The new style of Gothic architecture first arose in France and gradually replaced the Romanesque buildings.  After considerable refinements in the French context, the Gothic style spread throughout Europe in the thirteenth century.  This was a deeply religious age whose character is captured in the ecstatic words of the visionary Hildegard of Bingen who wrote: And it came to pass … when I was 42 years and 7 months old, that the heavens were opened and a blinding light of exceptional brilliance flowed through my entire brain. And so it kindled my whole heart and breast like a flame, not burning but warming… and suddenly I understood of the meaning of expositions of the books…

In sculpture, the revival of large scale work begun in the Romanesque age continues in the Gothic but with a new naturalism inspired by classical examples of art.