Preferences and Perspectives- Romantic Era

 Neo Gothic

St. Patrick’s Cathedral

Architect James Renwick William Rodrigue

1851-79, towers 1888

New York, New York 5th Ave. bet. E50 and E51USA

Out of all the pieces I selected for this blog St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York has my favorite outside exterior.  I could stand and stare at its details for hours.  The inside view of the rib vault doesn't even show from the outside.  My favorite part of this structure is the cutouts in the large circle window. The stain glass throughout this building is so colorful. This building has what my real estate agent calls gingerbread.  All those cutouts around the windows and steeples.  It just provides this cathedral with so much depth and texture. When lit up inside all the arches on the inside just light up the layers of lines and grooves.  This cathedral takes up an entire block of prime New York real estate.  I love how the shape of the roof forms a cross from above.  I was reading reviews on it and some comments said that it was dwarfed by the buildings around it.  I don’t think so. It’s such a rich form of architecture it holds its own. The pointed arch doors and asymmetry of the structure remind me of the gothic period in the Middle Ages. The rib vault also points heavily to earlier gothic creations.

 

 

Sainte-Clotide Basilica 

Architect François-Christian Gau and Théodore Ballu

1897

23 bis Las Cases Street, Paris France

Talk about texture, gothic architecture doesn’t disappoint with texture created by the groves and ridges.  They remind me of iced wedding cakes just dripping with layers.  All of those crevices create so much shadow and depth.  I love how the curves of the huge archways create a hollow dark look.  The color isn’t aging well.  It looks very stained.  

I loved the gothic era and if I was an architect I would have wanted to bring it back with neo gothic.  While stationed in Germany there is some amazing gothic architecture.    I tried to pick all churches to make comparing easier.  I was underwhelmed by the inside; it didn’t make me say “wow” like the two Neo Baroque pieces.  The rib vaults were very pretty on the inside though. I also love the back of the church. I think it is as pretty if not prettier as the front. It reminds me of the points of a crown. The windows are stunning stain glass pieces. The large circle window is my favorite. I love all the stain glass in this building. The colors are so bright and shine through like a rainbow. The shape of this cathedral is very similar to St. Patricks. The form is so similar in the front of both buildings that I had to make sure the architect was not the same.

 

Neo Baroque

Cathedral of Salta

Architect Felipe Bertrés

1856-1882

España 558 - Belgrano Salta, Argentina 

When I first picked this piece I hated the pink exterior.  It grew on me a little but I still found myself thinking they should have left it white or cream.  That being said there is a lot of detail done in white that really pops because of the pink.  All the cutouts on the front of this building create a lot of negative and positive space. I like the balance of the two sides of the cathedral. Even though one of the towers has a clock it still works as both towers are the same size.  I like the depth created on the front by the doors’ archways and then the large front area.  This cathedral didn’t wow me until… I came across a picture of it at night.  I wouldn’t change a thing after seeing that.  The inside had some really unique design to the ceiling domes.  Definitely an architectural masterpiece and definitely had the wow factor of the Neo Baroque era.

 

St. John Cantius Church

Architect Adolphus Druiding

1893-1898

825 North Carpenter St, Chicago USA

I wanted to love this building being a piece of American architecture.  I find the shape to be unbalanced with the right tower of the structure being so much taller than the left side; I don’t get it.  There are three crosses all located in the middle and the right side of the structure. Additionally, the windows on both sides of the parish don’t line up.  The oxidation of the copper on the left side also seems to be staining the building.  I think this church would have looked better, more balanced and without the towers on both sides.  I like the texture pattern under the eves of the roof in the center of the structure.  I didn’t think the color of the doors matched the structure.  

The three large archways did create depth. That all being said, WOW you’ve got to see the inside of this thing.  I actually said wow when I clicked on the first picture.  Just stunning!  The blue color in some of the arches, the texture of the pillars looking like smooth marble and then detailed and carved at the tops, the huge circle windows on the sides lighting up all the gold leaf. The textures are crystal, stain glass, wood, gold leaf, marble and paint. It’s layered and it’s stunning. The inside of this church is my favorite out of all of the selected pieces. The brightness and colors of the inside do not reflect on the outside.

 

I went into this assignment knowing that I really liked Neo Gothic.  I still do but I love Neo Baroque architecture even more. I just love the opulence of it.  Gothic architecture has a lot of ornate decorations but the Neo Baroque has such vividly painted ceilings, grandeur and drama.

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“Cathedral of Salta.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 16 Jan. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathedral_of_Salta.

File:Basilique Sainte-Clotilde ... - Commons.wikimedia.org. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Basilique_Sainte-Clotilde,_square_Samuel_Rousseau,_Paris_29_April_2017.jpg.

“Home: St. John Cantius Church: Chicago.” St. John Cantius, https://www.cantius.org/?lightbox=dataItem-kdqo7w6x.

New York Architecture Images- St. Patrick's Cathedral (RC), https://nyc-architecture.com/MID/MID054.htm.

“Sainte-Clotilde Basilica, a Neo-Gothic Church in Paris.” French Moments, 29 Feb. 2020, https://frenchmoments.eu/sainte-clotilde-basilica-paris/.

Schroeder, Jessa. “Hidden Secrets of NYC's St. Patrick's Cathedral, Which Include an Underground Crypt and 9/11 Graffiti Markings  .” Nydailynews.com, New York Daily News, 6 Apr. 2018, https://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/hidden-secrets-nyc-renowned-st-patrick-cathedral-article-1.2957515.

 

“St. John Cantius Church (Chicago).” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 18 Jan. 2022, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._John_Cantius_Church_(Chicago).

 

“St. John Cantius Roman Catholic Church.” Open House Chicago, https://openhousechicago.org/sites/site/st-john-cantius-roman-catholic-church/.

Staff, IrishCentral. “Facts about St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York City.” IrishCentral.com, IrishCentral, 16 Feb. 2022, https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/history/st-patricks-cathedral-new-york-city.