12 Facts About Gothic art

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.

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 art period included sculpture, panel painting, stained glass, fresco and illuminated manuscripts.

Christian Gothic art was often typological in nature, showing the stories of the New Testament and the Old Testament side by side.

Gothic art emerged in Ile-de-France, France, in the early 12th century at the Abbey Church of St Denis built by Abbot Suger.

Related searches

The style rapidly spread beyond its origins in architecture to sculpture, both monumental and personal in size, textile Gothic art, and painting, which took a variety of forms, including fresco, stained glass, the illuminated manuscript, and panel painting.

Regional variations of architecture remained important, even when, by the late 14th century, a coherent universal style known as International Gothic art had evolved, which continued until the late 15th century, and beyond in many areas.

Gothic art was often typological in nature, reflecting a belief that the events of the Old Testament pre-figured those of the New, and that this was indeed their main significance.

The Gothic period coincided with a great resurgence in Marian devotion, in which the visual arts played a major part.

The transition from Romanesque to Gothic art is very imprecise and not at all a clear break, and Gothic art ornamental detailing is often introduced before much change is seen in the style of figures or compositions themselves.

In Northern Europe the important and innovative school of Early Netherlandish painting is in an essentially Gothic style, but can 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.

Late Gothic art 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.