Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 2004. Vol. 4. Eger Journal of English Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 30)
MATTHEW PALMER The English Cathedral: Prom Description to Analysis
The English Cathedral: from Description to Analysis 81 Region It would be both more appropriate and practical to start one's analysis of English Gothic cathedrals by noting that they formed part of a much larger cultural and political landscape, one which spread from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Carpathians in the east during the course of its existence. 2 8 It is a geographical area which can be divided up in many ways, whether in terms of empires, kingdoms, duchies etc. or cultural landscapes. Students should be introduced to these frames of reference in order to decide whether England constitutes the best geo-political unit from which to survey the cultural landscape. It is important to remember England had its own regional styles, the Western School differing from the Gothic seen in northern England and the Gothic of Canterbury Cathedral and the buildings that it influenced. England can also be seen in a larger context, England forming, until 1204, one part of what John Gillingham terms the "Angevin Empire", an empire which included Normandy and Anjou, each of which had their own characteristic style. 2 9 To these one can add other Gothic variations elsewhere in France, like for example the "Swiss-cheese architecture" of Burgundy with it fondness for wall passages, and the "giant orders" of Bourges, Le Mans, Coutances, both of which defy analysis from a national perspective. 3 0 In all these regional variations art historical debate has tended to focus on the way elements belonging to the Gothic canon, expressed in its purest form at Chartres Cathedral, are either developed, modified, ignored or resisted. 3 1 The starting point for such analyses being the manner in which buildings adhered to Chartres' canons of design: the single bay elevation, the flat elevation, the three storey elevation, the rejection of multifarious members and the large clerestory. By doing this one is at least getting close to the ways of comparing and contrasting buildings used by Gervase. Int er c ult urális m Students of English Gothic architecture in Hungary should not miss the opportunity of adding an intercultural dimension to their studies. Not only OQ For Gothic as period see: Götz, W., Zentralbau und Zentralbautendenz in der gotischen Architektur (Berlin, Mann, 1968), p. 12. OQ See Gillingham, Jolin, The Angevin Empire (London, Arnold, 2000) 30 See Branner, Robert, Burgundián Gothic Architecture (London, A. Zwemmer Ltd, 1960) 31 The idea of "the resistance to Chartres" being posited by Jean Bony in his famous article of that name published in the Journal of the British Archaeological Association in 1958.
