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| The art of the Middle Ages can be divided into two major periods: the Romanesque period and the Gothic period. Most of the artwork during both of these periods was found in the churches and cathedrals built during this time. |
| Romanesque Art: |
| During the Romanesque period, monks began creating "illuminations", or highly embellished pages, when copying the Bible. This illumination from 1180 illustrates Exodus 10. (click on any of the pictures for a larger image) |
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| Sources: Microsoft Encarta 2001 Encyclopedia Britannica 2003 http://www.bc.edu/bc_org/avp/cas/fnart/arch/bourges_glass.html. This site was useful for its high quality pictures of stained glass, and its reliability can be trusted as it was put together by a professor at Boston College. http://www.the-artfile.com/uk/history/middleages/middleages.htm. This site contained a lot of general information about the different styles of art in the Middle Ages. http://www.kfki.hu/~arthp/html/zgothic/miniatur/. This site contains high quality scans of illuminations from throughout the Middle Ages. http://www.thestorefinder.com/glass/library/history.html. This site, with information provided by the Art Glass Association, contains a history of stained glass. |
| A second common form of art were sculptures and murals created for churches. This tympanum is from the Church of St. Pierre in France (1115-1135). It depicts Christ giving the final judgement (Revelations 20:11-15). |
| Gothic Art: |
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| The Gothic period is characterized by large churches and cathedrals, like the Cathedral de Notre Dame de Paris. These buildings often contained numerous statues. Here we see statue-columns from the Van Chartres Cathedral. Although the identities of the men are not known, they are believed to possibly be either apostles or early saints. |
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| As the style of architecture changed, church builders were able to include large stained glass windows, in which stories from the Bible were often depicted. In this window from the Cathedral of St. Etienne in Bourges, we see several scenes from the nativity: on the top left, a shepherd with his sheep; on the bottom left, the shepards worship Jesus, and in the middle right, the Three Wise Men visit (Matthew 2:1-12, Luke 2:8-20). |