The Light of Art in the Vast Long Night

Author: Yao Zhonghua
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2000-01-01
Features: The Middle Ages refers to the long period from the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginning of the Renaissance, specifically from the 5th to the 15th century. In the late Roman Empire, Christianity had quietly risen but was still in a secret, unpublicized state. They operated in burial grounds—underground corridors—leaving behind the earliest Christian art on walls and sarcophagi. In 311, Constantine the Great proclaimed his adherence to Christianity, leading to the gradual development of numerous churches. These churches differed completely in structure and form from the Greek temples. Art was subordinate to architecture, resulting in a wealth of sculptures, murals, mosaics, tapestries, and stained-glass windows. The dark feudal rule of the Middle Ages destroyed the Roman Empire and its culture, but Christianity survived, with the church becoming the center of faith, culture, and education. Clergy and monks held high status and power. Knights, troubadours, and wandering scholars formed the distinctive human landscape of that era. It was an age where greed and asceticism, mystery and reason, brutal violence and fantasy coexisted.