What Important Person Promoted the Development of the Arts in the Middle Ages

Loftier Relief medieval carving
showing Judas Iscariot hanging
himself, helped past devils (1120-35)
By French sculptor Gislebertus,
Cathedral of Saint Lazare, Autun.

Keen EUROPEAN PAINTERS
For biographies and paintings
of the greatest artists in Europe
from the Renaissance to 1800,
see: Old Masters: Artists.

All-time SCULPTORS
For a list of the world's most
talented 3-D artists, run into:
Greatest Sculptors.

Introduction

Although the history of Medieval art covers almost x centuries between the Sack of Rome (c.450 CE) and the Early on Italian Renaissance (1400), Western Medieval art is limited to Byzantine culture (Eastern Roman Empire), Hiberno-Saxon Insular art, artworks from the majestic courts of Charlemagne and his Ottonian successors, and finally - from roughly 1000 onwards - the European-broad movements of Christian art, known every bit Romanesque and Gothic. It was but during the concluding 400 years that the individual names of painters, sculptors and other decorative artists began to be recorded with any regularity. Thus most of our artists date from this menstruation.

Types of Medieval Art

Autonomously from architectural works, the largest category of medieval artworks to take survived is sculpture, notably the statues and reliefs created for the slap-up Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals such equally Chartres Cathedral (1194-1250), Notre-Matriarch Cathedral (1163-1345), Cologne Cathedral (1248-1880), Reims (1211-75), and others. Medieval painting, as well, was popular - notably miniature portrait painting on vellum - as was ornamental metalwork, stained drinking glass art (Chartres Cathedral) mosaic art (the amazing Chora Church in Constantinople), tapestry (Textile of Saint Gereon, 1020), and embroidery (Bayeux Tapestry, 1080).

Materials Used in Medieval Art

Although artist-monks received piffling money or even formal acknowledgement of their efforts, the Church (equally well as secular patrons) had no attrition in lavishing coin on the works of art themselves. Types of valuable materials in regular use included: gold dust, foil or leaf; silver and other precious metals (see also, the art of goldsmithing); expensive natural colour pigments such as ultramarine, made from the rare Afghanistan ore lapis lazuli; rare types of ivory; calf-pare for vellum - ane bible manuscript required the skins of up to 500 animals; and many other expensive materials.

History of Medieval Art

European art during the Middle Ages developed out of the artistic heritage of classical antiquity, the Roman Empire, as well every bit Christian iconography. To this mixture, must be added the influence of the Heart East in the forms and ideals of Byzantine culture. Interestingly, at the first of the Medieval catamenia, most all works of art were commissioned by religious authorities (for churches/monasteries) or secular leaders (for public edification), and most were actually created past monks. By the end of the period, the arts industry had broadened considerably from its original monastic base of operations: non just were most artists laymen, but a number of artworks were commissioned by wealthy conservative patrons for personal enjoyment.

Fifty-fifty and so, for 600 years (c.400-yard CE) Europe was a cultural backwater. Only one institution survived: the Christian Church - centred in Rome, and Constantinople. Not surprisingly, therefore, the church became the chief sponsor of architecture, and other types of fine art, during the medieval era.

Early Christian Artists (650-900 CE)

One of the finest examples of early on Christian painting were the Irish and Anglo-Saxon illuminated manuscripts dating from the mid-sixth century CE. These beautifully illustrated books (eg. Book of Kells, Book of Durrow), combining Celtic fine art with Anglo-Saxon and Celtic metalwork art, were produced by scribes and creative person-monks in the scriptoriums of abbeys and monasteries across Ireland and Northern England. They were succeeded by Carolingan, Ottonian and Byzantine illuminated texts, as well as a host of Persian Islamic illuminations.

Medieval Artists on the Continent

The starting time signs of a Continental cultural renaissance appeared about 775 at the majestic court of the Christian King Charlemagne. This period - known equally Carolingian Fine art - was influenced by Late Antiquity and Byzantine traditions. Charlemagne'southward artists and calligraphers - including some of the Continent'due south best miniaturists - produced a number of outstanding illuminated texts, like the Godscalc Evangelistary, the Lorsch Gospels and the Gospels of St Medard of Soissons. For more than, encounter: German Medieval Art (c.800-1250), Medieval Christian Art and Medieval Sculpture.

Romanesque Designers (c.950-1140)

By the mid-tenth century, the Rome-based Christian Church had begun to constitute a network of Bishops and lesser clergy in almost areas of Western Europe. (See also: Ottonian Art.) As its wealth increased, the church building turned to awe-inspiring architecture, using a new design language known as Romanesque fine art, to promote its divine message. Romanesque designers and architects erected hundreds of new churches and monasteries beyond the Continent. Famous examples included: the Cathedral of Pisa with its famous leaning bell tower, the Florence Baptistery, Laon Cathedral, Augsburg and Worms Cathedrals, the abbeys of Cluny, Aux Dames (Caen) and Les Hommes (Mont Saint-Michel). In England, 26 out of 27 ancient Cathedrals were started during the Romanesque flow. For more, see Architecture History. See likewise: Romanesque Sculpture. For more about mural painting during the 11th and 12th centuries, see: Romanesque Painting. For regional differences of style, see: Romanesque Painting in Italy; also French republic; and Kingdom of spain. For medieval book painting and gospel illuminations, run across: Romanesque Illuminated Manuscripts.

Gothic Architects (c.1140-1300)

Romanesque architecture was impressive but slow. Also, the interiors of virtually churches were dimly lit because of their small windows. All this was inverse by the new Gothic architecture, whose soaring arches, vaulted ceilings, and massive stained glass windows inspired and informed the Church's illiterate congregations. Gothic art first appeared (c.1140) in the Abbey Church of Saint-Denis, well-nigh Paris, before existence applied nigh famously to the cathedrals of Northern French republic, which were richly busy with Gothic sculpture. Amongst the most famous examples of the French Gothic style are Notre Matriarch Cathedral Paris (1163-1345), Chartres Cathedral (1194-1250), likewise as the cathedrals of Strasbourg (1015-1439), Laon (1160-1235), Tours (1170-1547), Bourges (1195-1230), Reims (1211-1275) and Amiens (1220-1270). Exterior France, famous medieval examples include Cologne Cathedral (1248-1880); Florence Cathedral, begun in the Gothic manner in 1296 under Arnolfo di Cambio, and completed in the Renaissance fashion in 1436, under Brunelleschi; the 14th century St Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna; the massive Milan Cathedral begun in 1386; and Seville Cathedral (1401-1528), the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. In England, examples of Gothic pattern include Westminster Abbey, York Minster and the cathedrals of Salisbury, Canterbury and Lincoln. Come across also: English Gothic Sculpture and German Gothic Sculpture. For more than virtually architectural design in Deutschland, during this period, delight see: German Gothic Art (c.1200-1450).

Byzantine Artists (c.500-1400)

By the fourth dimension Rome was sacked in 450 CE, thousands of Roman and Greek painters, craftsmen and other artists had moved to Constantinople (Byzantium) where they proceeded to create a new set of Eastern Christian images and icons - based on a combination of Greek, Farsi and Egyptian civilisation - known as Byzantine Art.

Almost exclusively devoted to religious expression, its architecture and painting (little sculpture was produced by Byzantine artists) developed inside a rigid tradition. This led to a composure of manner rarely equalled in Western art. Major types of medieval Byzantine art included public mosaics, individual icons made with encaustic wax paint on portable wooden panels, illuminated manuscripts such every bit the famous Rabula Gospel (586), fresco painting, as well every bit decorative art including ivory diptychs and exquisite metalwork. Unlike medieval religious fine art in Western Europe, Byzantine artworks inappreciably ever had a didactic or narrative function: they remained substantially impersonal, ceremonial and symbolic.

Byzantine architects built numerous outstanding churches and religious buildings, including: the Hagia Irene (c.360) and the Hagia Sophia (532-37), both in Constantinople (at present Istanbul); and the Church of St. Sophia in Sofia in Republic of bulgaria (527-65) - all richly decorated with gilding, mosaic fine art, murals and relief sculpture. In time, medieval Byzantine architects became more influenced past eastern traditions of design and decoration, and exerted a deep influence on early Islamic art and architecture, every bit exemplified by the Umayyad Great Mosque of Damascus.

Byzantine art spread to Ravenna too as Kiev, Novgorod, Tver, Pskov and Moscow, where it became a major type of Russian medieval painting, and stimulated the emergence of numerous centres of creative excellence such as the Novgorod school of icon painting, and later the Moscow schoolhouse of painting.

Medieval Artists Heralded Renaissance

During the 14th century, the Gothic mode - which upward until 1300 had been mainly exemplified by architecture and sculpture, as well equally widespread product of Gothic illuminated manuscripts - began to be applied to painting and the decorative arts in a variant known equally International Gothic. Characterized by the overriding primacy of design and color, to which composition and naturalistic detail were subordinated, the fashion - as exemplified by International Gothic illuminations - was a blend of Italian and Northern European art, and was practised peculiarly in centres like Lombardy, Franco-Flemish Burgundy and Bohemia. This idiom was developed and improved by 3 important pre-Renaissance painters, Cimabue (Cenni di Peppi) (1240-1302), Duccio di Buoninsegna (c.1255-1319) of the bourgeois Sienese Schoolhouse of painting and Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337), whose fresco work and panel painting laid the groundwork for 15th century Florentine painters and sculptors, especially their mastery of linear perspective and realism.

Listing of Medieval Artists

Amidst the identified masters of painting, sculpture, architecture and other visual arts of the Late Middle Ages, were the following:

Romanesque Artists
Medieval visual art came nigh as part of the massive building program staged by the Christian Church authorities. Thus most Romanesque visual artists were sculptors and other craftsmen employed in edifice the early cathedrals of Europe.

Gislebertus (active early 12th century)
French sculptor, renowned for his works at the Cathedral of Saint Lazare.
Godefroid de Claire (c.1100-73)
Member of the school of Mosan art, may take done the Stavelot Triptych.
Nicholas of Verdun (c.1156–1232)
Mosan goldsmith responsible for the Shrine of the Three Kings at Cologne.
Master of Cabestany (active late twelfth century)
Anonymous artist who made the Romanesque-fashion tympanum, at Cabestany.
Master Mateo (active 2nd half 12th century)
Spanish sculptor renowned for his Portico de la Gloria.
Benedetto Antelami (active 1178-1196)
One of the finest Italian sculptors before the Gothic artist Nicola Pisano

Gothic and Pre-Renaissance Artists
Like the earlier Romanesque era, almost Gothic visual art was related to cathedral building. So most Gothic visual artists were sculptors, stained glass artists, mosaicists and other craftsmen employed in the cathedral construction program. But in Italy were fresco and panel painters able to demonstrate their true ability.

Nicola Pisano (c.1206-1278)
Seen as a central founder of Italian sculpture.
Cimabue (Cenni di Peppi) (1240-1302)
Painted the famous fresco cycle in the Church building of S. Francesco in Assisi.
Arnolfo di Cambio (c.1240–1310)
Noted for his Gothic-style tomb sculpture.
Giovanni Pisano (c.1250-1314)
Italian sculptor/architect; created the marble altar at Arezzo.
Duccio di Buoninsegna (c.1255-1319)
Leading painter from Siena; painted the Maesta altarpiece for Siena Cathedral.
Giotto di Bondone (1267-1337)
Considered to be the greatest pre-Renaissance fresco painter.
Simone Martini (1285-1344)
Italian Gothic painter from the Siena School.
Jean Pucelle (c.1290-1334)
French book painter and miniaturist, noted for Hours of Jeanne d'Evreux.
Giovanni di Balduccio (c.1290–1339)
Sculpted the Shrine of St Peter Martyr at S. Eustorgio, Milan.
Andrea Pisano (1295-1348)
Made the offset set of bronze doors for the Florentine baptistery.
Filippo Calendario (earlier 1315-1355)
Sculptor and artist in charge of the 14th century Doge's Palace in Venice.
Ambrogio Lorenzetti (Active 1319-48)
Italian Gothic painter, member of Siena School.
Pietro Lorenzetti (active 1320-45)
Italian painter of Sienese School, influenced by Giotto.
Andre Beauneveu (c.1335-1400)
Official sculptor to King Charles V of France, and Duke Jean de Drupe.
Claus Sluter (c.1340-1406)
Flemish sculptor, head of the Dijon schoolhouse.
Melchior Broederlam (c.1350-1411)
Flemish artist working for Philip the Bold, noted for The Dijon Altarpiece.
Lorenzo Monaco (1370-1425)
Painter and monk, active in Florence; International Gothic mode.
Masolino (1383-1440)
Goldsmith/painter, collaborated with Masaccio on Brancacci chapel frescoes.
Limbourg Brothers (fl.1390-1416)
Flemish volume painters, manuscript illuminations, see Les Tres Riches Heures.
Pisanello (Antonio Pisano) (c.1394-1455)
Verona painter, medallist, portraitist, in International Gothic style.
Sassetta (Stefano di Giovanni) (c.1395-1450)
International Gothic painter, Siena School, noted for St Francis altarpiece.
Jean Fouquet (1420-81)
Leading French painter of 15th century; court painter to Charles VII, Louis XI.

Russian Medieval Icon Painters
Eastern Orthodox Christian art depended heavily on Byzantine forms, such as religious icons, typically executed in tempera on wood panels. Other media included fresco murals and mosaics.

Theophanes the Greek (c.1340-1410)
Byzantine artist, founder of Novgorod and Muscovite schools of icon painting.
Andrei Rublev (c.1360-1430)
Russia's most famous iconographer, famous for Holy Trinity icon painting.
Dionysius (Dionisius the Wise, Dionisii or Dionisy) (c.1440-1502)
Icon painter noted for his icons for the Iosifo-Volokolamsky monastery.

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