Religious Arts

Altarpieces

• Large painted/carved art located behind the altar
• Single or hinged wings that can be opened to reveal painted interior
• Transformation of Medieval styles
  • Cimabue - Madonna Enthroned
    • Romanesque elements still present
    • Heavy and thick drapery conceal the female form
  • Duccio - Ruccellai Madonna
    • Gothic elements begin to develop
    • More colorful than predecessor
  • Giotto - Madonna Enthroned
    • Pure Gothic
    • More decorative
    • Shows perspective - illusion of depth (3rd dimension) on a two dimensional plane
    • Humanism rediscovered
      • Less covered drapery
      • More expressive

Murals

• Mosaics
  • Small colored tiles cemented onto a wall or ceiling
  • Normally found in the early Christian Basilicas
  • Uses and location
    • Triforiums and Clerestory
    • Apse walls
  • Good Shepherd
  • Emperor Justinian and Courtiers
• Frescos
  • Paint applied directly onto wet plaster
  • Techniques and aesthetics
  • Fresco rises in popularity as the mosaic diminishes
  • Giotto - Pieta (detail)
  • Traini - Triumph of Death

Manuscript Illumination

• Painted and decorated books usually produced in the scriptoriums
  • Book of Hours (personal prayer books)
  • Bibles (detail)
• The creative process
  • Scriptoriums
  • Vellum production from animal skin to make the writing surface
  • Rubricator
    • The expert at writing text - calligraphy
    • Also noted for the skill of making the opening decorative rubric
  • Miniators
    • The expert at painting scenes or picture
    • Painting people
• "Bean" Manuscript
• Aesthetic influence on stained glass design

Music

• General aesthetics
  • Melody without accompaniment
  • Sung in Latin

• Plainsong/Gregorian Chant

More extensive and full-sized art works may be seen in the art gallery

Humanities Resource of Mark Hunter