Medieval art and its features

The Middle Ages are a unique historical period. For each country, it began and ended at different times. For example, in Western Europe the Middle Ages is the period from the 5th to the XVth centuries, in Russia from the Xth to the XVIIth centuries, and in the East from the 4th to the XVIIIth centuries. Let us further consider the spiritual legacy left to us by the creators of that era.

general characteristics

What was medieval art? In short, it combines the spiritual quest of the masters who lived at that time. The main themes of their creations were determined by the church. It was she who acted then as the main customer. Meanwhile, the history of medieval art is associated not only with Christian dogmas. In the people's memory of that time there were still signs of a pagan worldview. This can be seen in customs, folklore and rituals.

Music

Without it, medieval art can not be considered. Music was considered an indispensable element in the lives of people of that time. She always accompanied the holidays, celebrations, birthdays. Among the most popular instruments were horns, flutes, bells, tambourines, whistles, drums. From eastern countries in the music of the Middle Ages came the lute. There were ritual features in the motives of that time. For example, in the beginning of spring special music was composed, under which people chased away the spirits of winter and announced the arrival of heat. Under Christmas there was always a bell ringing. He bore the good news of the appearance of the Savior.

Books

Medieval literature and art left a rich heritage to the descendants. The early books of that era were carefully rewritten and then illustrated by the monks. At that time, paper was considered a great rarity, and therefore it was replaced with parchment. It was made of calf or lamb skin. Writing was studied on so-called wooden tablets, covered with black or green wax. Medieval works of art were embodied mainly on wooden boards. For the most valuable volumes, simple leather embossing was used. Medieval culture and art were enriched at the expense of wandering scientists and poets. They went on hikes to study the forms of writing of other countries. With the advent of courtly love, medieval art was filled with romanticism. He manifested itself primarily in prose and music. At the courts sang songs dedicated to the epic battles of Charlemagne, Arthur and Roland. Writing continued to develop. In the Middle Ages , lower-case and upper-case letters appeared, the rules of writing were defined. Books at that time were considered a real treasure. They were not accessible to a large mass of the population. As a rule, they were kept under lock and key. If someone had problems with money, the book could be laid and get a good reward.

Medieval art: painting

At that time, only those who really had talent and possessed the necessary abilities for drawing were engaged in creating frescos and paintings. This creative work was not a hobby or entertainment. Medieval art made certain demands on the masters. Each painting or fresco 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 days. 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 replicate the world around them. Medieval art presupposed a moralizing and emotional impact on people. From this formed certain unspoken rules:

• Show one character on one canvas at different time intervals (by analogy with modern comics).
• Neglect the actual size of a person to give maximum visibility to the event.

The art of medieval stained glass was mainly based on religious themes. As a rule, they painted such subjects as "Nativity of Christ", "Crucifixion", "Passion of Christ", "Madonna and Child" , etc.

Roman style

They were filled with medieval art of Western Europe in the 10th-12th centuries. In some areas, this style was preserved until the XIII century. It became one of the most important stages of medieval art. The Romanesque style combined Merovingian and late-antique themes, components of the "Carolingian revival", the period of the Great Migration. The Byzantine and Oriental elements entered the medieval art of Western Europe. Romance style originated in the conditions 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 of medieval art. Architecture was also cult. The main distributors of style at that time were monastic orders. Only towards the end of the XI century did the vagabond artels of laity-stonemasons begin to emerge.

Architecture

Separate buildings and complexes (castles, churches, monasteries) in the Romanesque style were erected, as a rule, in the countryside. They dominated the surrounding, 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 buildings, as it were, repeated and completed the landscape. As the main building material was a natural stone. It perfectly harmonized with greenery and soil. The main feature of the buildings in the Romanesque style were massive walls. Their heaviness was emphasized by narrow window apertures and deeper stepped portals (passages). One of the key elements of the composition was the high tower. Romanesque buildings were systems of stereometric simple volumes: prisms, cubes, parallelepipeds, cylinders. Their surface was dismembered by galleries, shoulder blades, arched friezes. These elements rhythmized the massiveness of the walls, but did not violate their monolithic integrity.

Temples

In them the types of the centric and basilican church inherited from the early Christian architecture developed. In the last integral elements were a tower or a lantern. Each main part of the temple was created as a separate spatial structure. Both externally and internally, it clearly separated from the rest. The general impression was strengthened by arches. They were predominantly cross, cylindrical or cross-ribbed. Some churches installed domes.

Distinctive features of the decor

At an early stage in the Romanesque style, the main role belonged to wall painting. By the end of the XI - beginning of XII centuries, when the configuration of walls and arches became more complicated, monumental reliefs entered the temple decor. They were decorated with portals, and often completely facade walls. Inside the structures they were applied to the capitals of the columns. In the late Romanesque style, the flat relief is replaced by a higher and saturated with the effects of light and shadow, but retaining an organic connection with the wall surface. 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 the narrative cycles on the evangelical and biblical themes, they took a more dynamic and free character. Romance plastic differs deviations from natural proportions. Due to this, the image of a person became a bearer of an overly expressive gesture or an element of an ornament, without losing spiritual expressiveness with it.

Gothic

This concept was introduced in the Renaissance. Gothic art of medieval Europe was considered "barbaric". The heyday of the Romanesque style is considered to be the 10th-12th centuries. When this period was defined, chronological frames were limited for the Gothic style. Thus, early, mature (high) and late (flaming) stages were identified. The development of Gothic was intense in those countries in which Catholicism dominated. She performed mainly cult art on religious topics and her purpose. Gothic was correlated with eternity, high irrational forces.

Features of formation

The art of medieval stained glass, sculpture, architecture in the Gothic period inherited a lot of elements from the Romanesque style. A separate place was occupied by the cathedral. The development of Gothic influenced the cardinal changes in the social structure. At that time centralized states began to be formed, cities grew and strengthened, secular forces began to be put forward - trade, crafts, city, court-knight circles. As the emergence of public consciousness, the improvement of technology began to expand the possibilities for aesthetic interpretation of the surrounding world. New architectural trends began to take shape. Town planning became widespread. In urban architectural ensembles there were secular and religious buildings, bridges, fortifications, wells. In many cases, the main square of the city was built houses with arcades, warehouses and retail space on the ground floor. From her departed the main streets. Along them, narrow facades of mostly two-story houses (rarely three-storeyed) with high pediments were built. The cities began to surround with powerful walls, which were decorated with travel towers. Royal and feudal castles began to gradually turn into whole complexes, including religious, palace and fortress structures.

Sculpture

She acted as the main kind of fine arts. Cathedrals outside and inside were decorated with a large number of reliefs and statues. Gothic sculpture, compared with the Romanesque, was dynamic, turned figures to each other and to the audience. An interest in natural natural forms, in human beauty and feelings, began to manifest. The themes of motherhood, sacrificial steadfastness, moral suffering began to be treated in a new way. The image of Christ underwent a change. In the Gothic, the theme of martyrdom came to the forefront. In the arts, the cult of the Mother of God began to take shape. It happened almost at the same time with the worship of beautiful ladies. Often both of these cults were intertwined. In many works the Mother of God appeared in the form of a beautiful lady. At the same time, people have faith in miracles, fairy-tale monsters, fantastic animals. Their images can be found in Gothic also often, as in the Romanesque style.

India

This country is known to the whole world for its untold natural riches, magnificent handicraft products. From a young age, children of poor people accustomed to work. The training of the sons and daughters of the nobility began in the fifth year of their life. Education they received in schools at temples or at home. Children from the Brahman caste were trained at home by the tutor. The child should be honored by the teacher, he should obey everything. Sons of soldiers and princes were trained in military affairs and the art of public administration. 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 revenues coming from a hundred villages, as well as from the gifts of the rulers. Observatories operated in some cities of medieval India. Mathematicians could calculate the volume of bodies and area of figures, freely handle fractional numbers. Well developed in India was medicine. The books described the structure of the human body, internal organs. Indian doctors, using about 200 tools and various means of anesthesia, did complex operations. To establish the diagnosis of physicians measured body temperature, patient's pulse, visually examined the patient, paying attention to the color of the tongue and skin. Art and science in medieval India reached unprecedented heights.

Stone sculpture

It served as an ornament of architecture. As a rule, the sculpture was represented by decorative high reliefs. In them, all the figures were closely related. Movements, gestures, people's poses look amazingly elegant and expressive. This is due to the influence on the development of the sculpture of dance art, which was widely spread in India since ancient times. In the rocks, as early as Ashok, they began to create cave cells and temples for hermits. They were small in size and reproduced residential wooden structures. Temples of elongated-oval (parabolic) forms were built in northern regions of India. A lotus umbrella was built on their top. In the south of the country, the temples had the shape of a rectangular pyramid. Inside the premises were dark and low. They were called sanctuaries. Not every person could enter them. The courtyards of the temples were decorated with sculptures depicting epic scenes or interpreted in symbolic form the worship of God, to whose glory the church was built. Subsequently, in India, especially in the south of the country, so many sculptural elements have become that the 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 for their creation. At the same time, many poets wrote in Sanskrit. This literature was first processed by classical samples. However, over time it becomes more refined and calculated for the courtiers. Such a work, for example, was the poem "Ramacharita." In each of her verses a double meaning is laid, which can equate the acts of King Rampal to the exploits of the epic Rama. In the Middle Ages, mostly developed poetry, however, by the 12th-13th centuries. Began to appear and posture. The works were written in Sanskrit in the genre of framed stories - stories related to a single cross-cutting storyline. So, for example, is the narrative of "Kadambari." This work tells of two lovers who twice lived on the earth in different guises. In the satirical novel "The Adventure of 10 princes" ridiculed by rulers, ascetics, dignitaries and even gods.

Flowering

It falls on the IV-VI centuries. At that time, the northern part of India united in a powerful state. It was administered by the kings of the Gupta dynasty. The medieval art that developed in these areas spread to southern territories. In Buddhist monasteries and temples in Ajanta, unique examples of that time were preserved. In this area, from the 2nd century through the next nine centuries, 29 caves appeared. Their ceilings, walls, columns are painted with stories of Buddhist legends and legends, decorated with carvings and sculptures. Ajanta acted as the center of not only religion, but also art and science. At present, it symbolizes the greatness of the spirit of antiquity. Ajanta attracts many tourists from all over the world.