MEDIEVAL ART OF THE WEST

In addition, terminological uncertainty is often confusing. However, without the inclusion of chronology, eras, schools, and styles, we risk turning the topic of our research into an overwhelming ocean of facts. The historical figures we seek to investigate, with their unique worldview and artistic intentions shaped by the culture of their times, might be reduced to an abstract homo artisticus, a general undifferentiated human creator, akin to an Old Testament Adam.7⁷Adam and Eve were the first people on Earth, according to the Bible.

Next, we must consider geography. Our scope covers the civilization of the medieval West, within which dozens of languages were spoken, but communication was via the religious koine—Latin—which was inherited from antiquity. There is a widely held belief that the art of the Christian East, which included Byzantium, Rus, the Caucasus, the Fertile Crescent,8⁸Fertile Crescent A colloquial term for the region in the Middle East where there is an increased amount of precipitation in the winter months. It includes the Nile River Valley in Egypt and the Tigris and Euphrates river valleys in modern Iraq and Iran. the Copts9⁹Copts (from ancient Greek Αἰγύπτιος, ‘Egyptian’)Egyptians who adhere to Christianity. of Egypt and Ethiopia, greatly differs from the art of what is a more or less unified medieval West. This is true in many ways because each of these civilizations belonged and still belong to different denominations of Christianity. However, art forms have not always been subject to these boundaries and have often migrated far more easily than religious dogmas, political doctrines, or systems of taxation. At various points, these differences were leveled back—nations were drawn together and artists moved from one country to another, sometimes bringing their skills and imagery with them, sometimes following local realities. This is the normal life of art and art forms. In Western art, we can sometimes find greater freedom, autonomy, and ingenuity, which often stands in contrast to the iconographic patterns and stagnation of Byzantine traditions.

Byzantium was the immediate successor to not only Rome but also the even more ancient Hellenistic civilization. It existed from the beginning of the fourth century, from the foundation of Constantinople on the site of Byzantium, to the fall of the capital in 1453. This covers virtually the entire period under discussion. During the first centuries, a subtle theology of imagery developed in Byzantium, which would not have been accepted in the Latin West at that time, and we can add to this the great theological disputes of the area of Universal Cathedrals. It is no coincidence that in the Eastern tradition, this ended with the restoration of icon veneration and the feast of the Triumph of Orthodoxy, which is celebrated at the beginning of Lent, representing a triumph over iconoclasm.

The greatest Greek minds of the eighth and ninth centuries birthed the theology of art, including St. John of Damascus, Theodore the Studite, and the patriarch Nikephoros I, who established equality between faith and veneration. The West was unaware of this, and initially the Carolingian theologians could not accept this perspective, viewing it as idolatry. However Einhardt, Charlemagne’s 10¹⁰Charlemagne (768–814) was initially the king and later the emperor of the Frankish state. Through conquests, he united a large part of Western Europe, excluding Spain and Southern Italy. His first biography was written by Einhard (770–840), a Frankish scholar working at Charlemagne's court. biographer, wrote a short instruction for his student Loup de Ferrières on how to honor the crucifix. Thus, often rejecting some letter (or aspects) or another within Greek texts or practices, the West sought its own ways of creating and shaping images.

First, the united origins of Christianity of the undivided church (first millennium) laid a common foundation, which provided the main theological justification for the very existence of Christian art: the dogma iA central tenet in religious doctrine. of the incarnation 11¹¹IncarnationChristian dogma according to which God, in the form of Jesus Christ, became incarnate in human form, making the Old Testament prohibition on depicting God meaningless. that rendered the Old Testament ban on images of God meaningless. Second, despite all the contradictions, misunderstandings—even hatred—and regardless of the fourth crusade 12¹²Fourth Crusade (1202–1204) The Crusades were a military-political movement from the late eleventh century CE whose participants set the liberation of Jerusalem from Muslims as their main goal. The first Crusades were organized with the participation of Byzantium, yet the primary striking forces were European knights and feudal lords. The Fourth Crusade unexpectedly ended with European knights capturing Constantinople and the fall of Byzantium. Several state entities emerged in place of Byzantium, including the so-called Latin Empire. In 1265, Byzantium revived, but without its former military and political power. that was so disastrous for the Byzantine civilization, the Byzantine artistic tradition referred to as Greek Mastery by historians remained an object of universal admiration within the West, becoming a standard and a constant source of inspiration to represent both the narrative and to an even greater extent the form of imagery.iThat is, chroniclers and medieval historians.

In the West, as specific genres of sacred painting, the icon and mosaic have always been considered as being associated with the Christian East. This was combined with the idea ingrained in the consciousness of believers that an icon was ideally not a painting, nor an abstract idea from some fictional, illusory reality; rather, it was copied directly from a prototype, printed from an archetype. Icons of the mother of God were based on the portrait painted by the Apostle Luke.13¹³Luke was one of the seventy apostles (followers) of Jesus Christ who were sent to preach Christianity. He is the author of one of the four Gospels, books of the New Testament that narrate the birth, life, and death of Jesus Christ. The images of the Savior were based on acheiropaeic images from the towel (mandylion) that Jesus wiped his face with during the Sermon on the Mount.14¹⁴Sermon on the Mount A collection of utterances of Jesus Christ that constitute his moral teaching. According to the Bible, the Sermon on the Mount was delivered by Jesus to his disciples and a crowd of people. A number of icons were venerated as being entirely or partially acheiropaeic. These include the Greek Image of Edessa, which is located in the Tretyakov Gallery, the Lateran Image of the Saviour in the Papal Chapel of the Holy Saints, and the image of the Savior that is revered to this day in the cathedral in the city of Lan.

The Eastern Roman Empire was also the direct successor to the Roman political and artistic traditions, and the West, harboring bitter jealousy, was never able to forget this. Sacra vetustas (sacred antiquity) held immense importance in the medieval consciousness; it was the only true authority, which explains the numerous Renaissances in Western art connected to the revival of classical forms both in literature and figurative art. Without stylistic borrowings from the East, neither the Carolingian nor Ottonian renaissance in the ninth and tenth centuries would have been possible, nor would have been the Romanesque, Gothic or the Italian renaissance.iThis refers to the artistic styles of the Middle Ages. In the thirteenth century, the great philosopher Thomas Aquinas echoed the prevalent opinion of his time, viewing the Greeks as schismatics. 15¹⁵The Fathers of the Church In Christianity this is the traditional name for theologians and church figures who played a significant role in the development of Christian doctrines and the organization of the Church. The authoritative status of the Fathers and Teachers of the Church is recognized in Orthodox, Catholic, Nestorian, and Monophysite traditions (although the list of Fathers and Teachers may vary). However, he also admired the heritage of the Greek Fathers, especially the so-called Corpus Areopagiticum, the great monuments of Christian Neoplatonism from the fifth century. Similarly, a century earlier, the first Sicilian king, Roger II of the Norman dynasty of the Ottiles, a northerner by origin, who asserted his authority in spite of the Byzantine Empire, was depicted in a mosaic in La Martorana Church in Palermo as a Basileus iThis is what the emperor was called in Byzantium. crowned by Christ, dressed in weighty vestments decked in pearls and in full compliance with the Cesar-Papalist political tradition of Constantinople.

Arriving in the Christian lands of the Mediterranean—Spain and Sicily—Islam first began to explore the artistic heritage of conquered and neighboring peoples and countries, especially the heritage of Rome. The Great Mosque in Damascus and the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem are great creations of a new artistic will, even if Christian artists participated in their creation. Despite the confrontation and crusades of the eleventh and thirteenth centuries, this dialogue between artists continued and these forms, especially the ornamental, crossed thousands of kilometers. The centers of such interaction were, of course, major ports and fairs, and the catalyst was the maritime trade in artifacts and the exchange of diplomatic gifts between rulers. A medieval duke or bishop 16¹⁶Bishop The title of an office in the Christian church. A bishop is responsible for the church in a specific territory (county, duchy, principality). was able to appreciate any Arab trinket made from ivory or beaten silver, and thus we can often encounter them next to Western objects in medieval collections in European museums.