Sondergotik

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Sondergotik (German for "special Gothic") is the style of Late Gothic architecture prevalent in Austria, Bavaria, and Bohemia between 1350 and 1550. The term was invented by art historian Kurt Gerstenberg in his 1913 work Deutsche Sondergotik, in which he argued that the Late Gothic had a special expression in Germany (especially the south and the Rhine) marked by the use of the hall church or Hallenkirche.

The style was contemporaneous with several unique local styles of Gothic: the flamboyant in France, the perpendicular in England, the Manueline in Portugal, and the Isabelline in Spain. Like these, the Sondergotik showed an attention to detail both within and without. In many Sondergotik buildings, fluidity and a wood-like quality were stressed in carving and decoration. Outside, the buildings tended towards mass buttressing.

Among the most famous Sondergotik constructions is St Barbora Cathedral in Kutna Hora (modern Czech Republic), built by the Parlers, a family of masons.

[edit] Sources

• The Grove Dictionary of Art: Sondergotik.
• Cole, Emily (ed). The Grammar of Architecture. Bullfinch Press: 2002.