Gothic art and architecture

p Gothic art and architecture

2008

The thirteenth , fourteenth and fifteenth centuries , spanned by what we term the Gothic period , saw a revolution in the social and economic life of Europe . As princes created fixed capitals for themselves instead of the earlier uncomfortable peripatetic courts , so the earlier agricultural system gave way before a more modern money economy . The movements brought great changes in their train and were to have a profound effect upon the arts . For the first , the building of castles palaces and town residences not only gave a

new importance to the visual effect of surroundings but also to the ideas of comfort and luxury . The court of Burgundy led the way and life came to be dominated by intricate ceremonial inherited in part from antiquity , Byzantium and the orient and elaborated into an obligatory etiquette destined to reach its most exaggerated expression in baroque Spain . At the end of the period this court culture flowered into what was an almost decadent magnificence

Gothic sculpture , like Gothic architecture , originated in France , and it , too , spread rapidly throughout Europe , varying in each country (Frankl 21 . Gothic art had become common to all of Europe , and its national variants did not develop in isolation , although they always remained distinct within the framework of the style . There was a good deal of practical exchange , and German holy images were ed from and sent to Italy , French ivory caskets and small altars were exported to England and Germany and English alabasters were...