The Middle Ages are often described as dark and gloomy. This was facilitated by religious wars, acts of the Inquisition, undeveloped medicine. However, they left a lot of cultural monuments, admirable descendants. Architecture and sculpture did not stand still: absorbing the features of the time, they gave rise to new styles and trends. Along with them relentlessly went the painting of the Middle Ages. About it and will be discussed today.

In close partnership

From the 11th to the 12th century in everything European art dominated Roman style. He received his main expression in architecture. The temples of that time are characterized by a three-, rarely five-nave structure of the basilica, narrow windows that do not give much light. Often the architecture of this period is called gloomy. The Romanesque style in painting of the Middle Ages was also distinguished by some severity. Almost completely art culture devoted to religious themes. Moreover, divine deeds were portrayed in a rather formidable manner, in keeping with the spirit of the times. The masters did not set themselves the task of conveying the details of certain events. The sacred meaning was in the center of their attention, so the painting of the Middle Ages, briefly dwelling on the details, first of all conveyed symbolic meaning, distorting proportions and ratios for this.

accents

Artists of that time did not know perspective. On their canvases, the characters are on the same line. However, even with a fleeting glance, it is easy to understand which figure in the image is the main one. To establish a clear hierarchy of characters, the masters made some of them significantly superior in growth to others. So, the figure of Christ has always towered over the angels, and they, in turn, dominated the common people.

This approach had back side: he did not give much freedom in depicting the setting and details of the background. As a result, the painting of the Middle Ages of that period paid attention only to the main points, without bothering to capture the secondary. The paintings were a kind of scheme, conveying the essence, but not the nuances.

Plots

Painting European Middle Ages in the Romanesque style was replete with images of fantastic events and characters. Preference was often given to gloomy plots telling about the coming punishment of heaven or the monstrous deeds of the enemy of the human race. Scenes from the Apocalypse were widely used.

Transitional stage

The fine art of the Romanesque period outgrew the painting of the early Middle Ages, when under pressure historical events many of its species practically disappeared and symbolism dominated. Frescoes and miniatures of the 11th-12th centuries, expressing the primacy of the spiritual over the material, paved the way for further development artistic directions. The painting of that period was an important transitional stage from the gloomy symbolic art of the times and constant barbarian raids to a new qualitative level, which originates in the Gothic era.

Favorable changes

The ideologist of the order, Francis of Assisi, brought changes not only to religious life, but also to the worldview of medieval man. Guided by his example of love for life in all its manifestations, artists began to pay more attention to reality. On artistic canvases, still religious in content, details of the situation began to appear, written out as carefully as the main characters.

Italian Gothic

Painting on the territory of the heiress of the Roman Empire quite early acquired many progressive features. Here lived and worked Cimabue and Duccio, the two founders of visible realism, which until the 20th century remained the main trend in the fine arts of Europe. Their altarpieces often depicted the Madonna and Child.

Giotto di Bondone, who lived a little later, became famous for his paintings depicting quite earthly people. The characters on his canvases seem alive. Giotto was ahead of the era in many ways and only after a while was recognized as a great dramatic artist.

frescoes

The painting of the Middle Ages, even in the Romanesque period, was enriched with a new technique. Masters began to apply paint over the still damp plaster. This technique was associated with certain difficulties: the artist had to work quickly, writing out fragment after fragment in those places where the coating was still wet. But such a technique bore fruit: the paint, soaking into the plaster, did not crumble, became brighter and could remain intact for a very long time.

perspective

The painting of the Middle Ages in Europe slowly acquired depth. a significant role in this process, the desire to convey reality in the picture with all its volumes played. Slowly, honing their skills over the years, the artists learned to depict perspective, to give bodies and objects a resemblance to the original.

These attempts are clearly visible in the works related to the international or international Gothic that developed towards the end of the 14th century. The painting of the Middle Ages of that period had special features: attention to small details, some refinement and sophistication in the transfer of the image, attempts to build perspective.

book miniatures

The characteristic features of the painting of this period are most clearly visible in the small illustrations that adorned the books. Among all the masters of miniatures, the Limburg brothers, who lived at the beginning of the 15th century, deserve special mention. They worked under the auspices of Duke Jean of Berry, who was the younger brother of the King of France, Charles V. One of the most famous works artists was "The Magnificent Book of Hours of the Duke of Berry". He brought glory to both the brothers and their patron. However, by 1416, when the trace of the Limburgs was lost, it remained unfinished, but even those twelve miniatures that the masters managed to write characterize both their talent and all the features of the genre.

Quality transformation

A little later, in the 30s of the XV century, painting was enriched with a new style, which subsequently had a huge impact on all fine arts. In Flanders were invented oil paints. Vegetable oil, mixed with dyes, gave new properties to the composition. Colors are much more saturated and vibrant. In addition, the need to rush, which accompanied the painting with tempera, disappeared: the yolk that formed its basis dried out very quickly. Now the painter could work measuredly, paying due attention to all details. Layers of strokes applied on top of each other opened up hitherto unknown possibilities for the play of color. Oil paints, thus, opened up a whole new, unknown world to the masters.

famous artist

Robert Campin is considered the founder of a new trend in painting in Flanders. However, his achievements were overshadowed by one of his followers, known today to almost everyone who is interested in fine arts. It was Jan van Eyck. Sometimes the invention of oil paints is attributed to him. Most likely, Jan van Eyck only improved the already developed technology and successfully began to apply it. Thanks to his canvases, oil paints became popular and in the 15th century spread beyond the borders of Flanders - to Germany, France and then to Italy.

Jan van Eyck was an excellent portrait painter. The colors on his canvases create that play of light and shadow, which many of his predecessors so lacked to convey reality. Among the famous works of the artist are "Madonna of Chancellor Rolin", "Portrait of the Arnolfinis". If you look closely at the latter, it becomes clear how significant Jan van Eyck's skill was. What are only carefully prescribed folds of clothes worth!

However main job master - "Ghent Altar", consisting of 24 paintings and depicting more than two hundred figures.

Jan van Eyck is rightly called rather a representative Early Renaissance, how late Middle Ages. Flemish school in general, it became a kind of intermediate stage, the logical continuation of which was the art of the Renaissance.

The painting of the Middle Ages, briefly covered in the article, is a huge one both in time and in significance. cultural phenomenon. Having gone from alluring, but inaccessible memories of the greatness of Antiquity to new discoveries of the Renaissance, she gave the world a lot of works, to a large extent telling not about the formation of painting, but about the quest of the human mind, its understanding of its place in the Universe and its relationship with nature. Understanding the depth of the fusion of spirit and body, characteristic of the Renaissance, the significance of humanistic principles and some return to the basic canons of Greek and Roman fine arts will be incomplete without studying the era that preceded it. It was in the Middle Ages that a sense of the magnitude of the role of man in the Universe was born, so different from the usual image of an insect, whose fate is completely in the power of a formidable god.

Except for a few dozen facial manuscripts, about the life of medieval painting until the 10th century. we know mainly from literary evidence. But by combining the latter with what pictorial books have preserved, what “survived” in a later era in the art of murals, colored glass, which finally manifested itself in the related field of sculptural decorations, we can get a certain idea of ​​\u200b\u200bthe searches of the West in this era.

Undoubtedly, already from the 5th c. western churches were covered with some kind of painting on large expanses of walls, that somewhat later their windows begin to be decorated with mosaics of colored glass. Further, in the Western codices, we are convinced that in the writing workshops of that time (mainly monastic ones), a new work was performed on the book, unknown to classical antiquity, which meant the synthesis of writing and painting, where writing itself becomes “picturesque”, where “picture” is subordinated to the initial as a defining frame and where creative efforts are put into creating an ornamental decoration of the text and an initial intimately associated with it.

But already from the Ottonian era in Germany (X century) more impressive monuments have been preserved: not only a small art of book miniatures, but also great art monumental paintings. Frescoes, opened in 1888 in the church of St. George in Oberzell on the island of Reichenau, are a complete analogy with the miniatures of the manuscripts of the same monastery, speaking of the many-sided artistic work of a strong hearth. He wasn't the only one. But the calm and somewhat motionless art of others famous schools Germany of the same time (Trier-Echternach, Cologne) is relegated to the shadows by the amazing flowering of Reichenau with its characteristic strength of creative design, original harmony of composition, firmness of drawing and beauty of colorful combinations. Relations with Italy and Byzantium, revived under the Ottos, the influence of the art of the "Islands of the Ocean" - from the 9th century. The Rhine and part of the Danube became the way of the wanderings of the Irs and the Anglo-Saxons - all this explains the flowering of painting in Germany in the 10th century. It didn't last long. And if for the X century. France cannot oppose anything that would be equivalent to it, but the work revealed by the monuments of the next century (mainly in the frescoes of the Saint-Sauvin church) opens up a long and fruitful era in its history. Nowadays, removing the gray cover of lime, under which the XVII-XIX centuries. buried ancient paintings, reveal the beauty of the Romanesque fresco in the most diverse regions of France: works of various art schools everywhere imbued with a basic unity.

Just as the illustration of a book of this era adapted to the face of the page, to the division of the text, posing and originally solving predominantly ornamental tasks, so did its painting adapt to the architectural division of the Romanesque church. Without drowning out the harmony of architectural lines, in harmony with it, she emphasizes and enriches it with her ornamental frames, design and style of compositions, wide and simple, freed from any unnecessary details, reducing scenes to a minimum of action, like a Greek drama that does not know any perspective depths, neither light nor shadow, but living, as it were, in the eternity of two dimensions. And the enchanted viewer involuntarily asks himself: is it possible to find an era that better understood the law of monumental decoration?

The Romanesque painter, although he lives in a world where "the eyes of chaos look through the realm of order", is a close or distant student of the Eastern - Syrian and Byzantine - teachers, a student of their student, the Paderborn monk Theophilus, more than he, far from the traditions of antiquity. Carrying out the instructions of Theophilus, he is faithful to his colorful range, his recipe for "body paint", the law of "absolute light" and "absolute shadow". He does not deviate from the Byzantine type of cling clothes. He generally repeats oriental iconographic schemes and types.

And, however, not only in best creatures German and French hearths, but often in secondary local schools, through imitation, an original search makes its way, affecting the naive freshness of the idea, in creative originality, revealing that the painter, by his own observation, established the movement and intimate details of life, that he “he himself read into its beauty ".

The painting of the Romanesque era, which covered the walls, vaults, crypts and even columns, also captured the statues. Romanesque sculpture still sometimes to this day retains traces of the coloring that once enlivened it. This artistic taste, gradually becoming a religious template, will also pass through the Gothic urban Middle Ages, in order to descend in modern times to handicraft products, which to this day fill Catholic shops with their painted dolls. But the artistic statuary from the Renaissance to the Klinger era remains colorless.

In the Romanesque fresco, the Middle Ages created the best that was in its power, in the sense of art. monumental painting. In Gothic architecture, it gradually withers away. Two factors in it are unfavorable for her life. Firstly, minimizing the plane of the wall, in addition to being broken by columns, columns and ornamental friezes. Secondly, the effect of colored glasses. Under the bright reflections with which they filled the temple, the delicate colors of the painting faded and changed. True, individual artists, looking for methods to fend off the effect that is deadly for painting, increase its tonality to bright and consonant with glass, they trace with gold ("gold is the only paint that is not extinguished by blue and red reflections of glass") frames, borders, antennae, introduce separate gold details: golden staffs, things, belts, wrists, shoes, angel wings. Such is the painting of the piers of Sainte Chapelle woven from colored glass and a whole range of French churches that imitated it. The ceiling began to be covered in blue and dotted with golden stars - an effect beloved by Italian Gothic.

But in general, everywhere, except for Italy, which preserved Romanesque architecture, which, by a series of imperceptible transitions, translated it into Renaissance architecture and brought wall painting to this era, this latter was not the pride of Gothic architecture, especially church architecture (castles and palaces to a greater extent retained the wide planes of the walls and natural light inside). The brilliance of colored glass dominates here.

He was known both in the pre-Romanesque and Romanesque eras in all Western countries and most of all in France. But the most remarkable time in its history was the end of the twelfth and the beginning of the thirteenth century. When, to complete the Basilica of Saint-Denis near Paris, at the call of the abbot of this monastery, Suger, a brilliant galaxy of “stained-glass windows” was founded at the basilica, a real school of this art was created here. Her experience and artists were then used by the Notre Dame Church in Paris, which was being completed, and from 1210 the best forces were concentrated in Chartres, near its cathedral. In half a century, the center again moved to Paris, where the partially changed techniques and tastes of the time of "storm and onslaught" affected the work on glass. The calm and beautiful fusion of blue backgrounds of the early period, the luxury of ornamental frames, the Romanesque style of figures and groups give way to a finer background mosaic, where the combination of blue and red in too close proximity gives a less joyful lilac tone, while the frames become poorer. Groups, departing from the simplicity and concentration of the monumental style, are filled with movement and life. The legend of the saints, with its wealth of intimate realistic details not foreseen by any canon, displaces canonical plots and, prompting the artist to open his eyes to the world, brings his art closer to life...

Italy retained them in a larger relative number. The usual distribution of material, referring to the pre-Renaissance Italian frescoes, starting not only from Giotto, but often from Cimabue, gives an external justification for our default: this chapter is too rich to treat it in a nutshell. Within this framework, the lines that we have dedicated to the painting of the French Middle Ages, which retained the original character of the era for a longer time, will be more natural and whole. Here, as in Italy, as well as on the Rhine, in West Germany, numerous textbooks of the 13th-14th centuries - de arte illuminandi - sometimes, in the absence of monuments, are a witness to the great scientific, technical and artistic experience of the Western painter, the experience that he absorbed from the Eastern and Byzantine recipes and enriched with his own observation.

Following during the XI-XV centuries. behind the history of the miniature, we see how the canon gives way to free observation, the chipped and enamel background to the natural landscape, the hieratic conditional groups to life scenes full of freedom and human beauty. Undoubtedly, every day and every hour, the "Street of Painters" of the Parisian XIV-XV centuries. was a theater of technical and artistic discoveries and events. If in this age the last word it was said in the direction of the perfection of the golden background (the recipe for imposing and polishing leaves of genuine gold on a page that still gives the impression of being poured with massive gold and giving a kind of golden bulge is immensely sophisticated in the West), it was the century of amazing recipes for enamel effect paints that blossomed the delicate groups of Jacquemart d' Esden, living, as it were, in the never-ending sunlight. The illustration gives only a colorless photograph from the watchmaker of his school, and only by an effort of imagination can one imagine the delicate blond coloring of the soft curls of an angel, the blush of the cheeks glowing like rose petals and the soft pistachio green of the riza against the background of a snow-white alba. Other workshops of the same city and in the same century delve into the tasks of chiaroscuro, creating an incomparable Parisian craftsmanship, where white forms and figures are slightly touched by pink and lilac reflections. Nine shades of gray - from pearl and silver to mouse and dark "mole" - can be counted on the robes threaded with gold thread, the amikts-singers in the burial scene (of the same watchmaker).

By the end of the century, more and more promising finds, more relief modeling of figures, more charming details of the landscape, more vital topic and moods.

Characters are covered with air; green meadows stretch, turning blue, towards the horizon into the distance, cut through by a bright river; castles, cities are drawn against the backdrop of mountains, the distance looks out the window, curly clouds float across the sky, groups are connected intimate life and are marked by the stamp of the individual in their faces and gestures.

With the end of the XIV and the beginning of the XV century. miniaturists, no less mobile than merchants or students, form entire international colonies in artistic cities. The “street of painters” of this period saw many Italian and Flemish guests and greedily drank their finds. The art of the Limburg brothers, with the boundless elegance of the Parisian brush, assimilates Italian charm and Flemish thoughtful realism. These features distinguish the best miniatures of the Peterhof watchmaker.

Not everything is really artistic in the art of pictorial illustration that flourished towards the end of the Middle Ages. The growing demand for it brings to life template products of low quality. Not only a city noble, a middle-class professor, doctor, townswoman want to have a colorfully decorated psalter, textbook, novel, dream book or watch book. Along with such masters as Fouquet, a huge number of third-rate artisans took up the art of illustration.

Their works are not without interest. We are not mistaken about the artistic value of the clockwork, which came out of an unknown Parisian workshop of the middle of the 15th century, with images of the months, which preserved 24 scenes of “games and works of the 15th century.” But in a number of these scenes - in the figure of a pilgrim, peacefully snoring under the pulpit to the accompaniment of a magnificent homily (March); in a city street on an April day full of housewives with baskets and boys with twigs; in a hayfield picture paired with a June picnic on the grass; in the unfolding May; in the July river, animated by boats, in the December snowball fight, etc., etc. - the life of a medieval city comes to life with its work and fun. Average in quality of craftsmanship, these superficially everyday and conditionally cheerful scenes bypass any serious attitude to the depicted life. Urban and especially rural labor is interpreted here idyllically, from the point of view of a wealthy artist who came out to admire him at his leisure hour. Neither the "rude peasants", the object of his contempt, nor those less favored by history and fate neighbors who have "blue nails" and whose "working day is long" pose a serious problem for this amusing art of the eve of the Renaissance. It was set deeper by the "dialectical thought" of the 12th century, in order to return with new insight in Flemish art.

We are on the eve of birth great painting, where the North will say a new word in order to remind the self-satisfied, harmoniously calmed feeling of Renaissance Europe about the tragic mysteries of life and artistic embodiment with its characteristic sincere and strong sense of life.

We did not have the opportunity to dwell on the various types of “applied” art that beautiful medieval urban life: on Limoges enamel and utensils, on ivory crafts, on wooden carvings and wood inlays, on metal carvings that adorned the doors and windows of a medieval house and backs , gothic furniture seats.

The Renaissance style is an expression of already different social relations and other organization of work. With him we enter into relations with large-scale capitalism in the economy and the regime of absolutism in politics.

Of the events of the “external order”, the plague of 1348 and the Hundred Years’ War made that deep furrow on the body of the everyday and mental way of the West, which partly determined the lower limit of “urban”, “Gothic” art, as well as the border of the Middle Ages itself.

Trends and trends in the painting of the Middle Ages.

General trends

The art of this period, although varied in style, is characterized by several general trends. At this time, most artwork had a religious purpose, so Christian art was the dominant direction. Many paintings, diptychs, triptychs and sculptures of the Middle Ages were developed for church altars and taking into account the specific features of temple interiors.

An important element in the creation of religious images was the additional decoration of works of art. Elements of paintings could be created from gold or other precious materials.

New Patrons

Artistic changes during the Middle Ages were brought about by rapidly changing social conditions. The development of trade led to the fact that wealthy citizens and merchants could acquire works of art for themselves. By the beginning of the 15th century, many burghers had collections of paintings.

The city authorities supported the visual arts by commissioning well-known craftsmen to create altarpieces for altars and churches.

Movement towards realism

The exact time of the transition to realism in the art of the Middle Ages cannot be identified. Innovation created in the series in the art of the series European countries, for a long time may not have been indicated in other national cultures. However, it can be argued that at the beginning early renaissance contributed to the work made at the turn of the XIII century.

One of the first paintings with elements of realism began to write italian artist Cimabue (1240-1302), who conveyed the depth of the image with the help of rich colors and light contrasts.

International Gothic

The elegant and refined manner of painting developed mainly due to the achievements Italian masters. Their technique was characterized by the use smooth lines, complex body contours, soft facial expressions of the depicted people.

The beginning of the 15th century is a period of clear progress towards realism in the visual arts, which is also characteristic of literature and sculpture. Artists show an interest in details, which gives the composition integrity and completeness. This time in European art is characterized as the period of the Renaissance.

medieval painting updated: September 14, 2017 by: Gleb

After the collapse of the Great Roman Empire, its eastern part - Byzantium - flourished, while the western part was in decline. Starting from the 5th c. Rome was regularly raided and plundered by the barbarians.

The undefeated empire was crushed and humiliated by the Vandal tribes. To resist the invasion of the Huns, led by the fearless Attila, the Romans had to enter into an alliance with the Visigoths, Franks and Burgundians. In 451, Attila was stopped, but the Roman Empire could no longer recover from devastation and upheavals. Its western part ended its existence in 476.

Thus the beginning medieval history associated with the destruction and almost complete destruction of the previous culture. This explains the crude primitivism of early European art. But it cannot be said that ancient traditions did not at all influence the work of barbarian masters. Roman ornament, as well as forms of Roman places of worship, became widespread. This is primarily due to the fact that the conquerors adopted the Christian religion from the defeated Romans.

Barbarians significantly enriched the theme works of art Roman masters, introducing mythological thinking and original national motifs into their art. Their tribes came from distant Mongolia, where, as a result of excavations carried out in the Noin-Ula tract (1924-1925), burials of the Hun nobility were discovered, presumably dating back to the beginning of our era. Studies of household items and products of an applied nature found there revealed excellent examples of pictorial images. The carpets with scenes of the struggle of fantastic animals and figures of horses and people found in the mound amaze with their realism and subtlety of execution.

It was from the steppe peoples that the famous animal or tetralogical style originated, which for several centuries occupied a worthy place in European art.

Early Christian painting

As such, painting in this era, of course, did not exist, but with the adoption of Christianity, we can talk about book miniatures, which originated and developed in the monasteries that became the centers of the spiritual life of Western Europe. In the monastic workshops - scriptoria - manuscripts were created and decorated. The material for them was parchment - dressed skins of lambs and kids.

The process of creating one book was very long and sometimes took several decades, and sometimes it took a whole human life. The monks diligently rewrote the Bible and other religious books. For writing, red paint was used, from the name of which - minium - the word "miniature" came from.

For a Christian, the book was a special value, a symbol of the Divine covenant. Books were carefully kept in monasteries, so most of them have come down to us in their original form. The manuscripts were richly decorated, and abstract animal ornamentation was widely used - a continuous interweaving of lines, accompanied by the image of birds and animals.

Barbarian tribes constantly waged wars of conquest among themselves, as a result of which old kingdoms fell apart and new ones were created. The most resistant to shocks was the large Frankish state, which existed for about five centuries (from the 5th century to the middle of the 10th century).

The art of this period can be conditionally divided into the Merovingian era in the 5th-8th centuries. (as the Frankish kings were called, who considered the legendary leader Merovei their ancestor) and the era of the Carolingians in the VIII-IX centuries. (after Emperor Charlemagne)

Painting of the Merovingian period

In the era of the Merovingians, the Anglo-Irish book miniature, represented by the magnificent monuments of early Christian painting that have come down to us, became widespread. In the monasteries of Ireland, which at that time was one of the most culturally developed areas Europe, gospels were created, decorated with wonderful ornaments. Using a pen, Irish masters wrote amazingly dynamic drawings depicting people and animals.

Much attention was paid to the inscription of letters, they were so richly decorated with all kinds of curls that the line itself took on the form of an ornament. Painted capital letter- initial - sometimes occupied a whole page.

The technique of writing miniatures of the 5th-8th centuries. has not yet reached the perfection that is inherent in the works of the Carolingian masters. Lack of perspective and volume, stylization and primitivism of images - character traits Merovingian painting.

Painting of the Carolingian period

At the end of the VIII - the beginning of the IX century. the heyday of the state of the Franks falls, which is associated with the activities of the ruler Charlemagne. His power united the territories of modern France, southern and western Germany, northern and Central Italy, Northern Spain, Holland and Belgium.

Being outstanding personality, Karl contributed to the spread of education in the lands subject to him. He founded a school in which his sons, along with the children of the nobility, mastered the basics of rhetoric, poetry, astronomy and other sciences. Charles himself, who knew Greek perfectly and latin languages, did not receive an education in his youth, so he tried to become literate already in adulthood although he was not very good at it.

Strive to make a second Rome out of his country and declaring the lands that belonged to him as the Holy Roman Empire, Charles contributed to the familiarization of the people with the art of late antiquity, therefore his era is often called the "Carolingian Renaissance".

Under Charlemagne, temple painting was of particular importance, it was a kind of bible for the illiterate, because often it was curiosity that attracted ordinary people in the church. In the decrees of the king, one can read that "painting is permissible in churches so that the illiterate can read on the walls what he cannot learn from books."

In the Carolingian period, book miniatures developed. The texts are illustrated according to the Byzantine and Anglo-Irish patterns. There are several schools that differ from each other in the technique of performance, compositional solution and theme. But there are common features common to all schools without exception. This is the desire for clarity and clarity in the construction of the composition, for a realistic image and the use of architectural ornaments as a picturesque background.

The main objects of the image in the miniatures of the school of Ada (other names are the school of the abbess of Ada, the school of the manuscript of Ada, the school of Godescalc, the school of Charlemagne) were evangelists. Distinctive features works created by the artists of this school - the presence of ornamentation, gilding and purple coloring of paper. Almost everywhere, buildings from antiquity serve as a background. The symbols of Mark, Matthew, John and Luke - a lion, an angel, a calf and an eagle - are located above the heads of the evangelists. The convincing authenticity of the depicted is achieved with the help of volumetric forms and the skillful use of light and shadow.

The customers of the books created by the masters of this school were often members royal family(according to some sources, the abbess of Hell was the sister of Charlemagne).

Scenes from the Life of Jesus Christ. To Psalm XV. Utrecht Psalter. 9th century

The miniatures of the Reims school are made in a graphic manner using brown ink. Unsteady, as if vibrating contours make the figures surprisingly lively and dynamic. The most outstanding monument of fine art in this direction and the Carolingian miniature as a whole is the Utrecht Psalter (named after the place of storage - in the university library in Utrecht). It contains 165 drawings with scenes of feasts, hunting, battles, everyday scenes, as well as landscapes. The author of miniatures attaches importance to even the smallest details. In the window of a small house you can see a drawn back curtain, in the temple - a slightly ajar door.

In the miniatures of the Turkish school one can see stylized images of monarchs. These works are characterized by a disproportionate ratio of figures: the king is always much higher than the rest of the characters.

Illustrating bibles was the direct specialty of the Turan masters, who performed miniatures for the Bible of Alcuin, the Bible of Charles the Bald and the Gospel of Lothair.

The culture of the Carolingian state existed for about two centuries, but in this short period many wonderful works of art were created, and in our time they make one admire the skill of medieval artists.

As a result of the devastating invasions of enemies, the empire of Charlemagne was destroyed, and with it many beautiful monuments of Carolingian culture perished.

The next stage in development Western European art will begin with the new millennium, i.e., in the 11th century.

Painting of the Middle Ages

Culture of the Middle Ages

General characteristics of culture

In the 4th century, the Great Migration of Nations began - the invasion of tribes from Northern Europe and Asia into the territory of the Roman Empire. The Western Roman Empire fell; its other part - Byzantium - was to exist for some more time. The Middle Ages has come - a historical era following the Ancient World and preceding the Renaissance.

origins medieval culture largely originate in the era of antiquity. In addition to Christianity, the Middle Ages adopted from antiquity some art forms as well as craft skills.

Education and science

In the 7th-8th centuries there were schools at the monasteries, where the teachers were monks, and the students, who were very few, were the children of knights. Here they taught theology and "seven free arts”, as well as a letter and an invoice. Later, education was expanded (but not for everyone, but only for the nobility) - they studied Latin, law, medicine, Arabic.

Universities arose from these schools (from the word universum-"community"):

1) in Bologna (Italy, 1088);

2) Cordoba (Spain, IX);

3) Oxford (1209);

4) Sorbonne in Paris (1215);

5) Vienna (1348), etc.

Universities enjoyed internal self-government (they elected a rector, etc.). The general population studied here. Forms of training - a lecture (reading a specialized text and a commentary on it) or a dispute (an open dispute between the participants of the seminar), after graduation, a diploma was issued. There were also textbooks.

The science of the Middle Ages was discovered by theologians of the 4th-5th centuries. - the so-called "fathers of the church":

2) Ambrose;

3) the philosopher Boethius;

4) the historians Jordan and Bede the Venerable.

The center of the "Carolingian Renaissance" was the so-called academy - a scientific circle at the court of Charlemagne, created in 794 on the model ancient school. The theologian and poet Alcuin became the leader of the academy.

In the XII-XIII centuries. science continues to evolve. Scholasticism becomes its basis - a doctrine in which reality was comprehended with the help of the logic of reason. At the same time, the scholastics were often carried away by the verbal form, behind which the content was poorly guessed, that is, they wrote and spoke in a heavy, incomprehensible language.

An outstanding scientist of the Middle Ages was Thomas Aquinas(1225–1247), teacher, author of 18 works on theology and philosophy.

Another famous scientist was Roger Bacon(1214–1294) – naturalist, teacher of mathematics and philosophy.

Worldview. Literature. Theater

The barbarians worshiped the forces of nature; played an important role in their lives magical rites. With the emergence and development of states in Europe, the core of life and worldview of a person becomes christian religion. The whole life is considered only as a short segment, full of dangers for the human soul. The ideal is life without frills and perverse joys, sincere faith in God, observance of rituals, as well as such qualities of nature as humility, patience, virtue, faith, hope, etc. Unlimited power, both spiritual and material and political , - acquire the church and the clergy.

If the treatises of the early Middle Ages were not addressed to specific segments of the population, then the literature of the Middle Ages was class-based. Researchers identify:

1) peasant;

2) urban;

3) chivalric literature.

Main genres:

1) novels;

4) epic (noble);

5) stories;

6) biographies;

7) stories;

9) educational essays, etc.

Outstanding Works:

1) the epic "Song of Roland";

2) "Song of the Nibelungs";

3) "Song of Side";

4) the novel "Tristan and Isolde";

5) a cycle of novels about King Arthur and the knight Lancelot;

6) a series of novels about Fox Renard;

8) novels.

The number of entertainment and educational activities has increased dramatically. Preachers spoke before the cathedrals, professors and students held discussions. Theatrical performances were also arranged religious performances. Cathedrals were built by urban masters (and not by monastic ones, as before). The townspeople themselves were often the customers or creators of works of art to decorate the cathedrals.

Painting of the Middle Ages

Since the barbarian tribes were constantly nomadic, their early art presented mainly:

1) weapons;

2) jewelry;

3) various utensils.

The barbarian masters preferred bright colors and expensive materials, while not the beauty of the product was valued more, but the material from which it was made.

Roman painting served as a model for miniaturists. The author of a medieval miniature is not just an illustrator; he is a talented storyteller who, in one scene, managed to convey both the legend and its symbolic meaning.

"Carolingian Renaissance" (French) Renaissance"Renaissance") - this is how the researchers called the art of this era. Many Frankish monasteries had scriptoria (book writing workshops), in which the monks rewrote ancient manuscripts and compiled new ones, both ecclesiastical and secular. Manuscripts were placed in frames made of ivory or precious metals with inserts of precious stones. In the design of books, in addition to complex ornamentation, motifs of Christian art were often used - wreaths, crosses, figurines of angels and birds.

Around the end of the III century. the papyrus scroll was replaced by parchment; instead of style (sticks for writing), they began to use bird feathers.

In the era of the Carolingians, the art of miniature reached an extraordinary flowering - book illustration. There were no miniature schools, but there were centers for the production of illustrated manuscripts at monasteries (for example, a book-writing workshop in Aachen).

Carolingian temples were decorated very modestly on the outside, but inside they shone with wall paintings - frescoes. Many researchers have noted the great importance of fine arts in a barbaric world where most people could not read. For example, in the church of St. John the Baptist (VIII century) in the city of Müster (modern Switzerland) are the oldest known frescoes. The art of the Otto Empire played a huge role in the development of the Romanesque style.

The murals of the Romanesque period have practically not been preserved. They were edifying; the movements, gestures and faces of the characters were expressive; images are planar. As a rule, on the vaults and walls of the temple depicted biblical stories. On the western wall were scenes of the Last Judgment.

In the XIII-XIV centuries. along with church books, richly illustrated images of saints and scenes from sacred history have spread:

1) books of hours (collections of prayers);

2) novels;

3) historical chronicles.

Architecture

After the emergence in the V-VIII centuries. The states of the Germanic tribes were converted to Christianity. They began to build stone Christian temples. Temples were built from massive stones, wood was used for ceilings. Churches were built on the model of Roman basilicas. In most cases, the columns were borrowed from ancient temples: the ruins served as a kind of quarry for the extraction of new building materials.

cultural centers starting from the 10th century, monasteries and churches remained. The temple, which had the shape of a cross in plan, symbolized the way of the cross of Christ - the path of suffering. In the X century. spread belief in the miraculous power of relics - objects associated with the life of Christ, the Mother of God, saints. More and more pilgrims sought to visit the holy places.

King of the Ostrogoths Theodoric was careful and smart politician, patronized the Roman nobility and the church, science and the arts. He wanted to be known as great, and therefore in his capital Ravenna they laid roads, built bridges, water pipes, military fortifications, palaces and temples, restored destroyed buildings. In addition, the wonderful tomb of Theodoric has survived to this day.

But Charlemagne made the capital of the small town of Aachen ( modern Germany). The royal palace and administrative buildings were built here. The Aachen chapel (chapel) and the gates of the monastery in Lorsch (modern Germany, c. 800) have survived to this day.

From the 10th century architects gradually changed the design of the temple - it had to meet the requirements of an increasingly complex cult. In the architecture of Germany at that time, a special type of church developed - majestic and massive. Such is the cathedral in Speyer (1030–1092/1106), one of the largest in Western Europe.

In Romanesque art, monastic architecture occupied a leading position. The size of churches increased, which led to the creation of new designs of vaults and supports. During the Romanesque period, secular architecture changed.

Typical examples of French Romanesque architecture:

1) Church of St. Peter;

2) Church of St. Paul in the monastery of Cluny (1088-1131).

Only small fragments of this building, its descriptions and drawings, have survived. In the XI-XII centuries. the construction of large cathedrals began in the cities on the Rhine - in Worms, Speyer, Mainz. Monuments preserved in Germany secular architecture of that time - feudal castles and fortresses.

The art of Italy was formed under the influence of centuries-old cultural traditions.

In Spain, there was a reconquista - a war for the liberation of the territory of the country, captured by the Arabs. Then in Spain the construction of castles-fortresses began. The kingdom of Castile became the land of castles. One of the earliest examples of Romanesque architecture is the Alcazar Royal Palace (9th century). It has survived to our time.