The Gothic style . how the term came about after the Gothic as a style in architecture, has lost its dominant importance. He was the first to introduce Italian sculptor, painter, and probably the first scientist – art historian Giorgio Vasari in the mid 16th century. He introduced this term to identify a new direction in the architecture and painting of the Renaissance or Objection. In his “Biographies of the most famous painters, sculptors and architects,” he introduces the notion of Gothic art, which is forever stuck for the whole era.

The word Gothic comes to us from the Italian language, and even from still earlier era of the late Roman Empire. Initially, the Goths called barbarian tribes which eventually put an end to the Roman domination. So Gothic was for the Romans the definition of barbarism, and it was a dirty word. Gothic does not have any relationship to the Goths, and this term appeared after the Goths had disappeared from the stage of history, but the term caught on and, unlike many of the names of artistic styles, the Gothic style has a clear expression in form and in content. Why Gothic is contrasted with the Renaissance? It’s very simple – the Gothic style – a style of majestic cathedrals and buildings that suppress the personality. All thoughts of a person caught under the influence of Gothic paintings, or architecturally to be directed to God and to suppress unwanted beginning. That is why the Gothic cathedrals are striving upward to the sky, as if renouncing all earthly things. Continue reading →