13 Facts About Gothic painting

Gothic painting 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 painting architecture.

In many areas, especially Germany, Late Gothic painting 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.

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

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

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

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

Artists like Giotto, Fra Angelico and Pietro Lorenzetti in Italy, and Early Netherlandish Gothic painting, brought realism and a more natural humanity to art.

The transition from Romanesque to Gothic painting is very imprecise and not at all a clear break, and Gothic painting 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.

Gothic painting period is essentially defined by Gothic painting architecture, and does not entirely fit with the development of style in sculpture in either its start or finish.

Late Gothic painting 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.