A publication that examines medieval art and European modernism together.

Modernism is often described as a fundamental break with tradition. Yet precisely as art was being redefined around 1900, a deliberate backward glance at the late Middle Ages played a central role among artists. The encounter with medieval aesthetics opened up new ways for modern art to engage with fundamental questions of human existence, with life and death, love and sexuality, and also spirituality. This magnificent volume shows how the Gothic idea influenced all artistic areas and brought forth new forms of expression.

Edvard Munch, Max Beckmann, Käthe Kollwitz, and other modern artists borrowed stylistic or thematic elements from the Gothic model, translating these motifs into a modern formal language. The artworks that resulted possess great emotional and creative power and continue to resonate today.

Artists included are Albrecht Altdorfer, Hans Baldung Grien, Ernst Barlach, Max Beckmann, Barthel Beham, Arnold Böcklin, Edward Burne-Jones, Lovis Corinth, Lucas Cranach d. Ä., Otto Dix, Albrecht Dürer, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Vincent van Gogh, Matthias Grünewald, Jacoba van Heemskerck, Hans Holbein d. J., Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Theodor Kittelsen, Paul Klee, Gustav Klimt, Max Klinger, Oskar Kokoschka, Käthe Kollwitz, George Minne, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele, Helene Schjerfbeck, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Hugo Simberg, Martin Schongauer, Marianne Stokes.