View source for Gothic art

{{Short description|Style of medieval art}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2020}}
{{Infobox art movement
| name = Gothic art
|image = {{photomontage
|photo1a= Cenral tympanum Chartres.jpg
|photo2a= Sainte Chapelle Interior Stained Glass.jpg
|photo3a= Anonimo inglese o francese, dittico wilton, 1395-99 ca. 01.jpg
|size = 250
|color_border = #AAAAAA
|color = #F9F9F9
}}
| caption = Top: The Western (Royal) Portal of the [[Chartres Cathedral]] ({{circa|1145}}), these architectural statues being the earliest Gothic sculptures and a revolution in style and the model for a generation of sculptors; Centre: The [[Sainte-Chapelle]] from Paris (1194–1248); Bottom: The [[Wilton Diptych]] (1395–1459)
| yearsactive = Late 12th century-16th century
|location = [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] Europe
|commons =yes
}}
'''Gothic art''' was a style of [[medieval art]] that developed in Northern France out of [[Romanesque art]] in the 12th century, led by the concurrent development of [[Gothic architecture]]. It spread to all of [[Western Europe]], and much of [[Northern Europe|Northern]], [[Southern Europe|Southern]] and [[Central 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 manuscript]]s. The easily recognisable 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 [[typology (theology)|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 [[Mary, the mother of Jesus|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, [[Medieval university|foundation of universities]], increase in trade, the establishment of a money-based economy and the creation of a [[bourgeois]] class who could afford to patronise the arts and commission works, resulting in a proliferation of paintings and illuminated manuscripts. Increased literacy and a growing body of [[Medieval literature|secular vernacular literature]] encouraged the representation of secular themes in art. With the growth of cities, trade [[guild]]s were formed and artists were often required to be members of a [[painters' guild]]. As 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.

==Origins==
[[Image:Torun SS Johns Mary Magdalene.jpg|thumb|14th Century [[International Gothic]] [[Mary Magdalene]] in [[Toruń Cathedral|St. Johns' Cathedral]] in [[Toruń]], Poland]]
Gothic art emerged in [[Île-de-France]], France,<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Espagne
 |first1               = Michel
 |editor-last1         = Kaufmann
 |editor-first1        = Thomas DaCosta
 |editor-last2         = Dossin
 |editor-first2        = Catherine
 |editor-last3         = Joyeux-Prunel
 |editor-first3        = Béatrice
 |date                 = 3 March 2016
 |orig-date            = 2015
 |chapter              = Cultural Transfers in Art History
 |title                = Circulations in the Global History of Art
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=5F-rCwAAQBAJ
 |series               = Studies in Art Historiography
 |edition              = reprint
 |publication-place    = London
 |publisher            = Routledge
 |page                 = 107
 |isbn                 = 9781317166153
 |access-date          = 26 May 2025
 |quote                = In the ambient nationalism of the late nineteenth century, the question of the origins of Gothic art was fundamental. [[Wilhelm Vöge|Vöge]] [...] sought to show that French monumental sculpture, which took up in the Ile de France models elaborated in Arles or Moissac, had nothing Germanic about it, but was on the contrary the expression of a French movement in art history.
}}
</ref>
in the early 12th century, at the [[Abbey Church of St Denis]] built by [[Abbot Suger]].<ref name="stokstad 516">Stokstad (2005), 516.</ref>
Thomas O'Hagan speculates on Lombard, Frankish and Norse influences feeding into Gothic.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = O'Hagan
 |first1               = Thomas
 |year                 = 1924
 |title                = With Staff and Scrip
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=k74tgFx_Iu4C
 |publication-place    = Toronto
 |publisher            = Ryerson Press
 |page                 = 59
 |access-date          = 26 May 2025
 |quote                = There were many agencies that contributed to the creation of Gothic art. The physical vitality of the new art epoch was derived from the blood of Lombards, Franks and Norsemen.
}}
</ref>
[[Wilhelm Worringer]]'s ''Form in the Gothic'' ({{langx | de | Formprobleme der Gotik}}, 1911) traces the psychological roots of the style back into the past at least as far as the [[Migration Period art|Migration period]].<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Worringer
 |first1               = Wilhelm
 |author-link1         = Wilhelm Worringer
 |editor-last1         = Read
 |editor-first1        = Herbert Edward
 |editor-link1         = Herbert Read
 |translator-last1     = Read
 |translator-first1    = Herbert Edward
 |translator-link1     = Herbert Read
 |year                 = 1927
 |orig-date            = 1911
 |chapter              = The Latent Gothic in Early Northern Ornament
 |title                = Form in Gothic
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=IeRLAQAAIAAJ
 |series               = Fine art library
 |edition              = 5
 |publication-place    = London
 |publisher            = Putnam
 |pages                = 38–39
 |access-date          = 10 August 2025
 |quote                = [...] when the psychologist of style [...] has once grasped the basic character of the Gothic will to form, he can detect this will to form as being active underground, as it were, even where, obstructed by more powerful conditions and hindered in its free expansion, it assumes a foreign disguise. He recognizes that this Gothic will to form dominates, not externally, but internally, Romanesque art, Merovingian art, and the art of the Migration period, in short the whole course of Northern and Central European art. [...] the art of the entire Western world, in so far as it had no direct share in antique Mediterranean culture, was in its inmost essence Gothic and remained so until the Renaissance [...].
}}
</ref>

== History ==
The style rapidly spread beyond its early manifestations in architecture to sculpture (both [[monumental sculpture|monumental]] and personal in size), to textile art, and to painting, which took a variety of forms, including [[fresco]], [[stained glass]], the [[illuminated manuscript]], and [[panel painting]].<ref name="stokstad 544">Stokstad (2005), 544.</ref> [[Monastic order]]s, especially the [[Cistercian]]s and the [[Carthusian]]s, commissioned many important ecclesiastical buildings, disseminating the style and developing distinctive variants of it across Europe. [[Cathedral architecture of Western Europe|Regional variations]] of architecture remained important, even when, by the late-14th century, a coherent universal style {{--}} which [[Louis Courajod]] (1841–1896) dubbed "[[International Gothic]]" {{--}} had evolved, which continued until the late-15th century (and beyond in many areas).

Although artists of the Gothic period produced far more secular works than are often known today, generally the survival rate of religious art has been better than for secular equivalents, and a large proportion of the art from the period was religious, whether commissioned by the church or by the laity.
Gothic art was often [[Typology (theology)|typological]] in nature, reflecting a belief that the events of the [[Old Testament]] pre-figured those of the [[New Testament|New]], and that this was indeed their main significance. Old and New Testament scenes appeared side-by-side in works like the ''[[Speculum Humanae Salvationis]]'' of the early-14th century, and in the decoration of churches. The Gothic period coincided with a great resurgence in [[Marian devotion]], in which the visual arts played a major part. Images of the [[Virgin Mary]] developed from the Byzantine hieratic types, through the [[Coronation of the Virgin]], to more human and intimate types, and cycles of the ''[[Life of the Virgin]]'' were very popular. Artists like [[Giotto]] ({{circa | 1267}} – 1337), [[Fra Angelico]] ({{circa | 1395}} – 1455) and [[Pietro Lorenzetti]] ({{circa | 1280}} – 1348) in Italy, and [[Early Netherlandish painting]], all brought realism and more natural humanity to art. Western European artists, and their patrons, became much more confident in innovative [[iconography]], and much more originality developed, although most artists still followed copied formulae.{{No source|date=January 2025}}
 
Iconography was affected by changes in theology, with depictions of the [[Assumption of Mary]] gaining ground on the older [[Death of the Virgin]] theme, and in devotional practices such as the [[Devotio Moderna]], which produced new treatments of Christ in subjects such as the [[Man of Sorrows]], [[Pensive Christ]] and [[Pietà]], which emphasised his human suffering and vulnerability, in a parallel movement to that in depictions of the Virgin. Even in [[Last Judgment (disambiguation)#Art|''Last Judgements'']] Christ was now usually shown exposing his chest to show the wounds of his [[Passion of Christ|Passion]]. Saints appeared more frequently, and [[altarpiece]]s showed saints relevant to the particular church or donor in attendance on a [[Crucifixion]] or on an enthroned [[Virgin and Child]], or occupying the central space themselves (this usually for works designed for side-chapels). During the Gothic period many ancient iconographical features that originated in [[New Testament apocrypha]] {{--}} like the [[Nativity of Jesus in art#Byzantine image|midwives at the Nativity]] {{--}} were gradually eliminated under clerical pressure, though others had become too well-established, and were considered harmless.<ref>
[[Émile Mâle]], ''The Gothic Image, Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century'', pp. 165–8, English trans of 3rd edn, 1913, Collins, London (and many other editions) — a classic work on French Gothic church art.
</ref>

==Etymology==
[[Image:(Toulouse) Mon seul désir (La Dame à la licorne) - Musée de Cluny Paris.jpg|thumb|right|''[[The Lady and the Unicorn]]'', the title given to a series of six [[tapestry|tapestries]] woven in [[Flanders]], this one being called ''À Mon Seul Désir''; late 15th century; wool and silk; 377 x 473 cm; [[Musée de Cluny]], Paris]]
{{Further|Name of the Goths}}
The word "[[Gothic (disambiguation)|Gothic]]" for art was initially used as a synonym for "[[Barbaric]]", and was therefore used pejoratively.<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.britannica.com/art/Gothic-art|title=Gothic art|work=Encyclopedia Britannica|access-date=2017-06-22|language=en}}</ref> Its critics saw this type of Medieval art as unrefined and too remote from the aesthetic proportions and shapes of [[Classical art]].<ref name="books.google.com">{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dBIfYTsM3rAC&pg=PA275|title=History of Architecture Super Review|publisher=Research & Education Assoc.|isbn=978-0-7386-6996-0|language=en}}</ref> [[Renaissance]] authors believed that the [[Sack of Rome (410)|Sack of Rome]] by the [[Goths|Gothic tribes]] in 410 had triggered the demise of the Classical world and all the values they held dear. In the 15th century, various Italian architects and writers complained that the new "barbarian" styles filtering down from north of the Alps posed a similar threat to the classical revival promoted by the early Renaissance.<ref>E. S. de Beer, ''Gothic: Origin and Diffusion of the Term; The Idea of Style in Architecture'' in ''Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes'', Vol.11, 1948, pp. 143–62</ref>

The "Gothic" qualifier for this art movement was first used in [[Raphael]]'s letter to [[Pope Leo X]] {{Circa|1518}} and was subsequently popularised by the Italian artist and writer [[Giorgio Vasari]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Vasari|first=Giorgio|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SMoC-XOUWewC&pg=PA135|title=Vasari on Technique. Being the Introduction to the Three Arts of Design, Architecture, Sculpture and Painting, Prefixed to the Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects|date=1960-01-01|publisher=Dover Publications|isbn=978-0-486-20717-9|language=en}}</ref> who used it as early as 1530, calling Gothic art a "monstrous and barbarous" "disorder".<ref>''The art of the sublime: principles of Christian art and architecture'' by Roger Homan p. 70 [https://books.google.com/books?id=K-UZMVXHU_QC&pg=PA70]</ref> Raphael claimed that the pointed arches of northern architecture were an echo of the primitive huts the Germanic forest dwellers formed by bending trees together – a myth which would resurface much later in a more positive sense in the writings of the German [[Romanticism|Romantic]] movement. "Gothic art" was strongly criticised by French authors such as [[Nicolas Boileau-Despréaux|Boileau]], [[Jean de La Bruyère|La Bruyère]], [[Rousseau]], before becoming a recognised form of art, and the wording becoming fixed.<ref name="books.google.com"/> [[Molière]] would famously comment on Gothic:
<blockquote><poem>
The besotted taste of Gothic monuments,
These odious monsters of ignorant centuries,
Which the torrents of barbary spewed forth.<ref name="books.google.com"/>
</poem></blockquote>

In its beginning, Gothic art was initially called "French work" (''Opus Francigenum''), thus attesting to the priority of France in the creation of this style.<ref name="books.google.com"/>{{failed verification|date=January 2025}}

==Painting==
[[Image:Simone Martini 072.jpg|thumb|right|[[Simone Martini]] (1285–1344)]]
Painting in the Gothic style did not exist until around 1200, over 50 years after the beginnings 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: [[fresco]]s, [[panel painting]]s, [[manuscript illumination]] and [[stained glass]].{{No source|date=January 2025}}

===Frescos===
Frescos 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 [[Church frescos in Denmark|has given Denmark]] and [[Church frescos in Sweden|Sweden]] the largest groups of surviving church wall paintings in the [[Biblia pauperum]] style, usually extending up to recently constructed [[cross vault]]s. In both Denmark and Sweden, they were almost all covered with limewash after the [[Reformation in Denmark|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 [[Møn]] who decorated the churches of [[Fanefjord Church|Fanefjord]], [[Keldby Church|Keldby]] and [[Elmelunde Church|Elmelunde]].<ref>[http://www.natmus.dk/cons/walls/chrchpnt.htm Kirsten Trampedach: Introduction to Danish Wall Paintings – Conservation Ethics and Methods of Treatment. National Museum of Denmark] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091124021603/http://www.natmus.dk/cons/walls/chrchpnt.htm |date=24 November 2009 }}. Retrieved 6 September 2009.</ref> [[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 Church|Tensta]], [[Gökhem Church|Gökhem]] and [[Anga Church, Gotland|Anga]] churches.{{No source|date=January 2025}}

===Stained glass===
[[File:Stained Glass Panel with the Visitation MET DT249934.jpg|thumb|Part of German [[stained glass]] panel of 1444 with the ''[[Visitation (Christianity)|Visitation]]''; pot metal of various colours, including white glass, black vitreous paint, yellow silver stain, and the "olive-green" parts are enamel.  The plant patterns in the red sky are formed by scratching away black paint from the red glass before firing.  A restored panel with new lead cames]]
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 window]]s. 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.<ref>Coe, 8–11</ref>

===Manuscripts and printmaking===
{{main|Gothic book illustration}}
[[File:Pucelle.jpg|thumb|[[Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux]], by [[Jean Pucelle]], Paris, 1320s]]
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.<ref name="stokstad 540">Stokstad (2005), 540.</ref> Many such illuminated manuscripts were royal bibles, although [[psalter]]s 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.<ref name="stokstad 541">Stokstad (2005), 541.</ref>

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.<ref name="stokstad 541"/> Among the earliest is an example by [[William de Brailes]] that seems to have been written for an unknown laywoman living in a [[North Hinksey|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 of France|Charles IV]] as a gift for his queen, [[Jeanne d'Évreux]].<ref name="stokstad 542">Stokstad (2005), 542.</ref> 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.<ref name="stokstad 541"/> 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.<ref name="stokstad 541"/>

From the middle of the 14th century, [[blockbook]]s with both text and images cut as woodcut seem to have been affordable by [[priest|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 [[engraving]]s of fairly high quality by [[printmaker]]s like [[Israhel van Meckenem]] and [[Master E. S.]] In the 15th century, the introduction of cheap [[old master print|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.{{No source|date=January 2025}}

===Altarpiece and panel painting===
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 [[Mérode Altarpiece]] (1420s) of [[Robert Campin]] and the [[Annunciation (van Eyck, Washington)|Washington Van Eyck Annunciation]] or [[Madonna of Chancellor Rolin]] (both 1430s, by [[Jan van Eyck]]) are examples.<ref>Lane, Barbara G,''The Altar and the Altarpiece, Sacramental Themes in Early Netherlandish Painting'', Harper & Row, 1984, {{ISBN|0-06-430133-8}} analyses all these works in detail. See also the references in the articles on the works.</ref> For the wealthy, small [[panel painting]]s, even [[polyptych]]s in [[oil painting]] were becoming increasingly popular, often showing [[donor portrait]]s alongside, though often much smaller than the Virgin or saints depicted. These were usually displayed in the home.{{No source|date=January 2025}}

==Sculpture==
{{Main|Gothic sculpture}}

===Monumental sculpture===
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]] ({{Circa|1145}}) show an elegant but exaggerated columnar elongation, but those on the south [[transept]] portal, from 1215–20, 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 [[Reims Cathedral]] of a few years later, where the figures are almost in the round, as became usual as Gothic spread across Europe.<ref>Honour and Fleming, 297–300; Henderson, 55, 82–84</ref> [[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 the Gospel of Gothic was preached from pulpits not from tympana, and the unit of the sculptor's thinking was an autonomous, self-consistent work of art"'' ([[John Pope-Hennessy]]).<ref>Pope-Hennessy, 11</ref>
[[Nicola Pisano]] (1258–78) and his son [[Giovanni Pisano|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 marble relief panels on Nicola's [[Pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery]] (signed 1260), both their [[Siena Cathedral Pulpit|pulpit of Siena Cathedral (1265–68)]], the [[Fontana Maggiore]] in [[Perugia]], and Giovanni's [[Pulpit by Giovanni Pisano in Sant'Andrea, Pistoia|pulpit in Pistoia]] of 1301.<ref>Olson, 11–24; Honour and Fleming, 304; Henderson, 41</ref>

Another revival of classical style is seen in the [[International Gothic]] work of [[Claus Sluter]] and his followers in [[Burgundy (historical region)|Burgundy]] and [[Flanders]] around 1400.<ref>Snyder, 65–69</ref> 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. Later works in [[Tilia|limewood]], specific to the [[Upper Rhine]] and [[Bavaria]] in southern Germany, executed by the huge workshop of [[Tilman Riemenschneider]] or by [[Veit Stoss]] were oftentimes without any [[Polychrome|polychromy]]. The style was continued well into the 16th century, gradually absorbing Italian Renaissance influences, with most surviving examples still in their original location, after much iconoclasm elsewhere.<ref>Snyder, 305–311; [[Michael Baxandall]], ''The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany,'' New Haven, London: Yale University Press, 1980.</ref>

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.<ref>[http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/bbchistory/object_text07.htm][[V&A Museum]]<span> feature on the Nottingham alabaster </span>''Swansea Altarpiece''</ref>
{{Clear}}
<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:Chartres cathedral 023 martyrs S TTaylor.JPG|South portal of [[Chartres Cathedral]] ({{circa|1215}}–20).
File:Reims6.jpg|West portal at [[Reims Cathedral]], [[Annunciation]] group.
File:Pisa.Baptistery.pulpit02.jpg|[[Nicola Pisano]], ''Nativity'' and ''[[Adoration of the Magi]]'' from the [[pulpit in the Pisa Baptistery]], 1260.
Image:Claus Sluter (1350-1406) Mozesput Champmol Daniël en Jesaja 23-10-2016 15-15-46.JPG|[[Claus Sluter]], [[Daniel (biblical figure)|Daniel]] and [[Jesaiah]] from the ''[[Well of Moses]],'' 1350–1406.
File:Holy Thorn Reliquary base.jpg|Base of the [[Holy Thorn Reliquary]], French (Paris), 1390s, a ''Resurrection of the Dead'' in gold, [[Vitreous enamel|enamel]] and [[Gemstone|gems]].
Image:Ulm Münster Westportal Schmerzensmann 01.jpg|[[Man of Sorrows]] (copy) on the main portal of [[Ulm Münster]] by [[Hans Multscher]], 1429.
File:English - Resurrection - Walters 27308.jpg|Panelled altarpiece section with ''[[Resurrection of Christ]]'', English [[Nottingham alabaster]], 1450–90, with remains of [[Polychrome|paint]].
Image:France Strasbourg Magi.jpg|Later Gothic depiction of the [[Adoration of the Magi]] from [[Strasbourg Cathedral]].
File:Rothenburg ob der Tauber 2011 St Jakob 002.JPG|Detail of the [[Last Supper]] from [[Tilman Riemenschneider]]'s ''Altar of the Holy Blood'', 1501–05, carved [[limewood]], [[Rothenburg ob der Tauber]], [[Bavaria]].
</gallery>

===Portable sculpture===
[[File:French - Casket with Scenes of Romances - Walters 71264 - Top.jpg|thumb|350px|Lid of the [[Casket with Scenes of Romances (Walters 71264)|Walters Casket]], with the ''Siege of the Castle of Love'' at left, and [[jousting]]. Paris, 1330–1350]]
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 [[polyptych]]s, [[Virgin and Child from the Sainte-Chapelle|single figures, especially of the Virgin]], mirror-cases, combs, and [[Casket with Scenes of Romances (Walters 71264)|elaborate caskets with scenes from Romances]], used as engagement presents.<ref>Calkins, 193–198</ref> 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.<ref>Cherry, 25–48; Henderson, 134–141</ref>
[[File:Ivory adoration crucifixion MRR424.jpg|thumb|Ivory diptych, with some of the coloured paint remaining. ''Adoration of the Magi'' and ''Crucifixion''. [[Meuse]] valley, France, {{circa|1350}}]]
Gothic sculptures independent of architectural ornament were primarily created as devotional objects for the home or intended as donations for local churches,<ref name="stokstad 537">Stokstad (2005), 537.</ref> although small [[relief]]s in [[ivory]], bone and wood cover both religious and secular subjects, and were for church and domestic use. These sculptures were created by urban artisans, and the most common theme for three-dimensional small statues is the Virgin Mary alone or with a child.<ref name="stokstad 539">Stokstad (2005), 539.</ref> 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.<ref name="stokstad 539"/> 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.<ref name="stokstad 539"/> 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.<ref name="stokstad 539"/> Other French Gothic sculptural subjects included figures and scenes from popular literature of the time.<ref name="stokstad 539"/> Imagery from the poetry of the [[troubadour]]s was particularly popular among artisans of mirror-cases and small boxes presumably for use by women.<ref name="stokstad 539"/> 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 [[pilgrim badge|badges]], medals and [[ampullae]] stamped with images were also popular and cheap. Their secular equivalent, the [[livery badge]], showed 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 of Middleham, Prince of Wales|Edward]] as Prince of Wales,<ref>Cherry (2003), 204</ref> 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.

== See also ==
{{portal|art}}
{{commons}}
{{commons|Gothic painters}}

* [[Blackletter]] (also known as ''Gothic script'')
* [[Church frescos in Denmark]]
* [[Church frescos in Sweden]]
* [[Danse Macabre]]
* [[Gothic architecture]]
* [[Gothic cathedrals and churches]]
* [[History of painting]]
* [[List of Gothic artists]]
* [[Pleurants]]
* [[Renaissance of the 12th century]]
* [[The Ten Virgins]]
* [[Template:Timeline of Italian artists to 1800|Timeline of Italian artists to 1800]]
* [[Western painting]]

== Notes ==
{{reflist}}

==References==
* Calkins, Robert G.; ''Monuments of Medieval Art'', Dutton, 1979, {{ISBN|0525475613}}
* Cherry, John. ''The Holy Thorn Reliquary'', 2010, British Museum Press (British Museum objects in focus), {{ISBN|0-7141-2820-1}}
*Cherry, John, in Marks, Richard and Williamson, Paul, eds. ''Gothic: Art for England 1400–1547'', 2003, V&A Publications, London, {{ISBN|1-85177-401-7}}
* {{cite book |last1=Focillon |first1=Henri |title=The Art of the West in the Middle Ages: Vol. 2 - Gothic |date=1980 |publisher=Cornell University Press |location=Ithaca, NY |isbn=978-0801491924}}
* Henderson, George. ''Gothic'', 1967, Penguin, {{ISBN|0-14-020806-2}}
* [[Hugh Honour]] and John Fleming, ''A World History of Art'', 1st edn. 1982 (many later editions), Macmillan, London, page refs to 1984 Macmillan 1st edn. paperback. {{ISBN|0333371852}} 
* [[Roberta Olson|Olson, Roberta J.M.]], ''Italian Renaissance Sculpture'', 1992, Thames & Hudson (World of Art), {{ISBN|978-0-500-20253-1}}
* Pope-Hennessy, John, ''Introduction to Italian Sculpture, Volume 1, Italian Gothic Sculpture'', 1955, Fourth Edition 1996, Phaidon Press, {{ISBN|0-7148-3014-3}}
* Robinson, James, ''Masterpieces of Medieval Art'', 2008, British Museum Press, {{ISBN|978-0-7141-2815-3}}
* [[Conrad Rudolph|Rudolph, Conrad]], ed., ''A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe'', 2006, {{ISBN|978-1405198783}}
* Rudolph, Conrad, "Inventing the Gothic Portal: Suger, Hugh of Saint Victor, and the Construction of a New Public Art at Saint-Denis", ''Art History'' 33 (2010) 568–595
* Rudolph, Conrad, "Inventing the Exegetical Stained-Glass Window: Suger, Hugh, and a New Elite Art", ''Art Bulletin'' 93 (2011) 399–422
*[[James Snyder (art historian)|Snyder, James]]. ''Northern Renaissance Art'', 1985, Harry N. Abrams, {{ISBN|0136235964}}

== External links ==
* [http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/gothic.html Gothic art], from ArtCyclopedia.com
* [https://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9037489/Gothic-art Gothic art], from ''[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]'' Online.
* [http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761562615/Gothic_Art_and_Architecture.html Gothic art] ([https://web.archive.org/web/20091030085311/http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761562615/Gothic_Art_and_Architecture.html Archived] 2009-10-31), from [[Microsoft Encarta]].
* [http://www.bartleby.com/65/go/Gothicar.html Gothic art] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050305061449/http://www.bartleby.com/65/go/Gothicar.html |date=5 March 2005 }}, from [[The Columbia Encyclopedia]], Sixth Edition. 2001.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20070318112241/http://www.museen-sh.de/ml/digicult.php?digiID=601.46&s=2 Gothic art], Museumsportal Schleswig-Holstein
* [http://www.all-art.org/history194_gothic_contents.html Gothic art], from "A World History of Art" and [http://www.all-art.org/gothic_era/01.html].
* {{cite web |publisher= [[Victoria and Albert Museum]] |url= http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1220_gothic/ |title= Gothic: Art for England 1400–1547 |access-date= 2007-06-08 }}
*[http://libmma.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/compoundobject/collection/p15324coll10/id/109356 ''The Pietà in French late Gothic sculpture: regional variations''], a book from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on Gothic art

{{Western art movements}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gothic Art}}
[[Category:Gothic art| ]]
[[Category:Medieval art]]
[[Category:Catholic art by period]]