Medieval Arts

• Early Medieval--Romanesque:– Symbolic, rather than realistic– No use of perspective, no use

of relative sizes to indicate depth

– Detail decorative, rather than to indicate realism or richness: stressed the spiritual

– Haloes, disproportionate size of head to body, lack of realistic proportions of hands, feet, legs, etc: spiritual reality, NOT individuals—faces often interchangeable, even man/woman

– Little attention to background

• Romanesque art: notice haloes, “flatness” and lack of perspective; lack of realistic detail=“drawing” style (fresco in church)

Gothic– Moving towards

realism– Some layering and

beginnings of perspective to create depth

– Detail to show realism

– Beginning to portray individual features in faces, realistic proportions of bodies

– Some realistic portrayals of backgrounds and settings

Les très riches heures du Duc de Berry

An example of a Medieval book of hours, this gave a text for each liturgical hour of the day - hence the name. (Calendars, prayers, psalms and masses for certain holy days were commonly included.)The picture is from the calendar section, painted some time between 1412 and 1416 for the Duc du Berry by the Limbourg brothers. It shows the pinnacle of the art of manuscript illumination.

The Mourning of Christ

by

Giotto

Sculpture: Same Contrasts

• Romanesque:– No individualization– Symbolic

• Gothic:– Beginnings of portrayal of individuals;

difference in faces; emotion– More attention to details: draperies,

proportions more realistic, though still more emphasis on spiritual meaning, not naturalism

Romanesque Sculpture

Gothic Sculpture

Architecture

• Romanesque: Gothic:

Romanesque vs Gothic

• Squattier buildings; lower and heavier

• Columns thick• Arches rounded• Windows small

• Tall buildings reaching to heaven

• Columns thin: reliance on flying buttresses to take weight

• Arches pointed to heaven• Windows large,

everywhere– Stained glass windows as

teaching device– Rose windows

Both: Church to Cathedral

• Cruciform• Ambulatory around

high altar and choir– Gothic: more chapels

around outside• Transept (E to W)

– Symbolic• E=Mary/Christ/NT• W=OT

• Crossing: altar for special feasts

• Nave (N to S)– Gothic: aisles and

side chapels at outside

Gothic: Why all those windows?

Baisilica for St. Francis of Assisi : Giotto designed