John 3:16 cathedral calligraphy piece
----Buttressing The Big House----
Now for another exciting episode in our ongoing cliffhanger serial,"Building A Cathedral"! In the last episode,we finished out the capital letter section and hopefully gained a better understanding of how to manipulate acrylic gesso as a sculpting medium in combination with calligraphy,in this case.Now,we will explore another major part of the piece which happens to make up the top border section,and in the real world of cathedral architecture,is a necessary key design feature that makes it possible for the great buildings to exist and to achieve the great towering heights that they were able to reach in their construction. This is none other than the "Flying Buttress",a feature that adds both size and a haunting element of dramatic elegance and beauty to the cathedral. We will touch on the engineering purpose for flying buttresses and then try to apply all of it to the piece we are working on.
Fig.1 - Design drawing and flying buttresses,Rheims Cathedral
In the Fig.1 pictures,we see the engineering draft of the cross section for Rheims Cathedral and on the right we see the actual top ornamental half of the buttresses and their connection to the main walls of the sanctuary,which makes for a very good practical comparison of the relationship from the drawing to their functionality. The great cathedrals were constructed from carefully sculpted stone sections stacked and interlocked in particular geometric shapes and configurations to insure strength and stability along with the visual effects. As the decades and centuries passed during the Medieval Period,cathedral designers pushed engineering to its limits and sometimes beyond in order build bigger structures spanning greater distances and reaching greater heights. The concept of the arch played a large factor in allowing for higher vaulted ceilings. One problem was that the building was very delicate in its structural arrangement and the extreme weight of the top sections placed more downward force than the lacy walls were able to hold up. Naturally,this makes the walls tend to push outward until they buckle under the weight and crash to the ground. The smart cookies working out the designs for the cathedrals reasoned that additional "ribbed" style structures attached along the walls in key positions would absorb the heavy load from the roof and distribute the stress over a much greater area. The result is the ability to construct a building that reaches for the sky....in a safer and stable manner,of course.
While doing the cathedral piece, I had finished the capital section and still had an overwhelming need to do more sculpting on it. After all,I had finally wrapped my head around workings of gesso and had only just barely whetted my appetite! That is,I had grabbed the "tiger by the tail",as it were and there was no letting go just yet! After thinkin',and mullin',and scratchin' my noggin for a bit,I figured the next logical step would be to add some flying buttresses!!! I used the ones for Rheims(my all time favorite cathedral) as inspiration,and upon examining them closely,I must admit to having a certain degree of intimidation! Fortunately, I do have a deeply ingrained "never say die" attitude about difficult things....thanks in part from my dear old retired military father(RIP). Essentially,in a nutshell,I broke the buttresses down into individual parts,or sections......the base,the backbone,the columns,the statue and the roof. Luckily,I had found the engineering drawing in Fig.1 earlier and had saved pictures of the sanctuary wall and buttresses from image searches to study and rely on for reference. Once determining the dimensions for the buttresses,I used Windows Photo app to pull up the drawing and increased the scale to the full size of what I was wanting. From there,it was simply a matter of getting all the key measurements of the buttress and transpose it to what I was building....easy as pie!!! Next step was to use thick backing paper to very,VERY carefully layout the templates and construct forms to be put together,much the same as putting together forms and molds to pour concrete in for whatever. Once the forms were built and thoroughly saturated with gesso for strength,it was simply a matter of using the dip pen to apply and fill in all of it with the gesso. I say it is easy,but that is really a gross overstatement! Again,the fine details are miniature in size and many hours and days were spent getting them put together.
Fig.2 - Flying Buttresses with dip pen
Figure 2 displays the ornamental buttress ends with a calligraphy dip pen to give the relationship of scale. You can see the general complexities of the pieces,particularly in the spired roofs and the miniature angel statues.....which measure 5/8" tall X 3/16" wide on average. If you look very closely,the angel on the left is holding a shofar horn and represents the Archangel Gabriel while the one on the right is holding a sword and represents the Archangel Michael.
Fig.3 - Frontal view of buttresses
Figure 3 shows the full frontal of the buttresses with the pen standing to show the scale. The buttresses measure 5/8" square up the main column and 6" overall in height. With the buttress tip built,all that is left is to construct the connecting bridges and the section of sanctuary wall! Of course,for this,it is always wise to constantly refer to examples in photos of the cathedral.
Fig.4 - View of buttress bridges
Figure 4 shows us a nice view of the bridging between the main wall and the statue columns. For the piece,it was not practical to construct a full length for the bridging as it would stick out much too far off of the paper. From the column ends,only about 30% was used and the arches were adjusted accordingly.
Fig.5 - Close up of buttress bridging and roof details
The old photo in Figure 5 presents us with an awesome close up view of the intricate details of the buttress bridging with the corresponding sanctuary windows. More importantly, it displays the beautiful frieze details along the top of the sanctuary wall! The photos presented here lays the foundation for everything needed to complete the top border of the piece. For the bridging,I used the thick backing paper and upon laying out the initial template from the outer 30%, enough sections drawn out,cut and glued together to get a 3/16 thick piece....of course,gesso was generously added in building all of it up and carefully detailed as close to the pictures as possible. Next was to lay down the gesso for the facade of the sanctuary wall. Gesso was put down 1/4" thick with 5 high arched windows and all of the individual detailing,as seen in Fig.6.
Fig.6 - Gesso for partially completed facade wall
Figure 6 is a mostly complete facade with the exception of the windows. The drawings for the window paintings depicting various times in the life of Christ are also shown.
Fig.7 - Frontal view of completed facade wall
Figure 7 is the completed facade with all windows built up in their bases and top traceries. I used a Dremel tool to grind out the slots in the facade for the tabs of the buttress bridging to fit into....basically just like assembling a model kit in some ways,except that you have to build all the individual parts as well.
In Figure 8,we finally start to see the plan coming together!!!! The buttresses are VERY CAREFULLY attached to the facade. The bridging tabs and slots were filled with gesso and smoothed out. You can see the modification liberties I took with the bridging to adapt it to the piece. It turned out pretty satisfactory.....even if I say so myself!
Fig.9 - Top border finished
Figure 9 gives the finished product,gilded and painted! The windows are of the various times during the life of Christ.....from left to right, 1). Mary holding baby Jesus....2). Jesus walking on water in the storm reaching out to Peter....3). Judas preparing to betray Christ with a kiss.....4). Crucifixion.....5). The Ascension of Christ into Heaven. I have been asked before if the buttresses are strong,and I did a strength test by actually picking up the piece by each of the 6 buttresses.....everyone of them easily held the heavy piece up! Yes....it is very strong,and I have come to absolutely love acrylic gesso as a workable sculpting medium!
Fig.10 - Angled view of buttresses
In this photo(Fig.10),an angled view is shown to present the details of the bridging and how it is connected to the facade. If you look closely,you can also see the arch modifications. I tried to give it more of the full arched appearance rather than a small piece of an arch.You will no doubt notice that there are a few liberties taken with the designs. I did deviate a little here and there,but not to take away or add to it so much as to do enough to make it my own....if that makes any sense. Overall,it is a pretty close approximation to the pieces I used for inspiration,or close enough!
Fig.11 - Opposite view
Figure 11 is just a bit of an opposite view to present all sides. That is about it for this portion of the show,ladies and germs! I hope you are enjoying the articles at least a fraction as much as I am in writing them!!! It is also my hope that the works presented here provide some measure of inspiration and some helpful hints and tips for your own projects! Tune in next time when we will expand the border to include parts from the cathedrals of St. Chapelle and Koln....and really get a lesson in the use of an X-acto knife......same bat time,same bat channel!!!
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