The Middle Ages are often called dark and gloomy. This was facilitated by religious wars, acts of the Inquisition, undeveloped medicine. However, the Middle Ages left many cultural monuments worthy of admiration for posterity. Architecture and sculpture did not stand still: absorbing the peculiarities of time, they generated new styles and trends. Along with them was the painting of the Middle Ages. About her and will be discussed today.
In close commonwealth
From the eleventh to the twelfth century, Romanesque style dominated European art. The main expression he received in architecture. The temples of that time were characterized by a three- or less often five-nave structure of the basilica, narrow windows that did not give special lighting. 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 artistic culture was devoted to religious subjects. Moreover, the divine deeds were portrayed in a rather formidable manner, consistent with the spirit of the times. Masters did not set themselves the task of conveying the details of certain events. Their focus was on sacred meaning, so the painting of the Middle Ages, briefly lingering on the details, primarily conveyed symbolic meaning, distorting proportions and correlations for this.
Accents
Artists of that time did not know the prospects. On their canvases the characters are on the same line. However, even with a passing 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 significantly superior to the growth of others. Thus, the figure of Christ always towered above the angels, and they, in turn, dominated ordinary people.
This technique had a downside: it did not give much freedom in depicting the environment and background details. As a result, 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 diagram conveying the essence, but not the nuances.
Plots
Romanesque European medieval painting was replete with images of fantastic events and characters. Preferences were 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.
Transition stage
The fine art of the Romanesque period outgrew the painting of the early Middle Ages, when, under the pressure of historical events, many of its forms almost disappeared and symbolism dominated. The frescoes and miniatures of the 11th-12th centuries, expressing the primacy of the spiritual over the material, paved the way for the further development of artistic trends. Painting of that period was an important transitional stage from the gloomy symbolic art of the time of the fall of the Roman Empire and the constant barbaric raids to a new qualitative level, which originates in the Gothic era.
Favorable changes
Gothic painting of the Middle Ages owes much of its appearance to the transformation of religious life. So, by the beginning of the XIII century, almost all the altars were supplemented with an altarpiece, consisting of two or three paintings and depicting scenes from holy scripture. The production of such works required the master to deeply understand his responsibility to God and parishioners and at the same time provided great scope for using his own skills.
The expanding order of the Franciscans also indirectly contributed to the development of painting. The charter prescribed a modest life for the followers, and therefore a mosaic was not suitable for decorating monasteries. She was replaced by wall painting.
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 of life in all its manifestations, artists began to pay more attention to reality. On religious canvases, still of religious content, details of the decor began to appear, painted as carefully as the main characters.
Italian Gothic
Painting of the Middle Ages on the territory of the heiress of the Roman Empire early enough 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. Altar images in their execution often portrayed the Madonna and Child.
Giotto di Bondone, who lived a little later, became famous for paintings depicting completely earthly people. The characters on his canvases seem alive. Giotto was in many ways ahead of the era and only after a while was recognized as a great dramatic artist.
Frescoes
The painting of the Middle Ages in the Roman period was enriched with a new technique. Masters began to apply paint on top of still wet 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 this 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 of Europe slowly gained depth. A significant role in this process was played by the desire to convey reality in a picture with all its volumes. Slowly, over the years honing their skills, the artists learned to portray the perspective, to give bodies and objects the resemblance to the original.
These attempts are clearly visible in works related to international or international Gothic, which developed by the end of the XIV century. The painting of the Middle Ages of that period possessed special features: attention to small details, some refinement and sophistication in the transmission of images, attempts to build perspectives.
Book thumbnails
The characteristic features of the painting of this period are most clearly visible in the small illustrations that adorned the books. Among all the miniature masters, the Limburg brothers, who lived at the beginning of the 15th century, deserve special mention. They worked under the auspices of the Duke of Jean Berry, who was the younger brother of the King of France, Charles V. One of the most famous works of artists was "The Magnificent Theology of the Duke of Berry." He brought glory to both the brothers and their patron. However, by 1416, when the Limburg track was lost, it remained incomplete, but the twelve miniatures that the masters managed to write characterize their talent and all the features of the genre.
Quality conversion
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 art. In Flanders, oil paints were invented. Vegetable oil mixed with dyes gave new properties to the composition. Colors have become much more saturated and vibrant. In addition, the need to rush, accompanying the painting with the help of tempera, disappeared: the yolk, which forms its basis, dried very quickly. Now the painter could work measuredly, paying due attention to all the details. Layers of strokes applied on top of each other revealed hitherto unknown possibilities of color play. Oil paints, thus, opened to the masters a whole new, unknown world.
Famous artist
The founder of a new trend in painting in Flanders is Robert Kampen. However, his achievements were overshadowed by one of the followers, known today to almost everyone who is interested in fine art. 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 began to be popular and in the 15th century spread beyond Flanders - to Germany, France and then to Italy.
Ian van Eyck was a great portrait painter. The colors on his canvases create that play of light and shadow, which so many of his predecessors lacked to convey reality. Among the famous works of the artist is “Madonna of Chancellor Rolen”, “Portrait of the Arnolfini couple”. If you look closely at the latter, it will become clear how significant was the skill of Jan van Eyck. What are the only carefully prescribed folds of clothing!
However, the master’s main work is "Ghent Altar", consisting of 24 paintings and depicting more than two hundred figures.
Jan van Eyck is rightly called the representative of the Early Renaissance rather than the late Middle Ages. The Flemish school as a whole 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 cultural phenomenon both in time and in importance. Having gone from the alluring, but unattainable memories of the greatness of Antiquity to the new discoveries of the Renaissance, she presented the world with many works that to a large extent tell not about the formation of painting, but about the quest for the human mind, its understanding of its place in the Universe and its relationship with nature. Understanding the depths 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 art would be incomplete without studying the preceding era. 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 a bug, whose fate is completely in the grip of a formidable god.