Gothic Painting

Wall painting, largely developed during the former period disappeared with this style arrival. Gothic architecture introduced big wall so the space formerly devoted to painting was substituted by stained glasses. At the same time, the height of the vaults made impossible to paint them. Due to these reasons painting on wood flourished during this period, especially in altarpieces.

Altarpieces had an evolution during the period. At the beginning they consisted of just one piece but later on mobile lateral pieces were added. These made possible to close the altar. During the 14th century the most common is a rigid altarpiece with several parts. In this model, there is a base of smaller size than the rest of the woods, the bank or predella. The rest is organise horizontally in bodies and vertically in streets, separated by inter-streets. The technique used in these works is temple, in which egg or glue obtained from animal bones is used to prepare the colours. From the 15th century and on oil painting, which uses oil to link the colours and invented by Flemish painters became the most used.

In the evolution of Gothic painting there are four periods: Lineal Gothic or French Gothic (13th century), Italian Gothic or Trecento (14th century), International style (14th century) and Flemish style (15th century).

Lineal Gothic or French style.
It began in the 13th century and continued until mid 14th, living together with the Italian Gothic at its end. It is characterised by the importance given to the drawing lines, which are those limiting the colour masses. These colours are intense, being this intensity more important than the hues. In the subjects there is a trend to naïf naturalism, simple scenes, easy to be understood. It searched for a gentle art, related to the thinking way of the time. The main depictions appear in wall painting, wood painting and miniature.

Italian Gothic or Trecento.
It appeared in Italy in the 13th century and expanded all over Europe in the 14th. There is an interest for deepness that led to pay attention to classical perspective, to study the human body and importance is given to the light in relation to the colours. On the other hand, the development of Franciscan religiosity led to the depiction of the feeling, trying to move the spectator. Each work adopt an intellectual character. In the 13th century in Tuscany Christ is depicted in a very stylised way with his body curved and painted on a wood with cross shape in which the lateral parts are wider to paint other smaller characters. There are also elongated woods arranged as altarpieces with the image of the saint in bigger size in the centre while the rest of the images are organised in bands. In Siena and Florence there are others schools where the basis for the following Renaissance are settled.

The most important artist is Giotto. In Spain the Italian influence can be found. In Aragon the influential school was that of Siena while in Castile it was the Florentine.

International style.
With this style started the pictorial evolution of the 15th century even when its beginnings are at the end of the 14th, reaching to its peak at mid century, while Renaissance started to develop in Italy. This style appeared in Central Europe from the fusion of the forms of the lineal Gothic and the Italian Gothic. Its main characteristics are the importance given to the anecdote and the expressive, the stylization of the images, the recourse to the curved line in the abundant draperies and the movement, the trend to introduce apparently naturalistic details but with a symbolic character. All this is made with a detailed technique. This style had an important development in the courts of Berry and Burgundy, and with especial interest in the miniature, which is the basis for the Flemish style. In Spain this style had an important influence in Aragon, with schools in Valence, Catalonia and it was also developed in Castile.

Flemish style: Primitive Flemish painters.
It began at the end of the first quart of the 15th century and it is an evolution from the international style. The main characteristic is the use of oil to link the colours, which supposed the apparition of oil painting. With this colours are vivid, more brilliant, transparencies can be created and composite colours appear. Works acquired complexity and detail. Anything can be depicted, the same a human feature that a sinble plant. This style evolved during the period. The most representative authors were Jan Van Eyck and Roger Van der Weyden. In Spain this style was largely developed with works of great quality mainly in Catalonia but later on it expanded to Valence, Balears , Cordoba and Castile.

Gothic Sculpture

Although Gothic followed Romanesque chronologically, there is a break in all Art orders and sculpture is not an exception. From the Romanesque hieratic sculpture evolved to the naturalism. Things are depicted as they are, not with a symbolic value. Gestures and attitudes became human and reflect the worries of any person.

This humanization and location in time and space can be seen even if with opposite signs in the two most representative images of Gothic sculpture. The Virgin with the Son appears as a happy and lovely mother who pays attention to her Child. It is easy to discover smiles in their faces. On the contrary, Christ appears in pain, as a normal man facing his death.

The gothic sculpture characters in that humanization process, abandoned vertical, symmetric and hieratic positions to adopt others more mannerist and with great sense of realism. The same as other artistic styles, gothic had an evolution from the first classicism of the 13th century where they pursue of the serene beauty of the idealised naturalism to a mannerism that can be seen in the stylisation and elongation of the images with bended gestures. This is characteristic in the 14th century. Finally, during the last period it was coincident with the beginnings of the Renaissance with aboundance of sculptures of kings, bourgeoisies and aristocrats.
During the classical period it continues with the monumental sculpture heir of the Romanesque, mainly in the façades and particularly in the jambs, archivolts and trumeaus.
In the façades the distribution changed: the tympanum continues being the place for Christ in majesty but now it is a more human person. Sometimes the Virgin occupies that central position. The last judgement almost disappear and in its place, in different bands, the Virgin or Christ life’s episodes are depicted. Jambs continue being the places for saints and the trumeau for Christ, the Virgin or any other saint. In the archivolts it is common to find natural elements such as plants and leaves or human depictions. The same rules are followed in the cloisters.
A new sculptoric field is that of the sepulchres, that can be of two kinds: linked to the wall, below an arch or exempt, as a funerary bed, separated from the wall, where the characters are depicted laying or praying. It is common to find this kind of sculptures in chapels inside the churches.
Wood gained importance as a sculpture matter, mainly for the chairs of the choirs, the altarpieces and pulpits.

Iconography
It depicts mainly religious subjects, being the most common:
· Christ life: all the Passion scenes, mainly in the Cross. He appears with the crown, the purity cloth, three nails because the two feet are together, abundant injuries. The body looks to have weight and falls down, transmitting an image of pain.
· Virgin: She acquired a leading role. She is depicted mainly with the Child, as a mother, young, pretty, idealised. She shows great humanity.
· Hagiographies: There are scenes of the lives of saints, with a special interest for martyrdoms.
· Fantastic animals: The new ones are the monsters used for the gargoyles.

Geography
In France the main works are those related with the great cathedrals’ portals, as are the cases of the Royal Portal in Chartres, the Golden Door in Amiens, Reims. In all of them the tympanums are important but the most significative images are those of the jambs, very human and showing communication one with another.

At the end of the Gothic there is an important sculptor: Claus Sluter, who worked for the Duke of Borgoña. He is the best representative of the anguish of the late middle Ages. One of his most famous works is that of the Champmol Cartuja where he realised the tomb of the duke mentioned above and other important works. All of them are famous due to their pathetic expressions.

In Germany an important work is that of Bamberg Cathedral, with the Portal of the Princess, and the portraits of the nobility in Nuremberg Cathedral.

In Italy Gothic sculpture is characterised by its classicism that never lost during the middle ages. Among the better-known artists is Nicola Pisano, who worked in Pisa’s Baptistery.

In Spain the sculpture received French influence. The best examples are the portals of the cathedrals. Leon’s portals are considered to be a good example of the gothic sculptural programmes. During 14th century sculpture began its decadence and there are regional differences.

Gothic Architecture

Technically Gothic architecture led to the end of the innovations of the former period and assuming Byzantine influences. The cathedral is the main building in which the architect realised a complex and perfect structure, standing on pillars and covered with ribbed vaults, of great height and precise combination of supports to transmit all the strengths to the floor. This structure is clear, full of light, thanks to the use of the flying buttress that liberated the wall so that it was possible to open wide windows.

The buildings has two main axes: the longitudinal one leading to the altar, with the main nave and the aisles that continue around it forming an ambulatory that can be double, and the vertical underlined by the pillars. The repetition of supports increases the tension once approaching to the crossing, where the church expands in the transept. After that it is common to find a higher number of aisles.

The elevation of the church is similar to that of the pilgrimage Romanesque churches, with a first floor in which different naves communicate with arches and pillars and in which light coming from the sides enters indirectly in the main nave. The second floor is the triforium, with the corridor over the aisles overlooking the central nave and finally there is the clerestory, which proportions direct light to the nave, creating an illusionist effect.

Gothic architecture has three main characteristics: walls become transparent due to the number of windows covered normally with stained glasses. In relation to this, the building, apart from its function, pursues beauty in general. The building is a combination of supports and clear structure, with the elimination of the non essential mass.

But European world had changed: civil and human elements substituted the religious ones. Cities are more important than monasteries. Richness and power are concentrated in the cities and in some social groups such as the bourgeoisie, that soon became and Art costumer. Apart from churches a new typology of buildings appeared.

Cities where governed by an oligarchy who needed a place from where they could direct the destinies of their cities. Council houses were of paramount importance in this moment. There is a double typology. In the Netherlands where life was quiet, buildings are courtesan, elegant, full of windows and decoration but without any defensive element. On the other side, Italian buildings are stronger, with less windows and a dominance of the wall, even with crenelations at the top and a very high tower from which they could control all the area around to prevent any attack. This bear witness to the lack of security in one region full of independent republic that not always had a pacific relation.

Related to the new activities are the storeys, in which internal wide spaces are designed in order to contain products and be the place where exchange transactions were hold. This is the case of the lonjas .

In addition of these buildings, influential social sectors commanded palaces related to their status.
Gothic style developed all over Europe and we can distinguish a series of geographical particularities:

France

The distinctive characteristic of French cathedrals, and those in Germany and Belgium that were strongly influenced by them, is their height and their impression of verticality. They are compact, with slight or no projection of the transepts and subsidiary chapels. The west fronts have three portals surmounted by a rose window, and two large towers. The east end is polygonal with ambulatory and sometimes a chevette of radiating chapels. In the south of France, many of the major churches are without transepts and some are without aisles.

Britain

The distinctive characteristic of English cathedrals is their extreme length and their internal emphasis upon the horizontal. It is not unusual for every part of the building to have been built in a different century and in a different style, with no attempt at creating a stylistic unity. English cathedrals sprawl across their sites, with double transepts projecting strongly and Lady Chapels tacked on at a later date. In the west front the doors are not significant. The West window is very large and never a rose, which are reserved for the transept gables. The west front may have two towers or none. There is nearly always a tower at the crossing and it may be very large and surmounted by a spire. The distinctive English east end is square.
Italy

It uses polychrome decoration, both externally as marble veneer on the brick facade and also internally where the arches are often made of alternating black and white segments. The plan is usually regular and symmetrical and has few and widely spaced columns. The proportions are generally mathematically simple, based on the square, the arches are almost always equilateral. It may include mosaics in the lunettes over the doors. The facades have projecting open porches and ocular or wheel windows rather than roses, and do not usually have a tower. The crossing is usually surmounted by a dome. There is often a free-standing tower and baptistery. The windows are not as large as in northern Europe and, although stained glass windows are used, the decoration is fresco or mosaic.

Germany

It is characterised by huge towers and spires. The west front generally follows the French formula, but the towers are taller, and if complete, are surmounted by enormous openwork spires. The eastern end follows the French form. The distinctive character of the interior of German Gothic cathedrals is their breadth and openness. Cathedrals tend not to have strongly projecting transepts. There are also many hallenkirke without clerestory windows.

Spain

Spanish Gothic cathedrals are of spatial complexity. They are comparatively short and wide, and are often completely surrounded by chapels. Spanish Cathedrals are stylistically diverse. Influences on both decoration and form are Islamic architecture, and towards the end of the period, Renaissance details combined with the Gothic in a distinctive manner. The West front resembles a French west front. There are spires of German style. There are few pinnacles. There are often towers and domes of a great variety of shapes and structural invention rising above the roof.