High Gothic

Refers to the period and style of Gothic art of the late 12th through the 13th centuries in France and elsewhere in Europe, marked by the achievement of Gothic ideals in architecture and other arts. The style is characterized in sculpture and painting by a return to the balance and naturalism of the sculpture of classical Greece and Rome. The style in architecture is often characterized by elegant, lofty proportions, movement toward a sense of greater void than solid, and symmetry in design, which often was not carried out in execution as designs were often altered or left unfinished. In ecclesiastical architecture, designs typically include twin towers on the western facade, shortened transepts, three- or four-story elevations, flying buttresses, central rose windows, and extensive campaigns of ever more sophisticated sculpture and stained glass.