Rick Steves' Europe
Art Bites 137: Secular Medieval Art: Castles and Tapestries
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Grand city halls, luxurious-for-the-day castles and palaces, and finely woven tapestries.
With rising prosperity, Europeans created more secular art and architecture: grand city halls and luxurious-for-the-day castles and palaces, with their stony walls warmed by finely woven tapestries (like the 500-year-old “Lady and the Unicorn”).
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Rick Steves' Europe
Art Bites 137: Secular Medieval Art: Castles and Tapestries
Clip | 5m 37sVideo has Closed Captions
With rising prosperity, Europeans created more secular art and architecture: grand city halls and luxurious-for-the-day castles and palaces, with their stony walls warmed by finely woven tapestries (like the 500-year-old “Lady and the Unicorn”).
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipReligion served art and art served religion throughout the Middle Ages.
Religion served art and art serv throughout the Middle Ages.
But in the later centuries, with rising prosperity, secular art— art which had nothing to do with God— was becoming increasingly common.
It was art that served not the Church, but Europe█s rich and powerful.
And this included architecture.
In an increasingly secular society— from Brussels█to Siena— it was the Gothic city hall, not the church, that towered over the main square.
And the elites of the High Middle Ages built Europe█s magnificent castles and fortresses█ not for their salvation but for both their protection█ and their pleasure.
From Switzerland█ to the Rhineland and from distant Scotland█ to the south of France.
Castles and palaces provided a stage for the festivities of the medieval world— of chivalrous knights in shining armor, dazzling heraldry, and tournaments with flags flying.
And, with Europe█s new-found wealth, these fortified palaces were decorated with increasingly secular art.
Rather than saints and Bible lessons, this noble family wanted voluptuous swoops and curls— a fantasy of elves, jesters, archers, and fruity symbols of fertility.
Tapestries on the wall both warmed the stone rooms and brightened the atmosphere, with colorful scenes that shared the feudal lord█s perspective on current events, taught morals, and told folk tales.
This series of tapestries (from a slightly later age) gives us a peek into the everyday lives of ordinary people.
With captions in old French, it cleverly spins a story of youthful lustiness that shatters stereotypes of medieval piety: A shepherd girl cradles a bowl of soup in her lap.
The flirtatious shepherd cuts a slice of bread and— as the text reads— saucily asks if he can “dip into the goodies in her lap.” Another woman brazenly strips off her socks to dangle her feet in water.
Couples freely dance together under the apple tree of temptation and around a bagpipe — symbolic back then of hedonism.
Where does all this wantonness lead?
Marriage.
Music plays, the table is set and the meat█s on the BBQ, as the bride enters with her groom.
The bride smiles bravely, closely escorted by two men, while the scared groom gulps nervously.
Tapestries were designed by Europe█s best artists and woven from rich fabrics in high-tech- for-the-day factories.
They became a distinctly medieval art form.
This exquisite series captures Europe█s blossoming appreciation for sheer beauty at the end of the Middle Ages.
It█s a celebration of all the senses.
There█s taste... A woman takes candy from a servant█s dish to feed to her parakeet█ while the little dog licks his lovingly woven chops.
Hearing: The elegant woman plays sweetly on an organ, calming an audience of wild beasts.
In this fanciful world, humans and their fellow creatures live in harmony in an enchanted garden.
Sight: The unicorn cuddles up and looks at himself in the lady█s mirror, pleased with what he sees.
The lion turns away and snickers.
Touch: That█s the most basic and dangerous of the senses.
Here, the lady “strokes the unicorn█s horn”█ and the lion looks out at us to be sure we get the double entendre.
Medieval Europeans were enjoying the wonders—and physical pleasures--of life.
The words on our lady█s tent read: “To My Sole Desire.” What is her only desire?
Is it jewelry?
Or is she putting the necklace away and renouncing material things?
Is it God?
Love?
The unicorn and lion open the tent.
Is she going in to meet the object of her desire?
Or just stepping out█ to embrace the world?
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Art Bites 195: Social Realism, the Art of Communism
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Art Bites 194: Picasso’s "Guernica"
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Clip | 2m 54s | With the large Cubist-inspired painting, Picasso put a human face on “collateral damage.” (2m 54s)
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Clip | 1m 36s | With heavy outlines and brilliant colors, Chagall celebrated nature and its creator. (1m 36s)
Art Bites 192: Surrealism and Salvador Dalí
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Clip | 2m 34s | Surrealists explored the subconscious painting everyday images in jarring juxtapositions. (2m 34s)
Art Bites 191: Edvard Munch and Expressionism
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Clip | 2m 6s | Expressionism captured emotions, trauma, and cynicism with distorted and garish works. (2m 6s)
Art Bites 190: Romanticism and Romantic Era Painting
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Clip | 2m 43s | Epic, melodramatic canvases, images that stir the emotions, and an embrace of nature. (2m 43s)
Art Bites 189: Pablo Picasso: Cubism, "Guernica," and Much More
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Clip | 5m 14s | Picasso invented Cubism, captured the horror of warfare, and found freedom in abstraction. (5m 14s)
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Clip | 1m 35s | Gustav Klimt, with paintings like “The Kiss” captured a simmering hedonism in Vienna. (1m 35s)
Art Bites 187: Toulouse-Lautrec
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Clip | 1m 46s | Toulouse-Lautrec painted the turn-of-the-century bohemian scene on Paris’ Montmartre Hill. (1m 46s)
Art Bites 186: Modern Art and the Isms of the 20th Century
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Clip | 4m 31s | 20th-century art was a parade of isms: Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism. (4m 31s)
Art Bites 185: Art Nouveau, Mucha, and Gaudí
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Clip | 5m 3s | Art Nouveau went organic with willowy maidens, melting eaves, and an embrace of nature. (5m 3s)
Art Bites 184: Vincent van Gogh
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Clip | 3m 1s | Van Gogh’s wild brush strokes and vivid colors portrayed the world he felt so intensely. (3m 1s)
Art Bites 183: The Post-Impressionists: Seurat, Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh
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Clip | 3m 51s | Dots, slabs, primitive Tahitian scenes, wild brush strokes, and vivid colors. (3m 51s)
Art Bites 182: Claude Monet and His Waterlilies
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Clip | 2m 10s | The true subject of Monet’s “Waterlilies” is the changing reflections on the pond. (2m 10s)
Art Bites 181: Rodin, Impressionism in Sculpting
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Clip | 1m 27s | Auguste Rodin brought Impressionism to stone with iconic statues like “The Thinker.” (1m 27s)
Art Bites 180: Impressionism, Monet, Renoir, and Degas
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Clip | 6m 20s | The Impressionists revolutionized art with a focus on nature: light, shadow, and color. (6m 20s)
Art Bites 179: Northern Baroque Painting: Hals, Steen, Vermeer
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Clip | 4m 53s | Hals, Steen, Vermeer painted slices of regular life and group portraits of city bigwigs. (4m 53s)
Art Bites 178: Baroque Music, Bernini for Your Ears
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Clip | 2m 5s | This mini piano concert demonstrates how Baroque music can be like Bernini for your ears. (2m 5s)
Art Bites 177: Rubens, a Master Painter of the Northern Renaissance
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Clip | 3m 28s | Rubens painted mythic battles, Catholic miracles, bloody hunts, and “Rubenesque” women. (3m 28s)
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Clip | 1m 53s | Gritty realism, stark lighting, and drama gave Caravaggio’s art an emotional punch. (1m 53s)
Art Bites 175: Bernini and Baroque Sculpture
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Clip | 5m 37s | Rome was Bernini’s gallery where you can see his squares, fountains, and finest statues. (5m 37s)
Art Bites 174: Baroque Art as Propaganda
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Clip | 3m 29s | Baroque art was propaganda for the state or for the Church. (3m 29s)
Art Bites 173: Baroque Art, the Catholic Church, and the Virgin Mary
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Clip | 3m 42s | Pro-Vatican Baroque featured big canvases, dramatic statues, and exuberant architecture. (3m 42s)
Art Bites 172: The Reformation and the Baroque Age
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Clip | 5m 6s | The roots of Baroque go back to the 1500s when it told the story of the religious wars. (5m 6s)
Art Bites 171: Neoclassical Art, the Age of Revolution, and Napoleon
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Clip | 5m 6s | The French Revolution came with art that celebrated liberty, equality, and brotherhood. (5m 6s)
Art Bites 170: Neoclassical Art and Architecture, the Age of Enlightenment
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Clip | 5m 49s | Neoclassical was a stern, no-frills style that celebrated a new age of science and reason. (5m 49s)
Art Bites 169: Rococo Art and Architecture, Baroque Gone Wild
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Clip | 2m 7s | Rococo art featured aristocrats playing in their Baroque palaces and bucolic backyards. (2m 7s)
Art Bites 168: Royal Palaces of the Baroque Age and Versailles
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Clip | 5m 36s | Versailles, with its heavenly painted ceilings, was the ultimate Baroque palace. (5m 36s)
Art Bites 167: Royal Portraits and Velázquez
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Clip | 3m 33s | Painters, such as Velázquez, were paid to make royals look more divine than they were. (3m 33s)
Art Bites 166: Rembrandt, The Great Dutch Master
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Clip | 3m 51s | Rembrandt earned a living painting and told Bible stories with a subtle mastery of drama. (3m 51s)
Art Bites 165: Sandro Botticelli
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Clip | 2m 24s | Botticelli painted big colorful celebrations of the Renaissance like a fertile springtime. (2m 24s)
Art Bites 164: The Medici Family, Patrons of the Florentine Renaissance
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Clip | 3m 27s | The Medici family nurtured and employed the great Florentine Renaissance artists. (3m 27s)
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Clip | 2m 6s | A humble monk, Fra Angelico frescoed exquisite sacred scenes for his monastery. (2m 6s)
Art Bites 162: Early Renaissance Painting: Giotto, Masaccio, Fra Angelico
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Art Bites 161: Donatello and Early Renaissance Statues
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Clip | 3m 12s | The sculptor Donatello gave his proud statues unprecedented realism and emotion. (3m 12s)
Art Bites 160: Renaissance Artists: Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello
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Clip | 4m 58s | Florence, home of the Renaissance, was also home to three early artistic heroes. (4m 58s)
Art Bites 159: The Renaissance Defined
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Clip | 3m 30s | For two centuries, the Renaissance was an explosion of secular learning, art, and culture. (3m 30s)
Art Bites 158: Hieronymus Bosch and "The Garden of Earthly Delights"
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Clip | 2m 7s | Bosch’s three-paneled masterpiece takes you from earthly delights to a nightmarish Hell. (2m 7s)
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Clip | 2m 6s | Weyden’s exquisitely detailed Last Judgment is filled with symbolism. (2m 6s)
Art Bites 156: Pieter Brueghel the Elder for a Slice of Flemish Life
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Clip | 2m 14s | Brueghel was a master of slice-of-life scenes capturing country folk at play. (2m 14s)
Art Bites 155: Oil Painting, an Improvement over Tempera
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Clip | 2m 9s | Oil paints freed artists like Jan van Eyck, Raphael, and Leonardo to raise the bar. (2m 9s)
Art Bites 154: The Northern Renaissance, Flemish Painting, and Jan van Eyck
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Art Bites 153: Albrecht Dürer, Realism, Humanism, and the Master Engraver
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Art Bites 152: El Greco and Mannerism
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Clip | 4m 8s | El Greco painted supernatural visions, faces that flicker, and otherworldly altarpieces. (4m 8s)
Art Bites 151: The Age of Discovery: Portugal and Spain
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Clip | 6m 53s | Michelangelo sculpted “David,” painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and designed St. Peter’s. (6m 53s)
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Art Bites 147: Gothic Church Architecture, the Pointed Arch and More Light
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Clip | 6m 51s | The Gothic Age was famed for its towering churches filled with glorious stained-glass windows. (6m 51s)
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