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 [...]
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 [...]
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, [...]
Westminster Abbey western facade (front) Westminster Abbey is a large church in the Gothic style in London, England. Edward the Confessor built an abbey here in 1050 AD, in the Romanesque style. (An abbey is a place for monks or nuns to [...]
Sainte Chapelle, in Paris The Sainte Chapelle was (and is) a beautiful little church or chapel in France, on the island in the middle of the city of Paris. King Louis [...]
Rouen cathedral (begun 1202 AD) The people of Rouen, in northern France, decided to build themselves a new cathedral in 1200 AD, just after people started building Chartres cathedral, and only about forty years after [...]
Elevation of the nave inside Reims cathedral One difference between Chartres cathedral and Reims cathedral was that at Reims they didn't build a deep gallery over the aisle. Instead, they just put [...]
Reims cathedral (begun 1211 AD) Reims was already an important Christian church in 496 AD, just after the fall of Rome, when the first Christian king of France, Clovis, was baptized there (the remains of the baptismal [...]
The baptistery of Pisa, Italy When did Pisa build their baptistery? This baptistery is where people baptized their children in medieval Pisa (PEE-za), in Italy. The people of Pisa built their round [...]
Notre Dame of Paris nave Building the apse of Notre Dame After they had pretty much finished the nave of Notre Dame of Paris, the builders worked on the crossing. [...]
