The above is the tale of “David and Goliath” and “The Death
of Absolam” from the Winchester Bible. It was completed between the years 1160
and 1175.
I’ve always had a love for medieval artwork. It feels so
raw, so basic and yet exquisite. This work has been crafted to the highest
degree at the time. Perspective was not understood, something we take for
granted now, and the figures are all awkward. People overlook it
because they think the work resembles that of a child but if one takes a closer look you’ll see
that it is full of details. This has proved useful for historians as a lot of objects from that time have rotted away and only the book survives. We only know what
they wore and how some of the armour looked because of this meticulously
detailed artwork.
For me, here we are looking at illustration at the end of its childhood. For a couple
of thousands of years from hieroglyphics to the medieval period, the art was
of this basic format; it was flat and formulaic. When the explosion of
creativity came in the renaissance, artwork grew more adult and forever changed.
No comments:
Post a Comment