The fundamental character of the Gothic period, especially at the start, was the supremacy of architecture; all the other arts were determined by it. The character of the Gothic visual aesthetic was one of great verve; it was linear and restlessly dynamic. Informed by the scholasticism and mysticism of the Middle Ages, it reflected the highest religious vigor, the passion, and the self-intoxication with sensible formalism that was the essential quality of the Gothic. Gothic style was the dominant structural and tasteful style in Europe for a period of up to 400 years.
