The north rose of Chartres Cathedral, dedicated to Our Lady and the Incarnation / Getty
In the lecture series Medieval Art of the West, historian and medievalist Oleg Voskoboynikov presents both significant and lesser-known monuments of artistic culture from the Middle Ages, offering insights through the medieval person’s perspective. In the first lecture, the scholar outlines the chronological and geographical boundaries of medieval art.
As we know, the progression of history moves at different paces across different aspects of human life. This perspective certainly applies to the visual arts, literature, and the history of societies and political institutions. While the medieval period, as a civilization, is considered to have lasted for a millennium from the fifth to fifteenth centuries, the origins of the art created during this period can be traced back to the third century CE, before Christianity was the official religion of the Empire. Subsequently, the art of the Italian Renaissance—the so-called Northern Renaissance—originated in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, or during the late medieval period.1
1Renaissance (French: Renaissance, Italian: Rinascimento) An era in the development of European culture and art characterized by the aspiration of artists and thinkers for cultural, intellectual, and spiritual renewal. The representatives of this era named it themselves, as they considered the legacy of Ancient Greece and Rome, partially forgotten in the Middle Ages, as the guiding principle for their creative work. The Renaissance culture emerged in Italy in the sixteenth century CE and gradually spread throughout Western Europe by the sixteenth century CE. Within the Renaissance, specific time periods and regional characteristics can be distinguished. Thus there exist distinct concepts such as the Italian Renaissance, Northern Renaissance, High Renaissance, et cetera. Do we then exclude thi2s art from being considered as part of the medieval period?i
A historian specializing in the study of European medieval history. It is unlikely that this exclusion would be justified since the subjects, techniques, relations between commissioning parties and artists and all existing forms of artwork either remained unchanged, or changed gradually, keeping pace with the times. This is clear by a visit to any large museum of classical European painting. It is therefore reasonable to consider the appearance of medieval art as a cultural phenomenon of the third to fifteenth centuries.
We refer to the third to fifth centuries as Late Antiquity,22Antiquity Antiquity (from Latin antiquitas, ‘antiquity’) is a term denoting the civilization of ancient Greece and ancient Rome. while within the history of Christianity, it is known as Early Christianity. The same terms can also be used to denote a stage in the development of art. With many unique characteristics, this foreshadowed almost all of the development aspects across the subsequent centuries until the times of modernity. Separating this from the medieval period can only be justified by the fact that the decline and the collapse of the Western Empire in 476 was followed by an indisputable decline in all monumental forms of art.33Western Roman EmpireThe name of the western, predominantly Latin-speaking part of the Roman Empire in the late (or middle) fourth to the late fifth century CE. The other part, predominantly Greek-speaking, was called the Eastern Roman Empire, or Byzantium.
There is an ongoing process of revising and critiquing the classification of the millennial development of medieval art into distinct stages and styles that we recognize as Romantic, Gothic, and Proto-Renaissance.iThe names of movements in medieval European art. Each of these terms came into use at different times to define various emphases. In the sixteenth century, Vasari 44Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) was a painter and architect, the author of a collection of biographies of Italian and Renaissance artists titled Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects. He was also a founder of art history. viewed the entire heritage of the medieval period as a great decline, as ‘barbaric gotico’ (literally Gothic),iGoths - Ancient Germanic tribe (tribal union) from the third to the eighth centuries CE. which he believed was only fortunately overcome by the Florentines, beginning from Giotto and finishing with Michelangelo. French and English scholars of the Romantic era, discerning the difference between the pointed arch and the round arch, considered the latter to be similar to the Roman period (Romanesque), and as a result spoke about Romanesque art (French for ‘art roman’).55RomanticismArtistic and ideological movement in the second half of the eighteenth to the nineteenth centuries CE in Europe and America. The philosophy of Romanticism placed human feelings, emotions, and nature at the center of attention. The Carolingian renaissance is a fact of cultural history, but does it fully explain the whole scope of Carolingian art?66Carolingian royal and imperial dynasty in the Frankish state, and after its disintegration, in the West Frankish Kingdom, East Frankish Kingdom, Italy, and some small states. The dynasty ruled from 751 to 987. The established terminology should not be completely overturned, but it should also not be used as an argument in interpreting a particular landmark, as otherwise even the most thoughtful terminology becomes a mere label.
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.
Geography of medieval art
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.
Image of Edessa. Icon. Late 14th century, Notre Dame Cathedral, Laon, France / Wikimedia Commons
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.
Roger II of Sicily accepts the crown from Christ, mosaic of the cathedral of San Nicolo dei Greci (Martorana), Palermo, early 1150s / Alamy
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.