• The period of time that came before the

Renaissance in Europe is called the Middle

Ages or Medieval Period.
• It lasted for approximately 1000 years from
the 5th century to the 15th century.
Medieval • Life during this time was dominated by
Period religious faith, the Catholic Church,
feudalism, the crusades, and the Black
Death.
• The medieval period is itself subdivided into
the Early, High, and Late Middle Ages.
 • The Early Middle Ages began in the 5th
century during the decline of the Roman
Empire.
• Europe at the time was ruled by many
different kingdoms and did not have large
unified countries such as those in modern
Early Middle times.
Ages • The Byzantine Empire (or Eastern Roman
Empire) remained in the eastern sections of
Europe and parts of the Middle East and was
formed at the end of the 4th century, when
the Western Roman Empire collapsed
 • The High Middle Ages began at the start of the 11th
century and included some of the most prominent
events and elements of the whole Middle Ages.
• Life in the High Middles Ages was characterized by
religious faith in the Catholic Church and the social
structure of feudalism. Feudalism was a form of
government common during medieval Europe that
Middle Ages involved society being structured in a very rigid and
hierarchical way.
• A major event of the High Middle Ages was the crusades
• Beginning in 1095 CE, the crusades saw European knights
and noblemen travel to the Middle East in an attempt to
capture the Holy Land away from Muslim people that
had controlled the region for the previous centuries.
 • The final period the Middle Ages is called the Late
Middle Ages and is considered to have occurred from the
start of the 14th century to the end of the 15th century.
• The Late Middle Ages was a difficult time for most
people in Europe and the surrounding areas. This is due
to the spread of the bubonic plague that led to the
Late Middle events of the Black Death.
• The Black Death is one of the most important events in
Ages Western history and is the most famous pandemic in all
of human history. The Black Death occurred during the
14th century and ravaged human populations
throughout Asia and Europe as it spread along trade
routes and through trading ports.
• These high numbers suggest that between 30% and 60%
of people died due to the infectious disease.
Medieval art
• Medieval art was produced in many media, and works survive in
large numbers in 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.
• Most luxury illuminated manuscripts of the Early Middle Ages
had lavish treasure binding book-covers in precious metal, ivory
and jewels
Romanesque Art
• The period of Romanesque Art started around 1000 AD and lasted to
around 1300 with the beginning of the Gothic Art period.
• Romanesque art was influenced by both the Romans and Byzantine
Art. Its focus was on religion and Christianity.
• It included architectural details like stained glass art, large murals on
walls and domed ceilings, and carvings on buildings and columns. It
also included illuminated manuscript art and sculpture.
• Romanesque style was characterized by its Roman and Germanic
elements, mingled with Byzantine, Islamic and Armenian influences
Illuminated manuscripts
• Illuminated manuscripts were hand-made books, usually on Christian
scripture or practice, produced in Western Europe between c. 500-c. 1600.
• They are so called because of the use of gold and silver which illuminates
the text and accompanying illustrations.
• The pages were made from animal skin, commonly calf, sheep, or goat
(vellum)
• Manuscript production was costly and time-consuming.
• These manuscripts were the highly prized possessions of kings, cardinals,
dukes, and bishops from the Middle Ages well into the Renaissance period
• For these patrons, they were more than just books, but rather objects that
demonstrated their wealth and worldliness.
Celtic Designs
 Designed
Typography
Illuminated manuscripts
Mary Magdalen announcing
the Resurrection
The Crusader Bible or Morgan Bible
Romanesque art
• Romanesque art developed in the period between about 1000 to the rise of Gothic art in
the 12th century
• The style developed initially in France, but spread to Christian Spain, England, Flanders,
Germany, Italy, and elsewhere to become the first medieval style found all over Europe,
though with regional differences.
• The arrival of the style coincided with a great increase in church-building, and in the size
of cathedrals and larger churches; many of these were rebuilt in subsequent periods, but
often reached roughly their present size in the Romanesque period.
• Romanesque architecture is dominated by thick walls, massive structures conceived as a
single organic form, with vaulted roofs and round-headed windows and arches.
 The Virgin and
Child in Majesty
and the
Adoration of the
Maji',
Romanesque
fresco
 • Figurative sculpture, originally colorfully
painted, plays an integral and important part in
these buildings
• Reliefs are much more common than
free-standing statues in stone, but Romanesque
relief became much higher, with some elements
Romanesque fully detached from the wall behind.
Sculpture • Large carvings also became important,
especially painted wooden crucifixes from the
very start of the period, and figures of the Virgin
Mary.
• Some churches had massive pairs of bronze
doors decorated with narrative relief panels are
arguably the finest before the Renaissance
Gniezno Cathedral Door
Gothic art
• Gothic art was a style of medieval art that developed in Northern
France out of Romanesque art in the 12th century AD, led by the
concurrent development of Gothic architecture.
• It spread to all of Western Europe, and much of Northern, Southern
and Central Europe, never quite effacing more classical styles in Italy.
• Gothic art grew out of Romanesque art. Gothic artists began to use
brighter colors, dimensions and perspective, and moved toward more
realism.
• They also began to use more shadows and light in their art and tried
out new subject matters beyond just religion including animals in
mythic scenes.
Gothic Painting
• Gothic paintings usually featured scenes and figures from the New
Testament, particularly of the Passion of Christ and the Virgin Mary.
• These paintings display an emphasis on flowing, curving lines, minute
detail, and refined decoration, and gold was often applied to the panel as
background color.
• Compositions became more complex as time went on, and painters began
to seek means of depicting spatial depth in their pictures, a search that
eventually led to the mastery of perspective in the early years of the Italian
Renaissance.
• In late Gothic painting of the 14th and 15th centuries secular subjects such
as hunting scenes, chivalric themes, and depictions of historical events also
appeared.
Gothic Architecture
• Gothic architecture (or pointed architecture) is an architectural style
that was popular in Europe from the late 12th to the 16th century,
during the High and Late Middle Ages, surviving into the 17th and
18th centuries in some areas.
• It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by
Renaissance architecture.
• It is also the architecture of many castles, palaces, town halls,
guildhalls, universities and, less prominently today, private dwellings.
• A series of Gothic revivals began in mid-18th century England, spread
through 19th-century Europe and continued, largely for churches and
university buildings, into the 20th century.
 Cathedral
of Notre
Dame Paris
Stained Windows
• Many designers of Gothic structures believed that light was a divine force
that could connect worshippers to their creator. Gothic interiors were
designed to incorporate light and to test structural ideas to create taller
and more advanced buildings.
• While stained glass windows are found in many places of worship, they are
particularly prevalent in Gothic cathedrals.
• Featuring meticulously cut colored glass, these kaleidoscopic
windows—which are typically either tall and arched ‘lancet' windows or
round ‘rose' windows—are larger than those found in other types of
churches. This allowed them to let in more dazzling light.
• Gothic stained glass windows also frequently feature tracery, a decorative
type of stone support, and detailed scenes from Biblical stories.
Arch in gothic Architecture
• A primary feature of many religious structures, ample archways can
be found in most Gothic churches and cathedrals. Rather than the
wide, rounded arches characteristic of Romanesque buildings,
however, architects working in the Gothic style adapted the tall, thin
pointed arches found in Islamic architecture.
• In order to incorporate higher ceilings and taller windows into their
designs, Gothic architects utilized a new method of structural support
called ribbed vaulting. Ribbed vaulting involves the use of intersecting
barrel vaults—arches placed parallel to one another in order to
support a rounded roof.
Ribbed Vaults
 Flying
Buttresses
Gothic Sculpture
• A feature found in Gothic architecture is the presence of ornate
decorative elements.
• These include embellished and sculptural moldings, statues of saints
and historical figures, pinnacles and spires, and gargoyles, grotesque
figures that double as water spouts.
• The facades of large churches, especially around doors have rows of
sculpted figures spreading around them.
• Gothic sculpture is often characterized by the representation of
animals, both real and fantastical.
 Depiction of the
adoration of the Magi,
on the Cathedral of
Notre Dame
 An unknown emperor
(Charles the Great) and
Saint-Denis of Paris between
two angels, west portals of
Notre-Dame de Paris
 The last
Judgement,
Notre Dame
Paris
 • From Old French gargouille ‘throat’, also
‘gargoyle’ (because of the water passing
through the throat and mouth of the figure);
related to Greek gargarizein ‘to gargle’
(imitating the sounds made in the throat).
• A carved human or animal face or figure
Gargoyles projecting from the gutter of a building,
typically acting as a spout to carry water clear of
a wall.
• Designed to convey water from a roof and away
from the side of a building, thereby preventing
rainwater from running down masonry walls
and eroding the mortar between.
Grotesque
Figures
• In architecture, a grotesque, also
known as a chimera, is a fantastical or
mythical figure used for ornamental
purposes.
• When a decorative figure does not
contain a spout, it is referred to as a
grotesque or a chimera.
• Often of a demonic nature,
grotesques add architectural interest
and they are intended to ward off evil.