who developed the first example of gothic architecture
Gothic architecture The term "Gothic architecture" originated as a pejorative description. Giorgio Vasari used the term "barbarous German style" in his 1550 Lives of the Artists to describe what is now considered the Gothic style,[2] and in the introduction to the Lives he attributes various architectural features to "the Goths" whom he held responsible for destroying the ancient buildings after they conquered Rome, and erecting new ones in this style.[3] Vasari was not alone among 15th and 16th Italian writers, as Filarete and Giannozzo Manetti had also written scathing criticisms of the Gothic style, calling it a "barbaric prelude to the Renaissance." Vasari and company were writing at a time when many aspects and vocabulary pertaining to Classical architecture had been reasserted with the Renaissance in the late 15th and 16th centuries, and they had the perspective that the "maniera tedesca" or "maniera dei Goti" was the antithesis of this resurgent style leading to the continuation of this negative connotation in the 17th century.[1] François Rabelais, also of the 16th century, imagines an inscription over the door of his utopian Abbey of Thélème, "Here enter no hypocrites, bigots..." slipping in a slighting reference to "Gotz" and "Ostrogotz."[a] Molière also made this note of the Gothic style in the 1669 poem La Gloire:[1]
Hildesheim Cathedral The Cathedral was built in 872 under Bishop Altfrid as a cruciform three-aisled basilica with a two-story westwork.[1] It is an example of Ottonian architecture, with alternating column support and semi circular apses completing the naves.[4] The building suffered severe fire damage in 1046.[2] Bishop Azelin planned to erect a new, larger building further to the west and to extend the nave. His successor, Hezilo of Hildesheim, abandoned this plan and instead built on the old foundations, incorporating the surviving walls into the new building. Further important renovations occurred up to the end of the fourteenth century but did not deviate from the ground plan of Bishop Altfrid's basilica. The north and south side chapels date from the gothic period and the tower above the crossing from the baroque period. In the nineteenth century, the original westwork was replaced by a Neo-Romanesque two-tower facade, which stood until 1945.[1]