Exploring Medieval Art: Creativity, Expression, and Social Hierarchy

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Recommended: Essays on medieval art

Caleb Marzette
Mrs Childers
Art 1
2/21/17
Art is a creative way of expressing/applying skill and imagination; All throughout the years, many have expressed their ideas through the many branches of this creativity. Medieval art covered a vast scope of time and place; over 1000 years of art in Europe, and at times, the Middles East and North Africa. Medieval art included major art movements and artists ranked humans in order of social importance based on religious ideology. Initially, early Medieval Art was restricted to the production of Pietistic painting in churches. Artwork, at the time, mainly consisted of architecture, precious metals, oil portraits, ivory/wood carvings, pottery, and more. In addition, there were many types of medieval art that spanned across this 1000 year period. Anglo Saxon Art, Byzantine Art, Carolingian Art, Gothic Art, early Christian Art, and many others were all types of art that proposed during this era. Medieval artwork demonstrated hierarchy by drawing humans sized according to social status rather than true proportions. They considered nature and landscapes trivial, as people of the time …show more content…

The term, High Renaissance, was coined due to this period of remarkable artistic production; mainly in the Italian states. This era focused on secularism where artists drew humans fixed to natural landscapes, demonstrating a shift in focus to the real and natural world rather than divine objects drawing attention to feeling and emotion, and adding a more realistic feel. Renaissance works differed from Medieval Art, also, in that proportion of humans was emphasized to show the importance of realism over illusion. Paintings, of this time, were more personal and reveled in the mystery and beauty of nature and people. More lights and darks (colors) were used and perspective was used a lot more during this time as well for a realistic

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