International Gothic

Late Gothic style of painting and sculpture flourishing in Europe in the late 14th and 15th centuries. It is characterized by bright colours, a courtly elegance, and a naturalistic rendering of detail. Originally evolving in the court art of France and Burgundy, it spread to many parts of Europe, its leading exponents including the Italian Simone Martini and the Franco-Flemish Limbourg brothers.

It had its origin in the illuminated manuscript, transferring to the panel picture the brilliant colour, the fine detail and rich sense of pattern, and the individual characterization of the painters of miniatures in manuscripts. The style was practised notably by the Franco-Flemish school of painter-illuminators, including the three Limbourg brothers, whose masterpiece was Les Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry; Jean Malouel, who worked in Paris and Dijon; Henri Belle-chose, who followed Malouel in Dijon; and Melchoir Broederlam of Ypres, who became painter to Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy. It was represented in Spain by Ferrer Bassa, Jaime and Pedro Serra, Luis Borrassa, and others; in Italy by the Sienese painters Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi, and by Gentile da Fabriano and Pisanello; and in the Germanic lands by Stefan Lochner and Master Bertram. The style forecasts the course taken by the painting of the southern Netherlands in its first great period.