Middle Ages

North Transept Rose Window, c. 1235, Chartres Cathedral, France, photo: Dr. Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0—video here

 

 

For this week’s first blog post, I decided to go in depth of the North Transept Rose Window in the Chartres Cathedral. To start off, this window just shows us that the dark ages weren’t as dark as we thought. The dark ages are thought to be a period of time where there is just so much violence and darkness which isn’t entirely true. During this time there was a lot of knowledge and development being taken place. During this time Christianity was really striving in Europe. Christianity and Catholicism brought new views and reasonings to life which caused them to begin rejecting the traditions and learning of the ancient world. Also, during this specific time period, the Roman Empire was slowly breaking down into smaller “political entities.” What is really interesting, is that the current geographical boarders for European countries today were the same ones that were established during the middle ages. This was also a time of the rise and construction of many universities which brought a long “the establishment of the rule of law, numerous periods of ecclesiastical reform and the birth of the tourism industry” According to smart history. 

 

The art during the Dark Ages (Middle Ages) was of such to not be forgotten. These artists knew exactly how to create aesthetic values through their creations. They truly knew how to meet the visual appeal to the human eye. Most of the artists worked for the wealthy and the highly influenced members of society. These individuals would hire artists to construct cathedrals, churches, sculpture, painting, textiles, manuscripts, jewelry and ritual items. What really grabs my attention, is the fact the majority of these pieces pertained to religious values and beliefs. The other pieces of art were classified as secular art. Secular art is art that has no religious reference points and is, in fact, oblivious to organized religion. This is quite interesting because religion played such a role during this time that there were still people who didn’t want to be tied into all the religious stuff. Although a lot of the artists names have been lost there are few on record, and there is even less documentation regarding the business deals. Overall these artists weren’t as dark as we are made to believe, in fact, they have left a phenomenal legacy and culture of art for us to explore.

 

Dr. Nancy Ross, "Introduction to the Middle Ages," in Smarthistory, August 8, 2015, accessed September 30, 2020, https://smarthistory.org/introduction-to-the-middle-ages/.

 

Smart History Link: https://smarthistory.org/introduction-to-the-middle-ages/