Page 8 - Gothic
P. 8
GOTHIC
arT
Gothic art emerged in Île-de- secular Gothic art than is often
France, France, in the early 12th thought today, as generally the
century at the Abbey Church of St survival rate of religious art has
Denis built by Abbot Suger. The been better than for secular equiv-
style rapidly spread beyond its or- alents, a large proportion of the art
igins in architecture to sculpture, produced in the period was reli-
both monumental and personal gious, whether commissioned by
in size, textile art, and painting, the church or by the laity. Gothic
which took a variety of forms, in- art was often typological in nature,
cluding fresco, stained glass, the reflecting a belief that the events
illuminated manuscript, and panel of the Old Testament pre-figured
painting. Monastic orders, espe- those of the New, and that this was
cially the Cistercians and the Car- indeed their main significance. Old
thusians, were important builders and New Testament scenes were
who disseminated the style and shown side by side in works like
developed distinctive variants of it the Speculum Humanae Salvatio-
across Europe. Regional variations nis, and the decoration of church-
of architecture remained import- es. The Gothic period coincided
ant, even when, by the late 14th with a great resurgence in Marian
century, a coherent universal style devotion, in which the visual arts
known as International Gothic had played a major part. Images of the
evolved, which continued until the Virgin Mary developed from the
late 15th century, and beyond in Byzantine hieratic types, through
many areas. the Coronation of the Virgin, to
Although there was far more more human and initimate types,
