On the next available page in your notebook, please copy down and answer the following question… In one word describe what you think Europe was like after.

On the next available page in your notebook, please copy down and answer the following question…

In one word describe what you think Europe was like after the fall of the Roman Empire? Explain your answer.

What is this

type of artwork known

as?

An illustrated

manuscript

Like many modern artists, medieval painters were more interested in exploring the meaning of their subject than in painting naturalistic images.

In this illuminated manuscript, the prime purpose of the artwork is to decorate; its secondary purpose is to illustrate the text. In the illustration, the figures are flat, and are pictured against a generalized background.

What is this

type of artwork known

as?

Stained Glass

Why were stained glass windows a popular art from from this period?

What is this

type of artwork known

as?

Tapestry

Why was a tapestry like a history book?

The Bayeux Tapestry is over 230 feet long and although it is called a tapestry it is in fact an embroidery, stitched not woven in woollen yarns on linen.

The Bayeux Tapestry was probably commissioned in the 1070’s by Bishop Odo of Bayeux, half-brother of William the Conqueror.

The Bayeux Tapestry tells the story of the Norman conquest of England.

How are these two paintings different?

Medieval European paintings were flat and lacked perspective.

The topics of these paintings were typically religious in nature.

Medieval paintings told stories and served as modern day history books.

What type of structur

e is this?

A cathedral

Between the 12th and 13th centuries the people of Europe built massive structures, cathedrals, to inspire Christians and bring them closer to their god.

These structures often rose higher than a modern 30-story building and for centuries were the tallest buildings in European cities.

A cathedral served both as a place of worship and the headquarters of a bishop.

Typically, cathedrals were built in the shape of a cross following the gothic style of architecture.

[Nave]

To construct these immense structures required the work of entire communities and a typical cathedral took fifty years to complete. When the money ran out, construction ceased, and if no additional money could be raised the cathedral would remain incomplete.

Gothic architecture was characterized by pointed arches, ribbed vaults or ceilings, and flying buttresses.

Flying Buttresses

Vaulted ceilings and pointed arches.

Gargoyles carry away excess water from the building’s walls via pipes running through their mouths; grotesques deflect rainwater by bouncing it off the top of their heads, noses or other projecting parts, and away from the stone walls.

Darth Vader is one of the numerous carved grotesques on the Cathedral.

In the 1980s the Cathedral, with National Geographic World magazine, sponsored a competition for children to design decorative sculpture for the Cathedral. The third-place winner was Christopher Rader of Kearney, Nebraska who submitted a drawing of this futuristic representation of evil. Darth Vader was placed on the northwest tower with the other winning designs

How does medieval

European art support the claim

that western Europeans were

greatly influenced by religion?