Gothic illustrations

Firstly, I want to describe ‘Gothic Art’ to understand Gothic style illustrations. It developed in France in the middle of 12th century and it was also a medieval art movement. After a while it spread to all of Western Europe. However, while it was spreading, it also changed and it became ‘International Gothic’. The earliest Gothic art was monumental sculpture on the walls of Cathedrals. Then, artists applied this style to their illustrations too. What type of illustrations did occur with Gothic style?  These illustrations were like horror art, because Gothic art style was considered as one of the form of horror art. Thus, these pieces visualized the other face of life. It showed us the hidden parts of humanity and society too. I found some good pieces from different artists, many of them include skeleton and symbols from death. Let’s look at them:

Ink and pen drawings

Pen and ink drawing is a technique which is created from colorful and black inks in fine art. Western artists had used these technique too for different aims since ancient-Egyptian times. For instance, book illustration, sketches, finished drawings and ink or wash paintings. According to sources, one of the earliest surviving images in Greek Art is ‘ The abduction of Briseis ‘. On the other hand, it progressed to a high level in Chinese Art during the term Tang Dynasty and Song Dynasty and also in Japan during the Muromachi Period.

When we came to the Renaissance, Leonardo da Vinci exemplified overall pen and ink effect on his work which was called Five Grotesque Heads. It is below:

 

There were also lots of important name for ink and pen drawings especially in high renaissance. There are some examples from them at the below: