Gothic art

movement c. 1140-1500 France Europe

Gothic art arose in the Ile-de-France in the 1140s, when Abbot Suger rebuilt the choir of the abbey of Saint-Denis to let light pour through colored glass, and it dominated European art until the Renaissance, roughly 1140 to 1500. Architecture was its driving art: pointed arches, rib vaults and flying buttresses carried weight outward and dissolved the wall into glass at Chartres, Reims, Amiens and hundreds of lesser churches. Sculpture stepped out of the columns and grew steadily more natural; stained glass and illuminated manuscripts carried the style into intimate scale, and panel painting flowered in Italy with Duccio and Giotto. The style was never monolithic: Sienese elegance, French classicism, English Decorated and German Sondergotik all count as Gothic, and its late phase merges into the courtly International Gothic and the painting of van Eyck.

Central tympanum, cathedral of Chartres, France
Central tympanum, cathedral of Chartres, FranceCC BY-SA 2.5 (credit: Cancre) · source

Defining characteristics

  • Pointed arches, ribbed vaults and flying buttresses that open the wall into windows
  • Interiors veiled in colored light from stained glass on a vast scale
  • Sculpture that detaches from architecture: standing figures with individual faces and modeled drapery
  • Typological and narrative programs: portals, windows and choir stalls as visual theology
  • Elegant elongated figures and rich pattern in painting and manuscript illumination
  • Regional inflections: French classicism, Sienese grace, English Decorated, German Sondergotik

Key figures

  • Abbot Suger (c. 1081-1151) — Abbot of Saint-Denis whose choir rebuilding (consecrated 1144) launched Gothic art and architecture
  • Duccio (c. 1255-1319) — Sienese painter whose Maestà fused Gothic elegance with new naturalism
  • Simone Martini (c. 1284-1344) — Sienese master of the courtly International Gothic (Annunciation, 1333)
  • Gentile da Fabriano (c. 1370-1427) — Painter of the sumptuous International Gothic (Adoration of the Magi, 1423)
  • Claus Sluter (c. 1340-1406) — Burgundian sculptor whose realism (Well of Moses) defined late Gothic sculpture

Example works

Sources

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