A Late Antique ivory carving Roman art, German art, and Islamic art mixed together in Europe in the Early Middle Ages to create a new form, which we call medieval art. Art historians divide medieval [...]
St. Francis giving away his cloak, from Assisi, Italy, probably by Giotto Who was Giotto? Giotto was a medieval Italian painter. He lived around 1300 AD. Giotto was born in [...]
Evangelists on an ivory plaque, Cologne(?), ca. 1000 AD (Now in Metropolitan Museum, New York) At first, German art after the fall of Rome was a lot like Visigothic or Merovingian art. People call German art [...]
Mary Magdalene and Jesus by Fra Angelico (Louvre Museum) Who was Fra Angelico? Fra Angelico was born about 1395 AD in a small town in northern Italy. Like his older brother, he learned [...]
David, from the story of David and Goliath Who was Donatello? Donatello was an Italian sculptor, from Florence, in the later Middle Ages. He was born in Florence about 1386 AD. His family [...]
The painter Cimabue's Madonna and Jesus, in Louvre Museum, Paris Who was Cimabue? The painter Cimabue (really Cenno di Pepe, but people call him Cimabue) was born in Florence, Italy, [...]
Artemis, carved in ivory in Constantinople (now in the Cluny museum, Paris) The art of Rome continued in an unbroken tradition from the days of the Republic down to the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman [...]
Can you match each of these stained-glass windows from the Sainte Chapelle to the Bible story it illustrates? Noah's Ark Moses and the Burning Bush Marking the doors for Passover Parting the [...]
A tin-glazed plate Just about the time of the Arab conquests (about 600-700 AD), potters started to use metal-based glazes on their pots. So Islamic pottery looks very different from the Roman pottery that came [...]
Islamic art: Mosaic from the Great Mosque in Damascus (about 710 AD) Umayyad art: no people or animals As soon as the Islamic Empire formed, under the Umayyad dynasty, artists began exploring the [...]
