Churches

Once early Christianity became the dominant religion in Western Europe, the Eastern story of a Jewish messiah in a culture under Roman...

In my previous two posts , I discussed medieval symbolic animals which derived from real-life creatures, and then the Monstrous Races,...

Triton, ridden by Poseidon, backgammon game piece, walrus ivory, Louvre Museum, Norway or Cologne origin, late 12th c. Mythical...

In my last post, I began the Herculean task of trying to give a general overview of demons in medieval art. I came away from writing...

13th c. capital of a sinner being devoured, Saint Pierre, Chauvigny, France A nasty case of Covid pretty much bankrupted my energy for...

I thought I'd finish out our year with something light-hearted and ravishingly beautiful. The West Window of Worcester Cathedral was...

One of the bittersweet realities for lovers of Romanesque art is that the majority of it exists in a state of decay and dislocation. ...

A statue has been haunting me. I saw it inside the Duomo of Milan. In retrospect, I think it's the only thing I really saw in the Duomo,...

di Balduccio monument for Saint Peter of Verona, 1339 After having examined the larger sculptures at the base of this monument, we arrive...

Capturing the back of the sarcophagus of Saint Peter Martyr is much trickier than photographing the front. The apse is quite close by,...

Caves evoke mystery to a modern person. We're so used to having all the light we want, wherever and whenever we go. Our interiors are...

The use of lions in medieval religious and political art hews closely to the traditions inherited from around the Mediterranean. Lions...

Baptism changed both in its practice and its artistic representation from its introduction in the Gospels to its depictions across...

When I began to study medieval art in graduate school, I found myself often puzzling over murky, low-contrast images in black-and-white,...

In this post, a few thoughts on why medieval churches cover themselves in stories. There are three times: a present of things past, a...

The lovely town of Bobbio has always been small and out of the way, but in the early 600s, this was exactly what the Irish abbot St....

Many's the time I've gotten excited by the prospect of visiting a medieval church, only to find that "medieval" mostly referred to the...

In the 6th century, Emperor Justinian and Bishop Maximian wanted to take back the body (land) and soul (religion) of Ravenna, which for...

The stained glass in Sainte Chapelle (building completed in 1248) represents the highest achievement of the form. When you enter the...

Few 9th century churches survive anywhere in Europe, but in Northern Spain are a few precious remaining examples. Santa Cristina de Lena...