Observation and Image-Making in Gothic Art examines the working practices of medieval artists and challenges many assumptions about "pre-modern" science and art, especially the notion that descriptive art is a natural response to scientific empiricism. Late-medieval images range from vividly specific to barely identifiable, but descriptiveness in the medieval context rarely correlates with modern concepts of function. In this study, Jean Givens defines a series of late-medieval visual communication strategies and explores their relationship to medieval modes of organizing and displaying knowledge. She demonstrates how medieval image-making offers new insights into the syntax of visual communication and the function of descriptive art in both sacred and secular contexts.