Medieval Art
Context
● Watching europe pull itself back together
● Religion domination of the arts (1000 year stretch)
● Rome was having a hard time maintaining its border, unable to keep people out 400-500
C.E.
● Period of moment of tribes, decentralization, war, chaos→Feudalism is about to emerge
● Art is mix of germanic, roman, and christian
● Germanic Art
○ Produced beautiful pieces of jewelry → Buried with the dead
○ Small precious metals, interwoven patterning → Almost islamic (BUT NOT
ISLAMIC)
○ Often references animals
○ Known from Beowulf
● 1000 CE
○ Settled down a bit
○ Nation-States are emerging
○ Rise of towns and commerce → More stability
○ For 500 Years no artistically significant architectural buildings
○ Churches start to be built again → Romanesque Church → Gothic
■ Cult of Saints → Saints were trending, if you could get close to the relics
of the saints and they will send it upwards to virgin Mary and then Jesus
and then God
■ All of these churches were built to house relics
○ Produced movement and commerce → Good for europe
○ Revival of public art
■ Romanesque churches begin to decorate → Generally the front
● Church should stir us, but it's a dark hallway - Out comes the gothic
○ Christainity obsessed with height - God is above all and we are small and
insignificant
○ Have to raise the height of the barrel vault to represent this - the heavier they
became so windows couldn’t be punchered
○ Abbot Suger (French Development) “Height and Light” - But we can’t do this
with what we just outlined?
■ Rebuilds church to this new style
○ Flying Buttress is the gothic breakthrough - Distribute the weight of domes to
flying buttresses allowing us to produced a wall of glass beneath the arches
○ Clerestory lights - Bring the light of god to the people below
○ Art shifts from Italy to Paris, France
○ Notre Dame is the earliest and smallest
■ Our Lady - Dedicated to the Virgin Mary even though it houses the crown
of thorns
Themes
● References to animals
● Mixture of cultures
Vocabulary
● Chasing - hammering design into metal
● Fibula - Pin used for your cloak often used in Rome
● Zoomorphic
● Tympanum - Space under the round arch over the doors, where we put a sculpture usually
of the Last Judgement
● Mandorla - Sacred space around the most sacred figure which sets him off from
everything else in the story
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Merovingian looped fibula
Early Medieval Europe, Mid-sixth Century C.E., Silver gilt worked in filigree, with inlays of
garnets and other stones.
● Fibula = Pin used for your cloak often used in Rome (Status symbol: The bigger it is, the
more wealthy you are)
● Found from a wealthy germanic woman
● References to animals
● Zoomorphic - In the shape of animals; abstractly worked into the design of the jewelry
○ Fish and Eagles referenced
○ Eagles symbol of leader; possible from Roman Army
○ Fish associated with Christanity; Jesus feed thousands with a few loaves of bread
and fish; Also underground symbol for Chrsitianity in the early days (Even today
as well)
● Cloisonne
○ Soldering a piece of gold wire and filling it in with precious stones
● Chasing - hammering design into metal
● No spaces left anywhere
Lindisfarne Gospels: St. Matthew, cross-carpet page; St. Luke portrait page; St. Luke incipit
page.
Early medieval (Hiberno Saxon) Europe. 700 C.E. Illuminated manuscript (ink, pigments, and
gold on vellum)
● Bibles made sense during this migratory period
● Complex design etc.; Similar to Fibula
● Wish to dedicate their lives to Christ →Monastic Movement
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○ St. Benedict's rules →Poverty, Celibacy, away from society, life of prayer and
devotion
○ Copied the Bible in a Scriptoria →Partly to spread the word of god and actual
prayer in monastery
○ Difficult work, often snuck in notes in the decoration
Vikings destroyed this monastery
Eadrith - At the end of the Bible there is a note that only Eadrith made it
Cross-carpet page - Decorative page, Pure art
○ Zoomorphic - Every line ends in a cat, dog, fish, snake etc.
○ 4 Balanced Sections
○ Vivid and moving colors which would be chaos except for the design
○ Black background → Colors pop; Makes it seems like there is more further in
○ Hypnotic
Divided the bible in 4 parts
○ Each of the books begins with an Incipit page
○ Each of the words is dramatically treated
○ Extremely intricate
○ Words elevated to art
○ Zoomorphic images
● Each have a Portrait page
○ Not Germanic
○ Stiff and floating but still Roman
Church of Sainte-Foy
Conques, France. Romanesque Europe. 1050-1130 C.E. 9th century with later additions. Stone
(architecture); stone and paint (tympanum); gold, silver, gemstones, and enamel over wood
(reliquary).
● Context
○ 1000 CE
■ Settled down a bit
■ Nation-States are emerging
■ Rise of towns and commerce → More stability
■ For 500 Years no artistically significant architectural buildings
■ Churches start to be built again → Romanesque Church → Gothic
●
●
●
●
●
● Cult of Saints → Saints were trending, if you could get close to the
relics of the saints and they will send it upwards to virgin Mary
and then Jesus and then God
● All of these churches were built to house relics
■ Produced movement and commerce → Good for europe
○ Romanesque → All comes from the Romans (Arches etc.)
■ Bassilican
■ Thick and squat → Out of necessity, to protect against attackers
Typical Romanesque Church
○ Housed Sainte Foy’s “Skull” → Converted to Chiristainity and persecuted by
Romans, stab her repeatedly till she dies; believed help with vision
○ Choir is bigger with radiating chapels → where relics were housed
○ Fireproof → Out of stone
○ Good acoustics → Hear the services well, along with Gregorian chanting (Music)
○ Narrow, Dark Hallway
Churches get taller → symbolic of god
Revival of public art
○ Romanesque churches begin to decorate → Generally the front
○ Colored sculpture
○ Sculpture of the Last Judgement → Very end of the world
■ Sends jesus back to earth and jesus decides which of them goes to heaven
and goes to hell, after that humanity dies and the earth stops existing
■ Scaring people into going church → You need to come to church, or else
you are going to hell
Tympanum - Space under the round arch over the doors, where we put a sculpture usually
of the Last Judgement
Mandorla - Sacred space around the most sacred figure which sets him off from
everything else in the story
● Reliquary of Sainte Foy → Believed to be a roman statue
○ Covered with precious stones → Connection with wealth becomes problematic
Chartres Cathedral
Chartres, France. Gothic Europe. Original construction 1145 CE.
● Context
○ Church should stir us, but it's a dark hallway - Out comes the gothic
○ Christainity obsessed with height - God is above all and we are small and
insignificant
○ Have to raise the height of the barrel vault to represent this - the heavier they
became so windows couldn’t be punchered
○ Abbot Suger (French Development) “Height and Light” - But we can’t do this
with what we just outlined?
■ Rebuilds church to this new style
○ Flying Buttress is the gothic breakthrough - Distribute the weight of domes to
flying buttresses allowing us to produced a wall of glass beneath the arches
○ Clerestory lights - Bring the light of god to the people below
○ Art shifts from Italy to Paris, France
○ Notre Dame is the earliest and smallest
■ Our Lady - Dedicated to the Virgin Mary even though it houses the crown
of thorns
○ Shift from Rounded to Pointed Arch
■ Symbolic - Much taller, takes you higher
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■ Practical - Pointed vault much stronger
○ Lux Nova - Light of god --- Light coming through the stained glass supposed to
sparkle
■ Warm, intangible, but tangible
○ Best example of looking like what it does
○ Compare to Orthadox
■ Light supposed to bounce of mosaics - Show the spiritual connection to
god
■ Colored light coming in making space glow - Again show connection to
god
○ Gothic Advances the decoration of the outside of the church (Flamboyant - Looks
like church is on fire)
■ Symbolic - We are not supposed understand how it works, not orderly, its
chaotic which suggests divine mystery
○ Gothic was just emerging - Early gothic cathedral (100 years to build)
■ Fire burned down 1194 CE
■ Priest was able to save the veil --- people love this miracle
■ Full Gothic replan
■ Low gothic spire and facade, High gothic rest of the building
See cathedral in the distance
Got its hands on the veil of the virgin (Worn when christ was born), honor this relic Extremely important (Cult of the Saints)
Mismatched spire
○ High pointed groin vaults
○ Flying Buttresses
Show the height
○ Augmented arches
○ Windows
○ Columns bring your eyes up
○ No horizontal interruption
Stained Glass --- Notre Dame du la Belle Verrière
○ Important window because all
○ Contributes to the Lux Nova
○ Theotokas - bearer of god
○ Sedes sapientiae - Throne of Wisdom, Christ as wisdom personified
Chartres School - Throne of Wisdom connected to School, proper metaphor
Marian devotion
○ Nearly all cathedrals in N. France built for mary
○ Saints no longer popular - Mary extremely popular
○ Relic is most powerful
● Floor Plan
○ Unified Space, Transcept blocks light
● Three Doors (Portals)
○ Facade - Here is low gothic, much less ornate
○ Liminal Space, transition space from humanly to godly
○ Three Doors - Holy Trinity (Father, Son, Holy Spirit)
● West Portal (Royal Portal)
○ Jamb - Area around the doors
○ Jamb depicted Kings - Metaphor for the increasingly powerful French Royal
family
● Sculpture is evolving
○ Sculptures are higher relief, elaborate, more realistic etc.
○ The church forbade sculpture in the round - Had to be architectonic
○ Architectonic - connected to the architecture
■ Did not want to be Idol Worship, supposed to be worshiping the idea
■ Focus on the person is not good (Church doesn’t want us to focus on
Jesus’s butt)
○ Sculptures becomes almost 3d, abstract, elongated etc.
○ High gothic is about to become renaissance
● Decoration is supposed to so complex and so flamboyant - symbolise mystic god, beyond
human understanding
● Becomes higher, bigger - Sometimes becomes to high
● Visit St. Chapelle - Paris, best example of Lux Nova
Bayeux Tapestry
● Context
○ Tells the story of an important battle in the middle of medieval ages
○ Remind that middle ages were religious but still war
○ King died without a child
○ Far cousin Harold claims the English throne, Far cousins Williams of
Normandy (William the Conqueror)
○ Only time anyone has successfully cross the english channel to conquer
england worked
○ Tower of London was built by William once he conquered
○ Tells story from Willaim’s perspective - Winners perspective
● Embroidery not Tapestry
● Supposed to decorate the Great Hall in a castle - Age of Castle (Age of warfare)
● Calvary Attack
○ Alexander mosaic - supposed to be realistic
○ Trajan’s Column
○ Cartoon
■ Abstract
■ Easier to follow the story
■ Easier to make
● First Meal
○ Last supper - Side of good kinda thing
Dedication Page with Blanche of Castile to King Louis IX of France
& Scenes from a Bible Moralisee
From the BIble Moralisee. Gothic Europe. 1226-1234 CE. Illuminated manuscript,
● Context
○ Extremely expensive bible - Coronation gift
○ Top we have Blanche of Castile and King Louis the IX of France
■ King dies, 12 year old son is Coronated
■ Mother is regent - Gester of wisdom
■ Listen to his mom, wondering what he does
○ Process of making is different
■ Made in a workshop - Still serious art but more quickly than earlier
○ King Louis IX
■ Became one of franc’s great kings
■ 2 Crusades
■ Brought back the crown of thorns - Made a saint
■ Great collector of books - Origins of the french national library
■ Sainte Chapelle (Louis’ Chapel) - Supposed to be crown of thorns
place
● Below is the people who are responsible for the bibles - Monks
○ Haircut, Writing, Didn’t care about vanity
● Gold Leaf - Expensive af
● Rare inks - Expensive af
● Style of decoration
○ Look like gothic window
○ Architure main artistic ideas - Influenced by gothic chapels
● Bible Moralisee take stories from the Bible that have a moral ending, allows you
to understand good v bad
○ Tells the stories off to the side in words then in the middle its expressed in
images in roundels
○ Mother wants to be a good king and person - guide him
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Rottgen Pieta
Late Medieval Europe.
Altarpiece - Focal Point for Prayer (Virgin Theotokos)
Pieta - Mary cradling jesus’s body after he comes down from the cross
○ Emphasizes the suffering of Christ
○ Focuses on Mary - Watching her son suffer and get torture, the maternal
suffering; at the same time she knows that christ has to die to save man
kind
■ Pushing on Renaissance
○ Appreciate her suffering - become more painfully aware of what these
religious figures went through
Hard, Raw, Terrible, Anguish
Andachtsbild - Term for christian devotional images designed as aids for prayer or
contemplation - provokes emotion
Isolates these two figures, focus on these
What is your suffering compared to this?
○ The ultimate suffering is by Christ and Mary so you do not have to suffer
in your next life
● Material - Wood
○ Common, Raw
● On the cusp of renaissance
○ Get closer to the renaissance to