Gothic Locks: Pioneering Drawings for Hydraulic Works in 16th-Century Holland

Just as Gothic cathedrals have long dominated the perception of medieval architecture, the spectacular drawings of the German lodges have shaped our view of the medieval design process. However, their towering importance has diverted scholarly attention from alternative drafting practices and reinforced the view of a homogeneous Gothic design practice based on quadrature. Historians generally accept that in the 16th century a new Renaissance graphic language challenged and ultimately replaced the Gothic tradition north of the Alps. However, this antagonistic narrative of one dominant practice superseding the other needs to be re-examined because hitherto neglected drawings for other types of buildings reveal that medieval drafting practice was more varied and open to new developments than is often believed. This paper will examine three rare sets of architectural drawings, together consisting of over thirty sheets, made for three stone sluices in the provinces of Utrecht and Holland between 1556 and 1563. They show that for technically demanding hydraulic works, drawings directed every step of the process, from enabling discussion of the most suitable design to guiding the stonemasons in the execution of the work. Moreover, they demonstrate that for such projects, Gothic masters did not adhere to tradition but engaged with new design methods, using scale, colour, and multiple views to convey all aspects of the project, thus indicating that changes in style and method were not always interrelated.