Editing Gothic architecture (section)

===''Early English'' and ''High Gothic''===
{{See also|High Gothic|Early Gothic architecture}}

Following the destruction by fire of the choir of [[Canterbury Cathedral]] in 1174, a group of master builders was invited to propose plans for the reconstruction. The master-builder [[William of Sens]], who had worked on Sens Cathedral, won the competition.<ref name=":1" /> Work began that same year, but in 1178 William was badly injured by falling from the scaffolding, and returned to France, where he died.<ref name=":02">{{Citation|title=Sens, William of|url=https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001/acref-9780199674985-e-4225|work=A Dictionary of Architecture and Landscape Architecture|year=2015|editor-last=Curl|editor-first=James Stevens|edition=3rd|publisher=Oxford University Press|language=en|doi=10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001|isbn=978-0-19-967498-5|access-date=2020-04-10|editor2-last=Wilson|editor2-first=Susan|archive-date=11 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200411100100/https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780199674985.001.0001/acref-9780199674985-e-4225|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="EBWoS">{{Britannica |644278 |William of Sens}}</ref> His work was continued by [[William the Englishman]] who replaced his French namesake in 1178. The resulting structure of the choir of [[Canterbury Cathedral]] is considered the first work of ''Early English Gothic''.<ref name=":1" /> The cathedral churches of [[Worcester Cathedral|Worcester]] (1175–), [[Wells Cathedral|Wells]] (''c''.1180–), [[Lincoln Cathedral|Lincoln]] (1192–), and [[Salisbury Cathedral|Salisbury]] (1220–) are all, with Canterbury, major examples.<ref name=":1" /> ''Tiercerons'' – decorative vaulting ribs – seem first to have been used in vaulting at Lincoln Cathedral, installed ''c''.1200.<ref name=":1" /> Instead of a triforium, ''Early English'' churches usually retained a gallery.<ref name=":1" />

[[High Gothic]] ({{circa|1194}}–1250) was a brief but very productive period, which produced some of the great landmarks of Gothic art. The first building in the High Gothic ({{Langx|fr|Classique|links=no}}) was [[Chartres Cathedral]], an important pilgrimage church south of Paris. The Romanesque cathedral was destroyed by fire in 1194, but was swiftly rebuilt in the new style, with contributions from King [[Philip II of France]], [[Pope Celestine III]], local gentry, merchants, craftsmen, and [[Richard the Lionheart]], king of England. The builders simplified the elevation used at Notre Dame, eliminated the tribune galleries, and used flying buttresses to support the upper walls. The walls were filled with stained glass, mainly depicting the story of the [[Virgin Mary]] but also, in a small corner of each window, illustrating the crafts of the guilds who donated those windows.{{Sfn|Watkin|1986|p=131}}

The model of Chartres was followed by a series of new cathedrals of unprecedented height and size. These were [[Reims Cathedral]] (begun 1211), where [[coronations of the kings of France]] took place; [[Amiens Cathedral]] (1220–1226); [[Bourges Cathedral]] (1195–1230) (which, unlike the others, continued to use six-part rib vaults); and [[Beauvais Cathedral]] (1225–).<ref name=":1" />{{Sfn|Watkin|1986|pp=129–132}}

In central Europe, the High Gothic style appeared in the [[Holy Roman Empire]], first at [[Toul]] (1220–), whose Romanesque cathedral was rebuilt in the style of Reims Cathedral; then [[Trier]]'s [[Liebfrauenkirche, Trier|Liebfrauenkirche]] parish church (1228–), and then throughout the ''Reich'', beginning with the [[St. Elizabeth's Church, Marburg|Elisabethkirche]] at [[Marburg]] (1235–) and the cathedral at [[Metz]] (''c''.1235–).<ref name=":1" />

In High Gothic, the whole surface of the clerestory was given over to windows. At Chartres Cathedral, [[plate tracery]] was used for the rose window, but at Reims the bar-tracery was free-standing.<ref name=":1" /> Lancet windows were supplanted by multiple lights separated by ''geometrical'' bar-tracery.<ref name=":04"/> Tracery of this kind distinguishes ''Middle Pointed'' style from the simpler ''First Pointed''.<ref name=":04"/> Inside, the nave was divided into by regular bays, each covered by a quadripartite rib vaults.<ref name=":1" />

Other characteristics of the High Gothic were the development of rose windows of greater size, using bar-tracery, higher and longer flying buttresses, which could reach up to the highest windows, and walls of sculpture illustrating biblical stories filling the façade and the fronts of the transept. Reims Cathedral had two thousand three hundred statues on the front and back side of the façade.{{Sfn|Watkin|1986|pp=129–132}}

The new High Gothic churches competed to be the tallest, with increasingly ambitious structures lifting the vault yet higher. Chartres Cathedral's height of {{cvt|38|m|ft}} was exceeded by Beauvais Cathedral's {{cvt|48|m|ft}}, but on account of the latter's collapse in 1248, no further attempt was made to build higher.<ref name=":1" /> Attention turned from achieving greater height to creating more awe-inspiring decoration.{{Sfn|Watkin|1986|pp=129–132}}

[[File:Strasbourg Cathedral Exterior - Diliff.jpg|thumb|''Rayonnant Gothic'' west front{{Break}}Strasbourg Cathedral (1276–)]]