Just how did Gothic architects support heavy stone ceilings and create the effect of heaven on earth?
Gothic art: c. 1144 – 1300s
This unfinished Hebrew manuscript meant for a Passover ritual helps us understand how medieval manuscripts were made
The Prato Haggadah
For their medieval viewers, ivory composite caskets could function as visual surveys of the genre of love.
Ivory casket with scenes from medieval romances
Originally designed as a monument symbolizing the Reconquest, the Convent of the Knights Templar of Tomar came to symbolize the opening up of Portugal to other civilizations.
Convent of Christ, Tomar
Above the entrance to Amiens, animated figures and flowing drapery attest to the increasing naturalism of Gothic sculpture in the 13th century.
Amiens Cathedral
"Yes, they're all the same subject, but there is such a range within that."
Cecily Brown on medieval sculptures of the ...
While this map may look like a true physical route, its maker traces a spiritual journey that mirrors a monk's route in their abbey
Matthew Paris’s itinerary maps from London to ...
The Virgin Mary is the portal to the divine in this Gothic shrine
Hiding the divine in a medieval Madonna: ...
Famous for its fan vaults and the Perpendicular style, Gloucester Cathedral is a feast for the eyes.
Gloucester Cathedral
A comparison of two Italian medieval crosses shows the transformation of Christ from transcendent to human.
The Crucifixion, c. 1200 (from Christus triumphans ...
Spanish Gothic cathedrals adapted their form and ornamentation from French Gothic buildings and Islamic mosques to create something new.
Spanish Gothic cathedrals, an introduction
There are two sides to every story, and so it is here. The Germans did shell the cathedral but their explanation as to why they did so was wildly at odds with the French account.
Reims Cathedral and World War I
Images of the side wound and the mystical tradition from which they emerge have provided fertile material for scholars engaged in “queering” the Middle Ages.
Mysticism and queer readings of Christ’s Side ...
Nearly everything in medieval and Renaissance Venice was stolen or imported—and the Venetians advertised that on the facade of the Cathedral.
Venice’s San Marco, a mosaic of spiritual ...
Art Historian Paul Binski recovers the Lady Chapel's former opulence in his imagination, and ours.
Ely Cathedral’s Lady Chapel
These eclectic buildings embody the close ties between Muslim, Jewish, and Christian cultures in medieval Spain.
Medieval synagogues in Toledo, Spain
Mary’s swaying hip, elongated neck, and tender touch of the Christ Child all imbue this golden sculpture with grace. A pomegranate signals death.
Humanizing Mary: the Virgin of Jeanne d’Evreux
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Henry VII Chapel
The enormous west front of Lincoln Cathedral stacks Gothic lancets over rounded Romanesque arches. Inside, “crazy vaults” render space illegible.
Lincoln Cathedral
Hidden behind a brightly painted, screen-like façade, the medieval musicians of Wells Cathedral played for crowds assembled outside.
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