medieval period

  • the fall of roman empire - beginning of renaissance

  • Early, high, late middle

  • 1000 years of art

  • major periods: early christian art, byzantine art, early medieval art, romanesque art, gothic art

early medieval art and culture

  • unique fusion of the classical heritage of Rome’s northwestern provinces (rome), the culture of the non-Roman peoples north of the Alps, and christianity

  • over the centuries, the various population groups merged, and a new order gradually replaced what had been the Roman Empire, resulting eventually in today’s European nations

  • Christianity flourished in the early middle ages and this shift dramatically affected the art that was created across Europe

  • medieval art reflects the growing popularity of Christianity

  • artists generally tried to avoid 3 dimensional and round art. it was flat. This was because they were trying not to make false idols of their work

  • naturalistic representation was interpreted as idolatry, therefore not used as a precautionary measure to avoid any chances of infiltration of the old polytheism of the Roman empire of Paganism

  • sculptures, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, mosaics, architecture

characteristics

  • rich colors

  • heavily outlined

  • flat and stiff figures showing no depth

  • no light and shadows

  • religious icons

  • architecture is influenced by greek and roman

  • mosaics replaced carved decorations

  • large domes central to the church

hiberno-saxon art

  • it is the decorative vocabulary that resulted from the interaction of the irish, or hibernians, and the anglo-saxons of southern england during the 7th century

  • also known as insular art, was produces in the post-roman era of the british isles

  • dates: 7th to 9th century

  • places: british isles

  • people: christians and monasteries (buildings occupied by a community of monks living under religious vows)

manuscripts

  • main art of anglo-saxon people

  • illuminated in Christian books, which brought the word of Go to a predominantly illiterate population

  • books were scarce and jealously guarded treasures of monastic libraries and scriptoria(writing studios)

  • one of the main characteristics of book illumination: the inclusion of full pages devoted to neither to text not to illustration but to pure embellishment

  • carpet page: interspersed between the text pages are so-called carpet pages resembling textiles, made up of decorative panels of abstract and animal forms

  • majority of people at this time were illiterate so art is used to appeal to them

lindau gospel cover

  • the carolingians commissioned numerous works employing costly materials, including book covers, made of gold and jewels and sometimes also ivory or pearls

  • the cover highlights the stylistic diversity of early medieval are in Europe

  • the gold cover, fashioned in one of the royal workshops of charlemagne’s grandson, charles the bald

  • it shows youthful jesus in the early christian tradition nailed to the cross in obvious pain

  • hallmark of the art of early medieval warlords

  • shows taste for luxurious portable objects