PAINTING AND ALLIED ARTS.
The breaking up of the wall surfaces in Gothic art left little opportunity for painting. There was, however, an increased opportunity for glass painting, which, during this epoch, attained its highest development. The windows of the great French cathedrals were treated so as to form cycles of Biblical stories and Christian legends, showing the substance of the Christian doctrine. Most of these cycles have perished, but remains survive in the chief cathedrals. The most per fect thirteenth century example is the Cathedral of Chartres, with its one hundred and forty-six windows; the glasses of the Sainte Chapelle in Paris have been so perfectly restored as to give an excellent idea of the best period. Good English examples are to be found in the cathedrals of Salisbury, Lincoln, and York. In the fourteenth century came a decisive change with the intro duction of architectural forms into glass-paint ing, which had heretofore been in patterns more like tapestry. In France glasses of that descrip tion are most frequent in the cathedrals of the south, and in private houses; but the finest ex amples are in Germany, especially in the Cathe drals of Cologne and Strassburg.
In Germany the buildings of the transitional style afforded more opportunity for mural paint ings. On the Rhine a school arose at Cologne, in the fourteenth century, the mystic and sentimen tal inclinations of which show French influence. A Bohemian school flourished near Prague under the patronage of the Emperor Charles IV., the chief characteristic of which was a harsh realism. Midway between the two were the Franconian School, with a centre at Nuremberg, and the Swa bian, the beginnings of which both fall in the fourteenth century. In the fifteenth century the increasing study of 'nature and the break-up of medieval ideals led to the Renaissance of German painting. See PAINTING, HISTORY OF.
The few surviving examples of the paintings of the French and Flemish schools resemble those of the Lower Rhine. But in Italy the large wall spaces of Gothic architecture afforded ample opportunity for painting. From c. 1250 Italy takes the lead in painting, and in the latter twelfth and thirteenth centuries schools of fresco painting of great importance arose, of which the most important was the Florentine. Being of dominant importance for the development of painting, these schools are more properly treated under PAINTING, HISTORY OF, under the names of separate schools, like FLORENTINE, SIENESF, etc.; and, in detail, in the articles upon promi nent artists, like CIMABUE, GIOTTO, ORCAGNA, etc.
Mural decorations in private houses were com mon. The style was the same as in churches, but the subjects represented were chivalric, the same that were sung by trouvere and Minne singer. Similar in subject and style were the tapestries (q.v.), and other textile products of the period. There was a very high development of miniature painting (q.v.), especially in France and Italy. Consult the authorities referred to under PAINTING, HISTORY OF; GLASS PAINTING; MINIATURES.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. For French sculpture consult: Bibliography. For French sculpture consult: Adams, Recueil de sculptures gothiques (Paris, 1856) ; Baudot, La sculpture frangaise au moyen age et d la Renaissance (Paris, 1884) ; Emeric David, Histoire de la sculpture frangaise (Paris, 1853) ; Frothingham, Jr., in American Journal of Arckeology, 1885. For Germany, see Bode, Ge schichte der deutscher Plastik (Berlin, 1889) ; Liibke, Geschichte der Plastik (Leipzig, 1880). For Italy, Bode, Die italienische Plastik (Berlin, 1891) ; Perkins, Tuscan Sculpture (London, 1864) ; Italian Sculpture (ib., 1868) ; Handbook of Italian Sculpture (New York, 1883).