CE 500–1000

Pre-Columbian Maya site in Retalhuleu, in the Highland Maya region, near the Pacific coast of Guatemala. It is best known for its monumental stone sculptures, some of which were recorded in the 19th century. The site lies partly on the Finca San Isidro Piedra Parada, and it was known by this name when ...

Temple site in north-eastern Rajasthan, India. It contains the fragmentary remains of two major monuments of the 8th century ad. The Chand Baori, a stepped ritual bathing tank c. 19 m deep, was probably built by Raja Chandra, from whom its name derives; an enclosing verandah dates to the 17th century. Although the Harshatmata Temple also dates to the 8th century, or early 9th, according to some scholars, a modern temple has been built over the original foundations, which include a broad platform and the lower walls of the original monument. A remarkable sequence of sculptures, showing primarily secular scenes, survives. These include kings with courtiers, musicians and couples (...

Islamic dynasty that ruled from several capitals in Iraq between ad 749 and 1258. The Abbasids traced their descent from al-‛Abbas, the uncle of the Prophet Muhammad, and were thus able to claim a legitimacy that their predecessors had lacked (see Umayyad, §1). The Abbasids rose to power in north-east Iran by channelling disaffection with Umayyad rule, but they soon established their capitals in a more central location, founding ...

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.

Islamic dynasty that governed Tunisia, Algeria and Sicily from ad 800 to 909. The province of Ifriqiya, roughly corresponding to modern Tunisia, had been administered from Kairouan since the Islamic conquest in the 7th century by governors named by the Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs. The caliph authorized one of these governors, Ibrahim ibn al-Aghlab (...

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 ...

Pre-Columbian site in Manabí Province, Ecuador, 8 km inland in the Buenavista River Valley. It was a principal town, controlled by a lord, of the powerful indigenous polity of Salangome, recorded in 1528 by the navigator of the Spanish explorer and conquistador Francisco Pizarro. Human occupation at Agua Blanca spanned at least 5000 years and included components of all the principal ceramic-using cultures identified along Ecuador’s coasts. The ceramic sequence began with ...