The term “Gothic” was originally a derogatory term coined by Renaissance artist and writer Giorgio Vasari.
Vasari used the label in his 1550 work Lives of the Artists, describing medieval architecture as a “barbarous German style.” Renaissance Italians admired the architecture of ancient Greece and Rome, so the pointed arches, rib vaults, and elaborate tracery of medieval churches seemed to them a decline from classical ideals.
Vasari connected the style with the Goths, the Germanic people whom Italian writers blamed for the destruction of Roman civilization. The association was historically misleading: Gothic architecture developed primarily in northern France and spread across Europe centuries after the Goths’ invasions.
The insult gradually lost its force. By the nineteenth century, scholars and architects had reclaimed “Gothic” as the standard name for the medieval style. A common mix-up is to assume the term was coined by medieval builders; it was a later Renaissance judgment on their work.