Editing Middle Ages (section)

=== Late medieval art and architecture ===
[[File:Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry février.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|left|February scene from the 15th-century illuminated manuscript [[Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry]]]]

The Late Middle Ages in Europe correspond to Italy's Trecento and [[Renaissance|Early Renaissance]] cultural periods. Northern Europe and Spain continued to use Gothic styles, which became increasingly elaborate in the 15th century until almost the end. [[International Gothic]] was a courtly style that reached much of Europe in the decades around 1400, producing masterpieces such as the [[Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry]].<ref name=Benton253>Benton ''Art of the Middle Ages'' pp. 253–256</ref> All over Europe secular art continued to increase in quantity and quality. In the 15th century, the mercantile classes of Italy and Flanders became important patrons, commissioning small portraits of themselves in oils as well as a growing range of luxury items such as jewellery, [[Casket with Scenes of Romances (Walters 71264)|ivory caskets]], [[cassone]] chests, and [[maiolica]] pottery. These objects also included the [[Hispano-Moresque ware]] produced by mostly [[Mudéjar]] potters in Spain. Although royalty owned huge plate collections, little survives except for the [[Royal Gold Cup]].<ref>Lightbown ''Secular Goldsmiths' Work'' p. 78</ref> Italian silk manufacture developed so that Western churches and elites no longer needed to rely on imports from Byzantium or the Islamic world. In France and Flanders, [[tapestry]] weaving of sets like ''[[The Lady and the Unicorn]]'' became a major luxury industry.<ref name=Benton257>Benton ''Art of the Middle Ages'' pp. 257–262</ref>

The large external sculptural schemes of Early Gothic churches gave way to more sculpture inside the building, as tombs became more elaborate and other features such as pulpits were sometimes lavishly carved, as in the [[Pulpit of Sant' Andrea, Pistoia (Giovanni Pisano)|Pulpit by Giovanni Pisano in Sant'Andrea]]. Painted or carved wooden relief [[altarpiece]]s became common, especially as churches created many [[Chapel|side-chapels]]. [[Early Netherlandish painting]] by artists such as [[Jan van Eyck]] (d. 1441) and [[Rogier van der Weyden]] (d. 1464) rivalled that of Italy, as did northern illuminated manuscripts, which in the 15th century began to be collected on a large scale by secular elites, who also commissioned secular books, especially histories. From about 1450, printed books rapidly became popular, though still expensive. There were around 30,000 different editions of [[incunabula]], or works printed before 1500,<ref name=BL>British Library Staff "[http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/istc/index.html Incunabula Short Title Catalogue]" ''British Library''</ref> by which time illuminated manuscripts were commissioned only by royalty and a few others. Very small [[woodcut]]s, nearly all religious, were affordable even by peasants in parts of Northern Europe from the middle of the 15th century. More expensive [[engraving]]s supplied a wealthier market with various images.<ref name=Griffiths17>Griffiths ''Prints and Printmaking'' pp. 17–18; 39–46</ref>