Mapping Gothic France

mgf

Mapping Gothic France was a five-year web-based project undertaken with Stephen Murray at Columbia University. The project was funded through the generosity of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and developed within the framework of collaboration between the Department of Art at Vassar College, the Media Center for Art History in the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Columbia University and the Columbia University Libraries.

Whereas pictures can be satisfactorily represented in two dimensions in a book or on a computer screen, space—especially Gothic space—demands a different approach, one which embraces not only the architectonic volume but also time and narrative. Our intention has been not just to develop a more appropriate way of representing the spaciousness of individual monuments, but also to provide the user of the site with new ways to understand the relationship of hundreds of buildings conventionally described as “Gothic.”