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Gothic architecture is an architectural style that was prevalent in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century, during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and 18th centuries in some areas. [1] It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture.
At its time, Gothic architecture was called "The French Style." The term "Gothic" was a negative term invented in the late Renaissance by its critics, including the art historian and architect Giorgio Vasari. They considered the style barbaric, the opposite of the new Renaissance style, which they favored.
A pointed arch, ogival arch, or Gothic arch is an arch with a pointed crown meet at an angle at the top of the arch. [1] Also known as a two-centred arch, its form is derived from the intersection of two circles. [2] This architectural element was particularly important in Gothic architecture.
The Temple of Solomon is depicted as a Gothic building under construction. Miniature from an illuminated manuscript of Josephus's Antiquities of the Jews (c. 93/4 AD) made for John, Duke of Berry. The construction of Gothic cathedrals was an ambitious, expensive, and technically demanding aspect of life in the Late Middle Ages.
It passed into the church architecture of the Roman world and was adapted in different ways as a feature of cathedral architecture. [ 11 ] The earliest large churches, such as the cathedral of St John Lateran in Rome, consisted of a single-ended basilica with one apsidal end and a courtyard, or atrium , at the other end.
The second style of English Gothic architecture is generally termed Decorated Gothic, because the amount of ornament and decoration increased dramatically. It corresponded roughly with the Rayonnant period in France, which influenced it. It was a period of growing prosperity in England, and this was expressed in the decoration of Gothic buildings.
Although secular and civic architecture in general was subordinate in importance to ecclesiastical architecture, civic architecture grew in importance as the Middle Ages progressed. David Watkin , for example writes about secular Gothic architecture in present-day Belgium : "However, it is the secular architecture, the guild-halls and town ...
The Gothic style of architecture was strongly influenced by the Romanesque architecture which preceded it. Why the Gothic style emerged from Romanesque, and what the key influences on its development were, is a difficult problem for which there is a lack of concrete evidence because medieval Gothic architecture was not accompanied by contemporary written theory, in contrast to the 'Renaissance ...