General characters of Gothic
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The Lithuanian historian Jurgis Baltrusaitis,
through an ichnographical research,
finds out in mediaeval art the presence of characters of western ancient culture,
showing a continuity between European and Asiatic civilization.
Middle ages, therefore, is described by the researcher as a big container,
full of various influences, an age aiming at absorbing heterogeneous forms of art and thought,
and putting on the same level ancient cultures (Greek-Roman, Gallic, Norman-English) and exotic ones,
from Islam to China, in a kind of space-temporal levelling.
This peculiarity of Middle Ages, therefore,
lets us appraise again both "buried" civilizationa nd, at the same time,
the approach of geographically far away ones. Another recurrant motif is the vegetable inspiration:
curvilinear and sinuous traces let us think of living material;
that's why Schlegel and Chateaubriand compare the Gothic cathedral to a forest,
because it's an attempt to recreate the natural environment where the the ancient British Druids used to adore their gods.
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Cappella di S.Barbara
Through the Gothic church they tried to recreate the original atmosphere of Northern people's first shrines but
, to get a better result, european artists borrowed ornamental patterns of saracen art from which some researchers think Gothic art comes.
The theme of gothic cathedralas an imitation of forest, can be another link between Celtic and Italian culture,
because it's known the ancient tradition of ancient Romans to build shrines in woods dedicated to classical Gods.
It's impossible not to think of Cimmeri who, according to a legend,
settled down in Cuma, before Greeks arrived.
They used to live in caves located by Avernus Lake (Homer cites them in Odissey, XI, too);
and they used to lead a an exclusively night life, because they weren't allowed to see the light for religious reasons.
An interpretation about the identity of Cimmeri ( but not confirmed by any fact),
identifies them with miners working in caves of Phlegraen area.
But theu durk and mystic peculiarities let us think of ancient Northern European Druids.