Gothic art began in the 12th century AD and evolved out of the Romanesque style. Based on the victory of the Goths over Roman several hundred years earlier, the name was intended derogatorily at first. The name was a synonym for “barbaric” and was used to describe Gothic art as unrefined in comparison to Classical art.

Gothic was used by 17c. scholars to mean "Germanic, Teutonic," hence its use from 1640s as a term for the art style that emerged in northern Europe in the Middle Ages (which has nothing to do with the historical Goths), originally applied in scorn by Italian architects of the Renaissance; it was extended early 19c. to literary style that used northern European medieval settings to suggest horror and mystery.