Gothic > Painting > Intro

The term “Gothic painting” usually means the church painting of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with its characteristic flat perspective, bright colors, use of gold leaf, and the typical religious subject matter (divine figures are often shown sporting a flat gold circle around their heads, for example). Eighteenth-century Gothic painting could either imitate this style (especially in the medium of stained glass) or choose as subject matter a Gothic building or Gothic ruin. In the latter kinds of paintings, there is also often a gloomy or threatening tone or subject matter that can be called Gothic.