The Architecture of the Mendicant Orders in the Late Middle Ages

Abstract

The object of this paper is to study the development of the distinctive architecture of the mendicant orders which had been rose due to the revival of trade and cities, the reform in monastic communities and changing notion of sanctity, and its reflections on Gothic art and Italian communes in the Late Middle Ages. Early on the mendicant orders adopted Cistercian regulation and architectural vision. Then they used a binary system where the nave with a wooden beam combine with a cross-vaulted, flat-ended choir and chapels alongside the main altar. Thus, the stone vaulted-ceiling restriction in regulations of the mendicant orders ended up with a church model in which the edifice separated into two different spaces and characters: A spacious and undivided nave for crowds and a luminous, vaulted choir place for brothers. Beginning from the end of the 13th century, other religious orders adopted this system as well and the brothers made Gothic architecture bring forward a quasi-homogeneous outlook throughout the Western Europe. Rival cult sites arose against to the cathedral in regard of the private chapel patronage by merchants and bankers in Italian communes, and secular clergy created suitable burial places inside their churches in response, resulting a religious mobility inside the city. The monumental mendicant churches transformed urban spaces as well. The brothers purchased the lands around the edifices to meet their various needs. The streets opening to these buildings were expanded and piazzas were built. Thus Franciscan and Dominican preachers changed traditional Christian ritual places by installing pulpits on these squares.

Keywords

• Mendicant orders,Franciscan,Dominican,Gothic architecture,medieval

Geç Orta Çağ’da Fransisken ve Dominiken Mimarisi

Abstract

Dilenci tarikatlar, Geç Orta Çağ İtalya ve Fransa’sında ticaret ve kentlerin canlanması, manastır cemaatlerinde reform ve kutsallık anlayışının değişmesi sonucu ortaya çıktı. Bu çalışmanın amacı Fransisken ve Dominikenler’in özgün mimari anlayışlarını ve bunun İtalyan komünleri ile Gotik mimari üzerindeki etkilerini incelemektir. Dilenci tarikatlar, Sistersiyan yönetmeliği ile Sistersiyan mimarisini benimsediler. Üst örtüsü ahşap kirişli nef sistemini çapraz tonozlu, düz biten koro yeri ile ana altarın yanında şapellerle tamamladılar. 13. yüzyılın sonundan itibaren diğer kiliseler de bu yapı tipini benimseyince dilenci tarikatlar Gotik mimarinin Batı’da homojen bir görünüm sunmasını sağladı. İtalya’daki tüccar ve bankerler mezar şapellerinin hamiliğini üstlendiklerinde komünün katedraline rakip kült mekanlar oluştu. Cemaat rahipleri tepki olarak kendi kiliselerinde de uygun gömü alanları yarattılar. Anıtsal dilenci kiliseleri, içinde bulundukları kentsel mekanı da dönüştürdü. Biraderler kiliselerin çevresindeki arazileri çeşitli ihtiyaçlarını gidermek için satın aldılar. Bu kiliselere açılan sokaklar genişletilip meydanlar inşa edildi. Fransisken ve Dominiken vaizler buralara kürsüler koyup vaaz vererek geleneksel Hristiyan ritüel mekanlarını değiştirdiler.

Keywords

• Dilenci tarikatlar,Gotik mimari,Geç Orta Çağ,Fransisken,Dominiken

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