The Gothic Art Movement was not just an artistic style but an extremely influential period containing a complex history. The term is used to describe buildings and objects whose forms are based on a series of characteristics from the mid-12th to the late 15th century. The Gothic style was a development of Romanesque, but it was the humanists of the Renaissance who first used it as a disparaging term to describe what they saw as barbaric architecture. With Gothic art viewed from so many different perspectives, it is considered quite difficult to appropriately define what Gothic means in today's postmodern society. It provided a new focus for the depiction of nature and an important area within Gothic art that sets it apart from the ordinary is the symbolic elements used to create the art and particularly their infamous architecture. One of the greatest known architectural monuments of Gothic art, named Chartres Cathedral, along with some of the most exquisite sculptural pieces and paintings in the world, clearly displayed the beauty and symbolism that the Gothic Age had to offer to the rest of the world. Theologians and historians pioneered two main approaches to the study of Gothic art and architecture, the first being that cathedrals were seen as products of progressive technology and functional engineering. The second approach to Gothic art is a more mystical and literary classification system, not of the masonry work but rather of the symbols that make up its meaning. The art and architecture of this period triggered enormous historical transformations that have contributed to the reshaping of today's culture and society. Cathedrals along with their architectural components contain an immeasurable amount of… half paper… Gothic art or design. Works Cited "Bourges Cathedral". City of Bourges, 2011. http://www.ville-bourges.fr/english/heritage/cathedral.php (accessed 17 September 2011)Camille, Michael. “New ways of seeing Gothic art”. In Gothic Art, 10-11. London: Orion Publishing Group, 1996.Frankl, Paul. In Gothic Architecture, 229-236, 236-40, 256-57. Great Britain: Penguin Books, 1962.Frisch, Teresa G. "The Symbolism of Churches and Church Ornaments." In Gothic art ca. 1140-1450, 34-37. USA: Englewood Cliffs, NJ, Prentice-Hall, 1971. Lesberg, Sandy. Gothic art. New York: Peebles, 1974. “Gothic Architecture.” Athena Review, 2006. http://www.athenapub.com/14gothic-architecture.htm (accessed 15 September 2011) "Characteristics of Gothic Architecture". InfoPlease, 2007. http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/ent/A0858436.html (accessed 15 September 2011