Description

Immediate dispatch from Somerset. Nice book in great condition. Pages in excellent condition. Images are beautiful bright and vivid. No notes or highlighting. Very large book 35×41. See images. Fantastic book.

About the book >.>.> The artists of the Renaissance were the first to use the term “Gothic” clearly intended in a derogatory way in reference to the style initially known as opus francigenum meaning “made in the French style”: the term was used as a synonym for “barbarian” by those who considered themselves to be the upholders of the aesthetic and technical perfection of the classical era. Gothic was in actual fact a highly groundbreaking style. It began in France in around the middle of the 12th century establishing itself first in architecture then in sculpture. Painting still retained its close links with Byzantine designs for some time only undergoing radical modernisation over the course of the 13th century: the artist who contributed to this the most was Giotto. Gothic started and became known at a time when Europe was seeing the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire and the rise to power of the major national monarchies which were sustained by a strong and efficient central government and the powerful urban middle classes. However they still had to reckon with the numerous centres of power of the old feudal nobility which were also active fertile centres of cultural and artistic production at this time. The growth of Gothic painting was linked to the rise of the new urban merchant middle classes who grew wealthy thanks to the huge expansion in trade and who commissioned a large number of paintings – not only frescoes but chiefly altar pieces which very. (OS)