Gothic Art is the style of art produced in Europe from the middle ages up to the beginning of the Renaissance. Typically religious in nature, it is especially known for the distinctive arched design of its churches, its stained glass, and its illuminated manuscripts. The term Gothic describes not only an art style, but a changing concept of space, time, and society- a new kind of perspective, both visual and spiritual.
In the late 14th century, anticipating the Renaissance, Gothic Art evolved toward a more secular style known as International Gothic. Although superseded by Renaissance art, there was a Gothic Revival in the 18th and 19th centuries, which was largely rooted in nostalgia. .
The term Gothic was first coined for architecture, and it is in architecture that the characteristics are most easily recognizable. Gothic art was most dominant during the age of the great cathedrals, from about 1150 to 1250. The architecture in France represented a concentrated expenditure . These immense costs were born by donations collected all over the country, from all classes of society. It showed an expansion of religious and patriotic fervor that was emerging. It seems to me, the higher the cathedrals were, the closer they were to God, even if only symbolically. The architecture has specific features. The verticality of the interior space is supported by flying buttresses, which are arched bridges that reach upward to the critical spots, as we see in Notre-Dame, Paris (217). Probably the most well known feature of Gothic architecture would be the columns on the exterior of the cathedrals. .
The Gothic cathedrals are filled with mystery. People of the thirteenth century did not see a future, they saw only an end. The day of the Last Judgement, when Christ would come to judge the living and the dead. The elaborate decoration of the chapels was a way of giving ill gotten gains back to God.
