Friday, July 3, 2020 –
Today we are going to put on the front door to our Gothic minor Basilica. A lot of the terms for today are ones you have already seen because, let’s face it, Gothic architecture is nothing but lots of pointed arches. There will be a few terms I won’t define today because they belong in their own special category of uber-fancy terms. I’ll get to those tomorrow…
Anyhoo, today we will cover the basics of the door. And by door, we are typically talking about the front, main door on the West side of the building. We will cover: gable, archivolt, tympanum, jamb, lintel, and trumeau.
The best image I have come across for a Gothic doorway is from Fordham University’s History Department. They have a fabulous image that I will be using for this post. I mean, there is no reason to re-invent the wheel if someone already has a good model on the road.
Gable: generally speaking, a gable is the triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. Sharp gable roofs are a characteristic of the Gothic architecture, and they are usually highly ornamented (AKA fancy-fancy!).
Archivolt: a band of molding around the lower curve of an arch.
Tympanum: the triangular-ish space between the innermost curves of an arch (in this case, the arch above the doorway) and the lintel below. It is usually very decorative.
Jamb: a side post or surface of a doorway or window.
Lintel: a horizontal support across the top of a door or window.
Trumeau: a section of wall or a pillar (column) between two openings, as in a pillar dividing a large doorway of a Church.
That is our basic door. Tomorrow we will add all the extravagant details and really make our front entrance POP!
Blood of Christ, of the New and Eternal Covenant, save us!
