For two hundred years prior to the Renaissance Period, from 1100 A.D. through 1450, Gothic Art dominated Europe and became by the most popular form of art, be it sculpture or painting or architecture. It only earned the term Gothic as the Renaissance period looked back at the period "before" though the truth is they equated 1100 with 500, when a more vulgar people known as the Gothic tribes crushed the Roman Empire and the classic artwork of the fifth century. Hence, Gothic is a misnomer by at least five hundred very important years.
However the term was established, it has gained currency, just as native Americans still wear the misnomer Indians to this day. Insofar as the style evolved, Gothic art was all about communicating the notion that Humanity in general was moving out of the darkness of the Dark Ages and into the light of
Civility, aka modern civilization. The paintings were at least half shrouded in darkness as if to revere the harsh past, and led to the light of Christianity and naturalism. This moving into the light unending motif carried over to the great Gothic Cathedrals which were airy, built vertically into the sky, and covered with windows. Huge windows in great wheels of color, opened the floodgates of light, lost during the dark Ages and flung humanity forward toward the vivacious and bedazzling Renaissance.
Toward the end of the 14th Century, as indeed the Renaissance movement began to gain momentum, Gothic art rather than swoon and die seemed to reinvent itself. As this new stripe of Gothic Art cut a swathe across Europe, from France to Bohemia, it became known as the International Gothic Style. And while it started in Italy, it had a huge following in France and Germany and Austria as well. It was an EU moment in time, centuries and centuries before even the slightest notion of Eurodollar existed. What was lovely about the International Gothic Style was it was able to unabashedly borrow the best of each culture to forge something particular to this nascent Renaissance period.
As affluence increased in general, there was more money to commission artists, and the Gothic period marked the first time the names of the artists were widely known. Some were intrepid enough to sign their names. By and large, the lion's share of artists were Italian. Duccio di Buoninsegne, a stand out Siense painter taught many the Gothic craft, but he had one pupil who would go on to eclipse his fame called Simone Martini. He was at the right place at the right time, born in 1284, he died in 1344. In 1315 he completed The MaestA in the Palazzo Pubbilico in Siena. While the work was brilliant, what made it most significant was that it spawned countless others to paint copies, or near copies, and each of Martini's work thereafter became prototypes of this new age. The hitherto austerity and coldness of the Florentine movement, was transmogrified into all things warm and stylized, with the curved and soft line breaking tradition with the hard, ungiving edges that came before. His art found a home in the ivory carvings used to illuminate French manuscripts. Other notable Gothic artists include Master of San Jacopo a Mucciana 14th Century Italian; Tino da Camaino 1285-1337 Italian Sculptor; Evrard d´Orleans 1292-1357 French Sculptor; Andrea Pisano 1295-1348 Italian Sculptor; Jacopo del Casentino 1297-1358 Italian Painter; Segna di Buonaventure 1298-1331 Italian Painter; Giovanni da Balduccio 1300-1360 Italian Sculptor; Jean Pucelle 1300-1355 French Manuscript Illuminator; Goro di Gregorio 1300-1334 Italian Sculptor; Gano di Fazio 1302-1318 Italian Sculptor Vitale da Bologna 1309-1360 Italian Painter; Agostino di Giovanni 1310-1347 Italian Sculptor.