Art and Architecture of the Late Middle Ages: 1350 to the Advent of the Renaissance

Omega Books. Very Good/Good. 1982. Hard Cover. 4to 0907853358 Dust jacket unclipped, chunk missing from top of spine, now in a clear protective sleeve. Original cloth boards, damage to top of spine, with bright gilt titling on spine. No ownership marks. 232 pages clean and tight. 17 Colour and over 350 b/w illustrations. Dimensions: 31.2 x 25.2 x 3 cm. Some of the.-most enchanting art and architecture of western Europe belongs to the late Middle Ages, a period which began inauspiciously with plague, famine and economic decline. Yet in the 150 years that followed the urge to build and adorn was so powerful that such admired masterpieces as the cloister at Gloucester, Westminster Hall; the Wilton Diptych, the chapels at Warwick, Windsor and King's College, Cambridge, as well as numerous parish churches, were produced in England alone. In this superbly illustrated book Wim Swaan shows that once High Gothic had reached its apogee in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries designers felt increasingly free to experiment with basic structures, to bring the various architectural elements into unity by spinning webs of pattern over them, or allow them to stand in richer contrast with each other. While courtly patronage was still important and imparted a chivalric quality to many decorative schemes, the growth of an affluent merchant class led to a wide variety of building-types, including memorial chapels, town halls, commercial exchanges, colleges, hospitals, and mansions for the nouveaux-riches, such as that of Jacques Coeur at Bourges, as well as splendid additions to the great cathedrals. All these had to be fittingly furnished with carved and sculptured decorations, tapestries, metalwork and painting. As the background for the Flemish School of oil-painting, which immediately rivalled the Italian in sheer skill and spirituality, the late Middle Ages reward closer scrutiny. Both Italy and Flanders were centres of industrial and commercial activity which provided a fertile soil for art to flourish in. But wl]ereas a new aesthetic was welcomed in Italy, the Gothic style remained congenial to the Northern temperament: in fact it lingered so long in some parts of Germany that architecture there bypassed the Renaissance completely and became historical Baroque. This was because German Gothic had developed Baroque tendencies on its own account, a process which can also be seen in some Spanish and Portuguese buildings where it is compounded with more exotic influences. Wim Swaan gives full photographic and textual attention to the highly individual forms of Gothic which evolved in different countries - the Perpendicular, Flamboyant, Spatgotik, Isabelline and Manueline styles - as well as providing a fresh view of a fascinating period of European culture. .