ESSAY #5b
Old and New
QUESTION: Could the Art of the Gothic period be considered "new" and if so, could geography have been a factor and, what else could have contributed to it?
PART ONE:
SUMMARY: What I learned from answering this question was the differences and similarities between art from the Gothic period and art of today to show if Gothic art can really be seen as “new” from the eyes of someone in today’s world, and how geography and other factors contributed to this.
REASON: This question is being asked so we can have a better understanding of art in the Gothic period and if it can be viewed as “new” into today’s world, and what kind of factors may or may not contribute to this.
PURPOSE: The reason I chose to answer this question is because aside from Contemporary art the art of the Gothic period is my favorite. I feel like there is something very telling and classic about the art back then. I never really considered that art of the Gothic period could be “new” and I still don’t believe it can be considered “new.” I do think geography or as I like to call it simply one’s “environment” is a huge factor for any kind of art though.
DIRECTION: Answering this question will allow me to display the reasons why I believe that Gothic of the art period can’t be considered “new.” I will be doing this by researching the differences and similarities between Gothic art and Contemporary art. Through this I will find sources and evidence to support this belief.
IMPRESSION: If a person was to look at the pictures in a history book and then take a glance out the window how could they possibly believe that today’s world is the same as the ancient world? Life has evolved as well as people. Technology has changed everything. It’s changed the way people interact. It’s changed people’s outlook on life. It’s changed the environment. One could argue about whether it has been changed for the better or for the worst, but the fact of the matter is that it has changed. Maybe from a certain standpoint someone could argue that life is exactly the same it was back then, but I respectfully disagree. All art can be tied together by geography and belief, but even with that said geography of the different ages has no resemblance to one another. The environment was not the same thus making the belief not the same either. Now with belief I am not talking about religion or God. I am talking about the way one views the world and with different times bring different views on the world making the beliefs of each century completely different.
PART TWO:
ANSWER: Time creates a huge gap between centuries. Each century in its own comes with new knowledge and experience, but it is never the same. As time goes on, so, does life. The Gothic period began in 12th century France and lasting into the 16th century. The idea of Contemporary art began in the turn of the 20th century and continues to today. With so many centuries between them how can Gothic art be seen today as “new?” Life has changed too much, and when life changes so does art. People use art to draw from what they see and belief. What people see today is not going to match what people saw between the 12th and 16th centuries.
Gothic Period:
“The first Gothic cathedrals were built in France and within the individual domain of their kings. Their architectural style was a French invention. Its spread throughout Europe signifies French ascendency and influence in the later Middle Ages, as the Romanesque especially signifies Germanic power and greatness in the earlier Middle Ages. In Gothic architecture we have therefore to consider two distinct movements. One was the evolution as accomplished in one spot. The other was the gradual displacement of Romanesque methods in countries exterior to France, where they were supplanted by a style directly introduced and, so to speak, ready-made. As the rise and spread of Gothic cathedral architecture was undoubtedly the most important feature of art history between the thirteenth and the sixteenth centuries (1200–1500 A.D.), this period is accordingly named ; but most interesting developments in the art of design were made in Italy during these centuries, which were quite independent of it, as was also mainly the Italian architecture, which is notwithstanding, for the given dates, known as the "Italian Gothic."
The word "Gothic" itself is one of Italian coinage and was used by the Italians of the later Middle Ages to designate all buildings of Northern Europe without reference to any of our own distinctions of period or style. We still speak of the "Goths and Vandals" when we wish to designate barbarism, and the word "Gothic" simply meant to Italian comprehension "Germanic," in the large sense, or as we should say—"medieval." This historic prejudice of the Italian against Germanic and Northern Europe explains the first use of the word "Gothic," which was subsequently adopted by Northern Europe with the style and taste of the Renaissance during and after the sixteenth century. It was this Renaissance style (revival of the Greco-Roman classic style) which finally then displaced and supplanted the Gothic. This was abandoned more or less rapidly all over Europe and there is, broadly speaking, a gap of three hundred years between the modern copies of Gothic buildings and the old originals, which gap is filled by the Italian Renaissance style.
In Northern Renaissance Europe the word "Gothic" was also applied indiscriminately to medieval buildings of all dates and without reference to the peculiar style which we distinguish by it. The word was also used in the same contemptuous and prejudicial sense. It was not till the nineteenth century that a revived interest in the Middle Ages at large led to a revived interest in the latest, largest, and most numerous cathedrals, and a distinctive name was then required for their style. This was obtained by confining the word already in use to the one period and coining new ones for the earlier styles. This history of the word is therefore a history of the causes which led to the overthrow of the style, and also of the causes which have recently led to its revival and to the modern study of its ancient monuments.
The elementary explanations of the rise of the Gothic style are all connected with the increasing areas and size of the great cathedrals and this increase of dimensions as found, for instance, in France, is related to the growth of the French cities under the political and historical conditions just explained. And what held especially for France at this time in the first instance, held also for Europe in general in its Gothic period.
All explanations or comprehensions of a great art must start from the conditions which produced it. Therefore, we must first consider the Gothic architecture from this point of view. Its masonry is vital with the life of an epoch and this we must first try to seize. One grand point is that modern states and modern nations did not exist in the Middle Ages. There were corporations, there were cities, there were religious orders, there were feudal estates with their owners (chiefs or "barons"), and warrior supporters, and there were kings but there were no countries and no nations. That is to say, there were no national countries. Each language of modern Europe is the development of a dialect. In the language of a given nation there were then as many dialects as there are now languages in Europe, and these were as incomprehensible to the other districts of the country as a foreign language now is to one who has not learned it. This was one great cause of the power of the clergy, who all spoke one language, viz.: Latin. Now a nation and a country, as we understand the word, must have a common language. This is the first necessary bond between men to be understood. In the absence of a country and of obvious national interests, the corporations, cities, religious orders, and feudal estates were the units of society. National states were being organized by the monarchies, but they did not exist in a developed form until the sixteenth century, when the Gothic cathedral style was abandoned.
An equally important consideration concerns the religious faith of the people and the importance of this faith in their daily lives, and consequently in their art. In the absence of the scientific, historical, poetic, and romantic literature of modern times, the literature of the Bible had an absorbing historical and poetic, as well as purely religious, interest for the Middle Ages. The lessons and the stories of the Bible were taught and told by painting and sculpture in default of printed books. In paintings and sculptures and stained glass, the cathedral was a monument of literature in stone. The interest in church matters is shown by the number of minor churches which were built. For the Gothic period the cathedrals were almost as much civic buildings as they were churches, and in the sense that they embodied the pride, the ambition, and the rivalries of the cities, this was eminently the case. But they were also actually used for town meetings, for public festivals, and for theatrical exhibitions-the "Miracle Plays " and " Passion Plays," which have survived in one famous modern instance at Ober-Ammergau. In the Middle Ages the church and the cathedral were always open, like the Catholic churches of our own day.
Thus the industrial arts of the Gothic period as a whole are illustrated through these buildings, which are moreover, as monuments of engineering execution, worthy of all admiration. The mathematical, geometrical, and statically science requisite for their construction is our best authority for the high civilization of their time. Their architects were moreover not, like our own, educated apart from the artisans and masons and sculptors who were their servants. The architect of the cathedral was the master-mason, a fact of supreme importance for the perfection of these buildings, for the understanding of their subtle art, and for the comprehension of the changed conditions in our own time which make it impossible for us to rival them.” (http://www.oldandsold.com/articles08/roman-18.shtml)
Examples
The Flight Into Egypt
“One of the best preserved panels-from a window that narrated Jesus’s childhood. The crisp elegance of the delineation of faces, foliage, and drapery, painted on with vitreous enamel on the vibrantly colored pieces of glass that make up the panel is almost as clear today as it was when the windows were new. One unusual detail-the Virgin reaching to pick a date from a palm tree that has bent down at infant Jesus’s command to accommodate her hungry grasp-is based on an apocryphal Gospel that was not included in the canonical Christian scriptures, but was a very popular source for the 12th century artists.” (Art History, Marilyn Stokstad/Michael W. Cothren, Fourth Edition/volumn 1, 2011 Pearson Education, Inc., page 495)
Masons At Work
“A contemporary painting that shows a building site with masons at work. Carpenters have built scaffolds, platforms, and a lifting machine. Master stonecutter’s measure and cut stones. Workers carry and hoist blocks by hand or with a lifting wheel. Thousands of stone had to be accurately cut and placed.” (Art History, Marilyn Stokstad/Michael W. Cothren, Fourth Edition/volumn 1, 2011 Pearson Education, Inc., page 501)
Queen Blanche Of Castile And King Louis IX
“The dedication page shows the teenage King Louis IX and his mother Queen Blanche of Castile, who served as regent of France until he came up age. The royal pair-emphasized by their elaborate thrones and slightly oversized heads-appear against a solid gold background under a multicolored architectural framework. Below them, a clerical scholar (left) dictates to a scribe, who seems to be working on a page from this very manuscript, with a column of roundels already outlined for the painting.” (Art History, Marilyn Stokstad/Michael W. Cothren, Fourth Edition/volumn 1, 2011 Pearson Education, Inc., page 511)
The Miracle Of The Crib At Greccio
“Portraying St. Francis making the first Christmas manger at the church at Greccio. The scene-like all Gothic narratives, set in the present even though the event portrayed took place in the past-unfolds within a Gothic church that would have looked very familiar to late 13th century viewers.” (Art History, Marilyn Stokstad/Michael W. Cothren, Fourth Edition/volumn 1, 2011 Pearson Education, Inc., page 526)
Contemporary Period:
“Contemporary just means "art that has been and continues to be created during our lifetimes". In other words, contemporary to us. Now, of course, if you are 96-years old and reading this, you can expect a certain amount of overlapping between "Contemporary" and "Modern" art in your lifetime. A good rule of thumb is: Modern: Art from the Impressionists (say, around 1880) up until the 1960's or 70's and Contemporary: Art from the 1960's or 70's up until this very minute.
Here at About Art History, 1970 is the cut-off point for two reasons. First, because it was around 1970 that the terms "Postmodern" and "Postmodernism" popped up - meaning, we must assume, that the Art World had had its fill of Modern Art starting right then.
Secondly, 1970 seems to be the last bastion of easily classified artistic movements. If you look at the outline of Modern Art, and compare it to the outline of Contemporary Art, you'll quickly notice that there are far more entries on the former page. This, in spite of the fact that Contemporary Art enjoys far more working artists making far more art. (It may be that Contemporary artists are mostly working in "movements" that cannot be classified, due to there being around ten artists in any given "movement", none of which have shot off an email saying that there's a new "movement" and "could you please tell others?")
On a more serious note, while it may be hard to classify emergent movements, Contemporary art - collectively - is much more socially conscious than any previous era has been. A whole lot of art from the last 30 years has been connected with one issue or another: feminism, multiculturalism, globalization, bio-engineering and AIDS awareness all come readily to mind as subject matter.” (http://arthistory.about.com/library/outlines/blcontemporary.htm)
“This form of art is of the post 1960 – modernist period. It was this period of the late 1900s which saw major socio-economic, cultural, political and also educational changes the world over, which undoubtedly influenced art, amongst many other productive fields.
The rigidity in defining types of art was lost to a large extent during this time and this is what came to define contemporary art. Its flexibility aside, contemporary art deals with issues directly related to its present day world.
Contemporary artists chose to highlight the idea or impulse behind their work rather than concentrate on the medium or method used. They unlike earlier artists were not deterred by the thought of using various media and techniques in combination. Open to experimentation, these people pioneered the concept of setting their audience thinking about the subject as the most important aim of the artwork.Topics like racism, global warming, cloning and biotechnology, international politics, human rights, spirituality and economics are reflected in the work of contemporary artists.
The advent of contemporary art marked the breaking of shackles by artists to move from the conventional inclination towards aesthetic beauty and purity to address subjects such as politics, which affect the lay man. This is what brought the common man closer to the artist who didn’t seem ‘high and mighty’ like an untouchable philosopher anymore.” (http://www.art.in/contemporary-art.htm)
Examples:
Photography
“By definition a camera is a lightproof object, with a lens, that captures incoming light and directs the light and resulting image towards film (optical camera) or the imaging device (digital camera). All camera technology is based on the law of optics first discovered by Aristotle. By the mid-1500s a sketching device for artists, the camera obscura (dark chamber) was common. The camera obscura was a lightproof box with a pinhole (later lens were used) on one side and a translucent screen on the other. This screen was used for tracing by the artists of the inverted image transmitted through the pinhole.”
Film:
“Film has an important role to play in these histories. While traditional historical documents tend to privilege great events and political leaders, historians now use other records to discern the lives of "ordinary" people: census records, accounts of harvests and markets, diaries and memoirs, and local newspapers. Film is perhaps more like these records of daily life than it is like the documents that record great events. Motion pictures may provide the best evidence of what it was like to walk down the streets of Paris in the 1890s, what a Japanese tea ceremony was like in the 1940s, what the World Series in 1950 looked like, or how people in factories did their work or spent a Sunday afternoon in the park. All of these subjects could be staged and distorted, of course, and film can be transformed in many ways. But as a record of time and motion, films preserve gestures, gaits, rhythms, attitudes, and human interactions in a variety of situations. In almost any film archive, and in numerous places on the Internet, one can glimpse images of simple actions, from the way a Buddhist monk in Ceylon folded his robe in 1912 to the way people boarded trolley cars in New York City in the 1930s. While film shares much of this information with other forms of documentation, especially still photography, motion pictures allow viewers to see and compare the everyday physical actions of people across the globe and throughout the twentieth century.” (http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/film/socialhist.html)
Digital Art
““Digital art was born when the first IBM computer was used in conjunction with a digital printer to make a photo out of asterisks. This crude and ugly photo was the first digital picture ever printed. This occurred in the late 1970s. Since then, printers have improved greatly and so has the quality of the medium. In time, digital art progressed into something that we can call the “active medium”. This realm of art is just about contemporary with today but with one exception. This type of show was popular in the Soho community among bohemians except that there was something lost in the digital hype. Art has a strong history of personality. There is something lost when microchips do the painting, and these modern exhibits lacked character. The latest craze in digital art is to recreate the past using a digital filter on modern photos. This branch of art is exploding as the commercial requests for it come pouring in. This branch comes from the fact that these artistic filters can be used to transform average digital photos into elaborate impressionist paintings. This can be done with a standard filter and a unique photo. Commercially this product has found success because when it is paired with an exceptional color printer, it produces what looks like custom paintings on canvas. Artists can take a basic digital photo and transform it into a “faux masterpiece”. When these photos are printed out on canvas, the look like a classic impressionist painting.” (http://digitalartempire.com/2010/11/history-digital-art/)
