Early Medieval Painting

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European Medieval Art

By the 5th century, the Christian popes were sending out into pagan Europe envoys carrying illuminated manuscripts, derived from formal pattern books filled with hundreds of poses copied from original Greco-Roman works. Meant to spread Christian teachings and promote order, these books were sacred texts and carefully guarded works of art.

Debate still raged in the eastern Byzantine Empire over whether Christians should even be allowed to depict images at all. Iconoclasts (from the Greek for "image breakers") in the Byzantine Empire destroyed sculptures and paintings that depicted Christ. Churches and monasteries were the only nominally safe havens for art.

Written around 800, the Book of Kells is
one of the oldest surviving examples of illustrated manuscripts in Europe.

In the 6th century, Pope Gregory the Great reinvigorated the creation of art as a holy act when he declared, "Painting can do for the illiterate what writing does for those who can read." This statement served as the guiding justification behind painting throughout the Middle Ages.

The Irish monks were the most skillful in teaching the Gospels through images in their illuminated manuscripts. Their paintings were as spiritual as the texts. The famous Book of Kells and Book of Durrow of the 7th and 8th centuries combined complex interlaced patterns from the local Celtic culture with the symbolism of Christianity. Colors continued to be used to separate some figures from the rest of humanity: Saints were embedded in gold, and bold reds and blues surrounded kings. Art increasingly focused on the supernatural, asserting complete independence from the material world. While the paintings lacked any effect of depth, they were rich in symbolic meaning.

Artists of the early Middle Ages were not always famous masters. In fact, very little is known about most of them. They were first and foremost monks and craftsmen whose work was valued simply not for its artistic rendering but for its spiritual provocation.

The icon of St. John the Evangelist from the Dionysiou Monastery, dates to the
11th century. The Orthodox Church of the Byzantine Empire began construction of monasteries along Mount Athos as early
as 971.

Not until the year 1000 did Europe start to gain political stability. Interest in the arts and other cultures flourished. Trade was ignited in Italy, and the Crusades to Jerusalem from 1095 to 1200 exposed Europeans to ancient Roman, Byzantine, and Middle Eastern artistic styles. All along the pilgrimage route, Romanesque ("Roman-like") churches — with their characteristic round arches and barrel vaults — sprang up. In France alone some 2000 churches of this period remain, and it is estimated that about 25,000 were built. The buildings were covered with sculptures and frescoes for the edification of illiterate pilgrims.

Radiant colors, suspended angels, penetrating eyes, and intricate symbols were the prevailing, motifs used to represent the supernatural world throughout the early Middle Ages.

But the rules were changing. The heavenly figures of medieval art would soon come off their golden thrones and be put back into an earthly perspective.