Gothic Movement — Gothic art, the painting,
sculpture, and architecture characteristic of the second of two great
international eras that flourished in western and central Europe during
the Middle Ages. Gothic art evolved from Romanesque art and lasted from
the mid-12th century to as late as the end of the 16th century in some
areas. The term Gothic was coined by classicizing Italian writers of the
Renaissance, who attributed the invention (and what to them was the
nonclassical ugliness) of medieval architecture to the barbarian Gothic
tribes that had destroyed the Roman Empire and its classical culture in
the 5th century ce. The term retained its derogatory overtones until the
19th century, at which time a positive critical revaluation of Gothic
architecture took place. Although modern scholars have long realized that
Gothic art has nothing in truth to do with the Goths, the term Gothic
remains a standard one in the study of art history.