Transcript Medieval Art - Exeter Township School District

Medieval Art
Cultural Analysis Through the Eyes of the Artist
Analyzing Art: Crash Course
When you look at a piece of art to analyze for cultural significance, you can
focus on the following aspects to keep your analysis from being too vague:
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specifics: the artist, the title, when it was created, which medium, etc.
colors: artist’s purpose, placement, symbolic or historical significance
foreground/background: the details, the setting, the historical context
people: facial expressions, gestures, body language, clothing, action
symbols: technique, placement, meaning behind them
Canterbury pilgrim badge
(The British Museum)
(British Library)
The Three Estates
(The British Museum)
Anchoress
Greek: anachoretes or “one who lives apart”
From the Ancrene Wisse manuscript
(Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, England)
Monks
(Cliché Bibliotheque Nationale de France Paris)
Martyrdom
of
Thomas a Becket
Found in a 13th-century English psalter
(The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD)
A knight
From an illuminated manuscript
(The Warder Collection)
Woodcut of the knight from
The Canterbury Tales
(Richard Rynson, London)
A peasant reaping
From The Luttrell Psalter
(The British Library)
Henry I’s nightmare of the
three estates rising in
rebellion against him
From the Chronicle of John Worcester
Late 12th century
(Corpus Christi College, Oxford, England)
Medieval bankers
(The British Library)
Vox Clamantis
(Latin: “The Voice of One Crying”)
“I throw my darts and shoot my arrows at
the world. But where there is a righteous
man, no arrow strikes. But I wound those
who live wickedly. Therefore let him who
recognizes himself there look to himself.”
From the Complete Works of John Gower
(MLS Cotton Tiberius)
Medieval village
(The Warder Collection)
Source
"Illustrations - WW Norton & Company." 2006. 15 Oct. 2013
<http://www.wwnorton.com/college/english/nael/middleages/topic_1
/illustrations.htm>