Medieval Art

French, 7th century, male.

Active in Limoges from 600 to 630.

Sculptor.

This artist is thought to be the Master of St Eloysius.

Site of a Christian city and pilgrimage centre in the Maryūt Desert, c. 45 km south-west of Alexandria, Egypt. It grew up around the shrine of St Menas, who was martyred during the persecution of the Christians instigated by Diocletian (reg 285–305). The ancient name of the site is not known, and the position of the saint’s grave had been long forgotten until, according to legend, several miracle cures led to its rediscovery. The place then quickly developed into an increasingly major centre of pilgrimage where, among other things, the so-called Menas ampules were manufactured as pilgrim flasks and achieved particular renown. The first excavations of the site were undertaken by ...

Arabic School, 10th century, male.

Died 997.

Painter.

None of the works of this artist are known.

French, 9th century, male.

Active in Tours.

Monk, miniaturist.

German, 10th century, male.

Illuminator.

This Tegernsee monk is mentioned as the writer of a psalter made for an aristocratic lady called Heilwich. The work has not been preserved, but the dedicatory verses by Froumund von Tegernsee are still in Munich. A miniature in a collection of the national library, Munich, is attributed to an Adalpertus and dates from the 11th century, but it is not improbable that it is by this monk....

German, 6th – 7th century, male.

Active at the beginning of the Middle Ages.

Sculptor.

On the wall of the chapel of St Anne, in Worms Cathedral, there is an old stone relief of Daniel in the LionsDen by this artist.

Buddhist monastery of the 7th century ad to first half of the 8th, in the valley of the Vakhsh River, 12 km east of Kurgan-Tyube, southern Tajikistan. During this early medieval period it belonged to Vakhsh (U-sha in Chinese sources), one of the 27 domains of Tokharistan. Excavations between ...

British, 10th – 11th century, male.

Miniaturist.

This artist's signature is found on manuscripts preserved in Oxford and the British Museum.

London (British Mus.): manuscript

Oxford: manuscript

British, 10th century, male.

Miniaturist.

This artist is known to have worked on the miniatures of a manuscript (British Museum).

London (British Mus.): miniature

British, 8th century, male.

Active from 724 to 740.

Miniaturist.

Anglo-Irish School.

Aethelwold was Bishop of Lindisfarne and is thought to be the painter of the miniatures in the oldest British bible The Durham Book, preserved in the British Museum.

London (British Mus.): The Durham Book...

British, 10th century, male.

Miniaturist.

Aethelwold was Bishop of Winchester from 963 to 984. Like many princes of the Church, he was also an active artist. Winchester was one of the most important art centres in England. The Consecration of Aethelwold, in the possession of the Duke of Devonshire, and a 10th century masterpiece among the miniatures from the monastery of Newminster in Winchester, is the work of the monk Godemann....

(b Winchester, c. ad 908; d Beddington, Surrey, 1 Aug 984; fd 1 Aug). Anglo-Saxon saint, Church leader, reformer and patron. With Dunstan, Archbishop of Canterbury (reg 959–88), and Oswald, Archbishop of York (reg 972–92), he was the moving spirit behind the English monastic revival of the late 10th century....

British, 10th – 11th century, male.

Miniaturist.

This artist is worthy of mention because of the stylistic characteristics of his work. He was a monk at Westminster Abbey and one of the most important English miniaturists of the 10th and 11th centuries.

10th century, male.

Painter.

This artist is thought to have lived at the court of Constantine Porphyrogenetus.

Island on Lake Van in south-eastern Turkey. It is the site of the church of the Holy Cross (Sourb Khatch), which was built in ad 915–21 as the palatine church of the Ardsruni king Gagik (reg 908–c. 943) of the Armenian kingdom of Vaspurakan. The church is of singular importance for the history of medieval art because of the form, content and iconography of its sculptural reliefs and wall paintings. It is the oldest surviving church almost entirely covered on the exterior with figural ...

Site of an obscure Early Christian settlement formerly known as Kilclispeen (St Crispin’s Church) in Co. Tipperary, Ireland. The only remains are two outstanding stone crosses and the base of a third (c. 750–900), which are situated in a graveyard below the village. The crosses belong to a well-defined regional group and were constructed of three characteristic elements: a square base with sloping sides, a shaft with an unusually wide ring and a peculiar, rather ill-fitting, conical cap (the latter missing on the south cross). With its capstone, the north cross measures 3.7 m in height. The form of the Ahenny crosses is emphasized by a bold cable ornament along the outer contours. Projecting from the main faces are sculpted bosses, the most prominent feature of the ‘Ahenny school’. The ring and shaft of the crosses are covered with dense patterns of carved ornament, including interlace, spirals, frets, entangled beasts and interlocking men. Much of this decoration can be compared with the metalwork and manuscript illumination of the period, and it appears that the sculptors were in effect transposing altar or processional crosses into stone. With the addition of pigment, the analogy with metalwork would have been complete. In contrast to the shafts and rings, the bases bear figure sculpture in low relief. That on the north cross is best preserved and represents Adam and Eve with the animals in the Garden of Eden, a chariot procession (a theme repeated on other Irish crosses), seven ecclesiastics (possibly symbolizing Christ’s mission to the Apostles) and an enigmatic funeral procession with a headless corpse....

Japanese, 9th – 10th century, male.

Active in Kyoto 9th-10th century.

Painter. Religious subjects.

Aimi was the son and pupil of Kose no Kanaoka, the founder of the Kose school, and a member of the imperial bureau of painting. Like his father he painted mainly Buddhist subjects as well as imaginary scenes....

Egyptian, 10th century, male.

Painter. Historical subjects, landscapes.

Al-Kutami was a member of the Kutama tribe and was brought up by Banu-el-Muallim, who painted the mosque situated high up in the Karafa mountains, near Cairo in 976 AD. He painted a work entitled Joseph at the Fountain...

Italian, 8th century, male.

Miniaturist.

This monk worked in Italy.

Egyptian city situated on the Mediterranean coast west of the delta of the River Nile, capital of Egypt from c. 320 bc to ad 642, seaport and centre of ancient Greek culture.

Alexandria was founded in 331 bc by Alexander, on the site of the small Egyptian settlement of Rhakotis. Its location, with access by canal to the River Nile, enabled it to become an important and highly prosperous trading centre, and by ...