Why is westminster abbey gothic

Truly, Westminster Abbey London has managed to embrace all the shades of architecture beautifully. The Abbey with monuments and wall tables, over 3, burials, walls alive with sculptures and paintings, huge columns and arches depicting almost every period of Gothic Architecture with elegance and grace masters the art of architecture in all manner.

Although, standing alone in some spaces of this Abbey may be fearsome and some alluring, architecture of Westminster Abbey successfully carves out the emotions of each space to the people visiting the Abbey. Skip to content The Arch Insider. April 26, April 26, by The Arch Insider. Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay. Description This is the highest Gothic nave in England at feet 31 meters. Large or infrequently accessed files can take several minutes to retrieve from our archival storage system.

Begin Download. Collegiate Church of Saint Peter at Westminster. Decorative arts Churches Architecture Tombs. The design is based on the continental system of geometrical proportion, but its English features include single rather than double aisles and a long nave with wide projecting transepts. The Abbey has the highest Gothic vault in England nearly feet and it was made to seem higher by making the aisles narrow. The Englishness is also apparent in the elaborate mouldings of the main arches, the lavish use of polished Purbeck marble for the columns and the overall sculptural decoration.

The east-west axis was determined by the existing position of the Lady Chapel. A spacious area between the high altar and the beginning of the quire was necessary to provide a 'theatre' where coronations could take place. The stonework which came from Caen in France and Reigate in Surrey , the sculptured roof bosses and the other carvings would have been brightly coloured and the wall arcades may have been decorated in vermilion and gold.

The walls were adorned with fine paintings, and two, depicting St Thomas and St Christopher, were rediscovered in the s. Some of the original colour on the censing angels in the south transept was discovered at about the same time. Brilliant ruby and sapphire glass, with heraldic shields set in a grisaille or grey monochrome pattern, filled the windows. The chapel screens and tombs added to the display of colour.

By the apse, radiating chapels, transepts and choir were complete and the new shrine received the bones of St Edward on 13 October. When Henry III died in only one bay of the nave beyond the quire screen had been completed. The old Norman nave remained attached to the far higher Gothic building for over a century until more money became available at the end of the fourteenth century.

The western section of the nave was then carried on by Abbot Nicholas Litlyngton using money bequeathed by Cardinal Simon Langham Litlyngton's predecessor as abbot and work slowly progressed for nearly a hundred and fifty years. It was probably Litlyngton who insisted that the general design of Henry III's masons should be followed thus giving the Abbey great architectural unity.

Master mason Henry Yevele made only minor alterations in the architectural design but it can be seen on closer inspection that the diaper or rosette decoration on the spandrels of the arches was discontinued in the nave, and other details are not as elaborate as the older work.

In the bay of the nave just to the west of the quire screen can be seen the junction of the old and new work. In accordance with his will, a lavishly sculptured chantry chapel was built over the tomb, with two turret staircases leading to an altar above.

The designer was John Thirske, who was probably also responsible for the carved altar screen in the Confessor's chapel added at this period, showing representations of events in the life of St Edward. Abbot John Islip , died , added his own Jesus chapel off the north ambulatory and finally completed the nave vaulting and glazed the west window, but the top parts of the west towers remained unfinished.

The next great addition to the Abbey was the construction of a magnificent new Lady Chapel by Henry VII between and to replace the 13th century chapel. This was consecrated on 19th February The Perpendicular architecture here is in total contrast to the rest of the Abbey. No accounts for this building have been found but it is thought that the architects were Robert Janyns and William Vertue.

It has been called "one of the most perfect buildings ever erected in England" and "the wonder of the world". Henry spent lavish sums on its decoration. The glory of the chapel is its delicately carved fan vaulted roof, with hanging pendants. These are constructed on half-concealed transverse arches. All around the chapel are Tudor emblems such as the rose and portcullis, and nearly one hundred statues of saints still remain in niches around the walls.

Wooden carved misericords can be seen on the stall seats. The original jewel-like stained glass by Bernard Flower has, however, disappeared.