Rayonnant

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Rayonnant

Rayonnant is a term used to describe a period in the French Gothic architectural style circa 1240-1350. Following from High Gothic, Rayonnant buildings took the ideas underpinning the French Gothic movement to their most accomplished level. In other schemes of the history of Gothic, Rayonnant comes after "lancet Gothic". After about 1350, the Late Gothic, Flamboyant

Flamboyant

Flamboyant is the name given to a florid style of late Gothic architecture architecture in vogue in France, Spain and Portugal during the 15th century; the equivalent period in English architecture is called Perpendicular architecture, and in Germany the Sondergotik....
style followed.

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture

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Flamboyant

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture which flourished during the high and late Middle Ages. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
is characterized by light and Rayonnant takes this to the extreme with buildings being so transparent that they appear lace-like from the exterior. The viewer can see through the walls of the building at many different perspectives. A famous example of Rayonnant architecture is La Sainte-Chapelle

Sainte-Chapelle

La Sainte-Chapelle is a Gothic architecture chapel on the ?le de la Cit? in the heart of Paris, France. It is perhaps the high point of the full tide of the Rayonnant period of Gothic architecture....
in Paris

Paris

Paris is the Capital of France and the country's largest city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the ?le-de-France Regions of France ....
. This chapel was built for Louis IX

Louis IX of France

Louis IX , commonly Saint Louis, was List of French monarchs from 1226 to his death. He was also Counts of Artois from 1226 to 1237. Born at Poissy, near Paris, he was a member of the House of Capet and the son of Louis VIII of France and Blanche of Castile....
's personal use, and while the lower story is quite enclosed, the second story is almost entirely glazed.

Some sources derive the term from the chapels spreading from the apse

Apse

In architecture, the apse is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical Vault . In Romanesque architecture, Byzantine architecture and Gothic architecture Christian abbey, cathedral and church architecture, the term is applied to the semi-circular or polygonal section of the sanctuary at the liturgical east end beyond the altar....
that are typical of the style; others from the tracery of rose window

Rose window

A Rose window is often used as a generic term applied to a circular window, but is especially used for those found in churches of the Gothic architecture and being divided into segments by stone mullions and tracery....
s, also typical of Gothic

Gothic architecture

Cathedral

A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop. It is a Religion building for worship, specifically of a denomination with an episcopal hierarchy, such as the Roman Catholic Church, Anglicanism, Orthodox Christian and some Lutheranism churches, which serves as a bishop's seat, and thus as the central church of a dioc...
s. In ideal gothic aesthetics, the petals of the rose radiate from the center of the window, thus the term "rayonnant" (from the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken around the world by around 80 million people as first language, by 190 million as second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired tongue, with significant speakers in 54 countries....
word meaning "to radiate").