Gothic
Pointed vaults, flying buttresses and stained glass: the wall dissolves into coloured light
How to recognise it
- Pointed arches and ribbed vaults
- External flying buttresses propping the walls
- Huge stained-glass and rose windows
- Soaring towers and spires
- Portals lined with elongated statues of saints
Why it emerged
Growing towns and wealthy bishops funded huge cathedrals; Abbot Suger saw light as an image of God, and rib vaults with flying buttresses made it structurally possible to replace walls with glass.
Examples
Basilica of Saint-Denis1135–1144Abbot Suger's 1144 choir is the first Gothic building: vaults and light instead of walls
Notre-Dame de Paris1163–1345A benchmark of early Gothic with flying buttresses; survived the 2019 fire, reopened in 2024
Chartres Cathedral1194–1220Keeps nearly all its 13th-century glass — over 150 windows of famous 'Chartres blue'
Sainte-Chapelle1242–1248Louis IX's chapel for the Crown of Thorns: its upper walls are almost all stained glass
Cologne Cathedral1248–1880Took 632 years to finish; in 1880 it became the world's tallest buildingHow it spread
- 1144 Saint-Denis
- 1175 Canterbury
- 1221 Burgos
- 1248 Cologne
- 1344 Prague
- 1386 Milan
Meanwhile elsewhere
- Byzantine art Europe
- Early Islamic art (Umayyad and Abbasid) Middle East
- Moorish style (al-Andalus) Europe
- Khmer art of Angkor Asia
- Yamato-e, Heian Japanese painting Asia
- Song landscape painting Asia
- Pre-Mongol architecture of Rus Eastern Europe & Russia
- Romanesque Europe
- Ife and Benin bronzes Africa
- Persian miniature Middle East
- Aztec Art Americas
- Ming and Qing Porcelain Asia
- Russian Icon Painting: Theophanes, Rublev, Dionisius Eastern Europe & Russia
- Italian Renaissance Europe
- Northern Renaissance Europe
- Inca Architecture Americas
- Classical Ottoman Architecture (Sinan) Middle East