middle ages essay

Introduction to the Middle Ages

The Lindisfarne Gospels , left: Saint Matthew, portrait page (25v); right: Saint Matthew, cross-carpet page (26v), c. 700 (Northumbria), 340 x 250 mm ( British Library , Cotton MS Nero D IV)

The dark ages?

So much of what the average person knows, or thinks they know, about the Middle Ages comes from film and tv. When I polled a group of well-educated friends on Facebook, they told me that the word “medieval” called to mind Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Blackadder, The Sword in the Stone, lusty wenches, feasting, courtly love, the plague, jousting and chain mail.

Perhaps someone who had seen (or better yet read) The Name of the Rose or Pillars of the Earth would add cathedrals, manuscripts, monasteries, feudalism, monks and friars.

Petrarch, an Italian poet and scholar of the fourteenth century, famously referred to the period of time between the fall of the Roman Empire (c. 476) and his own day (c. 1330s) as the Dark Ages. Petrarch believed that the Dark Ages was a period of intellectual darkness due to the loss of the classical learning, which he saw as light. Later historians picked up on this idea and ultimately the term Dark Ages was transformed into Middle Ages. Broadly speaking, the Middle Ages is the period of time in Europe between the end of antiquity in the fifth century and the Renaissance , or rebirth of classical learning, in the fifteenth century and sixteenth centuries.

North Transept Rose Window, c. 1235, Chartres Cathedral , France (photo: Dr. Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

Not so dark after all

Characterizing the Middle Ages as a period of darkness falling between two greater, more intellectually significant periods in history is misleading. The Middle Ages was not a time of ignorance and backwardness, but rather a period during which Christianity flourished in Europe. Christianity, and specifically Catholicism in the Latin West, brought with it new views of life and the world that rejected the traditions and learning of the ancient world.

During this time, the Roman Empire slowly fragmented into many smaller political entities. The geographical boundaries for European countries today were established during the Middle Ages. This was a period that heralded the formation and rise of universities, the establishment of the rule of law, numerous periods of ecclesiastical reform and the birth of the tourism industry. Many works of medieval literature, such as the Canterbury Tales, the Divine Comedy, and The Song of Roland, are widely read and studied today.

The visual arts prospered during Middles Ages, which created its own aesthetic values. The wealthiest and most influential members of society commissioned cathedrals, churches, sculpture, painting, textiles, manuscripts, jewelry and ritual items from artists. Many of these commissions were religious in nature but medieval artists also produced secular art. Few names of artists survive and fewer documents record their business dealings, but they left behind an impressive legacy of art and culture.

When I polled the same group of friends about the word “Byzantine,” many struggled to come up with answers. Among the better ones were the song “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” sung by They Might Be Giants, crusades, things that are too complex (like the tax code or medical billing), Hagia Sophia, the poet Yeats, mosaics, monks, and icons. Unlike Western Europe in the Middle Ages, the Byzantine Empire is not romanticized in television and film.

Approximate boundaries of the Byzantine Empire, mid-6th century (underlying map © Google)

In the medieval West, the Roman Empire fragmented, but in the Byzantine East, it remained a strong, centrally-focused political entity. Byzantine emperors ruled from Constantinople, which they thought of as the New Rome. Constantinople housed Hagia Sophia , one of the world’s largest churches, and was a major center of artistic production.

Isidore of Miletus & Anthemius of Tralles for Emperor Justinian, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, 532–37 (photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

The Byzantine Empire experienced two periods of Iconoclasm (730–787 and 814–842), when images and image-making were problematic. Iconoclasm left a visible legacy on Byzantine art because it created limits on what artists could represent and how those subjects could be represented. Byzantine Art is broken into three periods. Early Byzantine or Early Christian art begins with the earliest extant Christian works of art c. 250 and ends with the end of Iconoclasm in 842. Middle Byzantine art picks up at the end of Iconoclasm and extends to the sack of Constantinople by Latin Crusaders in 1204. Late Byzantine art was made between the sack of Constantinople and the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks in 1453.

In the European West, Medieval art is often broken into smaller periods. These date ranges vary by location.

Additional resources:

Smarthistory’s free Guide to Byzantine Art e-book

Art and Death in the Middle Ages on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History)

Byzantium from The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Icons and Iconoclasm on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Classical Antiquity in the Middle Ages, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Hagia Sophia on The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History

Smarthistory images for teaching and learning:

[flickr_tags user_id=”82032880@N00″ tags=”MedievalIntro,”]

More Smarthistory images…

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AP®︎/College Art History

Course: ap®︎/college art history   >   unit 5, introduction to the middle ages.

• Christianity, an introduction for the study of art history
• Architecture and liturgy
• The life of Christ in medieval and Renaissance art
• A New Pictorial Language: The Image in Early Medieval Art
• Catacomb of Priscilla, Rome
• Basilica of Santa Sabina, Rome
• Santa Sabina
• Jacob wrestling the angel, Vienna Genesis
• Rebecca and Eliezer at the Well, Vienna Genesis
• A beginner's guide to Byzantine Art
• San Vitale, Ravenna
• Justinian Mosaic, San Vitale
• Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
• Theotokos mosaic, apse, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
• Hagia Sophia as a mosque
• Deësis mosaic, Hagia Sophia, Istanbul
• Virgin (Theotokos) and Child between Saints Theodore and George
• The Lindisfarne Gospels
• The Bayeux Tapestry
• The Bayeux Tapestry - Seven Ages of Britain - BBC One
• Church and Reliquary of Sainte‐Foy, France
• Chartres Cathedral
• Bible moralisée (moralized bibles)
• Saint Louis Bible (moralized bible)
• The Golden Haggadah
• Röttgen Pietà
• Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 1)
• Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 2)
• Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 3)
• Giotto, Arena (Scrovegni) Chapel (part 4)

The dark ages?

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Western Civilization in the Middle Ages Essay

In Europe, the period after the fall of the Roman Empire until 1500 is commonly called the Middle Ages. This period can be characterized both as a period of chaos and instability and a period of a great increase in instability and order. This époque is divided by the scholars into three periods: an early phase, 500-1000; the central, 1000-1300; and the later, 1300-1500.

The following events in the course of the European countries’ development give us a way to state that there was a time of chaos and instability during the period under consideration:

• The decay of the ancient city-state. Existing before as physical and social units, now they have led to the establishment of the isolated rural estate as a typical form of social and economic organization. The economic and cultural unity of the cities was ruined, only some cities survived as ecclesiastical or political centers.
• The decline of long-distance trade. As a result, the individual’s needs depended only on locally produced goods. Large-scale pottery manufacture and other major industries that depended on long-distance trade vanished in many countries.
• Diseases. Assaults from outside Europe carried outbreaks of bubonic plague. As a result, there was a drastic population decline in Europe during the Early Middle Ages.
• The decline of power by the two the Ottoman Empire and the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania.
• The breakup of the Carolingian Empire. This process was accompanied by the invasions, migrations, and raids of external foes which brought chaos and instability to societies.
• The start of feudalism in Europe in the High Middle Ages.
• The long conflicts during the Late Middle Ages (for example, the Hundred Years’ War) strengthened royal control over the kingdoms, whereas the conditions in which peasantry existed were extremely hard.

The following factors, on the contrary, brought order to the European society:

• The collapse of the centralized state (the Roman Empire). This contributed to the established government of law and social order.
• Conversion of peoples to Christianity. It led to a shift of basic loyalty from the state to religion.
• Explosion in population during the High Middle Ages.
• The first sustained urbanization, which resulted from the military and dynastic achievements of this period.
• The protestant reformation. It formed the shifts in attitude leading to the rise of modern nation-states.
• The rise of strong centralized monarchial states in Denmark, Sweden, Spain, France, England, Russia, and Germany.
• The independence of Switzerland and the Republic of Belgium.
• Carolingian Renaissance. This period of cultural revival is characterized by an increase in literacy, developments in arts, architecture, and other spheres of human knowledge.
• In the High Middle Ages major barbarian incursions ceased.
• The divisiveness of the Catholic Church in the Late Middle Ages undermined papal authority and led to the formation of national churches.

We are inclined to believe that the factors and the events mentioned above should be considered in their complex interconnection, as emphasizing any of them will lead only to a one-sided approach to the problem of the European development after the fall of the Roman Empire up to 1500.

After the Protestant Reformation and Scientific Revolution European society differed from the one it used to be in the Early Middle Ages. Contrary to the Early Middle Ages period when the Catholic Church remained the unifying factor, Europe in 1600 was divided according to the countries’ religious orientations. Religious strife took place within several European states. For example, France suffered from the French Wars of Religion.

Religion remained the main power that influenced the development of the European states: Germany was divided into states according to the principles of the Holy Roman Empire, England was characterized by moderate Anglicanism. Changes in religion we consider to be the most influential for European development.

Feudalism which originates in Europe from the Early Middle Ages was replaced by capitalism as the principal form of economic organization. Therefore, collapse in trade and manufacture for export common for the Early Middle Ages Europe was not typical for Europe of 1600. The rise of modern science and the application of its findings also contributed to the emergence of the new forms of trade and expanding horizons that differed Europe of 1600 from Europe of 500-600.

During the Middle Ages the formation of the Islamic Eastern culture and Asian culture, along with the European culture was characterized by the growth of the productive forces – the usage of the iron tools expanded, artificial irrigation and irrigation engineering were modernized. The main tendency of the historical development of the East as well as of the West was the establishment of feudalism. But the eastern cultures differed from the western ones by the dynamism of the feudalism development. The main reasons that determined the latency of the eastern cultures are:

• The slow break-up of the primitive communal system and conservation of slavery along with the feudal relationships;
• Stability of the communal forms which postpone the differentiation of peasantry;
• Prevalence of the state property and governmental authorities over the landlordism and private property of feudal lords;
• Authoritative power of feudal over a town which impaired the anti-feudal aspirations of the citizens.

These were the main tendencies that distinguished the formation of feudalism in the western and eastern countries.

Feudalism is a system of reciprocal legal and military obligations among members of the nobility during the High Middle Ages. The three main elements of the feudalism system are lords, vassals, and fiefs. The interrelation of these three elements is rooted in the following: a lord-owned land, known as a fief, the possession of this land was granted by the lord to a vassal who, in his turn, should have provided military service to the lord. These three elements fitting together, the obligations and relations between them form the basis of feudalism.

There is no specific start of feudalism in Europe. In its classical form, it occurred around the 10 th century. The causes of feudalism in Europe are as follows:

• Taxation (either by means of feorm-fultum, or danegelt, or gabelle) forced the poorer people to commend themselves to a lord;
• The royal grant of fole-land;
• International war. Kings needed to surround themselves with the help of the army, the members of which were granted the king’s protection.

The height of feudalism in Europe was during the 11 th century, feudalism flourished in the 12th. The decline of feudalism started in the 13 th century and proceeded until the 15 th century. The decline was due to the new processes that replaced the system of land tenure paid for by governmental work.

The troops for war were raised according to the new system that substituted money for land. The latter stopped having the same value in the eyes of the monarch, since then money became a symbol of his power. Vassals preferred to give money to their lords and the lords also preferred money as it enabled them to hire professional troops more disciplined and trained than the vassals. The revival of infantry tactics and the introduction of new weapons made cavalry tactics useless.

Another cause of the decline of feudalism is the increase in communication that took place in Europe. This process broke down the isolated manor houses and assisted the rise of towns. The burgess class emerged.

The Peasant Revolt all over Europe has broken the system of the old economy and started the modern social economy. By 1550, it consisted of the métier system or division of national wealth among small landed possessors on the Continent. In England, feudalism was replaced by “enclosed” agriculture.

In the late Middle Ages, feudal obligations existing between lords and vassals were replaced by agreements based on money payments. The economy developed from an agricultural base to commercial and manufacturing interests.

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Home — Essay Samples — History — Middle Ages — Life in the Medieval Times

Life in The Medieval Times

• Categories: Middle Ages Society

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Words: 965 |

Published: Jun 6, 2019

Words: 965 | Pages: 2 | 5 min read

Works Cited:

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• Qazi, W. H., & Ahmad, N. (2019). Freedom of expression and its limitations in Pakistan. Journal of Social Sciences and Humanities, 1(1), 13-22.
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• Yang, G. (2019). Political implications of internet censorship: A comparative study of China, Singapore, and South Korea. Journal of Information Technology & Politics, 16(2), 129-142.

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Power and Identity in the Middle Ages: Essays in Memory of Rees Davies

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This volume celebrates the work of the late Rees Davies. Reflecting Davies' interest in identities, political culture, and the workings of power in medieval Britain, the chapters range across ten centuries, looking at a variety of key topics. Issues explored range from the historical representations of peoples and the changing patterns of power and authority, to the notions of ‘core’ and ‘periphery’ and the relationship between local conditions and international movements. The political impact of words and ideas, and the parallels between developments in Wales and those elsewhere in Britain, Ireland, and Europe are also discussed.

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Italian painting of the later middle ages.

• Madonna and Child
• Berlinghiero

• Duccio di Buoninsegna

The Adoration of the Magi

• Giotto di Bondone

Saint Anthony of Padua

Maso di Banco

Saint John the Evangelist

• Segna di Buonaventura

North Italian Painter (Verona?)

Simone Martini

Saint Andrew

• The Assumption of the Virgin

Bernardo Daddi (possibly with workshop assistance)

The Crucifixion

Pietro Lorenzetti

Saint Julian

Taddeo Gaddi

Saint Catherine of Alexandria

• The Adoration of the Shepherds
• Bartolo di Fredi

• Master of the Codex of Saint George

• Paolo di Giovanni Fei

Saint Lucy and Her Mother at the Shrine of Saint Agatha; Saint Lucy Giving Alms; Saint Lucy before Paschasius; Saint Lucy Resisting Efforts to Move Her

• Giovanni di Bartolommeo Cristiani

Head of Christ

• Master of the Orcagnesque Misericordia

Saint Christopher and the Infant Christ

Domenico Ghirlandaio (Domenico Bigordi)

Jennifer Meagher Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

September 2010

Until the late eleventh century, southern Italy occupied the western border of the vast Byzantine empire . Even after this area fell under Norman rule in about 1071, Italy maintained a strong link with Byzantium through trade, and this link was expressed in the art of the period. Large illustrated Bibles (“giant Bibles”) and Exultet Rolls—liturgical scrolls containing texts for the celebration of Easter, produced in the Benevento region of southern Italy—enjoyed great popularity from about 1050 onward. Miniature illustrations in the Bibles, which relate to contemporary monumental wall paintings produced in Rome , were strongly influenced by early Christian painting cycles from Roman churches. After the sack of Constantinople in 1204 by Christian armies of the Fourth Crusade , precious objects from Byzantium made their way to Italian soil and profoundly influenced the art produced there, especially the brightly colored gold-ground panels that proliferated during the thirteenth century. A Madonna and Child ( 60.173 ) by Berlinghiero, the foremost painter of the period working in the Tuscan city of Lucca, is one such example: in this panel, the Madonna gestures solemnly toward the infant Christ, depicted as a miniature adult, who wears a philosopher’s robes and gestures in blessing. This composition is of the Byzantine type known as the Hodegetria, which may be translated as “One Who Shows the Way,” as the Madonna points to Christ as the way to salvation. Starburst-like ornaments at the crown of the Madonna’s head and on her right shoulder (a third would have appeared on her left shoulder, here concealed by the figure of Christ) are also traditional Byzantine motifs, symbolizing Mary’s virginity before, during, and after the birth of Christ .

At the end of the thirteenth century and beginning of the fourteenth, three great masters appeared who changed the course of painting: the Florentine Giotto di Bondone (1266/76–1337), the Roman Pietro Cavallini (ca. 1240–after ca. 1330), and the Sienese Duccio di Buoninsegna (active ca. 1278–1318). Giotto’s figures are volumetric rather than linear, and the emotions they express are varied and convincingly human rather than stylized ( 11.126.1 ). He created a new kind of pictorial space with an almost measurable depth. With Giotto, the flat world of thirteenth-century Italian painting was transformed into an analogue for the real world, for which reason he is considered the father of modern European painting. Duccio, founder of the Sienese school of painting, brought a lyrical expressiveness and intense spiritual gravity to the formalized Italo-Byzantine tradition. In a small devotional panel of the Madonna and Child ( 2004.442 ), Duccio bridged the gap between the spiritual world of the figures and the real world of the viewer by means of an illusionistic parapet, among the first of its kind in Western painting. Other exceptional artists who painted during this period were Taddeo Gaddi ( 1997.117.1 ), Maso di Banco ( 43.98.13 ), Ambrogio and Pietro Lorenzetti ( 2002.436 ; 13.212 ), and Simone Martini ( 1975.1.12 ; 41.100.23 ). Simone Martini added an elegance and refinement to the spare form of Giotto’s art. Pietro Lorenzetti, a pupil of Duccio, produced works innovative in their imaginative detail and expressive naturalism ( 2004.442 ).

At the start of the fourteenth century, elements of the Gothic style that emerged in twelfth-century France began to appear in Italian painting: architectural motifs such as the pointed arch, a refined delicacy of detail, increased naturalism, and an emphasis on fluid form. By mid-century, a surge of artistic output concentrated in central Italy integrated new ideals into earlier modes of depiction. The Byzantine devotional image of the Galaktotrophousa, or Virgo Lactans, which depicts the Madonna nursing the Christ Child, achieves a new elegance in Sienese master Paolo di Giovanni Fei’s sumptuously detailed panel ( 41.190.13 ). Bartolo di Fredi referred to pictorial traditions of both East and West in The Adoration of the Shepherds ( 25.120.288 ), in which the stable of Christ’s nativity is set into a cave. The artist used this projecting structure to experiment with perspective and the conveyance of spatial depth.

Fresco The technique of fresco painting, known from antiquity and especially popular in the Renaissance and Baroque periods, was used to decorate the walls and ceilings of churches, public buildings, and private dwellings.

The bare wall was first dampened and coated with a layer of coarse lime plaster, called arriccio , on which the design was drawn or brushed in red earth pigment ( sinopia ). The overall composition was painted in sections known as giornate —Italian for “a day’s work.” Each of these sections was composed of a smooth plaster layer called intonaco . Pigments diluted in water were applied directly to the wet intonaco ; as the plaster dried, a chemical reaction bound the pigment to it. Embellishments applied to a dry wall— fresco a secco ( secco is the Italian word for dry)—are far less durable, as the paint tends to flake off over time. Fresco is vulnerable to moisture and may be damaged in a cool, damp environment; the arid Mediterranean climate is favorable for its preservation.

The medium of fresco enabled artists to depict complex narratives, and to experiment with depth and spatial relationships. They were often painted in a series, or cycle, for a single space. Usually fresco cycles consisted of scenes from the life of Christ , the Virgin Mary , or the saint to whom a church or monastery was dedicated. Between 1253 and 1340, many of the outstanding artists of the period, including Cimabue and Giotto, contributed frescoes depicting episodes from the life of Saint Francis (1181–1226) to his basilica at Assisi. Chapels dedicated to other saints are part of the basilica. One, dedicated to Saint Martin of Tours, bears ten frescoes by Simone Martini, exquisite in their rich characterization, coloration, and detail. They are among the greatest examples of the Sienese master’s oeuvre, and some of the finest frescoes produced in fourteenth-century Italy.

About 1303, the Paduan nobleman Enrico Scrovegni commissioned Giotto, renowned as the greatest painter of his day, to fresco the Arena Chapel in Padua. In cycles depicting scenes from the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ, Giotto’s naturalism, compositional clarity, and the volumetric, sculptural presence of his figures combine in scenes of unprecedented drama. These frescoes were widely praised for their innovation by Dante, Boccaccio, and Petrarch; along with Giotto’s fresco cycles for the Bardi and Peruzzi chapels at Santa Croce in Florence—remarkable for their ambitious description of space and scale—they are masterworks that influenced two centuries of artists ( 1971.115.1ab ).

Panel Painting Through the fourteenth century, the primary support for portable paintings—from monumental church altarpieces to diminutive works used in private devotion —was the wooden panel. Masters were assisted by pupils and workshop members in their lengthy and complex preparation. Modern technical analysis and x-radiography have deepened our understanding of this process, allowing for a close examination of the materials and techniques used by the artist. The basis of our knowledge, however, is a 600-year-old source: a treatise on the art of painting called Il Libro dell’arte , composed about 1390 by the Italian painter Cennino Cennini (ca. 1370–ca. 1440).

A seasoned plank—one that had been allowed to dry out for some time—was first layered with several coats of size, a glue made from animal skins. In Italy, the planks used for panel paintings were often made of native poplar, a widely available wood that was, however, soft and vulnerable to warping. A piece of linen soaked in size was often laid over the front of the panel to conceal any surface flaws. Over this, coats of gesso were applied. Gesso, a mixture of powdered calcium sulfate (commonly called gypsum) and animal glue, provided the ground for preliminary drawings.

When the underdrawing was complete, the panel was ready for gilding. Areas to be gilded were prepared with a layer of bole, a reddish clay that provided an adhesive surface for fragile gold leaf. The gold leaf was made by pounding a small amount of gold into thin sheets, which were then applied to the panel using a tool called a gilder’s tip. The gilded surface was rubbed with a hard-tipped instrument to smooth and polish the gold leaf, a process known as burnishing. Additional decoration could be incised or stamped into the surface using metal rods, called punches, with patterns cut into one end. The tip of the punch, placed against the panel and struck from the other end with a mallet, pressed the design into the wood. Punching was often used to achieve the intricately detailed haloes surrounding the heads of holy figures. Finally, the panel could be painted. Medieval artists used tempera paints, made by mixing ground pigments with egg yolk. This medium produces a brilliant, pure hue.

Many paintings of this period have engaged frames made of wooden strips attached to the outside edge of the panel, some examples of which survive ( 2004.442 ; 41.190.13 ). Original frames may sometimes bear hinge marks, indicating that the work was once part of a diptych or triptych, designed to be closed. Independent panels were often used on private altars in a domestic setting .

For large church altarpieces, it was necessary to join together independently painted panels with an elaborate frame. Usually, the Madonna and Child were shown on the main panels, flanked by saints and apostles, identifiable by their attributes. A strip of smaller panels—called the predella —at the bottom of the altarpiece depicted additional figures or narrative episodes from the life of Christ, Mary, or the saints ( 43.98.6 ).

Meagher, Jennifer. “Italian Painting of the Later Middle Ages.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/iptg/hd_iptg.htm (September 2010)

Further Reading

Bomford, David, et al. Italian Painting before 1400 . Exhibition catalogue. London: National Gallery Publications, 1989.

Borsook, Eve. The Mural Painters of Tuscany: From Cimabue to Andrea del Sarto . 2d ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1980.

Cole, Bruce. Giotto and Florentine Painting, 1280–1375 . New York: Harper & Row, 1976.

Poeschke, Joachim. Italian Frescoes: The Age of Giotto, 1280–1400 . New York: Abbeville, 2005.

Schmidt, Victor M., ed. Italian Panel Painting of the Duecento and Trecento . Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 2002.

White, John. Art and Architecture in Italy, 1250–1400 . 3d ed. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993.

Additional Essays by Jennifer Meagher

• Meagher, Jennifer. “ Genre Painting in Northern Europe .” (April 2008)
• Meagher, Jennifer. “ The Pre-Raphaelites .” (October 2004)
• Meagher, Jennifer. “ Gerard David (born about 1455, died 1523) .” (June 2009)
• Meagher, Jennifer. “ Petrus Christus (active by 1444, died 1475/76) .” (December 2008)
• Meagher, Jennifer. “ Still-Life Painting in Southern Europe, 1600–1800 .” (June 2008)
• Meagher, Jennifer. “ Orientalism in Nineteenth-Century Art .” (October 2004)
• Meagher, Jennifer. “ Botanical Imagery in European Painting .” (August 2007)
• Meagher, Jennifer. “ Commedia dell’arte .” (July 2007)
• Meagher, Jennifer. “ Food and Drink in European Painting, 1400–1800 .” (May 2009)
• Meagher, Jennifer. “ The Holy Roman Empire and the Habsburgs, 1400–1600 .” (October 2002)

Related Essays

• The Birth and Infancy of Christ in Italian Painting
• Byzantium (ca. 330–1453)
• Sienese Painting
• Venetian Color and Florentine Design
• Botanical Imagery in European Painting
• Courtship and Betrothal in the Italian Renaissance
• The Crucifixion and Passion of Christ in Italian Painting
• The Cult of the Virgin Mary in the Middle Ages
• Domestic Art in Renaissance Italy
• Drawing in the Middle Ages
• Early Netherlandish Painting
• Filippino Lippi (ca. 1457–1504)
• Fra Angelico (ca. 1395–1455)
• Intentional Alterations of Early Netherlandish Painting
• Italian Renaissance Frames
• Jan van Eyck (ca. 1390–1441)
• The Master of Monte Oliveto (active about 1305–35)
• Mendicant Orders in the Medieval World
• The Nude in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance
• Painting in Italian Choir Books, 1300–1500
• Painting in Oil in the Low Countries and Its Spread to Southern Europe
• Pilgrimage in Medieval Europe
• Private Devotion in Medieval Christianity
• Saints and Other Sacred Byzantine Figures
• Florence and Central Italy, 1400–1600 A.D.
• Italian Peninsula, 1000–1400 A.D.
• Rome and Southern Italy, 1400–1600 A.D.
• Venice and Northern Italy, 1400–1600 A.D.
• Italy During the Later Middle Ages
• 11th Century A.D.
• 12th Century A.D.
• 13th Century A.D.
• 14th Century A.D.
• Florentine School
• Icon / Iconoclasm
• International Gothic Style
• Istanbul (Constantinople)
• Medieval Art
• Monasticism
• Saint Francis of Assisi
• Sienese School
• Southern Italy
• Virgin Mary
• Wall Painting

Artist or Maker

• Cristofori, Bartolomeo
• Daddi, Bernardo
• Gaddi, Taddeo
• Ghirlandaio, Domenico
• Lorenzetti, Pietro
• Martini, Simone
• Maso Di Banco

Online Features

• 82nd & Fifth: “Threshold” by Keith Christiansen

Essay on Medieval Times

This essay will cover key aspects of medieval times, including social structure, culture, and historical events. It will discuss life in medieval society, the role of the Church, and significant developments of the era. The piece will provide insights into the complexities of medieval life and its impact on modern society. At PapersOwl too, you can discover numerous free essay illustrations related to Byzantine Empire.

How it works

The middle ages began in the 5th century and last until the 15th century. It began with eh fall of the Western Roman Empire and made its way into the Renaissance. In Medieval Europe there was a war in Northern Spain in 792. It targeted the Christian countries. Charlemagne’s army was ambushed by the Basques. There was a qualitative change in the nature of Christian virtue in Europe.

Christendom is the realm of the Christians. In the Early ages Jesus represented the king.

In the high middle ages Jesus suffered and He walked to his family, friends, disciples, enemies, and rivals. There was a lot of competition between the aristocracies. Charlemagne’s empire was divided into three kingdoms by his grandsons, and each further divided. The more kings there were, the more choices for aristocrats to shop for honors. The weakening of kings led to the rise of aristocracies. In the year 1000 to the year 1300 the population increased in Europe 36 million. During this time there was also less warfare and a decline in slavery. The climate slightly improved from what it was before.

They cleared out the forests and made them into farmlands. With farmlands in place, the agriculture equipment and techniques improved. They had better harness, intensive manuring, and they had a three-field system. The three-field system is wheat or rye, fallow, and barley, beans, and peas. There was an economic development in the 11th century. There was a surplus from agriculture. They also had commercial activity. Europe had had great cities including Paris, London, Florence, and Munich. Europe and China had an interdependence of commerce and agriculture turned investments into infrastructure.

Islamic world had profits of trade in Medieval Europe. Serfs were not slaves in a legal sense, nut they were bound to the land. The serfs had a degraded status, and they limited or no access to public courts. They would exchange their protection with their own freedom. Feudalism was a social system tied together by kinship, regional alliance, and personal bonds of loyalty. There was local autonomy and spread of political authority. The disappearance of Serfdom in Europe happened in the 14th century by purchasing freedom, peasant rebellions, and the bubonic plague.

While serfdom ended in Western Europe, it was picked up in Eastern Europe, and it continued to exist in Russia until the late 19th century. There were new reforms in the churched happening to create a new order. The wanted to purify monasticism. There was also a reform in papacy. The problems before the reform were Lay Investiture were appointment of bishops by kings, and simony was buying and selling the church offices. The appointment of bishops is by the Pope. The church was reorganized as a bureaucratic operation with the pope as monarch. Some of the goals were to be free from the control of secular authorities and management of professional clerics.

The first crusade was to aid the Byzantine Empire, and to regain the Holy Land in Jerusalem. The first crusade established a Latin kingdom in Palestine. The second crusade was defeated in 1148. The third crusade started in 1189 to 1192. This entailed drowning the German emperor and a peace treaty with Saladin. In the fourth crusade the pope contracted the Venetian merchants to ferry the troops, and there was competition between Venice and Constantinople during trade.

During this time, they attacked Constantinople, and there was mistrust between the Eastern and Western churches. The crusaders had some problem. The leaders argued amongst themselves, and doubts about the spiritual significance of such wars. The crusade also had significances which were showing the greed and piety of lords and outgrowth of Papal reform. “During the high Middle Ages, the Roman Catholic Church became organized into a hierarchy with the pope as the head of western Europe. He established supreme power. Many innovations took place in the creative arts during the high Middle Ages. Literacy was no longer merely requirement among the clergy. New readings were addressed to a newly literate public that had both the time and the knowledge to enjoy the work,” (James Sigona). During the medieval time period they had many achievements. These achievements were feudalism, cathedrals, and universities. They also had some negative effects which were, first pogroms against Jews, crusades against infidel Muslims, and conscious division of the world into Christians and non-Christians.

The relationship between the Church and the feudal states during the medieval period went through multiple developments. The struggles for power between kings and popes shaped the western world. The church became more defining of the Roman Empire. In the 5th century when the Roman Empire fell, there was no single powerful government in the West.

However, in Rome there was power, and this was the church. In the church became the most dominant power in the West. In the 10th century the church began to expand. The kingdoms began to gain power at the same time as the church. There was competition between the church power and the kingdom authority.

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Essay on Medieval Times. (2021, Mar 26). Retrieved from https://papersowl.com/examples/essay-on-medieval-times/

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PapersOwl.com. (2021). Essay on Medieval Times . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/essay-on-medieval-times/ [Accessed: 13 May. 2024]

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PapersOwl.com. (2021). Essay on Medieval Times . [Online]. Available at: https://papersowl.com/examples/essay-on-medieval-times/ [Accessed: 13-May-2024]

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