Observation and Image-Making in Gothic Art

Observation and Image-Making in Gothic Art examines the working practices of medieval artists and challenges many assumptions about pre-modern science and art, especially the notion that descriptive art is a natural response to scientific empiricism. Late medieval images range from vividly specific to barely identifiable, but descriptiveness in the medieval context rarely correlates with a modern notion of function. Rather, scientific illustrations are often less descriptive than sacred art, and thus an inversion of the relationship between art and science. In this study, Jean Givens defines late medieval visual communication strategies and reveals the various modes of organizing and displaying knowledge. She demonstrates how medieval image making offers new insights into the syntax of visual communication and the function of descriptive art in both sacred and secular contexts.