Medieval art
Medieval art spans over 1,000 years of European and Mediterranean creativity.
Medieval art of the Western world spans over 1,000 years of art in Europe, and at certain periods in Western Asia and Northern Africa. It grew out of the artistic heritage of the Roman Empire and the iconographic traditions of the early Christian church, mixed with the vigorous 'barbarian' artistic culture of Northern Europe. Art historians classify it into major periods and styles including Early Christian art, Migration Period art, Byzantine art, Insular art, Pre-Romanesque, Romanesque art, and Gothic art, with many regional styles such as Anglo-Saxon art or Viking art.
- field
- Medieval art
- known_for
- Major art movements and periods, national and regional art, genres, revivals, artists' crafts, and the artists themselves
- media
- Sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork, mosaics, fresco wall-paintings, work in precious metals, textiles, tapestry, ivory carving, vitreous enamel, embroidery
- period_span
- Over 1,000 years
- geographic_scope
- Europe, Western Asia, Northern Africa
Lore & Background
Medieval art was produced in many media, with works surviving in large numbers in sculpture, illuminated manuscripts, stained glass, metalwork and mosaics. Especially in the early part of the period, works in the so-called 'minor arts' or decorative arts—such as metalwork, ivory carving, vitreous enamel and embroidery using precious metals—were probably more highly valued than paintings or monumental sculpture. The use of valuable materials was constant; far more was typically spent on buying them than on paying the artists, even if these were not monks performing their duties.
Reader's Guide
The history of medieval art can be seen as the interplay between classical, early Christian and 'barbarian' art. Apart from the formal aspects of classicism, a continuous tradition of realistic depiction 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.
Did You Know?
- The even more expensive pigment ultramarine, made from ground lapis lazuli obtainable only from Afghanistan, was used lavishly in the Gothic period.
- Many of the longest running scholarly disputes over the date and origin of individual works relate to secular pieces, because they are so much rarer.
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