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Middle Ages

The Middle Ages spanned from the fall of the Roman Empire in 400 AD to the beginning of the Renaissance in 1400 AD. When people use the terms "Medieval Times," the "Middle Ages," and the "Dark Ages," they are generally referring to the same time period.

After the fall of the Roman Empire, a lot of Roman Culture and knowledge was lost (hence, the term "dark"). Rome had ruled much of Europe up until this time. Rome's fall put the land in a lot of confusion as kings and rulers tried to take over power.

During the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church financed many projects. The church had two centers of power: Rome (the Vatican) in the West and Constantinople in the East. Medieval artists decorated churches and public places using classical, religious themes.

Art during this time focused mostly on religious themes in the form of illuminated manuscripts and mosaics and fresco paintings in churches.

Medieval art consisted of the Byzantine and Gothic style, which we will discuss. It also includes the Romanesque style.


"The Annunciation" (called Madonna dei Donzelli), tempera on table, by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, 1344. Image is the public domain. Courtesy of Pinacoteca Nazionale.

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Types and Characteristics of Art

There are different types of Medieval art.

  • Illuminated Manuscripts: Religious texts that were embellished with intricate drawings; the text is supplemented with such decoration such as initials, borders, and miniature illustrations. They were written on parchment writing material made from specially prepared untanned skins of animals — primarily sheep, calves, and goats , but most manuscripts important enough to illuminate were written on the best quality of parchment, called vellum High quality parchment made exclusively from calf skin; it is from the Latin word vitulinum meaning "made from calf" . Beginning in the late Middle Ages, manuscripts began to be produced on paper.


    The Horae ad usum romanum, Book of Hours of Marguerite d'Orléans, circa 1426 - 1438, shows Pilate washing his hands of the fate of Jesus. Around, peasants collecting letters of alphabet. Image is in the public domain. See larger version at the National Library of France.


  • Metalwork: Created by highly skilled metalworkers, this includes objects of adornment and religious artifacts. Most metal work was in bronze and consisted of sculptures, jewelry, and even church doors.

  • Silversmiths and Goldsmiths: Metalworkers produced new forms of jewelry and vessels in gold and silver. The medieval church required that their vessels for rites like communion only be made from these precious metals.

  • Paintings: Medieval paintings, which were mainly religious in nature or pietistic paintings, were done by artists who were skilled in:
    • Iconography: artwork full of symbolic representation, it often depicts Christ and the saints

    • Fresco: Italian for fresh, it's a method of painting in which color pigments are mixed solely with water (no binding agent used) and then applied directly onto freshly laid lime-plaster surface

    • Panel painting: a picture painted on a panel (either a one-piece or multi-piece panel), usually made of wood, although metal and other rigid materials are used

  • Tapestries: pictures woven into cloth, such as a decorative rug that can be hung on the wall with detailed images or designs on it; some tapestries tell stories with their pictures

  • Ceramics: hand shaped, rather than thrown on a wheel, these include cooking pots, jugs, pitchers, and crucibles vessels in which substances are heated to high temperatures

  • Mosaics: the art of creating images with small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. They were used in churches and cathedrals. An individual tile on a mosaic is called tessara.

  • Sculpture: the art of processing (as by carving, modeling, or welding) hard materials like marble into works of art. Early sculptures were stiff an elongated then eventually evolved into a more naturalistic style. Sculpture is three-dimensional.

  • Stained Glass: small pieces of glass are arranged to form patterns of pictures, which are held together by strips of lead and supported by a rigid frame; stained glass was almost exclusively applied to the windows of medieval churches, cathedrals, and castles.

  • Heraldry: the art of designing and recording a coat of arms a special group of pictures or symbols belonging to a person, family, or group and shown on a shield and badges; materials used for these were selected from parchment, paper, painted wood, embroidery, stonework, and stained glass


    Heraldry and coats of arms are still used today, like the Canadian provincial coats of arms of the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland shown above.


Medival Characteristics

Art created during the Middle Ages included the following characteristics:

  • a focus on religious themes
  • very little perspective and figures that were disproportional in size (heads were depicted bigger than bodies)
  • artwork was two-dimensional and flat
  • large use of the hieratic scale, a system used by artists to visually communicate power in medieval art, and many other cultures. Significant or important individuals, such as kings, other rulers, and religious figures, were depicted as being much larger than any figures in a scene.

Watch the video Art History: Medieval (8:37) to learn more.

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Illuminated Manuscripts

Before the printing press was invented, books were considered very special and precious possessions of religious and secular patrons a wealthy or influential supporter of an artist or writer . It took long hours (sometimes months!) of fine, painstaking, patient work to create these books. During the early part of the Middle Ages the books were written and illustrated in monasteries by monks. They worked in rooms called scriptoriums, which literally means "a place for writing." Scriptoriums were rooms devoted solely to the writing, copying and illuminating of manuscripts by monastic scribes.

The manuscripts were written solely for the "glory of God" and were commissioned In art, a commission is the hiring and payment for the creation of a piece, often on behalf of another. Artwork may be commissioned by private individuals, by the government, or businesses. by kings and emperors. Commissioning these kinds of works of art was considered an act of religious devotion.

Later in the period, the patronage changed and knights and noblemen were commissioning books for their own use. Guilds A group of skilled craftsmen in the same trade might form themselves into a guild. A guild would make sure that anything made by a guild member was up to standard and was sold for a fair price. They are similar to modern-day unions. were formed and the writing and illustrating of the manuscripts became a commercial enterprise.

Illustrated manuscripts of the Middle Ages are of special importance in studying the artwork of the period. Mural paintings, or artwork painted or applied directly to a wall or ceiling, were common during this time. However, most of them have faded or been completely destroyed by sunlight, dampness and vandalism. Oil painting was not widely adopted until the 15th century, and only fragments of the stained glass art that was in many cathedrals and abbeys have remained. Illuminated manuscripts, on the other hand, have survived the centuries surprisingly well. They were small and stored in the safety of libraries, shut away from light and bound in strong covers to protect them. Additionally, the vellum and parchment used stands the test of time better than paper. Even today, illuminations from the Middle Ages are well-preserved.

The most recognized artists of illuminated manuscripts were:

Watch the video Medieval Manuscripts (5:00) to learn more. DES login information.

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Byzantine Art

The capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Byzantium, was renamed Constantinople in 330 A.D. by Emperor Constantine I. We now know it as Istanbul. The Roman empire was split into two sections, East and West. When the Roman Empire fell, the Western part was dissolved, but the Eastern Part (or Byzantium Empire) survived. Early medieval Art reflects the differences between the Catholic religion in the West and the Byzantine Empire of the East, which was Eastern Orthodox. Byzantine art was created largely for the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Characteristics of Byzantine Art include:

  • No perspective; art was totally flat and one-dimensional
  • No shading, with flat, one-dimensional colors used
  • Figures were generally facing the front
  • Faces were long, narrow, and very solemn
  • No attempt to portray realism in the art work
  • Focus of artwork was religious and Christian (pietistic)
  • Artwork was impersonal, ceremonial, and symbolic
  • Artists were mainly members of religious organizations such as monasteries.
  • No sculptures in the round free-standing sculptures were created as they were considered a form of idolatry; instead, most Byzantine sculptures were done in relief a sculptural technique where the sculpted elements remain attached to a solid background of the same material. The term relief is from the Latin verb relevo, meaning "to raise." .
  • Dark, dull and gloomy tones were used in the paintings

Byzantine art included the following art types:

  • Mosaics decorated the wall and domes of churches
  • Fresco wall paintings in churches
  • Panel paintings of icons of holy images, including Christ and the saints; they were created using encaustic wax paint Encaustic painting involves using heated beeswax to bind colored pigments. The paint is then applied to a surface—usually a prepared wood panel or wall. It is then reheated to fuse the paint into a uniform enamel like finish. on portable easel
  • Illuminated manuscripts with theological and secular themes
  • Goldsmithing and metalwork
  • Cloisonné enameling
    • Cloisonné comes from the French word cloison, which means "compartment or partition."
    • It is a three-stage process where flat metal strips or wire made of gold, silver, brass or copper are soldered a technique to combine metals without heating the objects to their melting point onto the surface of the metal object being decorated. It creates tiny mini-walled cellular compartments. These compartments are filled with either inlays of cut gemstones or other precious materials or with a colorful enamel paste (mixing powdered glass with other materials to create a paste which is smeared onto the object).
    • The final step is to fire the whole piece in a kiln and then given a smooth finish and polished.
  • Reliefs, or partial sculptures that give the impression that the sculpted material has been raised above the background plane, were common

Watch the following videos. The first one shows many examples of Byzantine art, and the second one shows what remains of Byzantine architecture today.

You can see example of Byzantine art below:

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Artist Spotlight: Cimabue

Cimabue (1240 - 1302) was the nickname (meaning "Ox-head") given to the artist Cenni di Peppi. Cimabue thought of himself as the master of painters. As a boy he spent all his time drawing pictures of people, horses, houses, and anything else he thought up all over his books instead of doing his schoolwork. He was one of the last great painters who worked in the Byzantine tradition and the founder of a movement to create greater realism in artwork. The figures in his artwork were depicted with more lifelike proportions and shading than other artists of this style. He was the teacher to another artist named Giotto.

You can see some of his works here:

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Gothic Art

Gothic art emerged in the late Middle Ages. There were great advances in art techniques and artists broke away from the influences of Byzantine art styles. The main form of expression was the Gothic architecture, particularly Gothic Cathedrals in Northern France. Gothic art was exclusively religious. It gave weight to the growing power of the church in Rome and firmly established the connection between religion and art.

Watch the video Art History: Gothic (8:49) for an overview of Gothic art.


Characteristics and Types

Characteristics of Gothic art include:

  • Bright colors
  • A move towards realism the accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction of nature or of contemporary life.
  • Development of perspective and proportion
  • The use of shadows and light
  • New ideals of naturalism refers to the depiction of realistic objects in a natural setting
  • The creation of a sense of pictorial space The illusory space in a painting or other work of two-dimensional art that seems to recede backward into depth from the picture plane, giving the illusion of distance.
  • The use of symmetry in Gothic art
  • Changes in subject matter including the depiction of animals and mythological scenes

Gothic art included the following art types:

  • Sculptures
  • Metal work in the form of bronze art
  • Gothic art in the form of stained glass windows
  • Panel painting
  • Frescos
  • Illuminated manuscripts
  • Tapestries and embroidered vestments any of various ceremonial garments worn by the clergy at religious services


This ivory statuette titled "Virgin and Child," artist unknown, circa 1250, is an example of Gothic art. Image is in the public domain. See larger version at the Louvre Museum.


Characteristics of Gothic architecture include:

  • Soaring arches
  • Flying buttresses An arched masonry support that takes weight away from a main structure to an outer pier or buttress.
  • Huge stained glass windows
  • Stone structures
  • Large expanses of glass
  • Clustered columns
  • Sharply pointed spires
  • Intricate sculptures
  • Ribbed vaults
  • Pointed arches

Watch the video Gothic Paris (3:53) to see how Gothic architecture has survived in Paris, France.

One of most notable remaining examples of Gothic architecture is the Notre Dame de Paris, shown below.


External shot of the Notre Dame de Paris. See larger version here.


A rose window in the Notre Dame de Paris. See larger version here.


Interior shot of the ceiling of the Notre Dame de Paris. See larger version here.


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Artist Spotlight: Giotto

Giotto di Bondone (1267 - 1377): Known simply as Giotto, he broke away from the Byzantine style and pioneered new ideas of naturalism. He tried to create people who looked real, had emotions, and possessed three-dimensionality in his paintings. Cimabue was impressed with his work and took him on as an apprentice. He had a great reputation as a painter and was very wealthy but in spite of this not a single signed piece of his work remains.

See some of Giotto's work below:

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