Gothic art was a style of Medieval art that developed in Northern France out of

Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the concurrent development of
Gothic architecture. It spread to all of Western Europe, never quite effacing more
classical styles in Italy. In the late 14th century, the sophisticated court style of
International Gothic developed, which continued to evolve until the late 15th
century. In many areas, especially Germany, Late Gothic art continued well into the
16th century, before being subsumed into Renaissance art. Primary media in the
Gothic period included sculpture, panel painting, stained glass, fresco and
illuminated manuscripts. The easily recognizable shifts in architecture from
Romanesque to Gothic, and Gothic to Renaissance styles, are typically used to
define the periods in art in all media, although in many ways figurative art
developed at a different pace.

The earliest Gothic art was monumental sculpture, on the walls of Cathedrals and
abbeys. Christian art was often typological in nature (see Medieval allegory),
showing the stories of the New Testament and the Old Testament side by side.
Saints' lives were often depicted. Images of the Virgin Mary changed from the
Byzantine iconic form to a more human and affectionate mother, cuddling her
infant, swaying from her hip, and showing the refined manners of a well-born
aristocratic courtly lady.

Secular art came into its own during this period with the rise of cities, foundation of
universities, increase in trade, the establishment of a money-based economy and
the creation of a bourgeois class who could afford to patronize the arts and
commission works resulting in a proliferation of paintings and illuminated
manuscripts. Increased literacy and a growing body of secular vernacular literature
encouraged the representation of secular themes in art. With the growth of cities,
trade guilds were formed and artists were often required to be members of a
painters' guildas a result, because of better record keeping, more artists are
known to us by name in this period than any previous; some artists were even so
bold as to sign their names.

Paintings

Painting[edit]

Simone Martini (12851344)

French late Gothic frescos

Painting in a style that can be called Gothic did not appear until about 1200, or
nearly 50 years after the origins of Gothic architecture and sculpture. The transition
from Romanesque to Gothic is very imprecise and not at all a clear break, and
Gothic ornamental detailing is often introduced before much change is seen in the

style of figures or compositions themselves. Then figures become more animated in

pose and facial expression, tend to be smaller in relation to the background of
scenes, and are arranged more freely in the pictorial space, where there is room.
This transition occurs first in England and France around 1200, in Germany around
1220 and Italy around 1300. Painting during the Gothic period was practiced in four
primary media: frescos, panel paintings, manuscript illumination and stained glass.

Frescoes[edit]
Frescoes continued to be used as the main pictorial narrative craft on church walls
in southern Europe as a continuation of early Christian and Romanesque traditions.
An accident of survival has given Denmark and Sweden the largest groups of
surviving church wall paintings in the Biblia pauperum style, usually extending up to
recently constructed cross vaults. In both Denmark and Sweden, they were almost
all covered with limewash after the Reformation which has preserved them, but
some have also remained untouched since their creation. Among the finest
examples from Denmark are those of the Elmelunde Master from the Danish island
of Mn who decorated the churches of Fanefjord, Keldby and Elmelunde.[9] Albertus
Pictor is arguably the most well-known fresco artist from the period working in
Sweden. Examples of Swedish churches with well-preserved frescos include Tensta,
Gkhem and Anga churches.

Stained glass[edit]
In northern Europe, stained glass was an important and prestigious form of painting
until the 15th century, when it became supplanted by panel painting. Gothic
architecture greatly increased the amount of glass in large buildings, partly to allow
for wide expanses of glass, as in rose windows. In the early part of the period mainly
black paint and clear or brightly coloured glass was used, but in the early 14th
century the use of compounds of silver, painted on glass which was then fired,
allowed a number of variations of colour, centred on yellows, to be used with clear
glass in a single piece. By the end of the period designs increasingly used large
pieces of glass which were painted, with yellows as the dominant colours, and
relatively few smaller pieces of glass in other colours.[10]

Manuscripts and printmaking[edit]

Illuminated manuscripts represent the most complete record of Gothic painting,
providing a record of styles in places where no monumental works have otherwise
survived. The earliest full manuscripts with French Gothic illustrations date to the
middle of the 13th century.[11] Many such illuminated manuscripts were royal

bibles, although psalters also included illustrations; the Parisian Psalter of Saint
Louis, dating from 1253 to 1270, features 78 full-page illuminations in tempera
paint and gold leaf.[12]

Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux, by Jean Pucelle, Paris, 1320s

During the late 13th century, scribes began to create prayer books for the laity,
often known as books of hours due to their use at prescribed times of the day.[12]
The earliest known example seems to have written for an unknown laywoman living
in a small village near Oxford in about 1240. Nobility frequently purchased such
texts, paying handsomely for decorative illustrations; among the most well-known
creators of these is Jean Pucelle, whose Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux was commissioned
by King Charles IV as a gift for his queen, Jeanne d'vreux.[13] Elements of the
French Gothic present in such works include the use of decorative page framing
reminiscent of the architecture of the time with elongated and detailed figures.[12]
The use of spatial indicators such as building elements and natural features such as
trees and clouds also denote the French Gothic style of illumination.[12]

From the middle of the 14th century, blockbooks with both text and images cut as
woodcut seem to have been affordable by parish priests in the Low Countries,
where they were most popular. By the end of the century, printed books with
illustrations, still mostly on religious subjects, were rapidly becoming accessible to
the prosperous middle class, as were engravings of fairly high-quality by
printmakers like Israhel van Meckenem and Master E. S.. In the 15th century, the
introduction of cheap prints, mostly in woodcut, made it possible even for peasants
to have devotional images at home. These images, tiny at the bottom of the
market, often crudely coloured, were sold in thousands but are now extremely rare,
most having been pasted to walls.

Altarpiece and panel painting[edit]

Painting with oil on canvas did not become popular until the 15th and 16th centuries
and was a hallmark of Renaissance art. In Northern Europe the important and
innovative school of Early Netherlandish painting is in an essentially Gothic style,
but can also be regarded as part of the Northern Renaissance, as there was a long
delay before the Italian revival of interest in classicism had a great impact in the
north. Painters like Robert Campin and Jan van Eyck, made use of the technique of
oil painting to create minutely detailed works, correct in perspective, where
apparent realism was combined with richly complex symbolism arising precisely

from the realistic detail they could now include, even in small works. In Early
Netherlandish painting, from the richest cities of Northern Europe, a new minute
realism in oil painting was combined with subtle and complex theological allusions,
expressed precisely through the highly detailed settings of religious scenes. The
Mrode Altarpiece (1420s) of Robert Campin, and the Washington Van Eyck
Annunciation or Madonna of Chancellor Rolin (both 1430s, by Jan van Eyck) are
examples.[14] For the wealthy, small panel paintings, even polyptychs in oil
painting were becoming increasingly popular, often showing donor portraits
alongside, though often much smaller than, the Virgin or saints depicted. These
were usually displayed in the home.

Sculpture[edit]
Monumental sculpture[edit]

French ivory Virgin and Child, end of the 13th century, 25 cm high, curving to fit the
shape of the ivory tusk
The Gothic period is essentially defined by Gothic architecture, and does not entirely
fit with the development of style in sculpture in either its start or finish. The facades
of large churches, especially around doors, continued to have large tympanums, but
also rows of sculpted figures spreading around them.

The statues on the Western (Royal) Portal at Chartres Cathedral (c. 1145) show an
elegant but exaggerated columnar elongation, but those on the south transept
portal, from 121520, show a more naturalistic style and increasing detachment
from the wall behind, and some awareness of the classical tradition. These trends
were continued in the west portal at Rheims Cathedral of a few years later, where
the figures are almost in the round, as became usual as Gothic spread across
Europe.[15] Bamberg Cathedral has perhaps the largest assemblage of 13th century
sculpture, culminating in 1240 with the Bamberg Rider, the first life-size equestrian
statue in Western art since the 6th century.

In Italy Nicola Pisano (125878) and his son Giovanni developed a style that is often
called Proto-Renaissance, with unmistakable influence from Roman sarcophagi and
sophisticated and crowded compositions, including a sympathetic handling of
nudity, in relief panels on their pulpit of Siena Cathedral (126568), the Fontana
Maggiore in Perugia, and Giovanni's pulpit in Pistoia of 1301.[16]

Another revival of classical style is seen in the International Gothic work of Claus
Sluter and his followers in Burgundy and Flanders around 1400.[17] Late Gothic
sculpture continued in the North, with a fashion for very large wooden sculpted
altarpieces with increasingly virtuoso carving and large numbers agitated
expressive figures; most surviving examples are in Germany, after much iconoclasm
elsewhere. Tilman Riemenschneider, Veit Stoss and others continued the style well
into the 16th century, gradually absorbing Italian Renaissance influences.[18]

Life-size tomb effigies in stone or alabaster became popular for the wealthy, and
grand multi-level tombs evolved, with the Scaliger Tombs of Verona so large they
had to be moved outside the church. By the 15th century there was an industry
exporting Nottingham alabaster altar reliefs in groups of panels over much of
Europe for economical parishes who could not afford stone retables.[19]

South portal of Chartres Cathedral (c. 1215-20)

West portal at Rheims Cathedral, Annunciation group

Nicola Pisano, Nativity and Adoration of the Magi from the pulpit of the Pisa
Baptistery

Claus Sluter, David and a prophet from the Well of Moses

Base of the Holy Thorn Reliquary, French (Paris), 1390s, a Resurrection of the Dead
in gold, enamel and gems

Man of Sorrows on the main portal of Ulm Mnster by Hans Multscher, 1429

Panelled altarpiece section with Resurrection of Christ, English Nottingham

alabaster, 145090, with remains of colour

Detail of the Last Supper from Tilman Riemenschneider's Altar of the Holy Blood,
150105, carved limewood, Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Bavaria
Portable sculpture[edit]

Lid of the Walters Casket, with the Siege of the Castle of Love at left, and jousting.
Paris, 1330-1350

Image of Cristo de La Laguna (Tenerife, Spain) from Flanders and dated between
1510-1514
Small carvings, for a mainly lay and often female market, became a considerable
industry in Paris and some other centres. Types of ivories included small devotional
polyptychs, single figures, especially of the Virgin, mirror-cases, combs, and
elaborate caskets with scenes from Romances, used as engagement presents.[20]
The very wealthy collected extravagantly elaborate jewelled and enamelled
metalwork, both secular and religious, like the Duc de Berry's Holy Thorn Reliquary,
until they ran short of money, when they were melted down again for cash.[21]

Gothic sculptures independent of architectural ornament were primarily created as

devotional objects for the home or intended as donations for local churches.,[22]
although small reliefs in ivory, bone and wood cover both religious and secular
subjects, and were for church and domestic use. Such sculptures were the work of
urban artisans, and the most typical subject for three dimensional small staues is
the Virgin Mary alone or with child.[23] Paris was the main centre of ivory
workshops, and exported to most of northern Europe, though Italy also had a

considerable production. An exemplar of these independent sculptures is among the

collections of the Abbey Church of St Denis; the silver-gilt Virgin and Child dates to
1339 and features Mary enveloped in a flowing cloak holding an infantile Christ
figure.[23] Both the simplicity of the cloak and the youth of the child presage other
sculptures found in northern Europe dating to the 14th century and early 15th
century.[23] Such sculpture shows an evolution from an earlier stiff and elongated
style, still partly Romanesque, into a spatial and naturalistic feel in the late 12th and
early 13th century.[23] Other French Gothic sculptural subjects included figures and
scenes from popular literature of the time.[23] Imagery from the poetry of the
troubadours was particularly popular among artisans of mirror-cases and small
boxes presumably for use by women.[23] The Casket with Scenes of Romances
(Walters 71264) of 1330-50 is an unusually large example with space for a number
of scenes from different literary sources.

Souvenirs of pilgrimages to shrines, such as clay or lead badges, medals and

ampullae stamped with images were also popular and cheap. Their secular
equivalent, the livery badge, were signs of feudal and political loyalty or alliance
that came to be regarded as a social menace in England under bastard feudalism.
The cheaper forms were sometimes given away free, as with the 13,000 badges
ordered in 1483 by King Richard III of England in fustian cloth with his emblem of a
white boar for the investiture of his son Edward as Prince of Wales,[24] a huge
number given the population at the time. The Dunstable Swan Jewel, modelled fully
in the round in enamelled gold, is a far more exclusive version, that would have
been given to someone very close or important to the donor.

arly Medieval Period: History

The early medieval period was marked by another wave of invasions, but this time
from within the Islamic world. New rulers, of varying ethnic backgrounds,
established short-lived regional dynasties, in contrast to the preceding period, in
which Arab leadership predominated and the Islamic world was united under the
centralized authority of the caliph. This was a time of political change, shifting
religious trends, and a great flowering of the arts.

With the deterioration of Abbasid authority, autonomous dynasties soon established

themselves in the western territories. In the early tenth century the Shicite Fatimid
dynasty came to power in North Africa and soon expanded its authority to Sicily and
parts of Egypt. The Fatimid armies completed their conquest of Egypt in 969, and in
that year Cairo was founded as the new capital, becoming an important cultural
center that was to rival Baghdad. From Egypt the Fatimids extended their domain to
Syria. Egypt and Syria enjoyed enormous economic prosperity under the Fatimids,
through their control of the lucrative trade between India and the Mediterranean.

Furthermore, this was a period of remarkable tolerance, in which members of the

Christian and Jewish communities flourished alongside their Muslim counterparts.

Fatimid power effectively ended in 1169, when, in an attempt to rid themselves of

the Crusaders, who were then besieging Cairo, the Fatimid rulers asked a Syrian
dynasty to come to their aid. Not only did the Syrians succeed in driving the
Crusaders from Egypt, but one of their officers overthrew the Fatimid caliphate,
establishing the Ayyubid dynasty.

In deposing the Shicite Fatimid caliph, the founder of the Ayyubid dynasty, Salah alDin (Saladin), who was of Kurdish descent, also restored Sunni, or orthodox, Islam to
Egypt. He expanded his empire to include Yemen, Syria, and Iraq, and, famously, he
managed to defeat the Crusader states in 1187. Following Salah al-Dins death, the
empire was little more than a confederation of semiautonomous principalities, each
ruled by one of the Ayyubid princes. This empire nonetheless enjoyed a period of
relative peace and affluence.

Elsewhere in the west, Spain had been independently governed from the mid-eighth
century by a branch of the Umayyad dynasty, under whose rule Islamic Spain
witnessed a golden age. With the fall of this dynasty in 1031, Spain was divided into
several minor principalities. Weakened by division, the Muslims were unable to
deflect the threat of the Christian reconquest. In 1086 a confederation of Berber
clans known as the Almoravids, who had risen to power in Morocco under the
banner of Islamic revival and renewal, crossed over into Spain, gaining control of
the Muslim south while keeping the Christians in the north at bay. About the midtwelfth century the Almoravids were supplanted in Morocco and, shortly thereafter,
in Spain by another Berber dynasty, the Almohads, who were soon forced from
Spain by the inexorable Christian advance.

On the borders of the eastern Islamic world, the large-scale migration of Turkish
nomads from the Central Asian steppe shifted the balance of power, and a series of
Turkish dynasts soon replaced Persians as rulers of the eastern Iranian world. The
first Turkish dynasty, the Ghaznavids, came to power in what is now Afghanistan.
The boundaries of the Ghaznavid empire eventually extended from Khurasan in the
north to the Indian Subcontinent in the south. Despite their Turkish origins, the
Ghaznavids spoke Persian, and their patronage helped further the development of
modern Persian as a cultural language. The great Iranian national epic, the
Shahnama, was completed by the poet Firdawsi at their court in Ghazni in 1010 and

was dedicated to their ruler. Soon after, the Ghaznavids forfeited their Iranian
provinces to another Turkish dynasty, the Saljuqs.

In the eleventh century the Saljuqs briefly ruled over a vast empire that included all
of Iran, the Fertile Crescent, and most of Anatolia, or Turkey. By the end of the
century, however, this empire had disintegrated into smaller kingdoms ruled by
different branches of the Saljuq house. The so-called Great Saljuqs, the main branch
of the dynasty, governed Iran. Like the Ghaznavids, these ethnic Turks embraced
Persian culture and adopted the Persian language.

Turkish rule in Asia Minor was initiated under the Saljuqs following their victory over
the Byzantine army in eastern Anatolia in 1071. This important event paved the way
for the gradual introduction of Islam and Turkish culture into Anatolia. The Saljuq
sultanate of Rum (that is, Byzantium) endured until the beginning of the fourteenth
century, although from the mid-thirteenth century the Saljuqs served merely as
governors under the Mongols.