The Medieval Synthesis in the Arts
The Catholic Church was the major source of moral and spiritual instruction. It was also the patron and wellspring of artistic creativity. Its great monastic complexes, majestic cathedrals, painted altarpieces, illuminated manuscripts, and liturgical music all reflect the irrepressible vitality of an age of faith. While each of these genres retained its distinctive quality, each contributed to a grand synthesis, the all-embracing “whole� of Christian belief and worship.
The Romanesque Church After the year 1000, Romanesque pilgrimage churches were constructed in great numbers throughout Western Europe. Their stone portals and capitals displayed Christian themes of redemption and salvation. Largely rural, the churches were gathering points for pilgrims who traveled to visit the holy relics of saints and martyrs enshrined in church chapels. Since pilgrims constituted a major source of revenue for European towns and churches, parishes competed for them by enlarging church interiors. They revived the systems of stone vaulting used by the Romans. Built on a Latin cross plan, the Romanesque church features round arches and thick barrel and groin vaults. The Romanesque style, characterized by vivid imagination, is apparent in the stone sculpture of entrance portals and historiated capitals, as well as in illuminated manuscripts.
Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France, ca. 1080–1120. The tower was enlarged in the thirteenth century.
Nave and choir of Saint-Sernin, Toulouse. Pink granite.
The Gothic Cathedral The Gothic cathedral was the focus and glory of the medieval town. First developed in the region of Paris, the cathedral was an ingenious synthesis of three structural elements: rib vaults, pointed arches, and flying buttresses. Often large enough to hold the entire population of a town, the Gothic cathedral was the center of the urban community. It attracted civic events, public festivals, theatrical performances, and local business. The great cathedrals, most of which were dedicated to the Virgin, portrayed her as Mother of God, Bride of Christ, and Queen of Heaven. The image of Mary as a paragon of virtue and chastity constituted an ideal feminine type. The medieval cathedral represents the point of synthesis at which all of the arts—visual, literary, and musical—served a common, unified purpose.
Chartres Cathedral, France, begun 1194. This aerial view shows the south porch of the cathedral, which was added in the thirteenth century. The double sets of flying buttresses at the west end of the building are also visible.
West façade of Notre Dame, Paris, ca. 1200–1250.
Grotesques and a gargoyle waterspout on a tower terrace of Notre Dame, Paris, as restored in the nineteenth century.
Medieval Painting Responsive to the combined influence of Germanic, Islamic, and Byzantine arts, medieval painting styles were generally abstract and symbolic; they reveal an expressive linearity, the use of bright colors, and a decorative treatment of form. Thousands of medieval manuscripts were handwritten and richly illuminated during the Middle Ages. Their production was timeconsuming, despite the fact that book illuminators often used pattern books with stock representations of historical and religious subjects. Installed on or behind the chapel altar, the medieval altarpiece featured an image of the Virgin and/or the saints as objects of devotional prayer. Lavishly gilded, medieval Italian altarpieces reveal a humanized Byzantine style.
Crucifixion and Deposition of Christ with the Church and the Synagogue, from the Psalter of Blanche of Castile, ca. 1235
CIMABUE, Madonna Enthroned, ca. 1280– 1290. Tempera on wood, 12 ft. 7½ in. × 7 ft. 4 in.
SIMONE MARTINI, Annunciation, 1333. Tempera on wood, 8 ft. 8 in. × 10 ft.
Gregorian chant