HISTORY OF ART

(HOA102)
COURSE INTRODUCTION

COURSE INTRODUCTION
1. PART 1- WORLD HISTORY OF ART
1.CONTENTS 2. PART 2 - HISTORY OF VIETNAM ART
2. Description
❖ This course provides knowledge of Art History: Through the course of Art History,
students are equipped with the knowledge of the establishment circumstances, the
development process, the specialties of the arts and famous artists of the World and
Vietnam Fine Arts from primitive to modern.

❖ The course also introduces typical art centers in Asia such as India, China and
Japan to help students have an overview of the world's fine arts, especially
outstanding artistic achievements.

❖ This course also provides some basic skills such as research methods, critical
thinking, and mind mapping in the study of art history. In addition, this subject requires
teamwork skills, oral presentation and paint skills in the process of assessment.
 3. Learning Outcomes (LO)

LO2: (Research Skills) -

LO1: (Basic Knowledge)
Understand the context of the LO3: (Critical Thinking) Analyze
Summarize the development
major styles and movements in and evaluate critically the
process of Art History; Identify
Art History, in relation to socio- meanings and descriptions of
and describe the major holdings
cultural, economic, political, works of art from different
related to fine art style and
religious..., talented and avant- periods of the past in Art History.
movement, avant-garde artists.
garde artists.

LO4: (Communication Skills):

Study optional cases in Art
History, organize and express the
individual thoughts clearly and
coherently both in orally
(presentations) and writing
(assignments/essays).
 LO6: Evaluate manual
LO5: Be aware of what is and/or digital art works,
aesthetics of visual art media and materials
and understand the stages appropriately to produce
of aesthetic awareness in creative ways solutions
art history for specific cultural and
technical contexts.

3. Learning
Outcomes (LO)
LO7: Having a
LO8: Students have a
professional style in arts
proficient in presentation
activity. Love to research
and teamworks.
in art history.
 4. Student's task

1. Class attendance is strongly

encouraged. Attend more than 80% 2. Actively participate in class 3. Fulfill tasks given by instructor
of class hours in order to be activities after class
accepted to the final examination

6. Access the course website (

http://cms.fpt.edu.vn) for up-to-
4. Use their own laptop in class only date information and material of
5. Read the textbook in advance
for learning purpose the course, for online supports from
teachers and other students and for
practicing and assessment.
 5. ASSIGNMENT
Assessment Component Weight Part Type of questions

Participation 10% 1 Practical exercises

Progress test 1 10% 1 Practical exercises
Progress test 2 10% 1 Practical exercises
01 Practice exercises after 10% 1 Essay
visiting 02 museums

Group Project 1 15% 1 Video/ Presentation/Art book

Group Project 2 15% 1 Video/ Presentation/ Art book

Final exam 30% 1 Multiple choice

 5. ASSIGNMENT
Assessment Component Weight Part Type of questions

Participation 10% 1 Practical exercises

Progress test 1 10% 1 Practical exercises
Progress test 2 10% 1 Practical exercises
01 Practice exercises after 10% 1 Essay
visiting 02 museums hcm Có thể làm clip/poster

Group Project 1 15% 1 Video/ Presentation/Art book

Group Project 2 15% 1 Video/ Presentation/ Art book

Final exam 30% 1 Multiple choice

 Main book:

1."Art - a visual history", Robert Cumming (2020), Publisher :

DK, London, England, U.K.
2. Lịch sử Mỹ thuật Việt Nam, Phạm Thị Chỉnh, 2013, in lần thứ
6. Learning 6.
Reference book:
Materials
1. "A History of Western art", Laurie Schneider Adams (5 edition
(October 15, 2010)), McGraw-Hill Education; USA;
2. Open textbook "Boundless Art History"
https://courses.lumenlearning.com/boundless-arthistory
3. Lịch sử Mỹ thuật Thế giới, Phạm Thị Chỉnh, 2012, in lần thứ 5.
 PART 1- WORLD HISTORY OF ART

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=oZOsR0TzbJ8
 HISTORY OF ART

1.1. Early Art

- 30000 BCE-1300 CE

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY.

QUESTIONS

• When did humans first start creating works of art?

• What is the earliest type of art produced by Stone Age Man?
• What is the earliest known work of art?
• What is the earliest sculpture ever made?
• How old are the earliest cave paintings?
• Where can I find a comprehensive timeline of Stone Age art?
• When was the first religious art created?
 1. Early Art
- 30000 BCE-1300 CE

The oldest known works of art discovered

in Europe are stone carvings, dating back
about 32,000 years across Europe and
Russia

+ Venus of Willendorf c. 30,000 BCE, limestone, height 4½ in /11.5 cm), Vienna:

Naturhistorisches Museum. The caving's swelling limbs and breasts invest it with a
strong sexual quality.
 1. Early Art - Cave painting

More spectacular by far are the cave

paintings of southwest France and northern
Spain. They were first discovered in 1879.
+Between about 25,000 and 12,000 years
ago, during the peak of the last Ice Age, an
astonishingly vigorous tradition of cave
painting developed in which acutely
observed and brilliantly depicted animals­
mammoths, bison, hyenas, and horses­were
painted onto cave walls.

The Lascaux Cave in France

 1. Early Art
- Cave painting

+ These were applied by sticks,

feathers, or moss, sometimes by
hand. In almost every case the most
spectacular images were created
deep inside the caves.
1. Early Art - Cave painting

Humanoid - 17000 DC - Lascaux Cave, France

+ There are almost no representations of humans: those that do appear, in contrast to
the immediately recognizable animals, are schematic and crude, more like a child's
attempt to draw a person.
Cities and civilizatio
5,000 years ago, the world's first
civilizations formed in the Near
East. At the same time, cities began
to appear. Driven by the need to
justify their gods or to assert their
dominion over their subjects, a
series of commissioned images of
rulers will emphasize status and
authority, force, their value
 Cities
and civilizatio
+ The earliest of these
civilizations was Sumer, in
what is now Iraq. Remnants of
ceramic shards, a few frayed
marble statues - suggest that
this was a society with a well-
developed sense of the power
of visual imagery.

Major Sumerian city-states included Eridu, Ur, Nippur,

Lagash and Kish, but one of the oldest and most sprawling
was Uruk.A picture shows the archaeological site of Uruk (Warka)
 Cities and civilizatio

More remarkable, however, is

the product of Sumer's successors, the
Akkadians, who from around 2300 BC
united much of Mesopotamia in a
single empire.

2300 BC 2300 and 2200 BC

The bronze head of an Akkadian ruler,

minted between 2300 and 2200 BC, is
not only a technical victory but the
defining image of a ruler with
hierarchy: remote and magnificent.

Akkadian Ruler- C. 2300 BCE, height 14 in /36 cm/, bronze, Baghdad: Iraq
Museum.This head, tentatively identified as Sargon I, would originally have had
jewels placed in its eye-sockets.
 2. ANCIENT EGYPT
C. 3000-300 BCE

Ancient Egyptian art reflected the rigidly

hierarchical society from which it
developed. It placed a premium on lavish
materials and epic scale and, above all, it
echoed ancient Egypt's obsession with
death and the afterlife. Once established,
its forms hardly changed for almost
3,000 years.
QUESTION
•What is the difference between ancient and medieval art?
•What's so special about Egyptian art?
• Why did the Egyptians build pyramids?
• What is Etruscan art best known for?
• Why is Greek art so important?
• Why have so few Greek sculptures survived intact?
• What are the main styles of Greek pottery?
• What is Roman art best known for?
2. ANCIENT EGYPT
C. 3000-300 BCE
+ Writing in the 4th century BCE,
Plato claimed there had been no
change in Egyptian art for
10,000 years. If his chronology
was faulty, he nonetheless
touched on a central truth: that
the art of ancient Egypt has a
near-unique continuity.
Bird-scarab pectoral from Tutankhamun's tomb C. 1352
BCE, gold, semiprecious stones, and glass paste, Cairo:
Egyptian National Museum.
2. ANCIENT EGYPT
C. 3000-300 BCE

+ Egyptian art was almost entirely

symbolic, intended to convey precise
meanings

Palette of Harmer
C. 3000 BCE, schist carved in low relief, Cairo:
Egyptian National Museum.
1.2. ANCIENT EGYPT
C. 3000-300 BCE
The sizes of the figures denote
status: the larger the figure, the
greater its importance nakedness
also indicated inferiority!. Though
the figures stand on a common
ground, there is no attempt to
represent the space they occupy
naturalistically.
2. ANCIENT EGYPT - C. 3000-300 BCE

National Museum.
Ol Weighing of the Heart against the Feather of Truth C. 1250 BCE, painted papyrus, London: British
Museum. This scene is found in every Book of the Dead.
+ Because its rulers were considered gods, their "eternal well being" was dependent on preserving their mortal
remains with as much splendor as possible. Hence the deliberate grandeur of the pyramids and, later, the vast
tombs at Thebes. Complex and absolute rules governed how the pharaohs should be represented in art.

Hierarchy and symbolism

The four giant seated statues of Ramses II guarding the entrance to his
temple at Abu Simbel express this formal monumentality just as the gold
head of Tutenkhamun underlines the premium placed on precious metals
and craftsmanship.
 2. ANCIENT EGYPT - C. 3000-300 BCE

+ In the tomb of Akhenaten·s

chief minister, Ramose, is a
relief of the brother of Ramose
and his wife carved not just
with extraordinary delicacy and
skill but also with a hint, if
nothing more, of genuine
humanity.
Relieffrom tomb of Ramose c. 1350 BCE, limestone, Thebes.
Originally, when painted, its impact would have been still more
remarkable.
2. ANCIENT + More typical of the Egyptian attitude to art are
the many surviving examples of the parchment
EGYPT - C. 3000- known as the Book of the Dead. This was a book
of spells, placed in a tomb to guide the dead

300 BCE through the afterworld.

 +Between about 2000 and 1150 BCE,
two distinctive though related early
3. THE EARLY Greek civilizations were established
AEGEAN by the Minoans on the island of Crete
and, perhaps 400 years later, by the
WORLD Mycenaeans on the Greek mainland.
The beginning of the first millennium,
C. 2000-500 BCE a new, fully Greek culture was
emerging.
 3. THE EARLY AEGEAN WORLD
C. 2000-500 BCE
+ Both Minoan Crete and Mycenae were
stratified, literate societies, presided over
by elites.
+ That Minoan Crete was a society with a
taste for luxury and a highly developed
visual sense is clear from the decoration of
its palaces and villas. Frescoes of ships,
landscapes, animals, and cavorting
dolphins convey an expressive delight in
the natural world. The best-known are
Bull-leaping fresco c. 1500 BCE, Athens: National Archaeological
those of youths and girls bull-leaping. Museum. One of the prize discoveries when the palace of Knossos
labovel was excavated in the early 1900s.
3. THE EARLY AEGEAN WORLD
C. 2000-500 BCE
Mycenaean culture
+ The heavily fortified remains at Mycenae
itself underline just how much this was a
society presided over by an aggressive
warrior elite. There world was not just
materially rich but capable of great
technical sophistication. With the
collapse of these first Aegean
civilizations, Greek culture effectively
disappeared for over 400 years. Almost
nothing is known of this "Dark Age.""
The remarkable gold death mask of a Mycenaean ruler.
3. THE EARLY AEGEAN WORLD
C. 2000-500 BCE

Around 800 BCE, a new Greek

world was emerging. Although
politically fragmented, it came to
enjoy an exceptionally strong
sense not just of its identity but
also of its intellectual superiority.
 3. THE EARLY AEGEAN WORLD
C. 2000-500 BCE
+ In the visual arts, there were two key developments:
a trend toward an idealized naturalism and the
adoption of the male nude as its chief subject.
+ Though formalized-all face rigidly forward, with
hands clenched and one foot in front of the other
(evidence of Egyptian influences)-they demonstrate
a new interest in naturally rendered anatomical
detail.

El Kouros c. 540 BCE, marble.

 4. CLASSICAL GREECE C. 500-300 BCE

Between the 5th century and 197 BCE, when it

was absorbed by Rome.
Fifth-century BCE Athens saw an astonishingly
fertile burst of artistic creation, establishing
an artistic canon for the Roman and Europe
Only a handful of fragments of Greek paintings
have survived; many Greek sculptures are
known only from Roman copies or written
descriptions; and what architecture still exists
is extensively ruined. But enough remains to
make clear the extraordinary artistic impact
Centaur Triumphing over a lapith 447-432 BCE, marble, London:
of Classical Greece. British Museum. The relief (right) was part of the frieze on the south side of the
Parthenon (above). It was removed by Lord Elgin in the early 1800s.
4. CLASSICAL GREECE C. 500-300 BCE

+ The Parthenon, begun in 447

BCE, is an emphatic statement
of the lucid priorities that
drove the Classical Greek
world. Originally, brilliantly
painted and embellished with
statuary, its impact would have
been more remarkable still.
 4. CLASSICAL
GREECE C. 500-300
BCE
The Parthenon's sculptures fall into three groups.:
- On the triangular pediments at either end of the building
were large-scale free-standing groups Greek sculpture
containing numerous figures showing the birth of Athena
and her struggles with Poseidon;
- Below these as well as along both sides were nearly 100
individual reliefs of struggling figures
- Behind the outer colonnade and running around the entire
building was a relief, 525 ft 1160 ml long, depicting the
Great Panathenaia, a religious festival held every four years
in honor of Athena.​

An artist's rendition of the Statue Of The Goddess Athena https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-greece/

that once existed in the Parthenon. parthenon
4. CLASSICAL GREECE C.
500-300 BCE

+ Statue of Zeus at OLympia.

Illustration from World's
Wonders (Associated
Newspapers, c 1930).
4. CLASSICAL
GREECE C. 500-300 BCE

Boy from Antikythera C. 340 BCE, height 76 in

(194 cm}, bronze, Athens: National
Archaeological Museum
 + Greek painting suggest it, too, reached
comparable levels of technical achievement.

Greek painting + Perspective, foreshortening, and the naturalistic

representation of figures all seem to have been
mastered in ways that would not reappear until
Renaissance Italy.

The Villa of P Fannius Synistor

CLASSICAL GREECE
C. 500-300 BCE

+ Greek vases reinforce the

point. Although painted on
curved and small-scale
surfaces, their decoration
contains complex and
ambitious groups of figures in
settings that have a real sense
of space and depth.
 +In 336 BCE, Alexander the Great began his blaze of conquest
5. HELLENISTIC GREEK across the Middle East and Egypt. His empire fragmented after his
death, but the cultural impact of Greece on these vast territories
ART - 300-1 BCE proved enduring. The progress of
"Hellenization" was encouraged by the Romans, who, by the 1st
century BCE, had exported Greek artistic traditions across the
whole Mediterranean.
The Battle of lssus (detail), 1st century BCE, mosaic, Naples: fvluseo Archeologico Nazionale. This
mo$aic from ,. Pompeii;is a Roman copy of a, Greek original. The young Alexander (left! defeats Persian
King □ar)l,Js !center!.
5. HELLENISTIC
GREEK ART - 300-1
BCE
+ Hellenistic art continues as a clear line of development
from the Classical period, with naturalism, a sense of
movement and drama.

Laocoon Hagesandrus, Polydorus, and Athendorus, c. 42-20

BCE, marble, Rome: Vatican Museums.
5. HELLENISTIC
GREEK ART - 300-1 BCE
- A new trend in sculpture

The Altar of Zeus at Pergamum, perhaps the

most famous work from the entire period,
embodies another key characteristic: scale.
The base of the platform on which the altar
stands contains a frieze 7½ ft (2.3 ml high and
fully 295 ft [90 ml long. On the upper level is
a second frieze 5 ft [1.5 ml high and 240 ft [73
ml long

Alexander Sarcophagus, a sumptuous marble tomb

carved in 310 BCE for the ruler of Sidon
 + Rome developed only a limited artistic language
of its own. Roman architecture, like Roman
6. IMPERIAL ROME engineering, was never less than bold, but Roman
painting and sculpture were derived largely from
C.27 BCE-C. 300 CE Greek models. However potently Rome projected
images of its political power, the visual means it
used to do so were secondhand.
 6. IMPERIAL ROME C.27 BCE-C. 300 CE
+ Roman art was mainly imitative and
pragmatic and influenced by Greek art.
+ Greek sculptures were not just copied
by the Romans, they were actively
recycled. Greek poses recast in Roman
garb were pressed into service to
reinforce Roman power.

The 1st-century CE Medici Venus

 6. IMPERIAL ROME
C.27 BCE-C. 300 CE

+ Equestrian statue of Emperor Marcus

Aurelius c. 175 CE, height 138 in
/350 cm}, gilded bronze, Rome:
Musei Capitolini.
6. IMPERIAL ROME C.27 BCE-C. 300 CE

+ The Ara Pacis Augustae (Altar of Augustan

Peace) showed to stress the continuity
between the rule of the Emperor Augustus and
the earlier Roman Republic, is obviously
dependent on Greek models, above all in its
use of a continuous large-scale frieze of
figures.

Ara Pacis 13-9 BCE, marble, Rome. The frieze shows

members .of Augustus's family and state officials. The
man in the detail lteftl is Marcus Agrippa, the
emperor's son-in-law.
 6. IMPERIAL ROME C.27 BCE-C. 300 CE

+ The paintings at Pompeii were

decorative murals for expensive villas.
Landscapes and seascapes augmented
by complex architectural settings
using sophisticated illusionistic
devices seem to have been the
preferred subjects.

Nile in Flood /detail/. c. 80 BCE, mosaic, Palestrina: Museo

Archeologico Prenestino. The Romans followed Greek models
to produce magnificent floor mosaics.
 7. LATE ROMAN AND
EARLY CHRISTIAN ART
C. 300-450 CE
QUESTIONS
What is Celtic art?
• What are "Celtic Designs"?
• What works of Christian art were produced during the Medieval
period?
• What art did the Vikings produce?
• When was the era of Byzantine art?
• What is Carolingian Art?
7. LATE ROMAN AND EARLY CHRISTIAN ART
C. 300-450 CE
+ As Rome's empire was eroded, Roman art
increasingly departed from the naturalistic
ideals it had inherited from the Greeks. In
turn, these vigorous but less sophisticated
artistic models were adapted by the early
Christian Church in the search for a visual
language appropriate to its theological
needs.

The Arch of Trajan in Roma

7. LATE ROMAN AND EARLY CHRISTIAN ART
C. 300-450 CE
+ The Arch of Constantine in Rome,
built by the Emperorn Constantine
early in the 4th century, neatly
encapsulates the move away from
the rationalism of Greece. As well
as reliefs carved in the reign of
Constantine himself, the arch
incorporates a series of sculptured
reliefs from earlier periods.
The Arch of Constantine
in Rome
7. LATE ROMAN AND +The Arch of Constantine in Rome: The early
EARLY CHRISTIAN ART reliefs are all carved in the fully naturalistic
tradition inherited from Greece.
C. 300-450 CE
7. LATE ROMAN AND EARLY CHRISTIAN ART
C. 300-450 CE

+ Roundel from the Arch of Constantine

+ This medallion, which shows a
sacrifice being made to Apollo, dates
from the reign of Hadrian (117-138
CE). It was taken by Constantine from
an earlier monument to decorate his
triumphal arch in Rome, erected c. 315
CE
 +Radical change
7. LATE ROMAN AND
EARLY CHRISTIAN + Constantine legalized of Christianity in 313 CE. He used
the Church as a central point around which the
ART empire could regroup. The basic form of churches
themselves came from secular Roman buildings known
C. 300-450 CE as basilicas, large oblong halls, often arcaded with aisles
and an apse at the far end.
 7. LATE ROMAN AND EARLY CHRISTIAN ART
C. 300-450 CE
Christianity and art

There was a long-running

controversy as to whether God the
Father could be represented or
whether this would constitute
idolas stry. Then he was shown:
young, oldi stern, benign, even
bearded or beardless.
Holy Women at the Tomb of Christ ​c.400 CE, ivory, Milan: Castello Sforzesco. ​Mary,
the mother of Jesus, and Mary Magdalene worship ​the risen Christ, who is portrayed
as a young, beardless man in ​Roman dress.​
8. BYZANTINE
ART c.500-1200

This Photo by Unknown author is licensed under CC BY-SA.

 8. BYZANTINE ART
c.500-1200
+ The Byzantine Empire in the East
evolved a new and elaborate visual
language dominated by complex
religious imagery. It marked a near
absolute break with the Classical Greek
inheritance that had driven earlier
Roman art.

Mosaic of Justinianus I from the Basilica San Vitale

Author: Petar Milosevic
8. BYZANTINE ART
c.500-1200
+ The most important subject of Byzantine art was
Christianity. As the teachings of the Church were
codified, precise rules came to govern how they
could be depicted. Gestures and even colors came
to acquire precise and unvariable meanings.

The Virgin and Child Mosaic, Hagia Sophia

 BYZANTINE ART c.500-1200

The Ravenna
Mosaics

The earliest examples of Byzantine art are the glittering, near otherworldly mosaics in the Church of San
Vitale in Ravenna in Italy. They are a supreme example of the new sensibilities of the Byzantine world.
 + The Hagia Sophia in Constantinople had mosaics

8. BYZANTINE ART and vast, shadowy recesses evoke an astonishing

sense of the grandeur and mystery at the heart of
imperial Byzantium. The later formality of the
c.500-1200 Byzantine tradition belies how inventive it
originally was.
8. BYZANTINE ART
c.500-1200

+ The mosaic figure of Christ

Pantocrator, "Christ the ruler of
alt," staring down from the dome
of the monastery church of
Daphni in Greece, is an
extremely potent image of an
implacable God.
Christ Pantocrator late 11th century, mosaic, Daphni /Greece/: monastery
church. The figure of "Christ the ruler of alt:· his left hand holding the Bible, his
right hand raised in blessing, remains a ubiquitous icon of the Orthodox Church.
8. BYZANTINE ART - c.500-1200
+ It was in Byzantium, too, that the
Virgin Mary was developed as one
of the key icons of Christian art. In
part this was a matter of doctrine.
Yet once established in the th
century that it was precisely her
virgifll, who was "the Mother of
God"-a central figure of Byzantine,
and later of Western, Christian art.
8. BYZANTINE ART - c.500-1200

Far-reaching influence
An image such as the 6th-century panel painting of
the Virgin and Child from the Monastery of St.
Catherine in the Sinai Peninsula, Egypt, hightlights
further, central fact of Byzantine art: that religious
"icons" (literally "images") were increasingly
valued as aids to contemplation.

Madonna and Child 12th century, mosaic in vault of apse /detail/, Trieste:
Cathedral of St. Just. The Byzantine tradition that Mary should be depicted
wearing a blue robe was carried over into Western art.
9. CELTIC, SAXON,
AND VIKING ART
c.600-900
9. CELTIC, + Northern Europe after the collapse of the Roman
Empire has traditionally been seen as entering a

SAXON, AND "dark age" lost in impenetrable obscurity:

marginal, shadowy, and violent. Yet drawing on
earlier Celtic traditions and increasingly
VIKING becoming part of the Christian world, it produced
exceptionally vivid and sophisticated works of
ART c.600-900 art.

The Baptism of Christ from the Benedictional

of Saint Æthelwold, 970s.
9. CELTIC, SAXON, AND VIKING ART
c.600-900
+ \Belt buckle from Sutton Hoo
early 7th century, gold. London:
British Museum. Inlaid with
garnets and colored glass, the
piece shows clear affinities with
the intricately intertwined
patterns of Celtic jewellery and
illuminated manuscripts. Belt buckle from Sutton Hoo early 7th century, gold.
London: British Museum. Inlaid with garnets and
colored glass, the piece shows clear affinities with the
intricately intertwined patterns of Celtic jewellery and
illuminated manuscripts.
9. CELTIC, SAXON, AND VIKING ART
c.600-900
The Vikings
+ By contrast, the Viking world as it emerged
over the next 200 years was at first
genuinely beyond Rome·s reach.
Nonetheless, drawing on the same Celtic
roots that are obvious at Sutton Hoo, it, too,
produced works of art of a remarkable and
immediately recognizable potency. The 9th-
century carved dragon ship·s figurehead,
found in a burial mound at Oseberg in
Norway, is evidence of a warrior society
capable of exceptional craftsmanship.
Viking ship's figurehead c. 825, height 5 in (12.7 cm/, wood, Oslo: Universitetets
Oldsaksamling. This intricately carved dragon·s head was among the funerary goods found
in a burial mound excavated in 1904.
9. CELTIC, SAXON, AND VIKING ART
c.600-900
The Book of Kells
+ The Book of Kells, produced at Iona in about 800
and taken to Ireland for safekeeping when the
Viking raids began, is the most famous product of
the fusion of Celtic art and Christian subject
matter. It is a book of verses, interspersed with
extracts from the Gospels.

Book of Kells c. BOO, 13 x 1 O in /33 x 25 cm], mk on vellum, Dublin:

Trinity College Library. Among its innovations was the use of richly
decorated and elaborate capital letters at the start of each passage.
 10. MEDIEVAL ART OF
NORTHERN EUROPE
C. 800-1000

+ By the 8th century, the Frankish Empire had

become the most successful of the new states
formed after the collapse of Rome. It reached its
largest extent under Charlemagne in the early 9th
century, when it covered France, Germany, the Low
Countries, and most of Italy. Charlemagne also
sparked a cultural revival that decisively influenced
the development of later medieval art.

Pope Leo III crowning Charlemagne emperor, December 25, 800.

 + In the 10th century, Saxony, conquered and
10. MEDIEVAL ART forcibly Christianized by Charlemagne
OF NORTHERN EUROPE after a savage 30-year campaign, had
become a major center of early medieval
C. 800-1000 art and religious teaching.
 10. MEDIEVAL ART OF NORTHERN EUROPE
C. 800-1000
Cultural renewal
+ Charlemagne's promotion of Latin not only
helped preserve Roman texts that might
otherwise have been lost, ,it established a
common language among Europe's elites and
strengthened the authority of the Roman Church.
+ An example of the artistic outpouring generated
by the Carolingian renovatio (renewal) is a Gospel
book produced at Aachen, Charlemagne's capital. The
Ell St. Mark from the Saint-Riquier Gospel c. 800, purple image of St.
vellum, Abbeville: Bib/iotheque Municipale. The strange-
looking creature framed by the arch is the winged lion, symbol
ol St. Mark the Evangelist.
10. MEDIEVAL ART OF NORTHERN EUROPE
C. 800-1000
+ In the 6th century, Pope Gregory I had
affirmed the didactic purpose of
religious imagery: "What scripture is
to the educated, images are to the
ignorant." Under Charlemagne,
narrative images of this kind became a
fixed part of the Western tradition.

Book cover 8th century, silver gilt and ivory, Cividale de/ Friuli:
Museo Archeologico. The carving of the Crucifixion shows Longin us
thrusting his spear into the dead Christ's side.
10. MEDIEVAL ART OF NORTHERN EUROPE
C. 800-1000

+ This depiction of the Crucifixion is an early example,

its provenance hard to unravel, of what would become
almost the single most important Christian image in
medieval Europe: Christ not just on the cross but
clearly human, suffering unbearable agonies.

Cross of Gero c. 970, height 73 ¼ in {187 cm},

oak, Cologne Cathedral. Unlike Byzantine art,
western European religious art stresses the
suffering of Christ.
11. ROMANESQUE AND EARLY
GOTHIC ART
- C.1000-1300
 11. ROMANESQUE AND EARLY GOTHIC ART
- C. 1000-1300
+ Despite external threats, whether
Viking, Magyar, or Muslim, by about
1000 the Christian states of Europe
had begun a slow process of
recovery. At the heart of their
regeneration was the Church, the only
pan-European body in Christendom.
Early medieval art, increasingly
lavish, in architecture above all, was
almost exclusively religious.
Nave of Pisa Cathedral 7094. Pisa was one of the powerful
maritime republics of medieval Italy. Wealth from trade
funded the city's beautiful Romanesque cathedral
 11. ROMANESQUE AND
EARLY GOTHIC ART
- C.1000-1300
Romanesque architecture
+ A new architectural language, the
Romanesque, came into being. As a
reflection of the new power of the Church,
these were buildings that were deliberately
magnificent and, in many cases, much
larger than anything yet seen in Europe

The cathedral of Santiago de

Compostela, built around 1120
 11. ROMANESQUE AND EARLY
GOTHIC ART - C.1000-1300
+ At much the same time, in
France, a new manner of
sculptural decoration was
created. At Autun Cathedral, for
example, the tympanum (the
area immediately above the
main entrance) is crowded with
figures dominated by Christ in
the center.
Last Judgment Tympanum, Cathedral of St. Lazare,
Autun. Central Portal on West facade of the Cathedral of
St. Lazare, Autun, c. 1130-46
11. ROMANESQUE AND EARLY GOTHIC ART
- C.1000-1300

Romanesque capital c. 1135. The pilgrimage

church of Ste. Madeleine in Vezelay in the
Burgundy region of France has many fine examples
of Romanesque carving.
 11. ROMANESQUE AND
EARLY GOTHIC ART
- C.1000-1300
The Gothic
+ Gothic art was more than just an extension of the
Romanesque to celebrate the central place of the
Church in European society. The early Gothic
cathedrals, with their soaring verticals reaching up to
pointed arches, were triumphant assertions of a new
sensibility that equated massive building projects
with personal piety.

“Saint Denis (rebuilt in c. 1135-1144) - Abbot Suger Gothic, Paris,

France ”. St. Denis has a unity, the whole lit by what Suger memorably
called "the liquid light of heaven,"
 11. ROMANESQUE AND
EARLY GOTHIC ART
- C.1000-1300

It was a style that reached maturity at

Chartres, begun in 1194, and climaxed at
Amiens, begun in 1220, and the Sainte-
Chapelle in Paris (1243-48), where the
floor-to-ceiling stained-glass windows are
both a technical our de force and an
exultant celebration of a new monarchy
certain of its own power.
Sainte-Chapelle is a Gothic chapel in Paris, France
 11. ROMANESQUE AND
EARLY GOTHIC ART -
C. 1000-1300

+ Rose window c. 1224, stained glass, south

wall of Chartres Cathedral.
 11. ROMANESQUE AND
EARLY GOTHIC ART
- C. 1000-1300
+ The self-confidence of this world found other
outlets. The mid-12th-century illustration of St.
John from the Gospel of Liessies, for example,
probably painted by an English illustrator in the
Low Countries, projects a similar certainty of its
own worth: stylized, lavish, and elegant. It is a
compelling example of the self-belief that
underpinned the art of medieval Europe.

The illustration of St. John from the Gospel of Liessies

 11. ROMANESQUE AND
EARLY GOTHIC ART
- C. 1000-1300

+ Gothic carvings, Chartres Cathedral These

Old Testament figures, flanking the central
door of the west fa􀀧ade, date from the late
12th century.