Medieval Painting

The medieval period extended over a very long time in history....approximately 1000 years. Medieval painting, therefore, encompasses many styles and types, with medieval painting considered to pertain to paintings created roughly between the year 200 to the 11th and 12th centuries.

Medieval painting is generally consideed to include these periods: Early Christian, from around 200 to 500 AD; Celtic, pre-Romanesque, Romanesque, Gothic, Byzantine and Islamic. There were also fine paintings being produced in East Asia during the period of medieval painting in Europe, including paintings on panels and silk relating to the Emperor's court or religious themes.

Medieval painting most frequently had religious themes. Medieval painting was often done on walls or panels, including the interiors of churches. During the Byzantine period of medieval painting there was particular emphasis on developing religious themes on panels and on illuminated documents.

Medieval painting included the art of elaborately embellishing pages of what were called a Book of Hours, which was a diarylike description of the activities of an individual. This type of medieval painting was popular among the wealthy and important personages.

During the Romanesque period, panel painting was an important part of medieval painting.
During this period in Europe, Cimabu and Giotto, his pupil, emerged as the greatest and most important artists creating medieval painting. Much work was done on walls and panels. During this period Giotto emerged as a free and innovative creator of medieval
paintings.

It was natural that during the first centuries of Christianity, much art would have religious themes, as is the case in medieval painting. It is also logical that much medieval painting would be done on the walls and interior panels of churches. A lot of such medieval painting has been lost, but enough remains to give a good picture of the style and feeling of such medieval painting.

Much attention was given to icons and religious figures during the medieval period, and medieval painting included the embellishment of three dimensional figures and objects. Important developments in architecture occurred during the period of medieval painting as well, but we will not elaborate on that theme as this article is devoted to developments in medieval painting. As the medieval period stretched over so many centuries, we can only touch on basic trends in medieval painting. For those particularly interested in this period, there are major books available in libraries for in depth study of medieval painting.

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