The History Book Club discussion
MEDIEVAL HISTORY
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MEDIEVAL ART
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(no image) The Origins Of The Romanesque: Near Eastern Influences On European Art, 4th 12th Centuries by V. I. Atroshenko (no photo)
Synopsis:
None available on goodreads.
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by Jonathan J.G. Alexander (no photo)Synopsis:
Who were the medieval illuminators and how were their hand-produced books illustrated and decorated? In this book, Jonathan Alexander presents a survey of manuscript illumination throughout Europe from the fourth to the 16th century. He discusses the social and historical context of the illuminators' lives, considers their methods of work, and presents a series of case studies to show the range and nature of the visual sources and the ways in which they were adapted, copied or created anew. Alexander explains that in the early period, Christian monasteries and churches were the main centres for the copying of manuscripts, and so the majority of illuminators were monks working in and for their own monasteries. From the 11th century, lay scribes and illuminators became increasingly numerous and by the 13th century professional illuminators dominated the field. During this later period, illuminators travelled in search of work, joined guilds and included nuns and secular women among their ranks. Work was regularly collaborative and the craft was learned through an apprenticeship system. Alexander analyzes surviving manuscripts and medieval treatises in order to explain the technical processes of illumination - its materials, methods, tools, choice of illustration and execution. The book is illustrated with examples chosen from religious and secular manuscripts made all over Europe.
Art and Beauty in the Middle Ages
by
Umberto EcoSynopsis:
In this volume, the Italian novelist and playwright Umberto Eco aims to present a learned summary of mediaeval aesthetic ideas. Juxtaposing theology and science, poetry and mysticism, Eco explores the relationship that existed between the aesthetic theories and the artistic experience and practice of mediaeval culture.
The Art of Gothic: Architecture, Sculpture, Painting
by Rolf Toman (no photo)Synopsis:
Courtly splendor and bourgeois pride, religious fanaticism and ascetic seclusion from the world, the search for intimacy: all are mirrored in the art of the Gothic period. Gothic monuments bear witness to a dynamic age, when old values were being redefined, often with great drama and debate. Here is a richly-illustrated overview of the period's architecture, sculpture, painting, stained glass, and jewelry, from its 12th-century French origins to its early 16th-century conclusion.
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The Book of Kells: An Illustrated Introduction to the Manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin
by Bernard Meehan (no photo)Synopsis:
The Book of Kells is a masterpiece of medieval art—a brilliantly decorated version of the four Gospels with full-page depictions of Christ, the Virgin and the Evangelists as well as a wealth of smaller decorative painting. The strange imagination displayed in the pages, the impeccable technique and the very fine state of preservation make The Book of Kells an object of endless fascination.
This edition reproduces the most important of the fully decorated pages plus a series of enlargements showing the almost unbelievable minuteness of the detail; spiral and interlaced patterns, human and animal ornament—a combination of high seriousness and humor. The text is by Bernard Meehan, the Keeper of Manuscripts at Trinity College, Dublin.
Early Medieval Art: Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque
by John Beckwith (no photo)Synopsis:
Beginning with the coronation of Charlemagne as Emperor of the West in A.D. 800, John Beckwith guides us through the architecture, painting, sculpture, illuminations and ivories of the three great periods of early medieval art. The Ottonian period, perhaps best known for the great center of art and craftsmanship attached to the court, presented an artistic style which had developed from early Christian and Carolingian sources--a style which was the gateway to the great artistic revival in the eleventh and twelfth centuries--the Romanesque period. 206 illus., 53 in color.
José Luís Pinto wrote: "The Book of Kells: An Illustrated Introduction to the Manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin[bookcover:The Book of Kells: An Illustrated Introduction to the Manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin|8..."
I was lucky enough to see the Book of Kells in Dublin. It was extraordinarily beautiful and of course, under glass. However, they turn the page once a week so that one has a chance to see new illuminated pages on different visits. It is an amazing piece of history.
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I just couldn't believe how intricate it was and how long it must have taken to do each page.
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Art And Architecture In Italy, 1250-1400
by John White (no photo)Synopsis:
The 14th century in Italian art is a very rich one, and Professor White's book gives architecture equal weight with painting and sculpture. The story of the Gothic style and the prehistory of the Renaissance is given: all the facts are related, but also the works of art are described with insight and for their own sakes, and not simply as data for fitting into schemes and theories. Among the great names are those of Arnolfo di Cambio, the Pisani, Cavallini, Cimabue, Duccio, Giotto, Simone Martini, and the Lorenzetti; among the buildings S. Croce, S. Maria Novella, the cathedral and the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, and the cathedrals of Siena, Orvieto, and Milan, as well as churches, castles, and civic buildings from the Val d'Aosta to Sicily. The third edition of this work includes colour illustrations and incorporates textual revisions and an updated bibliography.
Art and Identity in Thirteenth-Century Byzantium: Hagia Sophia and the Empire of Trebizond
by Antony Eastmond (no photo)Synopsis:
The church of Hagia Sophia in Trebizond, built by the emperor Manuel I Grand Komnenos (1238-63) in the aftermath of the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade, is the finest surviving Byzantine imperial monument of its period. Art and Identity in Thirteenth-Century Byzantium is the first investigation of the church in more than thirty years, and is extensively illustrated in colour and black-and-white, with many images that have never previously been published.
Antony Eastmond examines the architectural, sculptural and painted decorations of the church, placing them in the context of contemporary developments elsewhere in the Byzantine world, in Seljuq Anatolia and among the Caucasian neighbours of Trebizond. Knowledge of this area has been transformed in the last twenty years, following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The new evidence that has emerged enables a radically different interpretation of the church to be reached, and raises questions of cultural interchange on the borders of the Christian and Muslim worlds of eastern Anatolia, the Caucasus and Persia.
This study uses the church and its decoration to examine questions of Byzantine identity and imperial ideology in the thirteenth century. This is central to any understanding of the period, as the fall of Constantinople in 1204 divided the Byzantine empire and forced the successor states in Nicaea, Epiros and Trebizond to redefine their concepts of empire in exile. Art is here exploited as significant historical evidence for the nature of imperial power in a contested empire. It is suggested that imperial identity was determined as much by craftsmen and expectations of imperial power as by the emperor's decree; and that this was a credible alternative Byzantine identity to that developed in the empire of Nicaea.
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The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843–1261
by Helen C. Evans (no photo)Synopsis:
Covering the art of the Middle Byzantine period (843-1261 AD), this book demonstrates its wide diversity and influence through 17 scholarly essays. These are accompanied by descriptions and colour reproductions of over 400 objects, as well as pictures of architectural sites all over Eastern Europe.
Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261-1557)
by Helen C. Evans (no photo)Synopsis:
A sequel to the landmark catalogue The Glory of Byzantium, this magnificent book features work from the last golden age of the Byzantine empire. During the last centuries of the Empire of the Romans, Byzantine artists created exceptional secular and religious works that had an enduring influence on art and culture. In later years, Eastern Christian centres of power emulated and transformed Byzantine artistic styles, the Islamic world adapted motifs drawn from Byzantium's imperial past, and the development of the Renaissance from Italy to the Lowlands was deeply affected by Byzantine artistic and intellectual practices. This spectacular book presents hundreds of objects in all media from the late thirteenth through mid-sixteenth centuries. embroidered silk textiles, richly gilded metalwork, miniature icons of glass, precious metals and gemstone, and elaborately decorated manuscripts. In the accompanying text, renowned scholars discuss the art and investigate the cultural and historical interaction between these major cultures: the Christian and Islamic East and the Latin West. Continuing the story of the critically acclaimed Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the Middle Byzantine Era, A.D. 843-1261, this book, the first to focus exclusively on the last centuries of the Byzantine era, is a highly anticipated publication that will not be superceded for generations.
by Helen C. Evans (no photo)
Earliest known piece of polyphonic music discoveredBy Medievalists.net
New research has uncovered the earliest known practical piece of polyphonic music, an example of the principles that laid the foundations of European musical tradition.
The earliest known practical example of polyphonic music – a piece of choral music written for more than one part – has been found in a library manuscript in London.
The inscription is believed to date back to the start of the 10th century and is the setting of a short chant dedicated to Boniface, patron Saint of Germany. It is the earliest practical example of a piece of polyphonic music – the term given to music that combines more than one independent melody – ever discovered.
Written using an early form of notation that predates the invention of the stave, it was inked into the space at the end of a manuscript of the Life of Bishop Maternianus of Reims.
The piece was discovered by Giovanni Varelli, a PhD student from St John’s College, University of Cambridge, while he was working on an internship at the British Library. He discovered the manuscript by chance, and was struck by the unusual form of the notation. Varelli specialises in early musical notation, and realised that it consisted of two vocal parts, each complementing the other.
Polyphony defined most European music up until the 20th century, but it is not clear exactly when it emerged. Treatises which lay out the theoretical basis for music with two independent vocal parts survive from the early Middle Ages, but until now the earliest known examples of a practical piece written specifically for more than one voice came from a collection known as The Winchester Troper, which dates back to the year 1000.
Read the remainder here: Earliest known piece of polyphonic music discovered
Here is the beautiful Hagia Sophia in Istanbul, an icon of medieval architecture. Truly lovely. It is now a museum.
Jill, now imagine it being visited by a "barbarian" in the Early Middle Ages. It was "heaven on Earth" for them, as the Primary Chronicle reports!
I can't imagine what they must have thought....it probably did look like heaven.
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Of course when it was turned into a mosque the mosaics were painted over and other changes made but it has now been made into a museum and some of thee beautiful mosaics are intact under the paint which is wonderful.
They have uncovered some of the beautiful mosaics under the paint and oddly enough it was the paint which had preserved them - covered up and protected for all of this time. Odd that this was the case.
Ottonian Imperial Art and Portraiture: The Artistic Patronage of Otto III and Henry II
by Eliza Garrison (no photo)Synopsis:
"Ottonian Imperial Art and Portraiture" represents the first art historical consideration of the patronage of the Ottonian Emperors Otto III (983-1002) and Henry II (1002-1024). Author Eliza Garrison analyzes liturgical artworks created for both rulers with the larger goal of addressing the ways in which individual art objects and the collections to which they belonged were perceived as elements of a material historical narrative and as portraits. Since these objects and images had the capacity to stand in for the ruler in his physical absence, she argues, they also performed political functions that were bound to their ritualized use in the liturgy not only during the ruler's lifetime, but even after his death. Garrison investigates how treasury objects could relay officially sanctioned information in a manner that texts alone could not, offering the first full length exploration of this central phenomenon of the Ottonian era.
High Gothic: The Age of the Great Cathedrals
by Gunther Binding (no photo)Synopsis:
Notre-Dame in Paris, the cathedrals of Chartres, Reims and Amiens, Strasbourg Minster, Cologne Cathedral, Westminster Abbey and Canterbury - these are the magnificent sacred buildings that for us epitomise Gothic architecture. The colossal dimensions of these cathedrals required not only enormous financial outlay, but also great organisational and technical skills. How, for example, were such long-term projects planned, lasting in some cases for many generations? How was work organised on the building site? Which forms were used, and how were they developed? What were the representational aims of the patrons of churches and secular buildings? And what symbolic significance lies behind these buildings, which were not only architectural masterpieces but also a vehicle for theological content, as part of the liturgy? We can only begin to understand the 'spirit of the Gothic' through an understanding of the historical, sociological, theological, economic and technological background in this time of change. Given this, we can then start to read Gothic cathedrals like the pages of a book.
Notre Dame, Cathedral Of Amiens: The Power Of Change In Gothic
by Stephen Murray (no photo)Synopsis:
Notre Dame, Cathedral of Amiens: The Power of Change in Gothic is a comprehensive study of one of the most ambitious building programs of the high middle ages. Offering a new approach to the traditional building monograph, Stephen Murray critically reexamines the documentary, archaelogical, and historiographical evidence; contemporary theological debates; as well as the social, political and economic contexts in which Amiens was conceived and erected.
Sunnis, Shi'is and the Architecture of Coexistence: The Shrines of the 'Alids in Medieval Syria
by Stephennie Mulder (no photo)Synopsis:
Explores the relationship between Sunnis and Shi'is as expressed in the shrines of the 'Alids. Though the headlines of today's newspapers suggest that the rift between Sunnis and Shi'is is eternal, the relationship between these two primary Islamic sects has not always been contentious. This is most evident around the shrines of the 'Alids: revered by Sunnis and Shi'is alike, shrines to the Prophet's family have often served as unique spaces of intersectarian exchange and shared devotion. Mulder links the architecture and patronage of shrines to the wider, pan-Islamic landscape of interconnected pilgrimage sites created from these acts of patronage.
José Luís Pinto wrote: "Earliest known piece of polyphonic music discoveredBy Medievalists.net
New research has uncovered the earliest known practical piece of polyphonic music, an example of the principles that laid..."
That's wonderful, thank you for sharing.
One of my favorite works on medieval art is by Abbot Suger, credited by many with overseeing the construction of the first Gothic cathedral. It's a fun take in its own right, including miraculous appearances of timber & other building materials, but it also does a lovely job of shining light onto the development of the Capetian monarchy and to the developing intellectual thought of the day. Erwin Panofsky, one of the greats, gives good commentary.
by Abbot Suger (no photo)
Katie wrote: "José Luís Pinto wrote: "Earliest known piece of polyphonic music discoveredBy Medievalists.net
New research has uncovered the earliest known practical piece of polyphonic music, an example of th..."
Thank you very much for adding this book. The development of the early Gothic and its connections to the 12th century Renaissance and the Capetian monarchy in France are great subjects.
Galician-Portuguese Medieval songs (Website)
This is a great website by the Instituto de Estudos Medievais of the Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas of Universidade Nova de Lisboa which divulgates the "Cantigas" (the mmanuscripts from where they were copied are also available in a digitalized form) of the Galician-Portuguese "Cancioneiros", thereby exposing the rich literary heritage of the language mentioned above and of the troubadors of medieval Portugal and Galicia, with influences from the Occitan as well as original literary contributions (like the "Cantigas de amigo", although there are theories about them being inspired by the Andalusi "kharjas". There are also musical reconstructions of some of these poems as they would be sung in the Middle Ages (or at least attempts to do so, due to the fragmentary state in which some of the original texts reached us and difficulties regarding understanding the musical notation when it is preserved) which are highly recommended or songs whose letters are these poems. There are also brief informations about the "Cancioneiros", the troubadors who composed these songs and the texts themselves and Galician-Portuguese medieval lyric poetry.
Links to the website:
Homepage
About the "Cantigas"
Medieval music
The Art of Anglo-Saxon England
by Catherine E. Karkov (no photo)Synopsis:
Two particular perspectives inform this wide-ranging and richly illustrated survey of the art produced in England, or by English artists, between ca. 600 and ca. 1100, in a variety of media, manuscripts, stone and wooden sculpture, ivory carving, textiles, and architecture. Firstly, from a post-colonial angle, it examines the way art can both create and narrate national and cultural identity over the centuries during which England was coming into being, moving from Romano-Britain to Anglo-Saxon England to Anglo-Scandinavian England to Anglo-Norman England. Secondly, it treats Anglo-Saxon art as works of art, works that have both an aesthetic and an emotional value, rather than as simply passive historical or archaeological objects. This double focus on art as an aesthetic vehicle and art as an active political force allows us to ask questions not only about what makes something a work of art, but what makes it endure as such, as well as questions about the work that art does in the creation of peoples, cultures, nations and histories.
Illuminated Manuscripts
by D.M. Gill (no photo)Synopsis:
Illuminated manuscripts are among the world's greatest artistic masterpieces. Many of them survive, allowing us to appreciate their radiance and the skill of the men who created them. This fascinating and evocative book examines the exquisite decorative techniques which captured some of the most important chronicles of history.
Ambrogio Lorenzetti: The Palazzo Pubblico, Siena
by Randolph Starn (no photo)Synopsis:
This beautiful series lavishly illustrates the world's major fresco cycles from the early fourteenth through the seventeenth centuries. Each book also contains a comprehensive text, a biography of the artist, a bibliography, and a glossary.
Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art
by
Michael CamilleSynopsis:
What do they all mean – the lascivious ape, autophagic dragons, pot-bellied heads, harp-playing asses, arse-kissing priests and somersaulting jongleurs to be found protruding from the edges of medieval buildings and in the margins of illuminated manuscripts? Michael Camille explores that riotous realm of marginal art, so often explained away as mere decoration or zany doodles, where resistance to social constraints flourished.
Medieval image-makers focused attention on the underside of society, the excluded and the ejected. Peasants, servants, prostitutes and beggars all found their place, along with knights and clerics, engaged in impudent antics in the margins of prayer-books or, as gargoyles, on the outsides of churches. Camille brings us to an understanding of how marginality functioned in medieval culture and shows us just how scandalous, subversive, and amazing the art of the time could be.
Siculo-Norman Art: Islamic Culture in Medieval Sicily
by Silvana Messina (no photo)Synopsis:
Sicily was won from the Aghlabids in 827 and passed to the Fatimids in 948. The Norman Conquest of 1061 finally ousted the Muslims from the Island. Organised into three administrative valla – Val di Mazara, Val di Noto, Val Demone – Islamic Sicily produced singularly imaginative crafts and many religious and civic buildings, resurrecting some Byzantine canons, at times still heavily tainted with a late Antique resonance. The Norman monarchy knew how to incorporate, in an innovative and quite manifest way, the contributions of Islamic art.
A myriad of monuments attributed to Roger II and William II were enhanced with these elaborate symbioses. The beauty of these sometimes leave us short of adequate words to describe the magnificent palaces and pleasure houses, the luxuriant gardens, and the refined marbles and glowing mosaics produced at this time when Norman kings lived in these surroundings as emirates. Along with the Conca d'Oro, Palermo became the epicentre of the dissemination of Islamic culture on the Island and offers an eloquent introduction to all the Islamic styles of this period in its ecclesiastical and palatial buildings. The admiration felt by the Norman rulers for the masters of the past is manifest in some splendid monuments such as the Tower (Burj) of Alfaina, the Palaces of Maredolce and of Uscibene, and, in particular, in the two Pavilions of Zisa and Cuba. In the province of Agrigento, several remnants of the Arab era have been preserved in the urban fabric, the burjs and the ribats. On the northern coast and in the mountainous regions of the Nebrodi (Vicari, Altavilla Milicia, Caccamo, Campofelice di Roccella, Cefalù), ruins of fortresses and castles are further evidence of this unique relationship. The Arab-Norman synthesis displayed a powerful originality born out of three centuries (XII-XIV) of the successful integration of motifs, typologies, techniques and infrastructures.
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A History of Illuminated Manuscripts
by
Christopher De HamelSynopsis:
Medieval manuscripts are counted among the greatest glories of Western civilization. With their gold and painted decoration and their charming miniatures, they have always had immense appeal, and images from them can be seen everywhere - from greeting cards and wrapping paper to expensive facsimiles. This entertaining and authoritative book is the first to provide a general introduction to the whole subject of the making of books from the Dark Ages to the invention of printing and beyond. Christopher de Hamel vividly describes the widely different circumstances in which manuscripts were created, from the earliest monastic Gospel Books to university textbooks, secular romances, Books of Hours and classical texts for humanist bibliophiles. As the story unfolds the wonderful variety of manuscripts and their illumination is revealed, and many fundamental questions are answered - who wrote the books, what texts they contained, who read them, how they were made and what purposes they served. Illuminated manuscripts have alway been highly valued, and among them are some of the world's great masterpieces of art. With its lively narrative and many new and superb illustrations, this new edition of a much-praised book provides the perfect introduction to a large and fascinating subject.
The Dragon in Medieval East Christian and Islamic Art: With a Foreword by Robert Hillenbrand
by Sara Kuehn (no photo)Synopsis:
This book is a pioneering work on a key iconographic motif, that of the dragon. It examines the perception of this complex, multifaceted motif within the overall intellectual and visual universe of the medieval Irano-Turkish world. Using a broadly comparative approach, the author explores the ever-shifting semantics of the dragon motif as it emerges in neighbouring Muslim and non-Muslim cultures. The book will be of particular interest to those concerned with the relationship between the pre-Islamic, Islamic and Eastern Christian (especially Armenian) world. The study is fully illustrated, with 209 (b/w and full colour) plates, many of previously unpublished material. Illustrations include photographs of architectural structures visited by the author, as well as a vast collection of artefacts, all of which are described and discussed in detail with inscription readings, historical data and textual sources.
Jewish Book Art Between Islam and Christianity: The Decoration of Hebrew Bibles in Medieval Spain
by Katrin Kogman-Appel (no photo)Synopsis:
This book discusses the decoration types of Sephardic illuminated Bibles. Unlike illuminated Passover manuscripts from the same period with their rich figurative and narrative picture cycles, Bibles are almost exclusively aniconic. Whereas the former borrow heavily from Christian art, the Bibles are entirely indebted to Islamic culture. The volume elaborates in particular on the cultural history of the decorative motifs and types of ornamentation in an era of cultural transition in Iberia and culture struggle within Spanish Jewry. The first two chapters describe the cultural, social and artistic background in which the Bibles were produced, whereas the other chapters describe the works of the different schools and discuss them within different cultural, historical and social contexts. The text is accompanied by 10 color plates and 141 black-and-white figures.
I think you have the wrong synopsis there, Jose.For a second I just thought there was a huge coincidence and there were two books in a row about dragons!
The one you posted sounds super interesting, though. Cross-cultural connections in art is one of my favorite subjects (though one I don't know much about).
Wrong copy-paste! Thank you, Katie. Medieval Iberia is very interesting in this regard and English scholarship most of the times (there are very good exceptions, of course) just touches the tip of the iceberg.
Yes! I have a few friends currently studying medieval Iberia and I get the impression that's the case. From what they've told me, Spanish-language scholarship has its own host of problems largely thanks to issues of nationalism. Have you found that to be the case? And do you think that'd be true in Portuguese scholarship too? It pops up in older Italian history writing a lot.
José Luís wrote: "Earliest known piece of polyphonic music discovered"Wonderful post, Jose Luis. Glad to have discovered this thread. Now, where is the one on Medieval Rome?
Hanna, I think you've already found the thread by the comment you placed there. :)
Yes, Spanish and Portuguese historiography had great problems with nationalism and it was aggravated by the regimes of Franco and Salazar, respectively. And we can't forget also the manipulation done by Marxist perspectives or regional nationalisms as in the Catalan case, but today things are much better (at least in Portugal, because in Spain there's yet a tradicionalist far-Right associated to Franco's regime because in Spain the transition to democracy was done peacefully by king Juan Carlos and not through a revolution like in Portugal) and many nationalist (or other kinds of) myths were and are being pushed successfully to the side. Of course we still have biased historians in Portugal like Rui Ramos or Fernando Rosas (this one is a very good historian, but has a more Marxist perspective of things, even if his historical analysis is good), but I don't think things differ too much from the rest of Europe, although I think the quality of much scholarship isn't that high ( :( ). If we think a bit about it, we may see conservative or "liberal" historiography in the Anglophone world may be more radical in some regards. This doesn't mean we don't have good scholars: I could talk about Mattoso, for instance, who writes wonderfully and makes very throurough historical investigations, or Oliveira Marques. The former has already his book about the medieval Portuguese society translated to English, but I think much more by both authors and a few more (Rita Costa Gomes has a book also translated and several Portuguese scholars participate in conferences ) should be translated. I love Mattoso's biography of Afonso Henriques, the first Portuguese king, which crushed many myths about the King. It made some people very angry (it was certainly the case of the stories aroung Egas Moniz, who wasn't probably the king's tutor by the way), but most of those were people whose work had something to lose with it (perhaps the greatest problem of the academia in Portugal is the question of "knowledge monopolies", but things have improved regarding it). I'm sorry if my answer was too long and focused mostly in Portugal, but I know the Portuguese reality much better than the Spanish (although I'm a bit familiar with it) and I don't want to risk saying nonsense about the current state of Spanish historiography. :)
by
José Mattoso
by
Rita Costa Gomes
by
A.H. de Oliveira Marques
Rui Ramos
Fernando Rosas
Thank you so much for that, Jose! I liked that you focused more on the Portuguese end of things - I'm much less familiar with it overall. And now I have more books to read! Things are similar in Italian historiography, especially since the Risorgamento.
The Materials and Techniques of Medieval Painting
by Daniel V. Thompson (no photo)Synopsis:
An internationally renowned expert relates the secrets behind the recipes, materials, and processes used by medieval painters to obtain brilliance and permanence. Based on years of study of antique manuscripts and modern laboratory analysis, this volume explains carriers and grounds, binding media, pigments, coloring materials, and metals used in painting.
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The Gothic Idol: Ideology and Image-Making in Medieval Art
by
Michael CamilleSynopsis
By examining the theme of idol-worship in medieval art, this book reveals the ideological basis of paintings, statues and manuscript illuminations that depict the worship of false gods in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. By showing that images of idolatry stood for those outside the Church - pagans, Muslims, Jews, heretics, homosexuals - Camille sheds light on how medieval society viewed both alien 'others' and itself. He links the abhorrence of worshipping false gods in images to an 'image-explosion' in the thirteenth century when the Christian Church was filled with cult statues, miracle-working relics, and 'real' representations in the Gothic style. In attempting to bring the Gothic image to life, Camille shows how images can teach us about attitudes and beliefs in a particular society.
The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art (other topics)The Social History of Art, Volume 1: From Prehistoric Times to the Middle Ages (other topics)
The Lady and the Unicorn (other topics)
The Lady and the Unicorn (other topics)
The Alfred Jewel And Other Late Anglo-Saxon Decorated Metalwork (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Michael Camille (other topics)Arnold Hauser (other topics)
Tracy Chevalier (other topics)
Tracy Chevalier (other topics)
David Hinton (other topics)
More...
"The medieval art of the Western world covers a vast scope of time and place, over 1000 years of art in Europe, and at times the Middle East and North Africa. It includes major art movements and periods, national and regional art, genres, revivals, the artists crafts, and the artists themselves.
Art historians attempt to classify medieval art into major periods and styles, often with some difficulty. A generally accepted scheme includes Early Christian art, Migration Period art, Byzantine art, Insular art, Pre-Romanesque and Romanesque art, and Gothic art, as well as many other periods within these central styles. In addition each region, mostly during the period in the process of becoming nations or cultures, had its own distinct artistic style, such as Anglo-Saxon art or Norse art.
Medieval art was produced in many media, and the works that remain in large numbers include sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork and mosaics, all of which have had a higher survival rate than other media such as fresco wall-paintings, work in precious metals or textiles, including tapestry. Especially in the early part of the period, works in the so-called "minor arts" or decorative arts, such as metalwork, ivory carving, enamel and embroidery using precious metals, were probably more highly valued than paintings or monumental sculpture.
Medieval art in Europe grew out of the artistic heritage of the Roman Empire and the iconographic traditions of the early Christian church. These sources were mixed with the vigorous "barbarian" artistic culture of Northern Europe to produce a remarkable artistic legacy. Indeed the history of medieval art can be seen as the history of the interplay between the elements of classical, early Christian and "barbarian" art.[1] Apart from the formal aspects of classicism, there was a continuous tradition of realistic depiction of objects that survived in Byzantine art throughout the period, while in the West it appears intermittently, combining and sometimes competing with new expressionist possibilities developed in Western Europe and the Northern legacy of energetic decorative elements. The period ended with the self-perceived Renaissance recovery of the skills and values of classical art, and the artistic legacy of the Middle Ages was then disparaged for some centuries. Since a revival of interest and understanding in the 19th century it has been seen as a period of enormous achievement that underlies the development of later Western art.
Source: Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medieval...
The jewelled cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, c. 870, a Carolingian Gospel book.
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