Medieval Art
The Art of the Illuminated Manuscript
(500 - 1600)
The earliest medieval art was produced by anonymous scribes working in monasteries painstakingly
illuminateing manuscripts. Many of these beautiful works still survive, ascribed to artists such as William de
Brailes, who worked in Oxford between 1238 and 1252. Artist like him specialised in the illumination of bibles
and psalters and worked in monasteries and workshops across the Christian world producing uplifting volumes
for the very richest clients.
At this time relatively few people could read, even among the ruling class, so illustration played a hugely
important role in conveying the Christian message. Religious paintings were used also as teaching and learning
tools, similar in intent in many ways to stained glass windows in cathedrals and churches. It was not until the
nineteenth century that the majority of the population was able to read, so a painting of a pertinent story from,
for example, the gospels, would be used to reinforce the verbal story from the local priest. Of course, not
everyone had easy access to such magnificent pictures, but many were displayed in the great cathedrals and
institutions of Europe open to the public for their edification and enlightenment.
Byzantine Art
(400 - 1453)
When we want to refer to something that is totally backward, asinine, or outdated, we use the phrase "something out
of the dark ages." As descriptive as this phrase might be it is, in itself, "something out of the dark ages." That is, it's
mostly wrong. The dark ages were a time of political, and military upheavals, but then what age isn't (our own
included)? The point is though, they were not dark, at least in an artistic, literary, or scholarly sense. The worst that
could be said of the period from the third century, when the Emperor Diocletian split the Roman Empire into two
parts (eastern and western) in order to save the eastern half from the chaos and destruction that befell the western
half, to the beginning of the early Renaissance in 1400, was that it was primitive (but hardly any more so than it had
been in the eastern Roman empire before this time). And while there wasn't exactly a "flourishing" of the arts, they
continued to exist and develop even amidst the political and military upheavals I mentioned before.
We call the artistic period during this time Byzantine, for its cultural and political centre, Byzantium (now Istanbul).
Here for instance, the ancient Roman art of mosaic images continued to develop as seen in the San Vitale, Ravenna,
murals of Justinian and His Attendants or its companion piece depicting his queen, Theodora. Although there were
problems involving those who thought any depictions of Christ, God, or Mary were idolatrous, and a period when
these Iconoclasts (image breakers) wreaked havoc with figurative expressions in art, there can, nonetheless, be seen
a fairly constant development of artistic styles and skills during this period.
And there continued to be painting, as well. Even in the West there was some fresco painting being done (admittedly
crude) in churches as a means of educating the illiterate believers at the time. A David and Goliath fresco at Tahull,
Spain, done about 1123 is an interesting example. It has a linear, cartoon-like quality to it, and a limited, rather flat
colour range, but it's still quite effective for its decorative/educational purposes. And in the East, painting took a
different, more personal direction in the form of icon painting--small, religious, panels depicting, usually the
Madonna and child--which, as they developed, became both beautiful and quite sensitive in the emotional
interaction between the mother and child. Later, with the spread of Christianity northward to Russia, these deeply
religious evocations of beauty and faith developed still further, and are perhaps the best evidence that the so-called
"dark ages" weren't as dark as we often think.
Medieval Art Seat Work Questions
1.
Why were Medieval Manuscript Illuminations primarily made in monasteries?_________
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2.
Who was William de Brailes and were and when did he work? _____________________
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3.
Explain the purpose of Medieval Manuscript Illuminations and Stained Glass windows.
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4.
What is a Manuscript Illumination?___________________________________________
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5.
Explain what is wrong with the expression, “something out of the dark ages...”_________
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6.
Why is the Art between 400 - 1453 called Byzantine?_____________________________
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7.
Describe some of the key characterisitcs of Byzantine art?
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8.
What is an Icon Painting?___________________________________________________
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