h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: Arts of the Middle Ages - sacred words and sacred pictures - A87918989
Author: Tavaron da Quirm - Arts Editor - U1314679

This took me quite a long time to write and in the end I couln't kepp my goal of 1500 words maximum, but I stayed below 2000. To be honest I'm glad I'm done with this and can go on with the Renaissance.

there was a post by bobstafford which I will now copy here to have everything in one place:

bobstafford Started conversation 3 Hours Ago

Hello Tave this is a very impressive entry and I enjoyed reading it.
I have noticed a few anomalies you might wish to check.

1.The Pest A strain of Bubonic Plague Yersinia pestis or today known as Y-Pestis.
The estimated death toll 30% to 50% percent of the population of the time.
2.Cloisonné
known as Cloisonné work inlaid enamel Cloisonné is an enclosure enamel technique.
3,Christianity was spreading to former 'pagan lands.
4,From about the 12th Century onwards the Gothic period spread from France to central and parts of southern Europe.
5.Are you referring to the style of architecture?
6. To produce flat glass. Molten glass on a metal rod to form a flat sheet, this was cut and set in the lead.
7.Maybe at first paing was? paing = painting? Chemicals were painted on the glass and heated to bind the chemical paint to bond permanently with the glass.

Well done

An excellent summary, I think. You've told them just enough to be interesting.

Here's some proofreading:

>>...when especially germanic warbands wandered through Europe<<

This is open to misinterpretation by English speakers, who as you know are prone to this. How about:

'When warlike bands of Germanic and other tribes wandered through Europe...'

>>'pagans'<<

I wouldn't put pagans in quotes. (I know, you wanted to point out that there was nothing wrong with paganism from your point of view. Quite right.)
Instead, how about:

pagansThe word 'pagan' comes from the Latin word paganus, meaning 'someone who lives in the country'. Christianity was originally an urban religion, passed from city to city.


>>Benedictine monasteries which should have a great influence on science and arts<<

'should' in English is prescriptive. Instead, say:

'Benedictine monasteries, which went on to have a great influence on science and arts...'

>>byzanthinan archetypes<< = 'Byzantine archetypes'

Just a note: 'Christian' is always capitalised in English. It's just a rule: Muslim, Jewish, etc, are also always capitalised.

>>The Middle Ages ended with the pest...<<

See comment about the silliness of English speakers above. Change to:

'The Middle Ages ended with a plague which greatly reduced....'

No comma in there, either. The reason why is complicated, so just forget it.

That's what I found with a once-over-lightly reading. Which I thoroughly enjoyed.

bob: thanks a lot for your comments I'm happy to hear you liked this Entry.



Hello Tave this is a very impressive entry and I enjoyed reading it.
I have noticed a few anomalies you might wish to check.

1. corected pest > plague
2. I'll look into that
3. changed that
4. I added one more sentence about the Gothic arts style
6. I didn't want to put too much detail into how glass was produced as we have 2 very thourough Entries about the subject of window glass (I linked to them)
7. corrected that, thanks

Hello Tav
I pleased the comments were helpful, pleased I was of help.
Hi Dmitri
I am pleased we agree this a very interesting entry.

Thanks a lot Dmitri! I'm very happy that you also liked the Entry.

I made all these changes.

I liked this introduction to Mediaeval art. I suppose when I think of Mediaeval art, I tend to think of monasteries and cathedrals, illuminated manuscripts and stained glass windows. All these are well covered.

However, I was a bit confused by paragraph 5, where you say that the Gothic style was more naturalistic but the Byzantine stlye led smoothly into the Renaissance. This suggests the Renaissance style was less naturalistic. Surely this isn't the case?

(there is a separate Entry about Byzantine arts in PR: A87918970)

Many of the Byzantine pictures/mosaics were indeed highly stylized and not naturalistic at all.

... and no, the Renaissance was not less naturalistic, I didn't say that it wasn't. I said in paragraph 5 that the Gothic period was much longer north of the Alps than for instance in Italy, where it almost did not exist. So in Italy Romanesque was used for a very long time and then almost instantly came the Renaissance age. North of the Alps the Gothic period did not only start sooner but also ended much later when the Renaissance style was already used in Italy.

Sorry if I asked a confusing question.

Perhaps what I'm driving at is that, if the highly Byzantine art developed into Renaissance art, the naturalistic element in Renaissance art must have come from some other influence - the study of Greek and Roman art, I suppose.

Ok, I'll work on that paragraph so it actually says what I meant.

Thanks for your comments, I'll lewt you know when I'm done.

Ok, I just aded half a sentence to say the Gothic period was not no-existent but very short in southern Europe.

Looks good.

Could you start a new paragraph with:

>>The Gothic style was more naturalistic and refined ...<<

That way you'll have one paragraph dealing with the geographical spread of the Gothic, and a new paragraph dealing with general characteristics of the Gothic?

did that

This is a really useful Entry giving a flavour of a period I am not very familiar with

Maybe you need a little something in the introductory paragraph just to make clear what the Middle Ages is. I'm certainly learning a lot from this Entry - I didn't even visualise at first that 'Medieval' is a synonym for 'Middle Ages', because the map of history I got from school lessons is so fragmented...

"Often pieces like gems in a fitting that were given to the church were incorporated in larger artworks. "

Does this mean a gem in a metal holder could be attached to a painting?

"Setting the portals of churches deeper into the wall gave even more space for more and more sculptures."

What is a portal? I thought it was a door, but I'm not sure now...

Excellent concluding paragraph

I don't know about jewels in paintings - I'd love to hear the answer on that one. But I do know that jewels donated to churches were set in ciboria, chalices, and monstrances, and also in book covers:

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Codex_Aureus_Sankt_Emmeram.jpg

I think by 'portal' is meant 'doorway', not 'door'? The decorations of these portals, or doorways, got really elaborate in medieval churches. Let's see...I remember Freiburg's being particularly impressive....

http://www.tripadvisor.com/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g187281-d242730-i96805473-Freiburg_Cathedral-Freiburg_im_Breisgau_Baden_Wurttemberg.html

I added some more information but I'm not sure if I managed to explain what the Middle ages were exactly. Maybe someone else will have to write a general Entry about every historic period.

Thanks for the updates - I can visualise the doorways now, and the chalices with gems in

Sorry I still haven't quite understood the Middle Ages - the ending is clear, that it was around the time of the Plague, but is the beginning around 300AD with the Huns invading Europe, or is it that the Middle Ages started after the end of the Migration Period?