With the garden finally planted and growing, thoughts of artwork return. While my art instruction books focus on present day art styles, I find it both interesting and helpful to look back at the art of previous centuries.
Medieval paintings and drawings are always worth studying. While the artwork looks crude and even amateurish by today’s standards, I think that’s an unfair assessment. With the collapse of the Roman Empire, whatever schools or art styles were being taught likely vanished for the most part to be replaced by the art of the Germanic barbarians who moved in with their own traditions and set up shop. Absorbing the bits and pieces of what the Romans left, the budding new nations of Europe began developing their own style.
The lack of perspective is often remarked on. The figures on the castle ramparts seem way out-sized compared to the castle itself and the tents in the background nearly as big as the castle itself. But perspective wasn’t the goal here. The action itself was, so all players in this drama had to be seen clearly with their roles in the battle apparent along with their status, indicated by their mode of dress. Interest in any realistic perspective didn’t show up until the Renaissance.
Views of everyday life can be found in countless illustrations.
This image from the Hunterian Psalter, an illuminated prayer book from 12th century England shows a family performing their chores. The wife uses a drop spindle for weaving yarn while the husband digs with his shovel in the field (barefoot no less!). At the wife’s feet sits a cradle with a placid faced infant firmly swaddled.
While the figures were meant to illustrate moral lessons or incidents from the Bible, they were drawn from ordinary life. Below is an image also from the Hunterian Psalter showing wine being produced.
Wine pressing must be hard work as the wine stomper appears unclad and looks like he is sampling some of the unfinished product to quench his thirst at the same time.
The next picture is from the Luttrell Psalter, showing sheep penned up, perhaps being sheared, while two women carrying water vessels pass by.
The Luttrell Psalter, from the early fourteenth century, is famous for its countless illustrations of everyday life. Some of the drawings, though, are definitely out of the ordinary depicting demons, strange animals and odd grotesques of every sort.
Here we have two gray faced beings battling each other, one getting a pot smashed over his head, perhaps a moralistic admonition by the artist about the evils of drinking. Other figures range from a spunky bishop pinching the nose of a demon,
to creatures so odd, it’s hard to make out what the illustrator was portraying.
One thing’s for certain, there was no lack of imagination and talent in the Middle Ages. One could do worse than to look at these colorful and often whimsical images for sources of artistic inspiration.
Happy drawing!
