Medieval art history?

Can anyone recommend anything good on medieval art and architecture? I'm a medieval studies undergrad, but my school has no medieval art history classes, and I'd rather not graduate with such a gap in my education. I'm interested in pretty much everything: manuscript illumination, sculpture, tapestries, cathedrals, etc.

Thanks in advance!

I can recommend the old "masters", Henri Focillon and Emile Male, and also Erwin Panofsky: Gothic architecture and Scholasticism and Otto von Simson: The Gothic cathedral: origins of Gothic architecture and the medieval concept of order .

For manuscript illumination, check out Janet Backhouse and Michael Camille. I particularly enjoyed Camille's Image on the Edge, about art in the margins of illuminated manuscripts.

There are two excellent in-print surveys/ general introductions widely available: Lawrence Nees' Early Medieval Art published by Oxford University Press in their History of Art series, and Art of the Middle Ages by Janetta Rebold Benton published by Thames and Hudson in their World of Art series. If you want to branch out into Byzantine art, there are more specific books, since the former works mostly focus on West-European Medieval Art. James Snyder's Medieval Art is used as a textbook, but I'm not familiar with it, and all of the recommendations above are excellent (Focillon and Panofsky are two of the most important art historians of the 20th century, and Simson's book on the Gothic cathedral is a minor classic) although they will be a little less general.

For some reason the touchstones aren't working properly, but if you click on the author names the links should take you to the correct works.

One of my own obsessions is late German medieval/early Renaissance (it's very difficult to tell the difference in Germany) art and architecture. Some of the books I've found best are:

Michael Baxandall's The Limewood Sculptors of Renaissance Germany

Barbara G Lane's The Altar and the Altarpiece

Norbert Nussbaum's German Gothic Church Architecture

James Acland's Medieval Structure: The Gothic Vault

Henry Russell Hitchcock's German Renaissance Architecture

Paul Frankl's Gothic Architecture

All these recommendations look great! I'll have to hit the library soon. Thanks so much!

Anything specific for Spanish medieval art?

A few more general books:

I took a class in medieval art, the textbook for which was Marilyn Stockstad'd Medieval Art. Paul Frankl's Gothic Architecture was highly recommended on the syllabus, as I recall, as was (I think, but it's been a few years) C.R. Dodwell's The Pictorial Arts of the West.

Oh, and while its focus isn't really medieval, Virginia Chieffo Raguin's Stained Glass: From its Origins to the Present is beautiful -- though I can't comment on the text.

>#8: Spanish medieval art

I'm not sure if it's what you're looking for, but the best known Iberian (Spanish/Portuguese) art of the early Middle Ages is Moorish, and unfortunately there aren't a great many easily available books on the subject. A very interesting scholarly title like The Alhambra goes out of print quickly and is only available for high prices used; you do find some beautiful coffee table surveys of Moorish Architecture or Andalusia, however, and they are an excellent introduction.

A few days back I stumbled on a new series originating in Europe, called "Islamic Art of the Mediterranean", published by Museum With No Frontiers (link to website); it easily rivals the Thames and Hudson series "World of Art" - they have some impressive scholarly introductions to Islamic art in various regions around the Mediterranean, and the books are beautifully illustrated and printed on very high quality paper.

Existanai.. right, I know that medieval art (Christian as we know it) comes later on in Spain then in the rest of Europe. Islam held strong there almost up to the time that the rest of Europe was on the threshhold of the Renassiance. That's why I'm looking for biblical images of this period. Any suggestions?

If by "art" you mean small-scale figurative painting, and if it's Christian rather than Islamic painting that you want, there's not much from earlier than the tenth century, but from then on there's quite a lot. Check out Early Spanish Manuscript Illumination by John Williams or The Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Spain by Mireille Mentre. For art in general, try Palol and Hirmer's Early Medieval Art in Spain. I don't know if there's a good survey in English on pre-Romanesque and Romanesque frescoes in Spain, but there are a lot of them so I'd imagine you can find something about them.

Plus there's tons of later medieval stuff, which should show up in any standard survey.

Mediaeval is not synonymous with Christian, if that's the mistaken impression you gathered from some texts - it refers to a long time period in European history, and on the Iberian peninsula, it was the Moorish civilization (hence, art) that dominated. Christian art of the period was concurrent with Moorish art and also heavily influenced by it; in fact, many 'Christian' architectural works were simply built on top of existing Islamic structures, or in imitation, so to see them as separate entities, without focusing on specific structures or periods or elements, is to create a somewhat artificial distinction.

I also don't understand what you mean when you say "Islam held strong there almost up to the time that the rest of Europe was on the threshhold of the Renassiance. That's why I'm looking for biblical images..."

All Christian art of the time was Biblical, or made some sort of reference to the Bible. Some secular art began to develop towards the end of the Medieval period, which of course wasn't Biblical. In either case, I'm puzzled by the phrase "that's why"... You're interested in Medieval Art, but when Medieval isn't Christian, you're only looking for Christian Art? It doesn't make sense to me if your interest is in the Mediaeval period or in the arts, but maybe I didn't understand you correctly, so please feel free to explain.

Of course, perhaps your interest is Christianity, not all art in general (at least, a quick look at your profile indicates so, but I might be wrong.) If you're interested in non-Moorish art then it might help to narrow down your choices: Visigothic art, Asturian art, Romanesque art in Iberia, and so on, and look for specific titles in those subject areas.

#14 is in reply to kate, not dressel! And thanks for the recommendations, dressel.

misskate: I did my thesis on early medieval manuscript illumination in Christian Spain, and there are some great resources out there, but they can be hard to find! For Bible illustrations here are a few I found useful:

Early Spanish Manuscript Illumination and Imaging the Early Medieval Bible by John Williams (There's also The Illustrated Beatus, which is his major work on the apocalypse commentaries. Really, anything by John Williams is going to be helpful!)

Illuminated Manuscripts of Medieval Spain by Mireille Mentre (lots of good pictures in this one)

The Art of medieval Spain, A.D. 500-1200 (this is an exhibition catalog from the Metropolitan Museum of Art)

These are just the ones I still have in my library -- most of your sources are going to be in Spanish and may be hard to find unless you have access to interlibrary loan. There's a good overview of the history of the book in Spain edited by Hipolito Escolar Sobrino that has some good illustrations.

Good luck!

edited to add touchstones; they don't all seem to be working, though

Thanks Ipso, I'll see what I can find from your list. We have the exhibition cat from the Metropolitan and it is wonderful. We are hindered here, of course because the libraries are not very public and interlibrary loan is unheard of. My employer is out of town for the month and I want to do as much research as possible on my own. You have all been big helps

You're close enough to New York City for a trip to The Cloisters, part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Great collection of art and a great book store.

I heartily second the idea of a trip to The Cloisters. Great medieval art there, including the Unicorn tapestries. And it's less crowded than the main branch of the Met (perhaps people don't think to look for satellite branches, or think it'll take too long to get there). I've really only seen it crowded once, and that was because of a very well-publicized special event.

Edited to add some travel info: The 190th Street station on the A line is very close to The Cloisters. You can walk the rest of the way (specifics available upon request) in I'd say 10 minutes or so, or wait for the M4, which stops right out outside of the station and deposits you literally in front of the main entrance to the museum.

Yes, The Cloisters is a wonderful place.

With respect to art in the Iberian peninsula, the books listed in previous posts are all very good. Some others to consider:

On specific works:
The Golden Haggadah and The Isabella Breviary, both produced by the British Library

A Spanish Apocalypse: The Morgan Beatus Manuscript is a facsimile reproduction

More general surveys:
Spain: A History in Art by Bradley Smith
Romanesque Catalan Art

And a fabulous compendium (another exhibition-related book by the Metropolitan): Al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain by Jerrilynn Dodds

Like ipsographic, these are just what are handy on my own bookshelves.

Though "Gothic Architecture (Pelican History of Art)" by Frankl is a good book, it's a shame that it focuses on French cathedral buildings - at the expense of all other gothic architecture.

I would however highly recommend its sister volume "Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture" by Conant, which doesn't suffer from that shortcoming.

For Spain I would also recommend "Early Spanish Manuscript Illumination" by John Williams - and the book by Mr. Conant above is reasonably good on Spain as well.

p.s.: speaking of Dodwell's "The pictorial arts of the West, 800-1200" - does anybody have any idea if this is just a republication of his earlier "Painting in Europe 800-1200"? Would buy if I knew for certain that it also deals with the rest (sculpture, for instance) - but would be very disappointed to spend my money on it if they only changed the title.

Mention of Gothic reminded me of a book that once threw itself into my hands that has some great illustrations in full color, which means it weighs about a ton 8-) The Art of Gothic. It's a German book, but it's in English. I can't imagine carrying it back from a German trip, so I must have found it over here somewhere, possibly in a museum gift shop 8-)

P.S. There are MANY excellent books on illumination, some of which I own; check my library.

>23 erilarlo:: Ah yes, that one. It's one of those books (Taschen or Könemann, I can't remember which) that get parallel-published in just about every conceivable language - which is a good way to keep them sort of affordable.

And if you are at all interested in medieval workshop practices, I highly recommend getting a copy of On Divers Arts by Theophilus (Presbyter) - probably written in Germany c. 1100 (but there are various 'schools' in attributing it). It's especially good in the part on metalwork. The most easily available edition is by Dover Publications.

More Spanish art books:

Convivencia: Jews, Muslims, and Christians in Medieval Spain

al-Andalus: The Art of Islamic Spain

(Touchstones seem, well, touchy today, for some reason, but both books are present on LibraryThing.)

>3 lilithcat:, I also enjoyed Image on the Edge, which was used in a college medieval art history course I took.

>27 Essa:, Essa, thanks for posting those suggestions for Islamic art books. I am always looking to add to my (tiny) collection.

Whatever else you do or get, buy a copy of Les Tres Riches Heures du Duc du Barry. In my opinion, it is the most beautiful book ever created by human hands. To study about medieval art is a great thing. To have Les Tres Riches Heures is a richness of experience that far surpasses even the best study. I got my copy from Amazon for $35.00. I no longer remember where the real one is, but hope to see it before I die.

Musée Condé, Chantilly, France

Kathleen, I hope you'll forgive an ignoramus like myself for saying so, but - though I too love the Tres Riches Heures du Duc de Berry and own a copy - I feel superlatives tend to brush aside a lot of other, equally excellent work. There are many beautifully printed surveys of illuminated manuscripts for the general reader from all the major art publishers, and I encourage anyone on this thread - whether before or after getting their copy of the Tres Riches Heures - to also browse some of the stunning illustrations in other works of medieval Europe; just searching for "illuminated manuscripts" in Google Products or in Amazon Books should bring up a huge list of titles (7832 on amazon.com alone).

Hi, fannyprice! I'm reading Image on the Edge now. What did you think about it?

Hi, fannyprice. I'm reading Image on the Edge now and was just wondering what you thought about it!