Castle Quest - Reply to Topic

Forum:	Castles In General & Medieval History
Topic:	Looking for images of castle interiors

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T O P I C R E V I E W
lafolli Hi,
I am a CG artist and animator working on a project with a fantasy theme. I have been looking for books, images and web sites to use as source material to model an accurate castle, including interior architecture, with very little results. Can anyone point me to a place or places with some good images of castle interiors, preferably with some kind of floor plan included and period furniture. I would also be interested to hear of any book titles I should be looking for. I have not found much of anything in my library or bookstore but if there's something maybe on Amazon that would be a big help. So far I've been working mostly from my imagination and from a few scattered images I have been able to find, but I need a broader range of sources. If someone can help me I'll be glad to send you an image I create as a result of the materials I find.
Thanks!
Erik Schmidt What part of the castle are you intending to reproduce, if not all of it? From which area and period?
Needless to say, the interior style changed somewhat from 12th C. to the 17th C.
I'm sure many castle enthusiasts here could give you a good desciption of a typical castle interior, but don't forget, what we see inside a castle is what is left after years(centuries) of neglect or the creation of the last/current owner, not what it looked like in the MA.
Let us know in more detail what you are after and I'm sure we could help you out.
Erik
lafolli Forgive me, I'm woefully ignorant of historical terminology when it comes to specific periods. I'm mostly interested in high medieval, I'm guessing from about the 12th century through the 14th century. Any style is fine, I just need a variety of sources. My work will end up being a hybrid of several styles, I'm sure because it's not a strictly historical type of fantasy. But I don't want to be derivative of stuff that is hollywood-produced.
As far as parts of the castle I'm interested, probably halls, dungeons, keeps, battlements, living areas(bedrooms,etc.). If possible I'd like to do the whole thing but I'll take whatever I can get.
Thanks!
Erik Schmidt Hi lafolli,
I can give you information relating mostly to castles of S Europe, so it may not hold true for castles generally. If I get time to figure out how, I may post some scans of my interior photos, but time I haven't got spare at present.
OK! Battlements. Usually with just crennelations(which sometimes alternated with arrow slits)and sometimes also with machiolations. A wall walk behind the top part of the wall for defenders to walk along, varying in width from 1 to 4 feet. This was often open, but may have been covered over with a tile roof running the length of the wall(hard to reproduce the mass of supporting timbers on computer!)
Should be easy to find images on the web of this sort of thing.
Dungeons. From the French word Donjon, which means keep. You refer to places to keep prisoners. This was not a significant role of the castle, but some did have them purposely built(Much Hollywood hype). Mostly these consisted of the ground floor room in a tower with only a hole in the ceiling(being a stone vault) for access. Prisoners were lowered down by rope.
Check out this site for some good interior images, including a fabulous dungeon;
http://www.chillon.ch/
More later. Let me know if I'm on the right track or you need other aspects specifically, such as textures etc.
Erik
lafolli Thanks so much! Sounds like a lot of good info. BTW, here is a preliminary image I modeled based roughly on an image of (I think) Stokesay Castle in England. Tell me what you think. I've taken a few liberties with the interior by adding arches and a throne. I've also added two banners with a coat of arms but I'm not incredibly happy with the outer color; that will probably be changed. THis is going to end up as part of an animation I have been working on. http://www.speedsite.com/~lafolli/images/throneroom.jpg
duncan If i may add my two pence, The rafters would have more likely been of hammer beam type due to the width of the hall. The main frame work is alittle hard to make out due to the other parts, but if you look real close.
http://www.castlesontheweb.com/archive/files/Scottish_Castles/Hambeam.jpeg
The pillers you are useing are far too small in dia. and the base would have formed a part of the wall to where the timber frameing started. This is normal for many castles and cathedrals. Hope it helps.
Erik Schmidt The image of the hall is very odd to me. Firstly, the balcony running down both sides does not seem to have any support. In a real building this would have been integral with the columns. Apart from what Duncam said, the columns seem out of place as they stand beyond the balcony but are drawn as supporting the ends of the framework for the roofing. This is impossible!
What are the arched hollows. Windows or openings into an adjoining space? If windows, then they would often have seats built into the wall on each side. Loose the columns and some of the windows, support the balcony. If openings, then....well. You would be better off just copying a cathedral design, which would involve removing the wooden columns and balcony, support the roof members on the top of the wall and having stone columns supporting the wall between the arched openings, at least on the top level, thus producing your balcony. There are plenty of books on churches. The closest design to your hall would be a romanesque style, due to the roof.
Where in the castle is this hall. If it's in the keep, its wrong. Halls within keeps generally don't have side galleries or lots of windows and it would have to be a flat ceiling of closely spaced squared beams. This hall would need to be in a seperate building with no floors above, which is also fine.
Also, and you'll hate this, halls were often lavishly decorated, especially given yours has a throne. Lots of elaborate frescoes and/or wall hangings would be fine ! The ones next to the throne are great, but I think at least whitewash the internal walls. I also note the stonework runs in the wrong direction on the inside of some of the arched hollows. A point to note here. Arches need to be built with precision, so masons would use either brick, correctly shaped natural stone or larger, cut stones(eg sandstone) to build the arches as well as other critical areas such as corners, doorways, windows etc.
Have I punished you enough?
I'll leave you with that for now.
Erik
lafolli Thanks, Erik and Duncan, for your prompt responses and excellent advice. I'll definitely take all your suggestions for improving this scene. I appreciate the photo of the hammerbeams, Duncan.
Erik, the arched openings are supposed to lead to a gallery where commoners would be allowed to stand to attend court. The nobles would be allowed in the lower level with the king, duke, or whatever. Purely a product of my imagination. I'll gladly change that if it's historically incorrect.
Here's another image of the exterior of a castle, which I intended for the outdoor shots in this animation. This one I modeled from a photo I downloaded but I don't know the name of the castle because the site did not list it. I believe it is in England. It's pretty much exactly like the original as far as I could make it but I'm sure it could use some improvements.
http://www.speedsite.com/~lafolli/images/castle2.jpg
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Erik Schmidt Love the castle!
As for the hall, definitely loose the wooden columns and balcony. Churchs often had these galleries, usually only on the ground floor, but sometimes also on a second level. I can't tell you if this is period for a hall or not, but I haven't seen it! As Duncan said, some period roof supports would be good. I highly recommend the book "The Architecture of Europe" By Doreen Yarwood,(1974) Chancellor Press. It contains numerous line drawings of church interiors showing various wooden roofing structures, particularly in the "early christian and byzantine" and "pre-romanesque and romanesque" sections covering 4th - 15th c. It also has ground plans.
Personally, I wouldn't include the galleries if I wanted to be period. Galleries were common facing couryards in many European castles, especially in Italy.
I can't really recommend any great sources for castle interiors. To get the general layout of various rooms in a castle check out the floorplan links posted at this site. Once you get the feel for that, use any interior images you can find to help you fill in what the plans don't tell you.
I'll surf around and post any good links that I find.
Erik
lafolli Thanks so much, Erik! Feel free to download either of those pics if you like. I'll send both you and Duncan a pic of the hall when it's completed.