The new style of Gothic architecture<\/a>\u00a0first arose in France and gradually replaced the Romanesque buildings.\u00a0 After considerable refinements in the French context, the Gothic style spread throughout Europe in the thirteenth century.\u00a0 This was a deeply religious age whose character is captured in the ecstatic words of the visionary Hildegard of Bingen<\/a>\u00a0who wrote:\u00a0And 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…<\/a><\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n\n\t\t\t Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t