Medieval art is represented in very different media by different fields, techniques and types of art: architecture, sculpture, gilding, illustrated manuscripts (collectibles), miniatures and calligraphy), murals, paintings, collage, etc. As all the art you know today has its origin in the Middle Ages, we want to tell you in Superhistory the origin of our music, painting and literature.
music in the middle ages
It is important to note that when we talk about medieval music we are referring to a broad period, as we call it the Middle Ages, the history since the fall of the Roman Empire. Code 476 in the early Renaissance. . In the fifteenth century (around 1450). It is a wonderful period in music, so we must delve into it to understand its characteristics. However, it can be summarized that at that time the nobility and religion were mainly manipulating power, so in general, music was put at the service of some of these institutions, either at court or in the church. Thus we can clearly divide medieval music into religious music or secular music.
Religious music
Perhaps the most important music in the religious world, especially the Gregorian hymns, whose text is in Latin and takes place during liturgies and festivities. The Gregorian hymns of that time were monophonic, that is, they contained a single melodic line. The monophonic method was maintained until the 11th century, when more melodic lines began to be tested, laying the first foundations for polyphony. Finally, it should be noted that it was during this period that the first musical writing system was developed. Unlike our current system, there are four lines to place notes instead of five.
secular music
The works of these interpreters are the lyrical and narrative character told, which means that they have read the stories sometimes accompanied by some instruments that are easily transported and used with themselves. His songs are almost a form of verse based poetry with many different themes dealing with political, moral, epic and love stories among other stories.
vowel forms
- Organum
- Conductus
- Motet and Madrigal
- Hoquetus
- Canyon
painting in the middle ages
With the fall of the Western Roman Empire, Western Europe collapsed into a patchwork of small, poor, cityless kingdoms.
On the other hand, the Eastern Roman Empire (including the lands around the eastern Mediterranean) existed as a unifying power until the late Middle Ages. During the medieval period, the Eastern Roman Empire was known as the Byzantine Empire. The most important medium of medieval painting in Western Europe was light (manuscript illustration). The term “illumination” comes from the shimmering effect of gold leaf, which is often applied to pages along with ink and paint. Although Western medieval artists also painted murals (in a style similar to manuscript illumination), very few have survived through the centuries.
The Byzantines, who also created beautiful scrolls and ornate murals, devoted themselves mainly to mosaics. In fact, Byzantine culture is unique in history in elevating mosaics to its main form of visual art. Byzantine mosaics (and murals) flourished mainly in the interior decoration of the church.
literature in the middle ages
Medieval literature brings together all European written art products dating back thousands of years that Medievo extends the historical period between the collapse of the Roman Empire in Aventura and exploring over the United States in the fifteenth century and was characterized by the appearance of a agricultural feudal society.
It is a long and complex stage, traditionally called confused, since the profit margin and the legal cultural distribution in Europe has decreased a lot related to antiquities and, especially, with the next regeneration. The spirit of the age is the dominant religion and Christianity in European culture, imposing faith and teaching values on any other perspective.
Therefore, medieval literature has a clear advantage of religion and mysterious literature, as well as discovering local history and key Christian mythology. Bestiaries, hagiographies, poetry, hymns and components are dominant categories, although at the end of the stage, the novel appears, in advance with great cultural changes accompanied by the revival in the fifteenth century.
Characteristic
- It can be divided into two parts: religious literature, which comes from the Church and the realm of Christian culture, and secular literature, which comes to a lesser extent from the people.
- It demonstrates the absolute dominance of Christian values in various literary forms, from the lyrical to the narrative. Sometimes this refers to a direct reference to Christ or the Bible, and sometimes to a somewhat mystical notation, in which the traditional imagery of Celtic, Germanic and Anglo-Saxon peoples, for example, is often ‘Christian’.
- Anonymous texts abound, especially in secular literature, with various versions of popular oral traditions. This is often due to ecclesiastical reasons to censor or censor texts, since the popular population was illiterate and the circulation of the text was highly restricted.
- On the other hand, many of its famous authors were priests, nuns or priests, in whose works theological, philosophical, liturgical concepts or criticism of the Church itself were studied.