Gothic art is the art of medieval Europe from the middle of the twelfth century to about 1500. It is best known through its cathedrals, with pointed arches, high vaults and walls opened into stained glass, but it also covers carved portals, painted altarpieces and illuminated books.
It began at Saint-Denis, an abbey north of Paris, where in 1144 Abbot Suger dedicated a new choir, the end of the church around the main altar, lined with large windows.
From France the style traveled to England, Germany, Spain and Italy, and it moved from stone into glass, painted wood and the pages of books. Its most famous works today are Chartres Cathedral, the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris and, in painting, the Wilton Diptych in London.
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Today the name suggests gloom: dark stone, gargoyles, haunted castles. Suger wanted the opposite. He described his choir as a space "which the new light pervades," and on the abbey's gilded doors he had a verse inscribed saying that "the dull mind rises to the truth through material things."
For Suger, sunlight passing through colored glass was a way of lifting the mind toward God. Everything his builders tried served that wish, and for the next century their successors kept finding ways to open stone walls a little wider.
Why is it called Gothic?
Nobody in the Middle Ages called this style Gothic. The label was attached long after Suger's death, by people who disliked everything his choir stood for and meant the name as an insult.
What You'll Discover
Why Saint-Denis counts as the first Gothic church.
The trick that turned stone walls into windows.
What survived the Chartres fire of 1194.
An angel whose words cross a sky of gold.
How a novel darkened the word Gothic.