Medieval Posts & Photo Gallery

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

The Lamb before the Elders, Revelation 5: 8-10 The Great East Window of York Minster is the largest expanse of stained glass in England,...

York East Window, 1405-7, The Seventh Day of Creation Talk about biting off more than one can chew: the Great East Window of York Minster...

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...

Tiny lion, Worcester Cathedral, 14th c. While much of the ornamentation in a medieval church was instructional or devotional, the...

Portals in medieval churches were often imbued with imagery of the contrast between sin and salvation, punishment and redemption. The...

The sculptural program in Fidenza's San Donnino is an oft-overlooked set of masterpieces. Fidenza is a small town compared to the much...

Often, examining an object found in an old church is a lot like playing "Where's Waldo?" in reverse. You have your "Waldo," the special...

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...

12th century mosaic, Bobbio, depicting the month of March, emphasizing wind (I think) By the time March arrives, the January 1st...

On October 25th, 2022, I gave a lecture at Metropolitan State University on the Origins of Sirens. In the presentation, I trace how...

I love when a museum makes learning fun. The French Monuments Museum (FMM, for brevity here) in Paris gives a presentation that is...

Medieval artists had a standard repertoire of scenes from the life of Jesus to reproduce in churches and personal religious items. ...

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...

Let's look at some less-well-known uses of lions in medieval art, including art from outside the Christian tradition. Sanctuary Knocker,...

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...

For such a small patch of excavated floor, the mosaic pavement in the abbey at Bobbio (under the current basilica) has a number of...

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...

Modern representations of the snake-haired woman depict her as a dangerous beauty, but the Ancient Greek and Roman images show her as...

You could reasonably ask, "If you like photographing sculptures of people so much, why not be a portraiture photographer? Aren't living...

Jews were expelled by Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492; all synagogues were shut down and repurposed. Two medieval synagogue buildings...

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

The lion fountain in the Alhambra may be one of my all-time favorite works of medieval art. I'll tell you why in this post. (For Part 1...

The mostly 13th century palace is a studied combination of science, statecraft, and mysticism. The Alhambra began its life on the ruins...

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

Here, I continue to point out some features of church architecture, generally before 1100. Please see Part 1 post for more on this...

What follows here are some features of churches from roughly 350-1100 in Rome. Most of my photo studies are of Romanesque and Gothic,...

To tell the story of Mary through a medieval church's lens, one must have at least one space to tell the story of Eve. At Chartres...

This image features the fate of the damned--stretching from their judgment by Saint Michael (upper-left), across to punishments for...

Up in the remote hills in northern Spain, the monastery of San Juan de la Pena contains the ruins of a tiny cloister, with magnificent...

Notre Dame de Paris was engulfed in a terrible fire in 2019. Here, I include some of my photos of the interior, taken in 2018. I don't...

This entry continues an analysis of the thirteenth century choir screen of Notre Dame de Paris, with photos taken in 2018, before the...

One thing that revolutionized looking at medieval stained glass for me was using a serious zoom lens, and then spending time in...

Chartres isn't very far from Paris, by modern standards, and its veneration of Mary is an occasion for comparisons to Notre Dame de Paris....