Evolutionary architectural theory
Introduction
Radiant Gothic (French rayonnant, French pronunciation: ) is the historiographical name for one of the phases of Gothic art, coined specifically for French Gothic architecture of the period between ca. 1240 and 1350 (the entire reign of Louis IX, the Saint, who ruled between 1226 and 1270 falls within the first half of this period). The evolutionary theory of artistic styles has called this style Mannerist Gothic, representing the intermediate stage between the previous classical Gothic (or first Gothic) and the later late Gothic (florid Gothic, flamboyant Gothic).
It is characterized by a change in orientation from the use of large scale and the spatial rationalism of High Gothic (in buildings such as Chartres Cathedral or the nave of Amiens Cathedral) towards a greater concern for surfaces and the repetition of decorative motifs at different scales. The buildings also tend to gain height and verticality and an effect of lightness and richness is sought, overcoming the austerity and certain heaviness of the preceding stage. From the middle of the century, the radiant gradually transformed into the late Gothic, Flamboyant style, although as is usual with such arbitrary stylistic labels, the transition point is not clearly defined.
One of the first buildings that set the standards for this style was the Beauvais Cathedral, which sought such an imposing height of the vaults (48 meters) that it was not equaled in any other Gothic building. The Sainte-Chapelle, in Paris, conceived as a kind of crystal reliquary, constitutes the perfect paradigm of radiant style.
Inside, light becomes the predominant element and depending on it and its symbolic and spiritual meaning, the rest of the architectural elements are conceived. An attempt is made to free the walls from their supporting function to provide radial rose windows (hence the name) and increasingly larger openings, which are decorated with highly decorated stained glass windows, especially dark blue and red. The windows and doorways become stylized, narrower and more pointed, and the decorations become more complicated while becoming smaller and less naturalistic. Predominantly abstract elements appear, in the form of traceries or filigrees, invading the empty spaces of the walls.
Terminology
The name radiant () derives from attempts by French art historians of the century (notably Henri Focillon and Fernand de Lasteyrie) to classify Gothic styles on the basis of window tracery. Although these efforts are now considered erroneous, the resulting terms have survived to some extent (radiant and flaming are still widely used by art historians, although the older and misleading term Lancet has generally given way to High Gothic). On this basis, Focillon and his colleagues adopted the term radiant to specifically describe the rays radiating in the rosettes that flowered during this period. (Some sources incorrectly derive the term from the radial chapels extending from the apse; however, these are not specifically associated with this period and had already been a standard feature of continental architecture since the century in Romanesque buildings such as Cluny Abbey and Santiago de Compostela Cathedral.)