■ Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida <^ G & W t ^ 100% H' □ Romai' Mer 09:19 Q, Q = II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art Biblioteca < Indietro O 80% Pagina | 97 < I > Mostra Blocco Note Chapter 6 • A PARTING OF WAYS Rome ami Byzantium, Fifth to Thirteenth Century A.D. 84. Am early Chriitian Hatiliid: s. Af>,>lh WHKN\ in the year A.D. 311, the Emperor Constantine established the Christian Church as a power in the State, the problems with which it saw itself confronted were enormous. During the periods of persecution there had been no need, and indeed no possibility, of building public places of worship. The churches and assembly halls that did exist were small and inconspicuous. But once the Church had become the greatest power in the realm, its whole relationship to art had to be reconsidered. The places of worship could not be modelled on the ancient temples, for their function was entirely different. The interior of the lemple was usually only a small shrine lor (he statue of the god. Processions and sacrifices took place outside. The church, on the other hand, had to find room for the whole congregation that assembled for service when the priest read Mass at the high altar, or delivered his sermon. Thus it came about thai churches were not modelled on pagan temples, but on the type of large assembly alle 19.56 #2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File: LawrenceRavenna.jpg 19% Pagina 97 di 468 me uuuu onepneru • Posizione 1225 di 6672 [ eait ] Placidiaiif1, Smarthistory11 Claudio, un-nuovo-c.di-dant ■ Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida <ŠÍ G & W t ^ 100% H' □ Romai' Mer 09:20 Q, Q = Biblioteca < Indietro O 80% II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art Pagina | 98 Mostra Blocco Note 92 A Parting of Ways halls which had been known in classical times under the name of 'basilicas', which means roughly 'royal halls'gl'hesc buildings were used as covered market-halls and public law-courts, and mainly consisted oflarge oblong halls with narrower, lower compartments on the longer sides, divided from the main hall by rows of columns. At the far end there was often room for a semicircular dais (or apse) where the chairman of the meeting, or the judge, could take his seat. The mother of the Emperor Constantinc erected such a basilica to serve as a church, and so the term established itself for churches of this type. The semicircular niche or apse would be used for the high altar, towards which the eyes of the worshippers were directed. This part of the building, where the altar stood, came to be known as the choir. The main central halJ, where the congregation assembled, was known later as the nave, which really means 'ship', while the lower compartments at the side were called sidc-aisles, which means 'wings'. In most of the basilicas, the lofty nave was simply nxifed with limber, and the beams of the loft were visible. The side-aisles were often riat-roofed. The columns that separated the nave from the aisles were often sumptuously decorated. None of the earliest basilicas has remained quite unchanged, but, despite the alterations and renovations made in the course of the 1,500 years since that time, we can still form an idea of what these buildings generally looked like (Fig. 84). The question of how to decorate these basilicasgps a much more difficult and serious one, because here the whole issue of the image and its use in religion came up again and caused very violent disputes. On one thing nearly all early Christians were agreed: there musi be no statues in the House of God. Statues were too much like those graven images and heathen idols that were condemned in the Bible. To place a figure of God, or of one of His saints, on the altar seemed altogether out of the question. For how would the poor pagans who had just been converted to the new faith grasp the difference between their old beliefs and the new message, if they saw such statues in churches ? They might too easily have thought that such a statue really 'represents' God, just as a statue by Phcidius was thought to represent Zeus. Thus they might have found it even more difficult to grasp the message of the one Almighty and Invisible God, in whose semblance we are made. Bui, although a'-l devout Christians objected to large lifelike statues, their ideas about paintings differed a good deal. Some thought them useful because they helped to remind the congregation of the teachings they had received, and kept the memory of these sacred episodes alive. This view was mainly taken in the Latin, western part of the Roman Empire. Pope Gregory the Great, who lived at the end of the sixth century a.d., took this line. He reminded the people who were against all paintings that many members of the Church could neither read nor write, and that, for the purpose of teaching them, these images were as useful is the pictures in a picture-book arc for alle 19.56 #2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File: LawrenceRavenna.jpg 19% Pagina 98 di 468 me uuuu onepneiu • Posizione 1234 di 6672 [ eait ] PlacidiaůJ, Smarthistory11 Claudio, un-nuovo-c.di-dant « Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida 3 V W > % 100% m> 3 Romaji Mer 09:23 Q. © • • II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art Biblioteca < Indietro C ■ Mostra Blocco Note alle 19.56 #2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:LawrenceR /I Parting of Ways 3 V 95 Ravenna, ibout a. children. 'Painting can do for the illiterate what writing docs lor those who can read,' he said. It was of immense importance lor the history of art that such a great authority had come out in favour of painting. His saying was to be quoted again and again whenever people attacked the use ol" images in churches. But it is clear that the type of art which was thus admitted was of a rather restricted kind. Gregory had, in fact, the idea about art which, as we saw, generally prevailed at that time. If his purpose was to be served, the story had to be told as clearly and simply as possible, and anything that might divert attention from this main and sacred purpose should be omitted. At first, artists still used the methods of story-telling that had been developed by Roman art, but gradually they came to concentrate more and more on what was strictly essential. Fig. 87 shows a work in which these principles have been applied with greatest consistency. It comes from a basilica in Ravenna, then, round about A.D. 500, a great seaport and the capital city on Italy's east coast. It illustrates the story from the Gospels in which Christ fed live thousand people on live lo>VCS and two fishes. A Hellenistic artist might have seized the opportunity to portray a large crowd of people in a gay and dramatic scene. But the master Of these days chose a very different method. His work is not a painting done with deft strokes of the brush—it i-- .1 mosaic, laboriously put together, of stone 20% Pagina 101 di 468 • Posizione 1262 di 6672 musaii; - me vauuu onefjneiu [eanj ■ Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida 4») 100% H> Q ABC - esteso Mer 09:25 Q, © ~ II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art Biblioteca < Indietro O 80% Pagina I 102 IB 96 A Parting of Ways or glass cubes which yield deep, full colours and give to the church interior, covered with such mosaics, an appearance of solemn splendour. The way in which the story is told shows the spectator that something miraculous and sacred is happening. The background is laid out with fragments of golden glass and on this gold background no natural or realistic scene is enacted. The still and calm figure of Christ occupies the centre of the picture. It is not the bearded Christ known to us, but the longhaired young man as He lived in the imagination of the early Christians. He wears a purple robe, and stretches out His arms in blessing on both sides, where stand two apostles offering Him the bread and fishes in order that the miracle may be accomplished. They carry the food with covered hands, as subjects bringing tribute for their rulers used to do at that time. Indeed, the scene looks like a solemn ceremony. We sec that the artist attached a deep significance to what he represented. To him it was not only a strange miracle which had happened a few hundred years before in Palestine. It was the symbol and token of Christ's abiding power which was embodied in the Church. That explains, or helps to explain, the way in which Christ looks steadfastly at the beholder: It is he whom Christ will feed. At first glance, such a picture looks rather stiff and rigid. There is nothing of the mastery of movement and expression which was the pride of Greek art, and which persisted until Roman times. The way in which the figures are planted in strict frontal view may almost remind us of certain children's drawings. And yet the artist must have been very well acquainted with Greek art. He knew exactly how to drape a cloak round a body so that the main joints should remain visible through the folds. He knew how to mix stones of differing shades in his mosaic to convey the colours of flesh or of the sky. He marked the shadows on the ground, and had no difficulty in representing foreshortening. If the picture looks rather primitive to us, it must be because the artist wanted to be simple. The Egyptian ideas about the importance of clarity in the representation of all objects had returned with great force because of the stress which the Church laid on clarity. But the forms which the artists used in this new attempt were not the simple forms of primitive art, but the developed forms of Greek painting. Thus Christian art of the Middle Ages became a curious mixture of primitive and sophisticated methods. The power of observation of nature, which we saw awakening in Greece about 500 B.C., was put to sleep again about A.D. 500. Artists no longer checked their formulae against reality. They no longer set out to make discoveries about how to represent a body, or how to create the illusion of depth. But the discoveries which had been made were never lost. Greek and Roman art provided an immense stock of figures standing, sitting, bending down or falling. All these types could prove useful in ihe telling of a story, and so they were assiduously copied and adapted to ever-new contexts. But the purpose tor which they were used was now so radically different that we cannot be surprised that, superficially, the pictures betray little of their clasiscal origin. 20% Pagina 102 di 468 • Posizione 1274 di 6672 alle 19.56 #2 Claudio, un-nuovo-c.di-dant Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida 4)) 100% H> Q ABC - esteso Mer 09:25 Q, © ~ Biblioteca II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art < Indietro 80% Pagina | 103 < I > Mostra Blocco Note IB A Parting of Ways 97 This question of ihe proper purpose of art in churches proved of immense importance for the whole history of Europe. For it was one of the principal issues on which the Eastern, Greek-speaking parts of the Roman Empire, whose capital was Byzantium or Constantinople, refused to accept the lead of the Latin Pope. One party there was against all images of a religious nature. They were called iconoclasts or image smashers. In 745 they gained the upper hand and all religious art was forbidden in the Eastern Church. But their opponents were even less in agreement with Pope Gregory's ideas. To them images were not just useful, they were holy. The arguments with which they tried to justify this point of view were as subtle as those used by the other party: 'If God in His mercy could decide to reveal Himself to mortal eyes in the human nature of Christ,' they argued, 'why should He not also be willing to manifest Himself in visible images? We do not worship theseimages themselves as the pagans did. We worship God and the Saints through or across their images.' Whatever we may think of the logic of this plea, its importance for the history of art was tremendous. For when this party had returned to power after a century of repression the paintings in a church could no longer be regarded as mere illustrations for the use of those who could not read. They were looked upon as mysterious reflections of the supernatural world. The Eastern Church, therefore, could no longer allow the artist to follow his fancy in these works. Surely it was not any beautiful painting of a mother with her child that could be accepted as the true sacred image or 'icon' of the Mother of God, but only types hallowed by an age-old tradition. Thus, the Byzantines came to insist almost as strictly as the Egyptians on the observance of traditionsgBut there were two sides to this question. By asking the artist who painted sacrcdimagcs to keep strictly to the ancient models, the Byzantine Church helped to preserve the ideas and achievements of Greek art in the types used for drapery, faces or gestures. If we look at a Byzantine altar-painting of the Holy Virgin like Fig. 85, it may seem very remote from the achievements of Greek art. And yet, the way the folds are draped round the body and radiate round the elbows and knees, the method of modelling the face and hands by marking the shadows, and even the sweep of the Virgin's throne, would have been impossible without the conquests of Greek and Hellenistic painting. Despite a certain rigidity, Byzantine art therefore remained closer to nature than the art of the West in subsequent periods. On the other hand, the stress on tradition, and the necessity of keeping to certain permitted ways of representing Christ or the Holy Virgin, made it difficult for Byzantine artists to develop their personal gifts. But this conscrva-tivism developed only gradually, and it is wrong to imagine that the artists of the period had no scope whatever. It was they, in fact, who transformed the simple illustrations of early Christian art into great cycles of large and solemn images that dominate the interior of Byzantine churches. As we look at the mosaics done by these Greek artists in the Balkans and in Italy in the Middle Ages, we sec that this 20% Pagina 103 di 468 • Posizione 1300 di 6672 alle 19.56 #2 Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida <ŠÍ G 3? W t ^ *») 100% Ü' □ Romaji Mer 09:30 Q, © != J Biblioteca < Indietro in II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art 80% Pagina I 104 Nascondi Blocco Note alle 19.56 #2 mueiuiie i euer ill 98 A Parting of Way* Oriental empire had in fact succeeded in reviving something of the grandeur and majesty of ancient Oriental art, and in using it for the glorification of Christ and His power. Fig. S6 gives an idea of how impressive this art could be. It shows the apse of the church of Monrealc, in Sicily, which was decorated by Byzantine craftsmen shortly before 1190. Sicily itself belonged to the Western or Latin Church, which accounts for the fact that among the Saints arrayed on each side of the window we find the earliest representation of St. Thomas Beckel, the news of whose murder some twenty years earlier had resounded throughout Europe. Hut apart from this choice of Saints the artists have kept close to their native Byzantine tradition. The faithful assembled in the church would find themselves face to face with the majestic ligure of Christ, represented as the Ruler of the I "inverse, I lis right hand raised in blessing. Below is the Holy Virgin, enthroned like an impress, Hanked by two archangels and the solemn row of Saints. Images such as these, looking down on us from the golden, glimmering walls, seemed to be such perfect symbols of the Holy Truth that there appeared to be no need ever to depart from them. Thus they continued to hold their sway in all countries ruled by the liastern Church. The holy images or 'icons' of the Russians still reflect these great creations of Byzantine artists. 88. llyzunnm lamocüut, wkiremuAü* m óm*e «>/ (.'Ani Pram tbc ChhKkmr Pul irr. ;i Bjmotínc DMDincripi piloted about A.n. yoo. Moscow, Historical Mi. . um Annotazioni ed evidenziazioni Filtra per Tutti gli elementi ▼ + Carte flash Esporta 21% Pagina 104 di 468 • Posizione 1326 di 6672 •fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 The arguments with which they tried to justify this point of view were as subtle as those used by the other party: 'If God in His mercy could decide to reveal Himself to mortal eyes in the human nature of Christ,' they argued, Vvhy should He not also be willing to manifest Himself in visible images? We do not worship these images themselves as the pagans did. We worship God and the Saints through or across their images.' Aggiungi una nota.. ■fa EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 They were looked upon as mysterious reflections of the supernatural world. Aggiungi una nota.. •fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 tho Rwvantinoc r>omo tn incict almnd ac ctrirtlw ac the Claudio, un-nuovo-c.di-dant ■ Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida <ü G W t ^ *>) 100% Ü' □ Romai' Mer 09^31 Q. O := 1 Biblioteca II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art < Indietro 80% Pagina I 115 CHAPTER S ■ WESTERN ART IN THE MELTING POT Europe) Sixth to Eleventh Century A.D. ioo. A Saxtm Tototrinmtaibtga fMtr the church .>/ Hurts HartOH, Northamptonshire, built aboui a.d. iooo WE have taken the story of Western art up to the period of Constantinc, and to the centuries in which it was to adapt itself to the precept of Pope Gregory the Great that images are useful for teaching laymen the sacred word. The period which followed this early Christian era, the period after the collapse of the Roman Empire, is generally known by the uncomplimentary title of the Dark Ages.We call these ages dark, partly to convey that the people who lived during these centuries of migrations, wars and upheavals, were themselves 22% Pagina 115 di 468 • Posizione 1442 di 6672 alle 19.56 #2 Nascondi Blocco Note Annotazioni ed evidenziazioni Filtra per Tutti gli elementi ▼ + Carte flash Esporta •fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 The arguments with which they tried to justify this point of view were as subtle as those used by the other party: 'If God in His mercy could decide to reveal Himself to mortal eyes in the human nature of Christ,' they argued, Vvhy should He not also be willing to manifest Himself in visible images? We do not worship these images themselves as the pagans did. We worship God and the Saints through or across their images.' Aggiungi una nota.. ■fa EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 They were looked upon as mysterious reflections of the supernatural world. Aggiungi una nota.. •fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 tho Rwvantinoc r>omo tn incict almnct ac ctrirtlw ac the Claudio, un-nuovo-c.di-dant Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida <Ü G W t ^ *>) 100% Ü' □ Romaji Mer 09:31 Q, © ;= Biblioteca < Indietro in II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art 80% Pagina I 116 Nascondi Blocco Note alle 19.56 #2 mueiuiie i euer ill 1 [O Western Art in the Melting Pot plunged in darkness and hao little knowledge to guide them, but also to imply that we ourselves know rather little about these confused and confusing centuries which followed upon the decline of the ancient world and preceded the emergence of the European countries in the shape, roughly, in which we know them now. There are, of course, no fixed limits to the period, but for our purpose we may say that it lasted almost five hundred years—approximately from a.d. 500 to a.d. 1000. Five hundred years is a long time, in which much can happen and much, in fact, did happen. But what is most interesting to us is that these years did not sec the emergence of any one clear and uniform style, but rather the conilict of a great number of different styles, which only began to come to terms towards the end of that period.To those who know something of the history of the Dark Ages this is hardly surprising. It was not only a dark, it was a patchy period, with tremendous differences among various peoples and classes.Throughout these five centuries there existed men and women, particularly in the monasteries and convents, who loved learning and art, and who had a great admiration for those works of the ancient world which had been preserved in libraries and treasure-houses. Sometimes these learned and educated monks or clergy held positions of power and influence at the courts of the mighty, and tried to revive the arts which they most admired. But frequently their work came to naught because of new wars and invasions by armed raiders from the north, whose opinions about art were very different indeed. The various Teutonic tribes, the Goths, the Vandals, the Saxons, the Danes and the Vikings, who swept through Kuropc raiding and pillaging, were considered barbarians by those who valued Greek and Roman achievements in literature and art. In a sense they certainly were barbarians, but this need not mean that they had no feeling for beauty, no art of their owe. They had skilled craftsmen experienced in finely wrought metalwork, li. A Drúgotŕí Htod, VCV Norway). About a.d. 820. Oslo inp found U Oscbcrg University Museum Annotazioni ed evidenziazioni Filtra per Tutti gli elementi - + Carte flash Esporta 22% Paginal 16 di 468 . Posizione 1448 di 6672 •fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 The arguments with which they tried to justify this point of view were as subtle as those used by the other party: 'If God in His mercy could decide to reveal Himself to mortal eyes in the human nature of Christ,' they argued, Vvhy should He not also be willing to manifest Himself in visible images? We do not worship these images themselves as the pagans did. We worship God and the Saints through or across their images.' Aggiungi una nota.. ■fa EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 They were looked upon as mysterious reflections of the supernatural world. Aggiungi una nota.. •fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 tho Rwvantinoc r>omo tn inoict almnct ac ctrirtlw ac the Claudio, un-nuovo-c.di-dant Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida <Ü G W t ^ *>) 100% Ü' □ Romaji Mer 09:31 © ;= Biblioteca II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art < Indietro 80% in [Patera ^l?v /a (Ac Melting Pot 111 and excellent wood-carvers, comparable 10 those of the New Zealand Maoris (p. 25, Fig. 23). They loved complicated patterns which included the twisted bodies of dragons, or birds mysteriously interlaced. We do not know exactly where these patterns originated in the seventh century of what they signified, but it is not unlikely that the ideas of these Teutonic tribes about art resembled the ideas of primitive tribes elsewhere, There are reasons for believing that they, too, thought of such images as a means of working magic and exorcizing evil spirits. The carved figures of dragons from Viking sledges and ships give a good idea of the character of this art (Figs. 101-102). One can well imagine that these threatening heads of monsters were something more than just innocent decorations. In fact, we know that there were laws among the Norwegian Vikings which required the captain of a ship to remove these figures before entering his home port, 'so as not to frighten the spirits of the land'. The monks and missionaries of Celtic Ireland and Saxon Hngland tried to apply the traditions of these northern craftsmen to the tasks of Christian art. The most amazing monuments to their success are some of the manuscripts made in England and Ireland during the seventh and eighth centuries. Fig. 103 is a page from the famous Lindisfarne Gospel,made in Northumbria shortly before A.n.700. It shows the Cross composed of an incredibly rich lacework of intertwined dragons or 10a. A 'Longship' of the Viking typt with dm*om' hcoät, u med by ťic Normans m the Im at Hngland, tram DM Bayou Tapestry, made about \.n. 11S0. Bayeux, Cathedral Pagina | 117 Nascondi Blocco Note Annotazioni ed evidenziazioni Filtra per Tutti gli elementi ▼ + Carte flash Esporta 23% Pagina 117 di 468 • Posizione 1465 di 6672 alle 19.56 #2 •fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 The arguments with which they tried to justify this point of view were as subtle as those used by the other party: 'If God in His mercy could decide to reveal Himself to mortal eyes in the human nature of Christ,' they argued, Vvhy should He not also be willing to manifest Himself in visible images? We do not worship these images themselves as the pagans did. We worship God and the Saints through or across their images.' Aggiungi una nota.. ■fa EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 They were looked upon as mysterious reflections of the supernatural world. Aggiungi una nota.. •fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 tho Rwvantinoc r>omo tn inoict almnd ac ctrirtlw ac the Claudio, un-nuovo-c.di-dant Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida <ŠÍ G W t ^ 100% Ü' □ Romaji Mer 09:32 Q, © ■= Biblioteca < Indietro in II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art 80% Pagina I 118 Western Art in the Melting Pol 103. Page of i he Lindts/artic (impel, probably pjinted shortly before a.d. 700. London, Ilritish Mu-cum serpents, standing against a background of an even more complicated pattern. It is exciting to try to find one's way through this bewildering maze of twisted shapes, and to follow the coils of these interwoven bodies. It is even more astonishing to see that the result is not confusion, but that the various patterns strictly correspond to each other and form a complex harmony of design and colour. One can hardly imagine how anyone could have thought out such a scheme and had the patience and perseverance to finish it. It proves, if proof were needed, that the % Pagina 118 di 468 • Posizione 1478 di 6672 Nascondi Blocco Note Annotazioni ed evidenziazioni Filtra per Tutti gli elementi ▼ + Carte flash Esporta EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 The arguments with which they tried to justify this point of view were as subtle as those used by the other party: 'If God in His mercy could decide to reveal Himself to mortal eyes in the human nature of Christ,' they argued, Vvhy should He not also be willing to manifest Himself in visible images? We do not worship these images themselves as the pagans did. We worship God and the Saints through or across their images.' Aggiungi una nota.. ■fa EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 They were looked upon as mysterious reflections of the supernatural world. Aggiungi una nota... EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 tho Rwcmtinoc rama tn inoict almnot ac ctrir alle 19.56 #2 mueiuiie i euer ill ■ Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida <ŠÍ G 3? W t ^ *») 100% Ü' □ Romaji Mer 09:32 Q, Q = J Biblioteca II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art 80% . LwAŕ. From a ted about A.i>. 750. St Stiftsbiblkxbek Western Art in the Melting Pot 113 artists who took up this native tradition were certainly not lacking in skill or technique. It is all the more surprising to look at the way in which human figures were represented by these artists in the illuminated manuscripts of England and Ireland. They do not look quite like human figures but rather like strange patterns made of human forms (Fig. 104). One can see that the artist used some example he had found in an old Bible, and transformed it to suit his taste. He changed the folds of the dress to something like interlacing ribbons, the locks of hair and even the ears into scrolls, and turned the whole face into a rigid mask. These figures of evangelists and saints look almost as stiff and quaint as primitive idols. They show that the artists who had grown up in the traditions of their native art found it difficult to adapt themselves to the new requirements of Christian books. Yet it would be wrong to look upon such pictures as being merely childish. The training of hand and eye which the artists had received, and which enabled them to make a beautiful pattern on the page, helped them to bring a new element into Western art. Without this influence, Western art might have developed on similar lines to those ot the art of Byzantium. Thanks to the clash of the two traditions, the classical tradition and the taste of the native artists, something entirely new began to grow up in Western EuropcB For the knowledge of the earlier achievements of classical art was by no means lost altogether. At the court of Charlemagne, who regarded himself as the successor of the Roman Emperors, the tradition of Roman craftsmanship was eagerly revived. The church that Charles had built about a.d. 800 at his residence in Aix-la-Chapcllc (Fig. 105) is a rather close copy of a famous church that had been built in Ravenna some three hundred years earlier. We have seen before that our modern notion that an artist must be 'original' was by no means shared by most peoples of the past. An Egyptian, a Chinese or a Byzantine master would have been greatly puzzled by such a demand. Nor would a medieval artist of Western Europe have understood why he should invent new ways of planning a church, of designing a chalice or of representing the sacred story where the old ones served their purpose so well. The pious donor who wanted to Pagina | 119 Nascondi Blocco Note Annotazioni ed evidenziazioni Filtra per Tutti gli elementi ▼ + Carte flash Esporta 23% Pagina 119 di 468 • Posizione 1483 di 6672 alle 19.56 #2 •fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 The arguments with which they tried to justify this point of view were as subtle as those used by the other party: 'If God in His mercy could decide to reveal Himself to mortal eyes in the human nature of Christ,' they argued, Vvhy should He not also be willing to manifest Himself in visible images? We do not worship these images themselves as the pagans did. We worship God and the Saints through or across their images.' Aggiungi una nota.. ■fa EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 They were looked upon as mysterious reflections of the supernatural world. Aggiungi una nota.. •fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 tho Rwvantinoc r>omo tn inoict almnct ac ctrirtlw ac the Claudio, un-nuovo-c.di-dant ■ Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida <ŠÍ G 3? W t ^ *») 100% Ü' □ R°mai' Mer 09:32 Q, Q = 5 Biblioteca II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art 80% alle 19.56 #2 Western Art in the Melting Pot dedicate a new shrine for a holy relicof his patron saint, not only tried to procure the most precious material he could afford, he would also seek to provide the master with an old and venerable example of how the legend of the saint should be correctly represented. Nor would the artist feel hampered by this type of commission. There remained enough scope for him to show whether he was a master or a bungler. Perhaps we can best understand this attitude if we think of our own approach to music. If we ask a musician to perform at a wedding we do not expect him to compose something new for the occasion, any more than the medieval patron expected a new invention if he asked for a painting of the Nativity. We indicate the type of music we want and the size of the orchestra or choir we may be able to afford. It still remains up to the musician to produce a wonderful performance of an ancient masterpiece or to make a mess of things. And just as two equally great musicians may interpret the same piece very differently, so two great medieval masters might make very different works of art of the same theme and even of the same ancient model. An example should make this clear: Fig. 106 shows a page from a Bible produced at the court of Charlemagne. It represents the figure of St. Matthew writing the go^pclgf t had been customary in Greek and Roman books to have the portrait of the author represented on the opening page and this picture of the writing evangelist must bean extraordinarily faithful copy of this type of portrait. The way the saint is draped in his toga in the best classical fashion, the way his head is modelled in many shades of light and colour, convinces us that the medieval artist had strained every nerve to give an accurate and worthy rendering of a venerated model. The painter of another manuscript of the ninth century (Fig. 107) probably had before him the same or a very similar ancient example from early Christian times. We can compare the hands, the left hand holding an inkhorn and resting on the lectern, the right hand holding the pen; we can compare the feet and even the drapery round the knees. But while the artist of Fig. 106 had done his very best to copy the original as faithfully as possible, the artist of Fig. 107 must have aimed at a different interpretation. Perhaps he did not want to represent the evangelist like any 105. Interior of tká /fauler of' Aix-U-ChapelU GoniecMed >n A.n. Im Pagina | 120 Nascondi Blocco Note Annotazioni ed evidenziazioni Filtra per Tutti gli elementi ▼ + Carte flash Esporta 23% Pagina 120 di 468 • Posizione 1503 di 6672 •fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 The arguments with which they tried to justify this point of view were as subtle as those used by the other party: 'If God in His mercy could decide to reveal Himself to mortal eyes in the human nature of Christ,' they argued, Vvhy should He not also be willing to manifest Himself in visible images? We do not worship these images themselves as the pagans did. We worship God and the Saints through or across their images.' Aggiungi una nota.. ■fa EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 They were looked upon as mysterious reflections of the supernatural world. Aggiungi una nota.. •fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 tho Rwvantinoc r>omo tn inoict almnct ac ctrirtlw ac the Claudio, un-nuovo-c.di-dant ■ Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida <ŠÍ G 3? W t ^ *») 100% Ü' □ Romaii Mer 09:33 Q, Q = 5 Biblioteca II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art 80% in Western Art in the Melting Pot 106. Sr. .1 uheu. From u Goapd manuscript, probably pjiiiia! ar Aix-Ia-Chapcllc. about A.D. Soo. Vienna, Schaizkammer 107. St. Matthew. From a Gospel manuscript, probably painted at Rhcims, iboul a.p. 830. fipernay. Municipal Library serene old scholar, sitting quietly in his study. To him St. Matthew was an inspired man, writing down the Word of God. It was an immensely important and immensely exciting event in the history of mankind that he wanted to portray, and he succeeded in conveying something of his own sense of awe and excitement in this figure of a writing man. It is not mere clumsiness and ignorance which made him draw the saint with wide open, protruding eyes and enormous hands. He intended to give him that expression of tense concentration. The very brushwork of the drapery and of the background looks as if it had been done in a mood of intense excitement. This impression, I think, is partly due to the evident enjoyment with which the artist seized on every opportunity to draw scrolly lines and zigzagging folds. There may have been something in the original to suggest such a treatment, but it probably appealed to the medieval artist because it reminded him of those interlaced ribbons and lines which had been the greatest achievement of northern art. In pictures like these we see the emergence of a new medieval style which made it possible for art to do something that neither ancient Oriental nor classical art had done: the Egyptians had largely drawn what they knew to exist, the Greeks what they sure; in the Middle Ages the artist also learned to express in his picture what hc/t7rg One cannot do justice to any medieval work of art without keeping this purpose in mind. For these artists were not out to create a convincing likeness of nature or to make beautiful things—they wanted to convey to their brothers in the faith the content and the message of the sacred story. And in this they were perhaps more successful than most artists of earlier or later times. Fig. 10S shows part of a bronze Pagina | 121 Nascondi Blocco Note Annotazioni ed evidenziazioni Filtra per Tutti gli elementi ▼ + Carte flash Esporta 24% Pagina 121 di 468 • Posizione 1522 di 6672 alle 19.56 #2 EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 The arguments with which they tried to justify this point of view were as subtle as those used by the other party: 'If God in His mercy could decide to reveal Himself to mortal eyes in the human nature of Christ,' they argued, Vvhy should He not also be willing to manifest Himself in visible images? We do not worship these images themselves as the pagans did. We worship God and the Saints through or across their images.' Aggiungi una nota.. ■fa EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 They were looked upon as mysterious reflections of the supernatural world. Aggiungi una nota.. ■fa EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 tho Rv-7antinoo r>omo tn incict almnd ac ctrirtlw ac the Claudio, un-nuovo-c.di-dant ■ Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida <ŠÍ G 3? W t ^ *») 100% Ü' □ R°mai' Mer 09:33 Q, Q = 5 Biblioteca in II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art 80% Pagina | 122 Nascondi Blocco Note 116 Western Art in the Melting Pot door which was commissioned for the German church of Hildesheim shortly after the year a.d. 1000. It shows the Lord approaching Adam and Eve after the fall. There is nothing in this relief that docs not strictly belong to the story. But this concentration on the things which matter makes the figures stand out all the more clearly against the plain background—and we can almost read off what their gestures say: God points to Adam, Adam to Eve, and Eve to the serpent on the ground. The shifting of guilt and the origin of evil is expressed with such forcefulncss and clarity that we soon forget that the proportions of the figures arc perhaps not strictly correct and the bodies of Adam and Eve not beautiful by our standards. We need not imagine, though, that all art in this period existed exclusively to serve religious ideas. Not only churches were built in the Middle Ages, but castles as well, and the barons and feudal lords to whom the castles belonged also occasionally employed artists. The reason why we arc inclined to forget these works when we speak of the art of the earlier Middle Ages is simple: castles were often destroyed when churches were spared. Religious art was, on the whole, treated with greater respect, and looked after more carefully, than mere decorations of private apartments. When these became old-fashioned they were removed or thrown away—just as happens nowadays. But, fortunately, one great example of this latter type of art has come down to us—and that because it was preserved in a church. It is the famous Bayeux Tapestry, which illustrates the story of the Norman Conquest. We do not know exactly when this tapestry was made, but most scholars agree that it % Pagina 122 di 468 Annotazioni ed evidenziazioni Filtra per Tutti gli elementi ▼ + Carte flash Esporta ■fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 The arguments with which they tried to justify this point of view were as subtle as those used by the other party: 'If God in His mercy could decide to reveal Himself to mortal eyes in the human nature of Christ,' they argued, Vvhy should He not also be willing to manifest Himself in visible images? We do not worship these images themselves as the pagans did. We worship God and the Saints through or across their images.' Aggiungi una nota.. ■fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 They were looked upon as mysterious reflections of the supernatural world. Aggiungi una nota... ■fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 tho Rwcmtinoc rama tn inoict almoot ac ctrir alle 19.56 #2 mueiuiie itiUfcMiu: ■ Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida <ŠÍ G 3? W t ^ *») 100% Ü' □ R°mai' Mer 09:33 Q, Q = j! Biblioteca II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art 80% Pagina I 123 in *5v vi [Lei MO DVc/> 109-1 lo. Jftiy iAjrp/d t:eeetr< on f).,//t /.i 7>»Av William of Nomamfy, after f:7piWj he returns to Btteiamt i'rwm the Ilayeux TapeMry, made about A,n. 10S0. Ilaycux dihedral 24% Pagina 123 di 468 • Posizione 1553 di 6672 Nascondi Blocco Note Annotazioni ed evidenziazioni Filtra per Tutti gli elementi ▼ + Carte flash Esporta ■fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 The arguments with which they tried to justify this point of view were as subtle as those used by the other party: 'If God in His mercy could decide to reveal Himself to mortal eyes in the human nature of Christ,' they argued, Vvhy should He not also be willing to manifest Himself in visible images? We do not worship these images themselves as the pagans did. We worship God and the Saints through or across their images.' Aggiungi una nota.. ■fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 They were looked upon as mysterious reflections of the supernatural world. Aggiungi una nota... ■fr EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 tho Rwcmtinoc rama tn incict almnot ac ctrir alle 19.56 #2 rtiutJiuiiti itiUfcMiu: 09 Kindle File Modifica Visualizza Vai Strumenti Guida <^ G W t ^ 100% ■# □ Romai' Mer 09:33 Q, © ■= Biblioteca < Indietro II Kindle di Daniela per Mac - The Story of Art 80% Pagina | 124 118 Western Art in the Melting Pot was within living memory of the scenes it illustrates—perhaps round ahout the year toSo. The tapestry is a picture-chronicle of the kind we know from ancient Oriental and Roman art—the story of a campaign and a victory. It tells its story with wonderful liveliness. On Fig. 109 we sec, as the inscription tells us, how Harold swears his oath to William and on Fig. 110 how he returns toF.ngland. N'othing could be clearer than the way in which the story is told—we sec William on his throne watching Harold laying his hand on the sacred relics to swear allegiance—it was this oath which served William as pretext for his claims on Fngland. I particularly like the man on the balcony in the next scene, who holds his hands above his eyes to espy Harold's ship as it arrives from afar. It is true that his arms and ringers look rather quaint and that all the figures in the story are strange little mannikins which are not drawn with the assurance of the Assyrian or Roman chroniclers. When the medieval artist of this period had no model to copy, he drew rather like a child. It is easy to smile at him, but by no means so easy to do what he did. He tells the epic with such an economy of means, and with such concentration on what seemed important to him, that the final result is possibly more impressive than the accounts of our own war reporters and newsreel men. III. A Mmk firmer Rufillus) writing the letttr K (his (able with colours and his pen-knife beside him'. From an early thirteenth-century manuscript. Sigmaringen, Library _=^ 1 Annotazioni ed evidenziazioni Scansione periodica di MacKeeper 2 elementi adware rilevati sul tuo Mac. I + Carte flash I Ignora Rivedi Esporta Filtra per Tutti gli elementi ▼ % Pagina 124 di 468 • Posizione 1555 di 6672 EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 The arguments with which they tried to justify this point of view were as subtle as those used by the other party: 'If God in His mercy could decide to reveal Himself to mortal eyes in the human nature of Christ,' they argued, Vvhy should He not also be willing to manifest Himself in visible images? We do not worship these images themselves as the pagans did. We worship God and the Saints through or across their images.' Aggiungi una nota.. ■fa EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 They were looked upon as mysterious reflections of the supernatural world. Aggiungi una nota... EVIDENZIAZIONE ARANCIONE ■ PAGINA 103 tho Rwcmtinoc rama tn inoict almnot ac ctrir alle 19.56 #2 80