It was important for the artists to keep the status quo for good business (you really don't want to get on the bad side of the Church.) This meant that each one of these paintings are actually a kind of unified iconography that is meant to recount the Biblical stories and give the viewers a sense of awe and respect as expected by those who had commissioned them. During the Dark Ages, only religious bodies have the power and money to commission artworks with very few exceptions. The artists themselves would have followed that convention both for their own sense of prestige but also for conformity. Expressionism was the artistic convention of the time for its usefulness. Realism, therefore, was not an essential element in painting during the Medieval period. They depend on the Church-issued iconography and symbolism to make sense of the world around them. During the Medieval period, paintings weren't just pieces of art they were a means to convey ideas and to tell stories. Most of the population during these days were illiterate, after all. These scenes are all depicting a certain sad mother holding her very special child: The Virgin Mary and baby Jesus.Ī culture's ideas and concept of what they see in front of them will dictate what they put down on paper. That's no ordinary creepy-looking baby and the woman holding him isn't just a sad-looking mother. It's hard to take our eyes away from the bizarre babies, but if one take a closer look at these paintings, one thing jumps out to the fore. Was it simply a case of people being bad at painting everywhere? Or was there a secret plague that deformed every single baby across the continent during those dark, dark ages? It is almost as if she's secretly asking herself "Where have I gone wrong?" in every single painting. Her face is almost always inexplicably sad. It's a pandemic of ugly-looking babies held by morose-looking mothers. It's not just one artist in one place painting children as if they are going into their fourth decade of life fighting tooth and nail either.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |