Key Terminology for Gothic Style

INT 470-History 2

Fatma Mohamed-201210448

Dr. Seif Khiati

Key Terminology for Gothic Style

1- pointed arch: Architectural historians think that the pointed arch was used by some European architects because it was a very strong way of making an arch.

In Gothic Architecture, the pointed arch is used in every place where an arch is needed, both for strength and for decoration. Gothic openings such as doorways, windows, arcades and galleries have pointed arches. A row of arches is called an arcade. A row of arches that is up high on a building is a gallery.

Rows of pointed arches were used to decorate walls. This is known as blind arcading. Often walls were made with tall narrow arched openings in them that could be used to stand statues in. An opening like this is called a niche which is pronounced "neesh".

2- Tracery is the stonework elements that support the glass in a Gothic window.

3- A pinnacle is an architectural ornament originally forming the cap or crown of a buttress or small turret, but afterwards used on parapets at the corners of towers and in many other situations. The pinnacle looks like a small spire. It was mainly used in Gothic architecture.

4- Trefoils, quatrefoils

5- Cinquefoil (Rose of Venus): is a five petaled rose found mainly in Christian design and architecture of the Middle Ages. The five-petaled rose is often found affixed to the tops of Gothic arches, the vesica pieces-shaped doorways and windows thought to represent the womb of Mary.

6- A crocket (or, croquet) is a hook-shaped decorative element common in Gothic

architecture. The name derives from the diminutive of the French croc, meaning

"h ook", due to the resemblance of crockets to a bishop's crosier.

7- Gargoyles: with a spout designed to convey water from

a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby

preventing rainwater from running down masonry walls

and eroding the mortar between. Architects often used

multiple gargoyles on buildings to divide the flow of

rainwater off the roof to minimize the potential damage

from a rainstorm.

8- Foliage

9- Linenfold (or linen fold) is a simple style of relief carving used to decorate wood

paneling with a design

https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gothic_architecture

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinnacle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crocket

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gargoyle https://houseappeal.wordpress.com/2014/03/11/quatrefoil-four-leaves-of-distinction-embedded-within-architecture-the-interior/