Speculum 56 (1):28-40 (
1981)
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Abstract
For many years it has been traditional to view the Cistercians as the disseminators of the Gothic style. Yet, although the order adopted the pointed arch and the rib vault and was instrumental in introducing these elements to remote parts of the continent, the new vaulting systems were combined with a wall structure that remained emphatically Romanesque. While Early Gothic buildings of the middle of the twelfth century, such as Suger's choir at St.-Denis and the cathedral of Noyon, are characterized by a tendency to penetrate the wall surface with multiple openings, creating a diaphanous, articulated, and complex wall structure, Cistercian architecture in this period consistently rejects these tendencies in favor of massive mural effects. The persistence of unarticulated wall surfaces in Cistercian building can be seen nowhere more clearly than in the surviving abbey churches in southern, western, and central France. jQuery.click { event.preventDefault(); })