The only main difference between the two is that the windows used in contemporary are to make everything seem very natural and in touch with nature while the windows in cathedral were seen a way of bringing in divine
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