The Geometry of Creation: Architectural Drawing and the Dynamics of Gothic Design by Bork Robert

Author:Bork, Robert [Bork, Robert]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor and Francis
Published: 2016-12-04T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 4.14 Drawing 16.817v, with geometrical overlay, stage 1.

The second Prague drawing, showing the interior of the cathedral’s south transept, provides valuable information showing that Peter Parler radically modified his plans as the project went forward. The most obvious hint of these modifications is the way that masonry lines have been drawn into the left bay, so as to reduce the number of open clerestory lancets from ten to four, with those four being offset from the bay center. The arcade arch below is also offset to the left. More subtly, Böker noted the existence of erased lines in the arch and wall; these are shown as dotted lines in Figure 4.14 . 17 The left side of the arcade arch originally began its curve on a shallower trajectory than it does now, and there is a vertical to the right of the present arch opening that could align with the other end of such a shallow arch. The original arch opening evidently would have been wider and more open than the one now seen in this tower bay. This larger arch would also have been more symmetrical with respect to the bay margins. These observations strongly suggest that the bay shown in the drawing was originally meant to open onto a chapel, rather than a massive tower. The bay in the drawing was redrawn with reinforced structure, it seems, when the construction of the present tower was decided upon—a decision that may well have coincided with the abandonment of the towered façade scheme discussed in the previous paragraphs.

The original elements of the transept interior drawing align with a fairly simple geometrical armature based on the stacking of square and octagonal modules. Fortunately, a clearly described groundline in the tower bay makes it obvious where the elevation begins. Here, as in most Gothic designs, the fundamental dimension seems to have been the width of the largest bay shown, measured in this instance between the window plane of the wall at left, and the center of the shaft bundle dividing the tower bay from the aisle, in the middle of the drawing. For reasons that will soon become apparent, it is convenient to call this dimension two units. Stacking two squares of this facet length on the groundline, one finds that the center of the second square coincides with the bottom of the sculpted bishop’s bust in the triforium, at height 3.000, while the base of the clerestory windows falls at height 3.500. Geometrical as well as modular proportioning systems also played a role in the construction of the drawing, as inscribed octagons in Figure 4.14 begin to show. The vertical facets of the large upper octagon occupy the same level as the triforium in the drawing, for example, between heights 2.586 and 3.414. And, the midpoint of the upper diagonal faces in the lower octagon marks the height of the main arcade capitals, at height 1.707.

As Figure 4.15 shows, quadrature and octature together define the original proportions of the arcade arch opening in this drawing.

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