Proportion and Disproportion in the Late Gothic Layout of the Charterhouse of Jerez (Cádiz, Spain)

Abstract

The construction of a large and complex monastery such as the Charterhouse of Jerez required a precise geometric plan, the layout, which once deployed on the ground becomes the shape control system of the construction process. The basic geometric figure that supports the layout is the square and the variations derived from the ratio between its side and its diagonal. This paper presents the graphic definition of this geometric layout and analyses its persistence over more than three centuries of architectural evolution (fifteenth through eighteenth centuries). During this lengthy process, it has been possible to characterise how the rigour of geometric abstraction, the natural conditions of the ground on which the monastery was founded, and the functional and symbolic demands of the Carthusian order have been balanced. Likewise, there has been an analysis of the situations in which disproportion is imposed: the alteration or abandonment of the geometric plan. These undesirable situations reveal the imposition of existing conditions and the evolution of artistic concepts.