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SHAPE AND COLOUR IN MIDDLE AGES PAINTING. PARTICULARITIES IN EASTERN AND WESTERN EUROPE
Abstract
At the end of the Romanic period, painting was still considered a less important art, used only to decorate certain surfaces for which there were no broader or richer methods of coverage. The ordinary painter's duty was to only color the sculptures created by other hands or to decorate the walls. In this sittuation we can tell that the most appreciated form of painting was the one made by generations of monks in their writing rooms (scritoria). That was the place where they were illustrating their manuscripts with lively, very beautiful pictures. Is the for of art that is know today as Illuminating. The Art of the Middle Ages is eminently symbolic. In cathedrals and churches nothing is random, each element has his own meaning. We can tell that Medieval Art is, in fact, an encyclopedia of knowledge, a history of shape and color of the Bible. Middle Ages iconography often evokes an imaginary world, populated by monsters and mythologycal figures, as well as profane subjects. Biblical images of angels and saints are doubled by the daily life of peasants, priests, townspeople and knights, but the most important subject of this epoch is the image of Jesus Christ and his mother Virgin Mary. In Eastern art we can talk about the image of Jesus as the omnipotent master, who blesses the believers from the sky (Jesus Pantocrator). The purpose of this study is to present the Eastern and Western medieval painting through the power of symbols that certain elements and colours gave to that epoch. Such elements as The Rose, the Portal, the Eye of God and colours as Gold and Yellow had their specific meanings, became symbols and made the Middle Ages painting an unique and intriguing period in the evolution of Humanity, History and Civilization.
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References11
the use of the term ipostas, borrowed from the theological dogmatics, referring to the common essence tiple-manifested of the Holy Trinity, allows the explanation of the report between the political and the religious realities in Byzantine Empire, as aspects of the same historical reality: the effort to expand the borders by political conquer and Christianization;
G.W.F. Hegel, Prelegeri de filosofie a religiei, Humanitas Publishing House, Bucharest, 1997, pp. 317-319.
The issue of the Christian identity in relation with the others as solved this the use of neo-testamentary resources: Fapte 2, 5-11; Romani 1,8; I Corinteni 1:12-13: Each of you says : I am of the Paul’s, I am of the Apollo’s, and I am of the Chefa’s, and I am of the Christ’s.
Janetta Rebold Benton, Materials, Methods, and Masterpieces of Medieval Art, Praeger Publisher House, Westport, CT, 2000, pp. 25-42.
See Thomas F. X. Noble, Images, Iconoclasm, and the Carolingians, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia, 2009.
Janetta Rebold Benton, op.cit., pp. 1-24.
See The Book of Kells, 5th edition, contributor Edward Sullivan, Studio Publications, London, 1952.
Walter Oakeshott, Classical Inspiration in Medieval Art, Chapman & Hall Publisher House, London, 1959, pp. 41-58.
Ibidem, pp. 59-75.
Janetta Rebold Benton, op.cit., p. 13.
Ibidem, p. 19
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