Gothic Art

In the fine arts, the term 'Gothic' denotes the style of public art (principally architectural) produced in Europe from the Medieval era up to the beginning of the Renaissance in about 1400. Profoundly religious, it flourished initially in the Ile de France and surrounding region in the period 1200-1270, and then spread throughout northern Europe.

During the late 14th and early 15th centuries, it fused with Italian art to produce a more secular style, called International Gothic, as it spread across Burgundy, Bohemia and northern Italy. Among famous medieval artists in the pure Gothic style were Giovanni Pisano (1245-1314) and Simone Martini (1285-1344).

The great Gothic cathedral of
Notre Dame de Paris.

The chief hallmark of Gothic art was its unique integration of the arts of sculpture, painting, stained glass and architecture, in the great cathedrals of Chartres, Amiens, Reims and Notre Dame de Paris. The planar forms of the previous Romanesque style were replaced by a new focus on line, and its soaring arches and buttresses permitted the opening up of walls for unprecedently huge windows filled with beautifully translucent holy images, far surpassing anything that murals or mosaic art had to offer. All this created an evocative humanistic atmosphere quite different from the earlier Romanesque movement. (See also: Stained Glass Art: Materials & Methods).

For a review of the "plastic arts" of the time, see: Gothic Sculpture. For regional variations, see: English Gothic sculpture and German Gothic sculpture.

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For the Top 300 oils, watercolours
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Most importantly, Gothic cathedrals and stained glass lent powerful tangible weight to the growing power of the Church in Rome. This not only inspired the public, as well as its secular leaders - an important feature especially during times of hardship, such as the Black Death which killed 30 percent of Europe's population during the second half of the 14th century - it firmly established the connection between religion and art, which was one of the foundations of the Early Renaissance.

• For other art movements and periods, see: History of Art.
• For styles of painting and sculpture in Ireland, see: Irish Art Encyclopedia.