Normandy's role in the development of the Flamboyant style: decoration, meaning, and exchange in Late Gothic architecture

This dissertation explores the significance of Norman Flamboyant architecture by considering its origins, its local meanings, and its place in the larger narratives of late medieval architectural history. This examination of Normandy's role in the development of the Flamboyant style includes a brief assessment of the historiography of the Late Gothic period, with emphasis on questions of regional and national identity. Since many elements of the Flamboyant style had been imported from the Decorated Style that developed in England, a country with which France was still at war when the Flamboyant began, the relationship between these traditions remains controversial even today. To address this controversy, this project examines the motivations of Norman patrons who employed these new forms in the context of the Hundred Years War, before going on to consider the later phases of the Flamboyant, adopted in Normandy after the expulsion of the English, and the demise of the style in the decades after 1500. By linking architectural form and social context, this work clarifies the history of Norman Gothic architecture and its cultural significance.