DOI article:
Pastan, Elizabeth Carson: A window on Panofsky’s Gothic architecture and scholasticism
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59426#0081
80
5. Interior view of the central upper western chapel dedicated to
St. Romanus at Saint-Denis, looking west towards its rose window.
Reproduced courtesy of Stephen Murray © Mapping Gothic France,
The Trustees of Columbia University, Media Center for Art History,
Department of Art History and Archaeology.
INTER SE LABORANDO-.
ART AND SCIENCE
Examining Saint-Denis through Abbot Sugers testimony
is one way that Panofsky s own scholarship could have en-
riched his analyses of the rose window, and there are oth-
ers. In his essay of 1938 on “The History of Art as a Hu-
manistic Discipline,”40 Panofsky waxed eloquent about the
symbiotic relationship between science and the humani-
ties, but in Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism he for-
sakes an obvious application of the relationship, the en-
gineering that lies behind rose windows.41 Viollet-le-Duc
had argued that only with careful calculations about
stresses and counter stresses could a large hole be opened
into the wall and withstand wind shear, or the increase
40 E. Panofsky, ‘The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline’, re-
print in idem, Meaning in the Visual Arts, Papers in and on Art
History, Garden City, NY, 1950, pp. 1-25.
41 See R.O. Bork, Art, science, and evolution, in Making Art Histo-
ry: A Changing Discipline and its Institutions, ed. E.C. Mansfield,
New York, 2007, pp. 185-209, esp. 195.
in wind speeds in the upper stories of a structure where
the rose window is located.42 Bringing the connection be-
tween science and the humanities into the present, which
is an important theme of Panofsky s, Viollet-le-Duc point-
ed out that when a modern engineer takes the effects of
wind loading into account in designing a bridge, he re-
turns to those principles established six centuries earlier
in designing a rose window.43 Sadly, Panofsky does not
actually cite the work of Viollet-le-Duc s that would have
underscored this technical aspect of the rose, but only
those of the Parisian architect and restorers critics such
as Pol Abraham.44
Full-scale designs incised into some two dozen Goth-
ic sites - including the cathedrals of Bourges, Clermont-
Ferrand, Soissons, and Byland Abbey - attest to another
way that art and science work together to achieve both the
viability and visibility of large rose windows.45 These in-
cised designs that have been discovered are located close
to the site of their intended installation, such as crypts,
tower floors, and terraces. These full-scale designs must
have helped to model the creation of rose windows and
other large architectonic compositions involving mul-
tiple parts before the builders hazarded installation. In
addition, such full-scale designs facilitated the manufac-
ture of standardized templates during production, fur-
nished a check on the accuracy of stones cut, allowed
for the assembly of glass panels prior to hoisting them
into the aperture, and provided an archive of key building
elements.46 In short, such tracings serve as a kind of “inter
42 E.E. Viollet-le-Duc, ‘Rose’, p. 51 (as in note 29). For more on
the engineering of rose windows, see J. Heyman, ‘Rose Windows’,
in Essays on the History of Mechanics: in Memory of Clifford Am-
brose Truesdell, eds. A. Becchi, M. Corradi, F. Face, О. Pedemonte,
Berlin, 2003, pp. 165-179; E.M. Beretz, Adjustments for the in-
novation: installing a rose window into the north façade of Saint-
Etienne, Beauvais’, AVISTA Forum Journal, 14, 2004, pp. 17-24;
and R. Smith, ‘Flowers of Fragility: A Discussion of the Structure
and Design of Gothic Rose Windows’, AVISTA Forum Journal, 23,
2013, pp. 52-60.
43 E.-E. Viollet-le-Duc, ‘Rose’, p. 52 (as in note 29).
44 E. Panofsky, Gothic, p. 101, notes 33-34 (as in note 1).
45 See P. Cowen, The Rose Window: Splendor and Symbol, London,
2005, pp. 258-259 with images from Byland and Bourges. For
more on these full-scale designs, see W. Schöller, ‘Ritzzeich-
nungen: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Architekturzeich-
nung im Mittelalter’, Architectura, 19, 1989, pp. 31-61; and idem,
‘Le dessin d’architecture à l’epoque gothique’, in Bâtisseurs des
cathédrales gothiques, ed. R. Recht, Strasbourg, 1989, pp. 227-235;
R.W. Scheller, Exemplum: Model-Book Drawings and the Prac-
tice of Artistic Transmission in the Middle Ages (ca. 900-1470),
trans. M. Hoyle, Amsterdam, 1995.
46 M.T Davis, ‘On the Drawing Board: Plans of the Clermont Ter-
race’, in Ad Quadratum: The Practical Application of Geometry in
Medieval Architecture, ed. N. Wu, Aidershot, 2002, pp. 183-204,
esp. pp. 185-186.
5. Interior view of the central upper western chapel dedicated to
St. Romanus at Saint-Denis, looking west towards its rose window.
Reproduced courtesy of Stephen Murray © Mapping Gothic France,
The Trustees of Columbia University, Media Center for Art History,
Department of Art History and Archaeology.
INTER SE LABORANDO-.
ART AND SCIENCE
Examining Saint-Denis through Abbot Sugers testimony
is one way that Panofsky s own scholarship could have en-
riched his analyses of the rose window, and there are oth-
ers. In his essay of 1938 on “The History of Art as a Hu-
manistic Discipline,”40 Panofsky waxed eloquent about the
symbiotic relationship between science and the humani-
ties, but in Gothic Architecture and Scholasticism he for-
sakes an obvious application of the relationship, the en-
gineering that lies behind rose windows.41 Viollet-le-Duc
had argued that only with careful calculations about
stresses and counter stresses could a large hole be opened
into the wall and withstand wind shear, or the increase
40 E. Panofsky, ‘The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline’, re-
print in idem, Meaning in the Visual Arts, Papers in and on Art
History, Garden City, NY, 1950, pp. 1-25.
41 See R.O. Bork, Art, science, and evolution, in Making Art Histo-
ry: A Changing Discipline and its Institutions, ed. E.C. Mansfield,
New York, 2007, pp. 185-209, esp. 195.
in wind speeds in the upper stories of a structure where
the rose window is located.42 Bringing the connection be-
tween science and the humanities into the present, which
is an important theme of Panofsky s, Viollet-le-Duc point-
ed out that when a modern engineer takes the effects of
wind loading into account in designing a bridge, he re-
turns to those principles established six centuries earlier
in designing a rose window.43 Sadly, Panofsky does not
actually cite the work of Viollet-le-Duc s that would have
underscored this technical aspect of the rose, but only
those of the Parisian architect and restorers critics such
as Pol Abraham.44
Full-scale designs incised into some two dozen Goth-
ic sites - including the cathedrals of Bourges, Clermont-
Ferrand, Soissons, and Byland Abbey - attest to another
way that art and science work together to achieve both the
viability and visibility of large rose windows.45 These in-
cised designs that have been discovered are located close
to the site of their intended installation, such as crypts,
tower floors, and terraces. These full-scale designs must
have helped to model the creation of rose windows and
other large architectonic compositions involving mul-
tiple parts before the builders hazarded installation. In
addition, such full-scale designs facilitated the manufac-
ture of standardized templates during production, fur-
nished a check on the accuracy of stones cut, allowed
for the assembly of glass panels prior to hoisting them
into the aperture, and provided an archive of key building
elements.46 In short, such tracings serve as a kind of “inter
42 E.E. Viollet-le-Duc, ‘Rose’, p. 51 (as in note 29). For more on
the engineering of rose windows, see J. Heyman, ‘Rose Windows’,
in Essays on the History of Mechanics: in Memory of Clifford Am-
brose Truesdell, eds. A. Becchi, M. Corradi, F. Face, О. Pedemonte,
Berlin, 2003, pp. 165-179; E.M. Beretz, Adjustments for the in-
novation: installing a rose window into the north façade of Saint-
Etienne, Beauvais’, AVISTA Forum Journal, 14, 2004, pp. 17-24;
and R. Smith, ‘Flowers of Fragility: A Discussion of the Structure
and Design of Gothic Rose Windows’, AVISTA Forum Journal, 23,
2013, pp. 52-60.
43 E.-E. Viollet-le-Duc, ‘Rose’, p. 52 (as in note 29).
44 E. Panofsky, Gothic, p. 101, notes 33-34 (as in note 1).
45 See P. Cowen, The Rose Window: Splendor and Symbol, London,
2005, pp. 258-259 with images from Byland and Bourges. For
more on these full-scale designs, see W. Schöller, ‘Ritzzeich-
nungen: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Architekturzeich-
nung im Mittelalter’, Architectura, 19, 1989, pp. 31-61; and idem,
‘Le dessin d’architecture à l’epoque gothique’, in Bâtisseurs des
cathédrales gothiques, ed. R. Recht, Strasbourg, 1989, pp. 227-235;
R.W. Scheller, Exemplum: Model-Book Drawings and the Prac-
tice of Artistic Transmission in the Middle Ages (ca. 900-1470),
trans. M. Hoyle, Amsterdam, 1995.
46 M.T Davis, ‘On the Drawing Board: Plans of the Clermont Ter-
race’, in Ad Quadratum: The Practical Application of Geometry in
Medieval Architecture, ed. N. Wu, Aidershot, 2002, pp. 183-204,
esp. pp. 185-186.