Posted on 06/19/2009 9:06:13 AM PDT by Steelfish
Those Medieval Monks Could Draw
By ROBERTA SMITH June 18, 2009
When you think of medieval art, drawing may not spring instantly to mind.
Medieval ivories and enamels? Definitely. Medieval sculpture, metalwork and stained glass? Sure.
Of course medieval artists — many of whom were anonymous monks working as scribes in scriptoria — drew. All those manuscript illuminations had to start somewhere. But did they actually make drawings that survived and were cherished as drawings, or that filled practical needs that only drawing can?
To most of us, European drawing before the Renaissance and its emphasis on individual genius and the artist’s hand is a dark, uncharted void. Which may explain why “Pen and Parchment: Drawing in the Middle Ages” at the Metropolitan Museum of Art feels so startlingly full of light. You may even find yourself rubbing your eyes and blinking.
The 50 little-seen works on view span nearly five centuries and reveal medieval drawing to be vital, evolving, remarkably diverse and essential to the medium’s Renaissance blossoming. The medieval period is often compared with its successor and found lacking.
And the superficial clumsiness in some of these works may initially ratchet up your awe for the Renaissance and for the radical changes wrought by its embrace of antiquity and its obsession with the human body and linear perspective
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It’s sad to note that so much of ancient Greek and Roman knowledge, particularly in engineering, was lost during the Medieval period. The loss of the Great Library at Alexandria (Egypt) probably didn’t help.
Much was “lost”, yes, but much was preserved.
Good reference:
“How the Irish Saved Civilization” by Thomas Cahill
In light of that book, and others, the so-called ‘dark ages” is a misnomer.
That term “Medieval” gets used too loosely for my taste. Greek and Roman knowledge was lost during the ‘Dark Ages’ or Early Middle Ages, which ended in 700AD. The Great Library at Alexandria was destroyed no later than this date.
The distinction is important because in the true Medieval Period (1000 to 1300) Europeans built the great Cathedrals, using techniques the Romans never knew.
Generally corresponding with the Medieval Warm Period.
Global Warming is your friend.
Well said! The Eurpoeans at that time were indeed the beneficiaries of (natural) Global Warming. Their diet was excellent and they grew as tall as modern men. (I have seen a paper on bone measurements from the time)
...and what was happening during the ‘Dark Ages’?
The term is a pejorative and quite subjective. The collapse of Rome was a good thing for many peoples.
Was recently at Trinity College, Dublin and saw the Book of Kells Display. Awesome!!!
Beautiful. Were you there studying or vacationing or neither?
FYI, Sir!
Very nice! Thanks
I meant to ping Joe 6-pack ...yes. I did.
Excellent! Thank you!
Many of the mechanical devices, or drawings thereof, designed during the Greek and Roman empires were not known in the Middle Ages.
Had the people of the Early Middle Ages had Roman water supply (aqueducts) and sanitation design, much disease may have been prevented.
As far as civil engineering, concrete formulas were either not known or weakened with inferior materials during the Middle Ages. The structural properties of the Pantheon from the Roman period made it one of my favorites even though I have personally visited the Gothic cathedrals in Amiens, Chartres, Le Mans, Rheims, and Paris. It’s an impressive dome when you consider how many years it came before Brunelleschi’s design for the Duomo in Florence.
Gothic cathedrals were an improvement upon Romanesque designs, their main achievement was the flying buttress, at first incorporated in a trial and error basis. The flying buttress (Le Mans has really big ones) allowed greater height and window size.
The "Dark Ages" were just in Western Europe. The Eastern Roman Empire, based in Constantinople, kept going, and preserved much of Greek and Roman knowledge. It was just unavailable to Western Europe for much of this time due to Islamic piracy making sea commerce difficult.
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So many people forget the thousand year run of the Byzantine world. I find it fascinating.
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