_medieval art _
By: C Ersoy
As far as I have seen through my research of medieval art, it is the art of
the glorious days of kingdoms, knights, huge cathederals and wars.
Historicians can not give dates for the medieval period but I understood that
it is before renaissance at around 16th century, around 14th and 15th
centuries but not before the 10th. Same as other art movements it is
inevitably result of the events, beliefs and daily life of the period’s
nationsReligion was obviously very important at that time. Many paintings
are about Jesus, saints and angels. Frescos and carvings on chappels’ and
cathederals’ walls and ceilings are still astonishingly detailed and realistic
even for the viewer of our time. Architecture in the medieval is exaggurated.
Because it is based on expressing the glory of god and the kings, huge
buildings, castles and cathederals are ornamented with big arcs, frescos and
carvings (Notre Damme in Paris is a good example). Animals such as lions and
imaginary beasts like dragons and gargoyles were obviously popular among those
times’ architects and artists I think the key word for the period is
“gothic” and it is based on ornamentation. I know that medieval art is
effected by oriental and islamic art and the usage of ornamentation, dragons,
miniature-like paintings are proofs for this Scripts seem to be popular at
medieval ages which I came up with several times in my research. They gave
lots of information about the ages because they consisted of gothic lettered
writings, ornamentations on the edges of papers, small paintings (generally
religious and miniature like) and huge, decorated initials One thing I
noticed in most, maybe all, of the paintings is the lack of motion. A position
of a figure or a situation was prefered. Figures seemed to be frozen, there is
no feeling of act in art pieces. In paintings brush with ink seem to be most
popular Ornamentation, which I refered to in all of the branches of art at
the medieval period, consists of lions (usually with their front paws in the
air), dragons, ivy like flower shapes and flying angels. In these intricate
ornamentations and also in other artworks colors as blue,green, red, black and
gold yellow were common Gold and bronze was also commonly used which again
was the result of the wish to express glory Medieval art can be summarized
as the intricately ornamented art of glory.
Word Count: 401
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