Late Gothic : The Birth of Modernity

A magnificent panorama of the creative revolutions of mid-15th-century Europe

From roughly the 1430s onward, inspired by developments in the Netherlands, artistic expression began to transform, as the depiction of light and shade, body and space came to be depicted with increasing realism. With advances in printing techniques, these innovations found mass distribution. Artists such as Nicolaus Gerhaert and Martin Schongauer became widely known and influenced the development of the visual arts throughout Europe and across all genres. Despite their primarily religious function, such images increasingly came to be conceived of as “works of art.”

Gathering around 120 objects, including outstanding loans and key works from the holdings of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, this substantial book traces the massive paradigm shifts of the Late Gothic period across artistic genres, from painting to sculpture and more.