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For more on the why and how of the Sculpture Synopsis, see the first post in this series. The series is also available as a playlist on my YouTube Channel.

Characteristic examples of medieval sculpture

• Visigothic eagle fibula (pin), one of a pair. 6th c. Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore.
• Lindau Gospels, back cover, ca. 825. Gold & gems. Morgan Library, New York City.
• Santiago de Compostela Cathedral, Portico da Gloria, 1168-1211, by Master Mateo.

• Chartres Cathedral, south portal, 13th c.
• Madonna and Child, ca. 1340-1350. Painted limestone. Metropolitan Museum, New York City.

Dates

The Middle Ages runs from the fall of the Roman Empire in the west (476 AD) to 1420 or so. Although the driving forces remain the same (see Dominant Ideas below), there are significant changes in art over the course of the millennium. The usual art-historical divisions for the Middle Ages are:

• Early Medieval, a.k.a. Dark Ages or Late Antiquity, ca. 476-780. Characteristics of art: stylized animal forms. See the Visigothic eagle fibula above. (This was dubbed the “Dark Ages” in the 1330s by the Italian scholar Petrarch, who considered the centuries between the Fall of Rome and his own time to be a period of unrelieved gloom.)
• Carolingian, ca. 780-900, during the rule of Charlemagne (a.k.a. Carolus Magnus or Charles the Great) and his immediate successors. Art was produced at the court & monasteries of the Frankish Empire, which comprised much of western Europe (see map under Location). Characteristics: a revival of interest in Greek and Roman art, copied without understanding of anatomy, 3-D space, etc. Result: a style that merged Northern love of ornamental detail (for example, the Visigothic fibula and Lindau Gospels cover) with remnants of classical Greek and Roman art. The period is sometimes called the “Carolingian Renaissance”. Ottonian art, ca. 900-1000, is very similar, but occurs mostly in German-speaking territories – the western part of Charlemagne’s former empire.
• Romanesque, ca. 1000 – ca. 1200, is the first medieval style to spread across all Europe, from Sicily to Scandinavia. Named for its architecture’s similarity to Roman (round arches, barrel vaults). Characteristics: a more lively version of Carolingian & Ottonian. See the Portico da Gloria from Santiago, above.
• Gothic, ca. 1200-1420. The cathedrals that rose under the newly powerful French monarchs (Louis VI & later) were the most visible symbols of France’s unity. The cathedrals were covered with sculptural decoration: see the Chartres Cathedral sculptures above. (The artists of the Italian Renaissance dubbed late medieval works “gothic”, after the barbarian Goths who invaded the Roman Empire [see Why did the Roman Empire fall? part 4].)

NOTE: All dates above are approximate. Travel and communication were excruciatingly slow throughout this period, so styles were slow to spread and slow to dissipate. Adding to the confusion, art historians fight to include certain works in “their” periods. Example: the painter Giotto, who died in 1337, is sometimes classed as a medieval artist, sometimes as a precursor of the Renaissance.

Location

In the 4th-5th centuries, the Roman Empire disintegrated into smaller states – often mere fiefdoms – that, over centuries, merged and split and merged again. Medieval art is found throughout these European states. Below: snapshots of Europe in 814 (at the death of Charlemagne) and in 1328.

Dominant ideas

• Christianity & the next world are important. In this world, those who rule are important. As a result, cultural life is concentrated at churches, monasteries, and royal courts. The other 99.995% of the population is peasants.
• Man and this world are miserable and transient, not worthy of study.

Media

• In the early centuries of the Middle Ages, works were almost always small, so they could be carried away or hidden when invaders arrived. Materials: ivory, wood, gold, jewels.
• The age of great cathedrals, beginning ca. 1000, includes many works attached to walls and columns. Material: stone. (The art of casting large bronzes is lost.)

Subjects

Biblical stories to teach Christian doctrine and virtues to the illiterate (i.e., didactic art). The same religious stories, with the same figures and compositions, are repeated over and over.

Style

• In many ways, medieval art is a continuation of late Roman art. There’s no direct observation of nature and no attempt to show three-dimensional space.
• Most works are copies of earlier medieval works, or of works from the Byzantine Empire (the former Roman Empire in the East).
• Strong tendency to reduce details to patterns. Example: contrapposto, developed by the Greeks, is reduced to an S-curve; see the Madonna and Child in painted limestone illustrated above under Characteristic Works. Another example: drapery is reduced to a regular pattern, as in the ivory and wooden sculptures illustrated under Subjects.

Innovations in this period

Not only are there no innovations, but most of what the Greeks and Romans had learned was forgotten.

Big names in art

• Claus Sluter (d. 1405/6), the greatest sculptor of his time in Northern Europe, worked for Philip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy (eastern France). Sluter’s work is part of the transition from the stiffness and repetitiveness of late medieval sculpture, to a more naturalistic style. His most important works are in Dijon, at the Chartreuse de Champmol; they date to 1395-1403. See image below.
• Lorenzo Ghiberti (d. 1455), sculptor and goldsmith, is famous for two sets of gilded doors on the Baptistery in Florence that date to 1403-24 and 1425-52. Although Ghiberti shows some Renaissance influence, he’s fundamentally a late-medieval sculptor working in the International Gothic style.

Where to see the originals of medieval sculpture

• Cathedrals in Europe, including Chartres, Reims, Vezelay, Notre Dame de Paris, Cologne, Santiago de Compostela. Others here.
• Cloisters at the Metropolitan Museum, New York City.
• Victoria & Albert Museum, London.

Further reading

A random list of books I remember vividly:

• William Manchester, A World Lit Only by Fire: The Medieval Mind and the Renaissance – Portrait of an Age.
• Ken Follett, The Pillars of the Earth. Fictional story of the building of a great cathedral.
• Walter Scott, Ivanhoe. One of the earliest works of historical fiction, set in medieval England.
• Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter trilogy, set in 14th-c. Norway.
• Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose. Monk solves a series of murders in Italy, 1347.
• Dorothy Dunnett, King Hereafter. Fascinating retelling of the Macbeth story, ca. 1020-1057.
• Ellis Peters, Brother Cadfael mysteries. Set in England ca. 1135-1145.

More

• For more on the why and how of the Sculpture Synopsis, see the first post in this series. The series is also available as a playlist on my YouTube Channel.
• Want wonderful art delivered weekly to your inbox? Check out my Sunday Recommendations list and rewards for recurring support: details here. For examples of favorite recommendations from past years, click here.