The Middle Ages is a unique historical period. For each country, it began and ended at different times. For example, in Western Europe the Middle Ages are considered the period from the 5th to the 15th centuries, in Russia from the 10th to the 17th centuries, and in the East from the 4th to the 18th centuries. Let us further consider what spiritual heritage the creators of that era left us.
general characteristics
What was medieval art like? Briefly speaking, it united the spiritual searches of the masters who lived at that time. The main themes of their creations were determined by the church. It was she who then acted as the main customer. Meanwhile, the history of medieval art is connected not only with Christian dogmas. In the folk memory of that time, there were still signs of a pagan attitude. This can be seen in customs, folklore and rituals.
Music
Without it, medieval art cannot be considered. Music was considered an integral element of the life of people of that time. She always accompanied holidays, celebrations, birthdays. Among the most popular instruments were horns, flutes, bells, tambourines, whistles, drums. From the eastern countries a lute came to the music of the Middle Ages. There were ritual features in the motives of that time. For example, in the beginning of spring, special music was composed, to which people chased away the spirits of winter and announced the onset of warmth. At Christmas, the bells always sounded. He carried the good news of the appearance of the Savior.
Books
Medieval literature and art left a rich legacy to posterity. The early books of that era were carefully rewritten and then illustrated by monks. At that time, paper was considered a rarity, and therefore it was replaced with parchment. It was made from the skin of a calf or lamb. They learned to write on the so-called wooden tablets coated with black or green wax. Medieval works of art were embodied mainly on wooden boards. For the most valuable volumes, plain leather embossing was used. Medieval culture and art were enriched by wandering scholars and poets. They went camping to study the writing forms of other countries. With the advent of courtly love, medieval art was filled with romanticism. It manifested itself primarily in prose and music. At the courtyards they sang songs dedicated to the epic battles of Charlemagne, Arthur and Roland. Actively continued to develop writing. In the Middle Ages , lowercase and uppercase letters appeared, the spelling rules were determined. Books at that time were considered a real treasure. They were not accessible to the general public. As a rule, they were kept under lock and key. If someone had problems with money, the book could be mortgaged and get a good reward.
Medieval art: painting
At that time, only those who really had talent and possessed the necessary drawing abilities were engaged in the creation of frescoes and paintings. This creative work was not a hobby or entertainment. Medieval art made certain demands on the masters. Each painting or mural had its own customer. As a rule, church walls, an altar, or a room for prayer were painted. Artists of the Middle Ages can rather be called artisans, such as, for example, blacksmiths or carpenters. That is why the names of many of them have not reached the present day. For example, shoemakers do not put their signature on each pair of shoes. In addition, the creation of frescoes was often collective. Artists did not set out to accurately copy the world around them. Medieval art implied a moralizing and emotional impact on people. From this, certain unspoken rules were formed:
- Show one character on one canvas at different time intervals (similar to modern comics).
- Disregard the actual size of the person to give maximum visibility to the event.
The art of medieval stained glass was based primarily on religious subjects. As a rule, such subjects as Christmas of Christ, Crucifixion, Passion of Christ, Madonna and Child, etc. were drawn.
Roman style
He was filled with medieval art of Western Europe in the X-XII centuries. In some areas, this style was preserved until the XIII century. He became one of the most important stages of medieval art. The Romanesque style combines Merovingian and Late Antique subjects, components of the Carolingian Renaissance, the period of the Great Migration. Byzantine and eastern elements entered the medieval art of Western Europe. The Romanesque style was born in the conditions of the development of feudalism and the spread of the ideology of the Catholic Church. The main construction, the creation of sculptures, the design of manuscripts was carried out by monks. The church has long been a source that spread medieval art. Architecture was also a cult. The main distributors of the style at that time were monastery orders. Only by the end of the XI century wandering artels of lay stone-masons began to emerge.
Architecture
Separate buildings and complexes (castles, churches, monasteries) in the Romanesque style were built, as a rule, in the countryside. They dominated those around them, embodying the likeness of the “city of the Lord” or acting as a visual expression of the power of the feudal lord. Western medieval art was based on harmony. Clear silhouettes and compact forms of the buildings seemed to repeat and complete the landscape. Natural stone acted as the main building material. It is in perfect harmony with greenery and soil. The main feature of the Romanesque buildings was the massive walls. Their heaviness was emphasized by narrow window openings and in-depth step portals (passages). One of the key elements of the composition was considered a high tower. Romanesque buildings were systems of stereometric simple volumes: prisms, cubes, parallelepipeds, cylinders. Their surface was dissected by galleries, shoulder blades, and arcature friezes. These elements rhythmized the massiveness of the walls, but did not violate their monolithic integrity.
Temples
They developed the types of the centric and basilican church inherited from early Christian architecture. In the latter, a tower or a lantern were integral elements. Each main part of the temple was created as a separate spatial structure. Both externally and internally, it was clearly separated from the rest. The overall impression was reinforced by arches. They were mainly cross, cylindrical or cross-rib. Domes were installed on some temples.
Distinctive features of decorative products
In the early stages of the Romanesque style, the main role was played by wall painting. Towards the end of the 11th - beginning of the 12th centuries, when the configuration of walls and arches became more complicated, monumental reliefs entered the temple decor. They decorated portals, and often completely facade walls. Inside the buildings, they were applied to the capitals of the columns. In the late Romanesque style, the flat relief is replaced by a higher and more saturated with the effects of light and shadow, but retaining an organic connection with the surface of the wall. The central place in painting and sculpture was occupied by themes expressing the formidable and unlimited power of God. In strictly symmetrical compositions, the figure of Christ prevailed. As for narrative cycles on gospel and biblical themes, they took on a more dynamic and free character. Romanesque plastic differs in deviations from natural proportions. Due to this, the image of a person became a carrier of an overly expressive gesture or an element of an ornament, without losing at the same time spiritual expressiveness.
Gothic
This concept was introduced in the Renaissance. Gothic art of medieval Europe was considered "barbaric". The heyday of the Romanesque style is considered X-XII centuries. When this period was determined, the chronological limits were limited to Gothic. Thus, the early, mature (high) and late (flaming) stages were distinguished. Gothic development was intensive in those countries in which Catholicism reigned. She performed mainly religious art on religious topics and its purpose. Gothic was correlated with eternity, high irrational forces.
Formation Features
The art of the medieval stained glass window, sculpture, architecture in the Gothic period inherited many elements from the Romanesque style. A separate place was occupied by the cathedral. The development of Gothic was influenced by fundamental changes in the social structure. At that time, centralized states began to form, cities grew and strengthened, secular forces began to advance - trade, craft, city, court and knightly circles. With the formation of public consciousness, the improvement of technology began to expand opportunities for aesthetic understanding of the world. New architectural directions began to take shape. Widespread urban development. Secular and religious buildings, bridges, fortifications, and wells were present in urban architectural ensembles. In many cases, houses with arcades, storage and retail premises on the ground floors were built on the main square of the city. The main streets departed from it. Narrow facades of predominantly two-story houses (rarely three-story) with high gables were lined up along them. Cities began to be surrounded by powerful walls, which were decorated with travel towers. Royal and feudal castles began to gradually turn into entire complexes, including religious, palace and fortifications.
Sculpture
She acted as the main form of fine art. The cathedrals outside and inside were decorated with a large number of reliefs and statues. Gothic sculpture, in comparison with the Romanesque one, was distinguished by dynamism, the figures turned to each other and to the audience. Interest began to show in natural forms of nature, in human beauty and feelings. The topics of motherhood, sacrificial endurance, and moral suffering began to be reinterpreted. Has undergone changes and the image of Christ. In Gothic, the theme of martyrdom began to come to the fore. In art, the cult of the Virgin began to take shape. This happened almost at the same time as the worship of beautiful ladies. Often both of these cults were intertwined. In many works the Mother of God appeared in the image of a beautiful lady. Along with this, people still have faith in miracles, fabulous monsters, and fantastic animals. Their images can be found in Gothic style as often as in the Romanesque style.
India
This country is known throughout the world for its myriad natural wealth, magnificent handicrafts. From an early age, the children of the poor were accustomed to work. Education of the sons and daughters of the nobility began in the fifth year of their life. They received education in schools at temples or at home. Children from the Brahmin caste studied at home with a mentor. The child was to honor the teacher, to obey him in everything. The sons of warriors and princes studied military affairs and the art of government. Some monasteries acted as educational centers. Teaching in them was conducted at the highest level. Such a center, for example, was a monastery in Nolanda. It functioned on income from a hundred villages, as well as through the gifts of rulers. Observatories operated in some cities of medieval India. Mathematicians could calculate the volume of bodies and the area of figures, freely handle fractional numbers. Medicine was well developed in India. The books described the structure of the human body, internal organs. Indian doctors, using about 200 instruments and various painkillers, performed complex operations. To establish a diagnosis, doctors measured body temperature, the pulse of the patient, visually examined the patient, paying attention to the color of the tongue and skin. Art and science in medieval India have reached unprecedented heights.
Stone sculpture
She served as a decoration of architecture. As a rule, the sculpture was represented by decorative high reliefs. In them, all the figures were closely related. Movements, gestures, postures of people look surprisingly elegant and expressive. This is due to the influence on the development of sculpture of the art of dance, which has been widespread in India since antiquity. In the rocks, even under Ashok, they began to create cave cells and temples for hermits. They were small in size and reproduced residential wooden buildings. Temples of elongated oval (parabolic) shape were built in the northern regions of India. A lotus umbrella was built on top of them. In the south of the country, the temples were in the shape of a rectangular pyramid. Indoors were dark and low. They were called sanctuaries. Not everyone could enter them. The courtyards of the temples were decorated with sculptures depicting epic scenes or treating in a symbolic form the veneration of God, to whose glory the temple was erected. Subsequently, in India, especially in the south of the country, there were so many sculptural elements that religious buildings acted as pedestals for them. Such, for example, are the temples in Orissa, Konarak, Khajuraho.
Classical Works
During the Middle Ages, in most parts of India, net languages were used to create them. At the same time, many poets wrote in Sanskrit. This literature was at first a refining of classical designs. However, over time, it becomes more refined and designed for the court. Such a work, for example, was the poem Ramacharita. Each of her verses contains a double meaning that can equate the acts of King Rampal with the exploits of the epic Rama. In the Middle Ages, poetry mainly developed, but by the 12th-13th century. a pose began to appear. The works were written in Sanskrit in the genre of framed stories - stories connected by one cross-cutting plot. Such, for example, is the story of Kadambari. This work tells of two lovers who twice lived on earth in different guises. In the satirical novel "The Adventure of 10 Princes" rulers, ascetics, dignitaries and even gods are ridiculed.
Heyday
It falls on the IV-VI centuries. At that time, the northern part of India united into a powerful state. It was ruled by the kings of the Gupta dynasty. The medieval art that developed in these areas spread to the southern territories. The Buddhist monasteries and temples in Ajanta preserved unique examples of that time. Since the 2nd century, over the next nine centuries, 29 caves have appeared in this area. Their ceilings, walls, columns are painted with plots of Buddhist legends and traditions, decorated with carvings and sculptures. Ajanta acted as a center not only of religion, but also of art and science. Currently, it symbolizes the greatness of the spirit of antiquity. Ajanta attracts many tourists from all over the world.