Art literature and the gothic

Art literature and the gothic

The gothic style firstly originated from architecture in the 1100's by Abbott Surger, a French architect known for designing and building many sharp shaped cathedrals with high archways, the Notre Dame was just one of his many famous gothic inspired cathedrals. In the 16th century the Italians used the ' unspeakable' meaning to describe the use of something dark or gloomy this soon expanded into gothic style buildings being created in Italy Rome and Greece and soon after Britain. Architecture had expanded from churches to castles palaces and bridges, soon the gothic was used as a language and a style to describe literature and art.
 

Gothic Literature

 
After watching BBC 4 documentary I was able to find out some really interesting facts not only about architecture but about the literature and art side of gothic and also who were responsible for the famous gothic creations.
 
The first gothic novel which was known to get readers interested in gothic writing, was the 1830 castle of Tranto written by Horace Walpole , the novel was written with the most important character being the castle which relates back to where gothic came from which was architecture . Horace was also considered unusual and queer  who was later revealed to have had a passion for other men which was found in a secret letter. The writer  was also known to have seen monsters on the stairway of his Strawberry hill gothic style mansion which can be located outside London, perhaps this was an inspiration to his gothic literature background.
 
graveyard poets also became popular within the gothic style of writing during the 18th century, they believed on finding something new to write about in order to portray gothic other than gothic style churches. Poems were written in the graveyards and usually told a story about dark or gloomy events such a death.
 
William Beckford was known for writing gothic novel 'Vathek' inspired by his 21st birthday having a tree day orgy with his cousins wife and a 13year old boy , highlighting the use of gothic motif sexual power.
 
Matthew Lewis was known for the controversy he caused writing gothic novel 'the monk' Lewis was threatened to be prosecuted after his style of writing upset many people, however the novel was written in a gothic style which caused him to get away with it.
 

Mary Shelley the writer of Frankenstein was another popular gothic novelist educated by her father after the death of her mother only 11 days after childbirth. Shelley's 1818 gothic horror story of an evil scientist creating a monster out of body parts has been channelled many times into popular movies.
 
Anonymous. (unknown). Mary shelley novelist. Available: http://www.egs.edu/library/mary-shelley/biography/. Last accessed 06/04/15. 

Britainica editors. (2014). Mary wollstonecraft shelley. Available: http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/539744/Mary-Wollstonecraft-Shelley. Last accessed 06/04/15.
 
 
Charles Dickens 1812 was the talented writer of the great expectations and Oliver twist also became the most popular English writer for many decades covering many aspects of gothic horror in his novels. Dickens also explored the world of journalism, travel and publishing an autobiography.
 
Anonymous. (unknown). Karl Marx. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/marx_karl.shtml. Last accessed 06/04/15
 
Bram Stoker 1847 was an Irish writer best known  for his gothic horror noel Dracula which has become one of the most popular horror characters of all time transformed from novels into films and also channelled into TV series using a similar appearance and traits as Stokers the Dracula located in Pennsylvania
 
Karl Marx 1818 is also known for his vampire style novel inspired by gothic horror. The novel was titled Das Capitals an iconic and his most important piece of writing which was written in 1849 whilst he spent time in London.
 
Anonymous. (unknown). Karl Marx. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/marx_karl.shtml. Last accessed 06/04/15.
 
Jane Austen was another popular novelist known to have written a novel making a joke out of the gothic horror genre . Northanger Abbey was the title of the gothic novel, the novel was quite as successful as other famous novels she had written but her main aim I think was to proof her point showing readers a world outside of gothic horror
 
Jessander. (unknown). Jane Austens northanger abbey. Available: http://austensgothicparody.blogspot.co.uk/. Last accessed 06/04/15
 
 
Thomas Parnell was very clever getting into education a what was to be considered a young age, he was also known as a graveyard port writing a famous poem'  night piece of death' which includes elements of the British writer William Shakespeare and focuses on how people feel about death.
 
Lady Seraph. (06/08/12). graveyard poets. Available: http://www.darkestgoth.com/2012/08/the-graveyard-poets/. Last accessed 06/04/15.

anonymous. (20/10/14). the art of gothic . Available: http://portal.solent.ac.uk/library/library.aspx. Last accessed 01/04/15.

Gothic art

gothic was soon incorporated into paintings, telling a story which was considered taboo in any other language apart from gothic and transforming it into art. The natural world such as cliffs and  storms at sea as soon transformed into another meaning which was known a gothic motif the sublime. Edmund Burke was the man who believed the sublime was a way of describing landscapes which are fascinating to admire as fearful to be on in reality.
 
Thomas Chatterson was fascinated with documents from the medieval era, he developed medieval English a new language, however the country boy was lonely and drank arsenic aged 17 committing suicide, Chatterson however didn't relise the commotion he had caused being channelled by different artists through the decades in many iconic paintings.

offical site. (unknown). Francis Bacon. Available: http://www.francis-bacon.com/blog/category/misc/. Last accessed 06/04/15.

 
Francis Bacon 1909 can be considered as one of the most famous artists of the 20th century his paintings can be considered as grotesque to the eye but fascinating at the same time. After the death of Francis Bacons criminal partner he soon started to paint gothic horror inspired paintings of him.

Anonymous. (unknown). Francis Bacon. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/marx_karl.shtml. Last accessed 06/04/15

anonymous. (20/10/14). the art of gothic . Available: http://portal.solent.ac.uk/library/library.aspx. Last accessed 01/04/15.