Chapter Eight. Gothic And Renaissance Design Strategies In Stonecutting

Abstract

The Gothic architecture of the Crown of Aragon, which included Catalonia, the Balearic Islands, Valencia and, in some periods, parts of the South of France, Sicily and Naples, has a number of particular characteristics. A boats hull is built on a series of transversal frames supporting longitudinal planking. In the 15th century, the characteristics of Catalan stonecutting are well defined. The attention paid to the intrados and the concern for the development of the surfaces was to play a fundamental role in the development of modern stereotomy. The Gothic vault is a volumetric, spatial object. It is controlled, by a two-dimensional layout: arcs of a circle on vertical planes. In Italy, Renaissance forms such as spheres and cylinders were produced using brickwork. In France and Spain, however, the same surfaces are used as the intrados of stone vaults with a complex quartering lattice. Keywords: Catalan stonecutting; Gothic design process; modern stereotomy; renaissance vault