Gothic architecture used to be called...?

November 21, 2006 5:50 AM

What was gothic architecture referred to in its day?

I've heard tell that the term "gothic" to describe gothic architecture is a deliberately insulting misnomer passed down from the 19th century. What, then, were the contemporaries of gothic architecture calling their style?

I've heard the term "the French Style", but I don't know if that refers to just gothic as it was in France or is actually the answer to my question.

posted by ztdavis to media & arts (3 comments total)

The term Gothic was first used during the later Renaissance, and as a term of contempt.
posted by four panels at 7:10 AM on November 21, 2006

from the link: the Italians of the Renaissance called it the "maniera Tedesca"
posted by four panels at 7:13 AM on November 21, 2006

‘Gothic,’ as four panels says, had been used as a derisive epithet from the 16th Century: ‘“Then arose new architects who after the manner of their barbarous nations erected buildings in that style which we call Gothic (dei Gotthi).” Florentine historiographer Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was the first to label the architecture of preceding centuries “Gothic.”’ It does indeed seem to have been known as The French Style, or, according to the French wikipedia article on Architecture gothique ‘francigenum opus’ (in Latin) or ‘«art d'origine française», «art français».’
posted by misteraitch at 7:17 AM on November 21, 2006 [1 favorite]