Derek
Pearsall.
Gothic Europe 1200-1450.
Harlow: Longman, 2001.
Arts,
Culture
and Society in the Western World series.
xxi,277pp.
Paperback
ISBN 0582276381.
Publisher's
recommended price £29.99
This
uniquely ambitious
book offers an account of all aspects of cultural activity and
production
during the years of "Gothic Europe", that is, the world of Latin
Christendom
1200-1450. It is both a celebration of the Gothic cultural achievement
- in cathedral-building, in manuscript illumination, in chivalric love
romance, in stained glass and in many other arts - and an investigation
of its social origins and systems of production.
The
celebration
of the "Gothic moment" takes the form of a full and colourful account
of
the great surviving works of art from the period, in a large central
section.
Preceding this there are two chapters describing the political and
economic
circumstances within which Gothic art came to fruition, and the systems
of patronage, in church, court and city, that enabled it to flourish.
The
last two chapters identify some of the discord and restlessness within
the prevailing harmonies of Gothic, and explore the new kinds of
artistic
form and identity that developed as the Gothic tapestry unwove.
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