Medieval Art Research Paper

Like all artists in the early Italian Renaissance, Giovanni only painted religious narratives correlating to the Catholic influences. Uniformed biblical narratives that most could understand were sought after, so schools and monasteries taught artists and those artists were later commissioned by Catholic churches. The lack of other means for patronage lead to strict representation of religious art as

Although the Middle Ages are mostly known as a dark period in Europe, progress was still made in the field of thinking. The rediscovery of Greek philosophy, the creation of universities, and crisis in the church directly led European societies to the Renaissance era, a time of rebirth.

Middle Ages has also known by it's called "Dark Ages". It is approximately during 500-1500 AD, which is right after the fall of Roman Empire. The reason why it's called Dark Ages, because during that time period, there is very little literature was made, technologies seem went backward, people don't have a common language to use. The Middle Ages can be subdivided into three parts: early, high, and late Middle Ages. There are a lot of violence, chaos, and wars at that time. And mostly is related to the religions. A lot of poverty, famine, and one of the most severe disease happened.

This piece is the most interesting to me because Justinian had so much influence in a church where he had never stepped foot in (Khan Academy). In the San Vitale Mosaics portray the mighty and powerful Orthodox Emperor Justinian across from him his equally powerful Empress Theodora as well as numerous mosaics of Jesus Christ (khan academy). Much like the Hagia Sophia it is covered in many windows with lots of light to illuminate the beautiful art. The mosaics reflect Justinian’s belief in Christ as well as his belief that authority is divinity that Christ has given him. In this architecture the only intercultural influences I have found have been the bricks that were used from ancient Roman buildings for the exterior of the church. When the church was created the Iconography was not in Greek or any other form, they were trying to come up with a new art that have never been used for Christian art. This effected culture at that time by adding a new face or style to the types of art made instead of using styles from the

In Early Christian art in Rome, approximately in the beginning of the fourth century, Christ is represented as a humble shepherd. Also heavily influenced by the Greco-Roman tradition, many of the depictions of Christ are youthful and beardless. This is significant because it brings about a simple and personal worship, a reflection of the beginnings of

Artists showed beauty and spread messages of religion and politics in different ways. Medieval art was at first created in dull, formal paintings drawn by religious leaders. The artists never made realistic paintings

The Basilica of San Vitale is a church in Ravenna, Italy and is a prime example of early Christian Byzantine art and architecture. This essay by Sarah Bassett considers the correlation between the certain paintings and pieces of poetry from the early Byzantine era. Bassett primarily goes into great detail about two specific paintings, the sixth century mosaic portraits of Emperor Justinian and another of his consort Theodora. These two magnificent portraits are set across from one another in the space of the apse. As we have learned in many great civilizations before the Byzantine Empire, power on earth is often perceived as a result of power in the after-life or heaven. Emperor Justinian’s mosaic depicts great power through art in forms of

In the Middle Ages, art was centered around the Church. The purpose of art was to glorify the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Altshuler, 2009, p. 127). Art was not made to produce a feeling it was made simply to tell a story. Artists were usually sanctioned by the church to complete specific works. All artists were male with the exception of some women who did embroideries (Altshuler, 2009, p. 127). Many different types of media was used during this time including; paint, embroidery, stain glass, relief statues and more.

The ancient Christians have always thought art to be representative. The church's attitude towards art was that the goodness was always linked to light and the bad is always dark. There were hardly any independent speculative or analytical inquiries about art as artists then were doing artworks that were based on verses from the bible because the people could not read. Art was never discussed as art. Artworks then were always made based on religion and theology. It was the Christians' main concern with converting the public by using images to tell the stories about the life and accomplishment of Jesus

Byzantine focusses back to religion all works of art are in service to Christianity, in that time Christainity has been established due to the Edict of Milan and to Constantine in power. There is no humanism, because it was relied on naturalism, stylization, technique and the progression of time periods and the ideals that shaped humanism for those cultures do not come to play in the Byzantine. The Byzantine traits are the following are flat, decorative, lack of two dimension, abstraction, the use of colors, gold leaf and the narrative of the bible the focus in the no longer “ man is the measure of all things” has transitioned to “Christ is the measure of all things”. It reflects the change in Cathedral of Santa Maria Nouva the abstraction to enhance the forms of It contains the flatness, the gold leaf to show illumination, beautiful as well for the abstraction is to the enhance the piece it is shown in the body, the surface quality. Depicts a story of Adam and Eve. Another example is Venice St Mark, it is the same as the Santa Maria Nouva, a narrative story of the bible; it Christ leading the Virgin Mary and his followers out of hell, this is to bring you to the mortality of death. It always has a hidden purpose to bring the viewers to be grounded to see the what is

In the art world, the medieval periods were traditionally though to be the unproductive phase of Europe between the decline of Rome and the Renaissance. Our modern feelings toward medieval art are far more appreciative. The main intent of Medieval art was to express Christianity which was also a common bond between a wide spread and diverse Europe. For this reason most of the art found from medieval times originated in monasteries and churches. European art during the Middle Ages can be divided into four periods. These four periods include Celto-Germanic art which ranged from 400 to 800 A.D. and was important in metal work. Carolingian art ranged from 750 to 987 A.D. overlapping 50 years of the Celto-Germanic period. The period of

One major difference in the artistic styles of medieval and Renaissance artists was perspective. In the Renaissance painting on the right, there is a clear element of perspective, giving the appearance of a three dimensional scene. The artist used shading techniques to create the illusion of a light source, giving the subject depth and breadth. In the rendering on the left, the humans portrayed are flat and two dimensional. There is no aspect of shading or lighting, giving the characters no depth whatsoever.

It is amazing how something that is recognized as an important center of European Medieval art is looked upon by most of the world as a place where you can snap a cool picture of yourself ‘leaning’ on the Tower of Pisa. A place detailed, yet decayed… a place with four monuments, yet recognized as one center… a place representing life, yet death. The aura surrounding this square makes me just want to sit on the grass and read or write or think. I just want the stony intricate building to envelop my train of thought and allow me to live in a world hundreds of years before. I want the world to appreciate art and to live in art and to see through art. I want the world to get off their useless, mind-numbing gadgets and look up at the sky, or

Many artworks created during the Medieval art period were inspired by the religious beliefs of the artists. This did not depend upon where the artist was located, many cultures created artworks to depict and reflect on religious figures.

Let's take a look at a little history in medieval art. There was a movement towards the end of the first millennium called Iconoclasm. This factor hated images and icons which were believed to be endowed with mysterious powers that could work miracles by intervention from the saints. This Iconoclastic Controversy defined and declined the creation of