Visual Arts and the Gothic - Introduction
INTRODUCTION
The dominant style of architecture in Europe from the twelfth century to the sixteenth century was first classified as "Gothic" by art critics and architects such as Giorgio Vasari and Sir Christopher Wren in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, respectively. The term was applied disparagingly, derived from "Goth," the common term for the fourth- and fifth-century Tuetonic invaders who were viewed as cruel barbarians. It is commonly held that the style originated in France c. 1100 with the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis, designed by Abbot Suger of Saint Denis. The Gothic style in architecture is characterized by vaulted ceilings, "flying" buttresses, and pointed arches, and stems from the desire among medieval architects to create earthly structures that reflected a sense of inspired, divine beauty. Gothic sculpture, which also began in France during this same period and appeared largely as decorative elements adorning Gothic structures, reflects the inspiration of the divine, but incorporates as well the beginnings of a humanist approach, with figures engaged in a search for meaning in their daily lives. Gothic period sculpture retained the religious and theological themes of the Romanesque period that preceded it, but focused closely on the depiction of mortal figures as pious and physically beautiful. Gothic sculpture became more and more naturalistic as the style spread through Europe, and included celebrations of the humanity (rather than the divinity) of such revered religious figures as the apostles, the Madonna, and Jesus Christ.
Gothic painting began sometime during the early thirteenth century in France, England, and then Germany, and toward the end of the thirteenth century in Italy. The four forms of painting to which the delicate and linear, yet vibrant and lush Gothic style was applied were frescoes, panel paintings, manuscript illumination, and stained glass. As with Gothic sculpture, Gothic painting and stained glass were largely commissioned to enhance Gothic architecture, with the exception of manuscript illumination, which grew out of a movement toward a more secular society, the growth of cities, the expansion of trade, the founding of universities, increased literacy, and the expansion of the bourgeois class. Art was no longer limited to works commissioned by church and aristocratic patrons, and as artists were increasingly required to obtain membership in a trade guild, their works became shaped by their participation in apprenticeships with established artists.
The Gothic style fell out of favor during the sixteenth century, with the dawn of the Renaissance. The Gothic Revival period in art and architecture began near the middle of the eighteenth century in England, and was characterized by an interest in exploring the same human-divine (or supernatural) connections found in the works of Gothic-period artisans. The Romantics' interest in classicism spurred an interest in studying the past, but rather than the Romantics' focus on the ancient Greeks to study democratic ideals, the nationalism of the participants in the Gothic Revival led them to concentrate on their own heritage. The desire to define and (sometimes) glorify the ideals of "Old Europe" by erecting structures and producing artwork in the medieval Gothic style ran parallel to this same desire as expressed in Gothic literature. Horace Walpole's Gothic cottage, Strawberry Hill (c. 1750–76) in Twickingham, England is one of the most famous examples of Gothic Revival architecture, and has been equally admired and disparaged by commentators for centuries. Other dominant figures in the Gothic Revival in England include architect A. W. N. Pugin, art historians and critics Batty and Thomas Langley, and designer Richard Bentley.
Gothic Revival art and architecture in the United States were heavily influenced by the literature of Gothic writers, particularly the novels of Sir Walter Scott. Major American Gothic Revival architects included Alexander Jackson Davis and Ralph Adams Cram. American Gothic painters, such as Washington Allston, David Gilmour Blythe, and Thomas Cole depicted the darker side of the American cultural and natural landscapes.
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