International Gothic (or Late Gothic) art is a style of figurative art datable between about 1370 and, in Italy, the first half of the 15th century.

As the name emphasizes, this stylistic phase had an international scope, with common features as well as many local variables. The style did not spread from a center of irradiation, as had been the case, for example, with Gothic art and the Île-de-France, but was rather the result of a dialogue between European courts, fostered by the numerous mutual exchanges.. Among these courts, the papal court played a prominent role, particularly the Avignon court, a true center of gathering and exchange for artists from all over the continent..

Italy, politically divided, was traversed by artists who spread this style, moving constantly (especially Pisanello, Michelino da Besozzo and Gentile da Fabriano) and also generating numerous regional variations. The "international" Gothic style meant the rejuvenation of the Gothic tradition (still linked at the end of the 14th century to the style of Giotto), but only some areas offered original and "leading" contributions to the European scene, while others only partially and more superficially acquired individual stylistic features. Prominent among the areas were Lombardy and, to varying degrees, Venice and Verona. In Florence International Gothic art came into early competition with the nascent Renaissance style, but it nevertheless met with favor among the rich and cultured clientele, both religious and private..

Lombardy

Under Gian Galeazzo Visconti (in power from 1374 to 1402) a political program was begun aimed at unifying northern Italy into a monarchy. In 1386 the construction of Milan Cathedral began, for which Visconti called in French and German workers, while in 1396 the same lord laid the foundation stone of the Certosa di Pavia.

Visconti's atelier of miniaturists was mainly active in Pavia (in whose castle Gian Galeazzo's court was based) and by about 1370 had already elaborated a refined fusion of Giottesque chromaticism and courtly and chivalric themes. Protagonists of this early period were the anonymous miniaturist author of the Guiron le Coutois and the Lancelot du Lac, now in the National Library of France in Paris, and Giovannino de' Grassi, who illuminated the prayer book known as the Hours of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, with representations of great linear elegance, naturalistic accuracy and decorative preciousness.De Vecchi-Cerchiari, Volume 1, pag. 409. The next generation, especially in the personality of Michelino da Besozzo, elaborated this legacy even more freely, imaginatively and internationally. In the Offiziolo Bodmer he used a flowing line, soft colors and a precious rhythm in the drawing of figures, which indifferently disregarded spatial issues; all were enriched by very fresh naturalistic details, taken from direct observation.

Michelino's graceful style was successful and widely followed for a long time. For example, still in 1444, the frescoes in the Chapel of Teodolinda in the Cathedral of Monza by the Zavattari brothers are characterized by muted hues, astonished and weightless characters taken from the courtly world; other examples can also be counted for the second half of the 15th century..

The other strand alongside Michelino's gentle style was the grotesque style, evidenced by the works of Franco and Filippolo de Veris in the fresco of the Last Judgment in the church of Santa Maria dei Ghirli in Campione d'Italia (1400), or the expressive miniatures of Belbello da Pavia. For example, in the Bible of Niccolò d'Este, illuminated by Belbello in 1431-1434, fluid, deforming lines, physically imposing figures, excessive gestures, and bright, iridescent colors are used. He remained faithful to this lexicon throughout his long career, until about 1470.

In the secular field, the major pictorial cycles preserved today, with elegant scenes illustrating the pastimes of courtly life, are the fresco cycle of the so-called Borromeo Games in the Borromeo Palace in Milan, the decorations of the Sala degli Svaghi and the Sala dei Vizi e delle Virtù in the Masnago Castle, whose authors have not yet been identified and the dames commissioned by Gian Galeazzo in 1393 to be frescoed in the "ladies' room" of the Visconti Castle, recently attributed to Gentile da Fabriano.

Venice

In the first two decades of the 15th century Venice initiated a momentous political shift, concentrating its interests toward the mainland, inserting itself more actively into the Western framework and gradually detaching itself from Byzantine influence. In painting, sculpture and architecture there was a contemporary grafting of late Gothic motifs, amalgamated with the Byzantine substratum: the linear and chromatic finesse of Gothic art were in fact very akin to the sumptuous abstractions of the oriental stamp. The renovation was also favored by the influx of artists from outside, enlisted at St. Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace..

The Basilica was crowned with domes, and it was decided in 1422 to extend the Doge's Palace on the side of the square to St. Mark's, continuing the style of the earlier, 14th-century part. Thus was consecrated a "Venetian" architectural style, free from the European trends of the time, which was reused for centuries. Belonging to this style are the elegant poliforas with finely ornamented arches of Ca' Foscari, Palazzo Giustinian and Ca' d'Oro, where at one time the facade was also decorated with dazzling gilding and polychrome effects. These palaces are characterized by a ground-floor portico open to the water for docking vessels, while the upper floor is lit by large poliforas, usually at the central hall, which is reached by a grand staircase that also serves the other rooms. The small arches create dense and modular decorations, which multiply the openings and create rhythms of lace-like chiaroscuro..

The Doge's Palace was covered with frescoes between 1409 and 1414, featuring renowned artists such as Pisanello, Michelino da Besozzo and Gentile da Fabriano, works now almost totally lost due to various causes. The Venetian influence is seen in some of Gentile's works, such as the Coronation of the Virgin in the Valle Romita Polyptych (1400-1410), painted for a hermitage near Fabriano.

Istria In Istria, Venetian territory, John of Kastav worked in the Holy Trinity Church in Hrastovlje, and Vincenzo di Càstua in the sanctuary of Santa Maria alle Lastre in Beram.

Verona

Verona, although subjugated to Venice from 1406, long maintained its own artistic school, closer to the Lombard style brought by the earlier Visconti domination and the stay of artists such as Michelino da Besozzo (Madonna of the Rose Garden, c. 1435)..

Prominent was the painter Stefano da Verona, son of a French painter (Jean d'Arbois, who was formerly in the service of Philip II of Burgundy and Gian Galeazzo Visconti). In the Adoration of the Magi (signed and dated 1435), he constructed with soft strokes and sinuous lines one of the finest works of international Gothic art, paying great attention to detail, to the rendering of precious materials and fabrics, and to the calibration of the crowded composition, with a mostly linear style.

However, the most important artist active in Verona was Pisanello, who brought northern figurative art to its peak. In the Pellegrini Chapel of the church of Santa Anastasia is located his best-known work, Saint George and the Princess, wherein a wholly personal manner he mixed elegance of detail and tension of narrative, reaching heights of "idealized realism." Today the paintings are not in the best state of preservation, with many alterations to the paint surface and the loss of the entire left side. Pisanello later moved to other Italian courts (Pavia, Ferrara, Mantua, Rome), where he spread his artistic accomplishments, being in turn influenced by local schools, with particular regard to the rediscovery of the ancient world already promoted by Petrarch, to which he devoted himself by copying numerous Roman reliefs into drawings that have partly come down to us. Also extraordinary is his production of drawings, and veritable studies from life, among the first in the history of art to acquire a value independently of the finished panel work..

Trentino Alto Adige

Trentino was linked beyond the Alpine range to German-speaking and Central European countries. The entire area is rich in secular cycles, among which the work of Master Wenceslas, of Bohemian origin, who decorated the Eagle Tower in the Buonconsiglio Castle in Trent with the , commissioned by George of Lichtenstein, stands out for its richness and quality. The scenes are rich in details inferred from the iconographies of the Tacuina sanitatis, with a dense interweaving of the chivalrous and everyday worlds, yet devoid of grotesque overtones..

Another interesting piece of evidence, in the Alpine area, is Sibyl's fresco, found in Cortina d'Ampezzo. The fresco has survived in fragments: the scene probably compared six or more Sibyls in pairs, holding scrolls. Five remain: from the left, one recognizes the "Sibyl Valuensis," a symbol of justice. The second, holding a palm tree, may be the "Sibyl Nicaulia" or "Tiburtina." The central sibyl with three lions, according to the scroll she is holding, is the "Sibilla Portuensis"; but it could also be the "Sibilla Libica," because of the presence of the lions. The fourth, best preserved one should be the "Erythraean Sibyl," pointing to the rays of the Sun with her right hand. The fifth sibyl wears a different crown and looks outward.

Johannes Hinderbach, Bishop of Trent, enlarged his residence, the Buonconsiglio Castle in Trent, by making, among other things, a Venetian loggia with Corinthian capitals in Gothic style in the 15th century.

In South Tyrol, the frescoes with chivalric and profane-courtly cycles in Runkelstein Castle and Rodengo Castle are relevant and valuable, while in Trentino those in Castle of Avio are worth mentioning.

Savoy, Piedmont and Aosta Valley

The entire Alpine range had always been traversed via the passes by various flows of travelers, which is why it was a place of smooth cultural exchanges.

In Piedmont, Amadeus VIII linked his duchy through close diplomatic relations to Berry and Burgundy, going so far as to marry Mary of Burgundy, the daughter of the Duke of Burgundy Philip the Bold. The art produced at his court reflected this cosmopolitan climate, with artists such as Giacomo Jaquerio.

He took Burgundian sculpture as his model, but soon developed a more personal style, where the finest stylistic sweetnesses and the sharpest expressive depictions coexisted, as in the moving Ascent to Calvary frescoed in the former sacristy of the church of St. Anthony in Ranverso (c. 1430). In the great variety of human types in the procession around Christ, a linear sense prevails due to the pronounced black line of the borders, yet each subject detaches expressively from the neutral background and group, creating a dramatic vision devoid of sentimentality.

The Master of the Castello della Manta, formerly identified as Jaquerio and now regarded as a separate individual,Renzo Zorzi (a cura di), La Sala Baronale del Castello della Manta, Edizioni Olivetti, 1992. painted around 1420 a cycle of fine frescoes in the castle near Saluzzo, very rich in courtly elements on a bright, yet flat, white background. In scenes such as the Fountain of Youth, the fairy-tale world of sinuous lines, drawn from private miniatures, is transferred to a monumental scale, with great attention to detail and numerous genre scenes: the heavy trudging of the elderly, men undressing, the old woman acting as a stepladder to her sore peer, the scenes of love and joy within the elaborate Gothic miraculous fountain..

In the Aosta Valley, the frescoes in Fénis Castle and Issogne Castle belong to the International Gothic.

Marche and Umbria