Brother Feng
Preface
With the innovation of agricultural technology and the sowing of land in the Middle Ages in Europe, the population of Western Europe grew steadily, and by 1300 the population had doubled to 1,000 years.
At the same time, the abundance of supplies meant that by 1300 the vast majority of Europeans were living in better houses than before, eating better food (especially protein-rich peas and soybeans, as well as cheese, eggs, fish, and meat), and wearing better clothes.
As a result, the proximity between the areas where people gathered was gradually reduced, which allowed commerce to flourish more than before, and agriculture remained the main source of economy in the pre-industrial period, including throughout the Middle Ages. But by 1300, cities were already an important part of European life, and the number of people choosing to live in cities and towns began to increase.
The economic boom has led to the emergence of secular paintings that show people's lives, exuding a fascinating atmosphere of humanity and nature.
The life depicted in the picture is much brighter than the so-called Dark Middle Ages, with rich imagination and free forms, full of love, sunshine, legends, dreams, romanticism and strong spirituality.
It depicts and constructs a fairy tale world full of fantasy and sincere emotions in a narrative and lyrical way, with a mysterious, serious and lively tone.
1. Character image
The secular paintings of the European Middle Ages show the living conditions, life characteristics and spiritual outlook of people, summarize and summarize the unique style of the characters in this specific historical period, so as to explore their historical origins, cultural connotations, artistic aesthetics and social values.
Most of the paintings that really recorded the secular life of the people were concentrated in the illustrations of manuscripts and official documents, mainly clergy, aristocrats, and laborers. The illustrations depict all aspects of people's daily lives, showing a variety of life scenes.
Laborers living in the countryside in the Middle Ages accounted for about half of the population, mainly peasants and businessmen.
Illustrations, stone carvings of buildings, wood carvings and frescoes on the seats of the choir of chants depict scenes from the lives of laborers, giving a glimpse into the medieval countryside: farming, animal husbandry, forestry, fishing, public facilities, handicrafts, bazaars, etc. The royal family and aristocracy were also the main subjects of medieval painting, and they were generally lavishly dressed, with complex shapes and indifferent expressions. In addition to highlighting its identity and status, the costumes and shapes of this period have other interesting meanings.
The illustrations of the manuscript depict and record a large number of colorful images of knights and battle scenes, which are lively and vivid, and they fight bloody battles on the battlefield.
In the court, they were loyal to the Lord and devoted to piety, and the "chivalry" born from this is the most legendary. The image created by the knight had a profound impact and became an inseparable part of Western civilization and has survived to this day. There are many literary and artistic works about knights, especially the scene where the knight slays the dragon and saves the princess, which is quoted by a large number of myths and legends and fairy tales.
Second, the scene environment
In the early Middle Ages in Europe, the Pyrenees and Alps were densely forested, full of vast woods and thorny wastelands, and only a small part of them were cultivated by humans.
The Merovingian and Carolingian kings set up many forest hunting grounds, and over time, there were also some reclusive people in the forest, and in some separate huts, many monks lived. The emergence of these circumstances provided rich material for later literature and art, and the legendary Knights of the Round Table sought adventures in the forest, walking through the forests that hid all kinds of dangers, creating a brave temperament and image, which was admired and admired by the people.
Almost all of these legends are framed in the same large environment, that is, the unknown awe-inspiring and fearful forest, so in medieval paintings, almost every natural scene is depicted with forest plants, conveying a strong romantic and mysterious color.
With the reclamation of forests and wastelands, people's living environment is constantly changing and improving, and villages and cities are beginning to form. In the Middle Ages, roads ran through the villages, and houses and churches were built along the roads, most of which were made of stone. The center of the village usually has a square where large-scale events are held.
After the 11th century, the villages were moved to the vicinity of the castle, forming a castle village that was different from the castle. Villages, stone houses, and castles formed a unique culture of medieval humanistic architecture.
Modern Western film and television works often appear a variety of castles, many of which are based on medieval paintings, some of these castles are primitive and simple, simple and heavy, and some are magnificent, complex and luxurious.
The characters and scenes in the overall picture are vivid and lovely, rendering a calm and gentle atmosphere, which instantly brings people into a beautiful world like a fairy tale.
In a large number of painting subjects, the life scenes depicted are full of ardent desire, rural flavor, and urban interest, and people's depictions of natural beauty have become more delicate and rich.
3. Color performance
In the use of color, European medieval secular paintings generally used flat painting to weaken light and shadow, with bright colors and high saturation, almost pure color painting.
Functional paintings, such as decorative frescoes, mosaics, and manuscript illustrations, are generally colored according to the subject matter and context to be expressed. In the case of limited pigments, most of the colors of paintings that record life scenes are colored according to the natural environment, such as rational and dignified blue for the sky, pure and fresh light blue for the lake, red, green, blue, brown for the people, and green for plants.
At the same time, the background color focuses on the color of the characters, and this mysterious, heavy color is both close to nature and stronger than nature.
The brightly colored picture gives people a sense of returning to the basics, simple and pure, creating a mysterious realm of half-human and half-god, while also creating a fantasy world rippling with innocence and innocence. By the end of the 14th century, painting techniques had advanced considerably. At the end of the Middle Ages, realism was a continuation of the fundamental form of medieval thought and heralded the advent of the Renaissance.
The image expression in painting is the exposure of the inner life of human nature, and the gorgeous colors have a variety of collocations, and the composition of this color dominates the development and change of artistic aesthetics.
In terms of pictorial expression, the painter combines the story illustration of traditional manuscript illustrations with the elements of the Gothic style of the early 14th century, and shapes elegant and noble characters and scenes with smooth and vivid lines and bright colors, creating a unique form of expression that is different from the traditional single mode.
The 14th-century painting The Travels of Marco Polo, now in the collection of the Bodleian Library in Oxford, depicts Marco Polo as he departs from the port of Venice to Asia, and the picture is divided into two colors, orange and blue, forming a strong complementary color relationship.
The blue sea is pure, comfortable and pleasing to the eye, and this mood adds a mystical color to the theme of the journey, enhancing the appeal of the picture and blending into the dreamy and distant situation.
The blue sea is set against a pretty orange color, and the land and castle are brightly colored orange and yellow, which create a vibrant scene. The overall color of the picture is distinct and contrasting, and the emotions expressed are naturally rendered from the cheerful and lively colors.
The organic combination of color matching and picture composition makes the environment in the picture unique in the secular style and the atmosphere of the times, and is full of romantic fantasy fairy tale beauty. Although these illustrations serve the text, they are no longer limited to the function of interpretation, but gradually have the independent status of paintings.
In the work "Konrad von Altstatten in the arms of his lover", the male and female characters are dressed in bright costumes symbolizing the aristocratic class, with gorgeous and brilliant sapphire blue, gentle and amorous pink, elegant and gentle olive green, bright and intense red, and shining gold ornaments on the head, neck, and wrists, the whole picture is interwoven into a beautiful and romantic love song.
Even the five-petal red flowers on the tree and the blue semicircle on the ground are depicted in detail, and the whole work is full of poetry.
Fourth, practical significance
European medieval painting mainly appeared in various art forms such as murals, altarpieces, glass mosaics, manuscripts, etc., and the social function of painting art in this period gradually became independent from architecture and sculpture, recording human history and all things in nature.
In the inheritance and evolution of different regions, times and races, paintings have formed their own characteristics, and continue to innovate in content, subject matter and technique, especially the paintings that express secular customs are much more natural and lively, and the illustrations of many manuscripts are more like children's paintings when depicting life scenes.
Picasso said: "It took me four years to paint like Raphael, but it took me a lifetime to paint like a child." ”
The essence of children's painting is to create a "second world" that is similar to the real world but different from the real world, as in medieval paintings: dense forests, nobles on white horses, monks who live in the forest and watch over the Lord, beautiful and proud princesses, brave knights who fight dragons, mysterious witches, magnificent castles and sacred churches......
These elements unique to the Middle Ages make up a strange world full of fantasy, a fairy tale world full of danger and charm.
These paintings fully and authentically reflect the life of people in the Middle Ages, and in order to emphasize this authenticity, the artist reverently respects the subject matter of the painting in terms of figures, scenes, colors, etc.
The picture is like a wonderful story being told, simple and straightforward, with a fairy tale-like lively and vivid beauty, which is also the spiritual realm pursued by painting.