Medieval Art and Architecture
Part 1: Read Ch. 9, pg. 278-279, 289-291
1. What was ironic about Charlemagne not being able to write?
2. Describe literacy in Western Europe before Charlemagne.
3. From what places did Charlemagne bring scholars in teachers (list specific places and what they taught)?
4. What was the primary purpose of the schools?
5. What courses of study arose from the trivium of quadrivium?
6. What symbolic meaning did the heavy blocks of stone rising skyward represent in architecture?
7. What could all people of all social classes believe about life on earth?
8. What was handwriting like before the Carolingian period? What was its effect?
9. What’s the Carolingian Miniscule and why is it so important?
Part 2: Read Chapter 10 (303-319)
10. What is the origin of our word “freelancers?” Where do freelancers fit in on the spectrum of the fighting force
(in other words, what were the levels of service to battle)?
11. List the elements that made Paris the center of Western civilization.
12. What two sources did the culture of the middle ages spring from?
13. Were the medieval ages dark in terms of knowledge and learning, or were they inspired? What two elements
fueled this movement?
14. What is the origin of the word “Gothic” and why was it originally an insult?
15. Why did Gothic architecture offend people like Georgio Vasari?
16. Why was St. Denis a special place for French patriotism and who elected to make it “as lavish and brilliant as the
Hagia Sophia in Constantinople?”
17. List six characteristics that we tend to identify the Gothic style with that lead to verticality.
18. How did medieval builders express their civic pride and compete at the same time? What was a potential price
to pay for going too far, such as happened at Beauvais?
19. What technical innovations of Gothic architecture accommodated more and larger window, which allowed more
light?
20. What created the mystical quality of Gothic architecture?
21. What was the first High Gothic church?
22. What is the lux nova, and what did it encourage?
23. Describe two qualities about the windows at Chartres that make them special and highly-regarded even today.
24. What is the aesthetic difference of how light functions in a church with mosaics vs. how a light functions in a
church with stained glass?
25. How does the Virgin Mary being depicted on stained glass parallel an exemplum from the Bible?
26. How are gargoyle both functional and instructive?
27. List the 8 life events that happened at a cathedral and that shaped individual and social life in the town.
28. What special relic was housed at Chartres that miraculously survived a fire?
29. Who donated the following types of each window at Chartres:
Rose?
Lancet?
Windows depicting industry?
30. What modern-day parallel does the book draw with the guild?
Chapter 11 (355-364…Start with “Painting in Florence” at bottom of page)
31. Describe two innovative qualities of Cimabue’s painting style as seen in his Madonna Enthroned with Angels and
Prophets.
32. Describe two innovative qualities of Giotto’s painting style as seen in his Madonna Enthroned, compared to
Cimabue’s Madonna Enthroned.
33. The book states that Giotto technically wasn’t a great painter of realistic images. What, then, made his brand of
realism so great?
34. What is composition in art?
35. How does Giotto’s composition of Lamentation, with John at center, dictate what the viewer is to look at?
36. What four qualities of Giotto’s work influenced Italian Renaissance painting?
37. What qualities of Duccio’s Maesta add realism and naturalism to the painting?
38. After reading pp. 360-361, determine which painter appeals to you more – Giotto or Duccio – and explain why.
39. How did Martini’s Annunciation altarpiece appeal to the courts of France? What style did this type of painting
come to be known as?
40. What made Lorenzetti’s commission unusual in our study of Italian Art?