Rick Steves' Europe
Art Bites 141: Feudalism, Christianity, and the Art of Monks
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For centuries monks were great artists beautifully illustrating books they transcribed.
From the chaos and power vacuum that followed the fall of Rome rose feudalism and Europe’s monastic movement. For centuries monasteries were the center of culture and monks were the great artists beautifully illustrating the books they transcribed.
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Rick Steves' Europe
Art Bites 141: Feudalism, Christianity, and the Art of Monks
Clip | 5m 18sVideo has Closed Captions
From the chaos and power vacuum that followed the fall of Rome rose feudalism and Europe’s monastic movement. For centuries monasteries were the center of culture and monks were the great artists beautifully illustrating the books they transcribed.
Problems playing video? | Closed Captioning Feedback
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Learn Moreabout PBS online sponsorshipImagine: It█s the year 500.
The Roman Empire that had united Europe for centuries was crumbling — leaving a political vacuum.
The city of Rome had been sacked and marauding tribes ravaged the countryside.
After Rome fell, Europe was plunged into what used to be called the Dark Ages.
The once-united Empire shattered into small warring kingdoms.
Frightened people sought refuge inside crude fortresses█ in towns surrounded by thick walls and moats█ or atop remote hills.
Tilling the fields, most lived their entire lives in a single place, poor and uneducated.
For centuries, there was little travel, little trade, no building for the future█ almost no progress.
People were superstitious, living in fear of dark forces.
Desperate for security, they bowed down to the local warlord, who was armed with a castle and knights, and backed by the Church.
The lord promised land and protection in exchange for loyalty and a tax on anything produced.
This was part of a societal structure called feudalism.
With peasants on the bottom, nobles and bishops in the middle, and the king or queen on top, this Feudal Hierarchy would dominate the Middle Ages█.
and produce some of medieval Europe█s earliest treasures: jeweled crowns, scepters, and fancy swords█ the ceremonial objects that reinforced the message that the feudal order was endorsed by God and all-powerful.
During those difficult times, one institution survived from ancient-Rome—the Christian Church.
It provided both stability and continuity: Roman senators became Christian bishops.
The Roman emperor — called the “pontifex maximus”— became the Christian pope (also called the pontifex maximus).
Rome█s language, Latin, lived on as the language of Europe█s educated elite.
Towering ancient monuments were now capped not by Roman Emperors█ but by Christian saints.
And rather than Caesar, it was Christ ruling from the all-powerful throne.
As Christianity spread across Europe, monasteries and convents — communities of men and women who dedicated their lives to the service of God — flourished.
In the darkest days of the early Middle Ages, when almost no one could read or write, it was monks who were the scribes and scholars of Europe.
Many of these educated elites lived in the remote western-most corner of Europe.
In fact, Ireland was nicknamed the Isle of Saints and Scholars.
The earliest monastic communities were small — fortified hamlets of humble huts— built like stone igloos.
Twelve hundred years ago those Irish monks stacked stones to build this chapel.
Its finely fitted walls — stone without mortar — still keep out the rain.
Monks lived simple lives of work and prayer.
More educated than most, they kept alive or developed early technology like metal-working.
Their most important task was meticulously copying sacred texts.
In a mostly illiterate world, these monks preserved the knowledge of ancient times with beautifully-illustrated books called “illuminated manuscripts.” Copying books by hand was painstaking work.
Ornamenting these pages was an opportunity for the monks to exercise their artistic creativity.
They went to great lengths — using powders from crushed bugs and precious stones — to get the most vivid colors.
They wrote on vellum — calfskin scraped with a knife.
This holy book incorporates both Christian imagery and pagan motifs from the indigenous Celtic culture.
With their hard work, education, and artistic flair, these monks were keeping literacy alive for Western civilization while creating some of the finest art of the age.
Eventually, the monastic movement spread across Europe, growing big, rich, and powerful.
Monasteries housing thousands of monks were part of a vast Christian network that stretched from Rome to Scotland.
Giving the fragmented Continent some cohesiveness█ they helped set the stage for a new era.
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Art Bites 192: Surrealism and Salvador Dalí
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Art Bites 191: Edvard Munch and Expressionism
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Art Bites 190: Romanticism and Romantic Era Painting
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Art Bites 187: Toulouse-Lautrec
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Art Bites 186: Modern Art and the Isms of the 20th Century
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Art Bites 185: Art Nouveau, Mucha, and Gaudí
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Art Bites 184: Vincent van Gogh
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Art Bites 183: The Post-Impressionists: Seurat, Cézanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh
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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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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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Art Bites 177: Rubens, a Master Painter of the Northern Renaissance
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Art Bites 175: Bernini and Baroque Sculpture
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Art Bites 174: Baroque Art as Propaganda
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Art Bites 173: Baroque Art, the Catholic Church, and the Virgin Mary
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Art Bites 172: The Reformation and the Baroque Age
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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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Art Bites 168: Royal Palaces of the Baroque Age and Versailles
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Art Bites 167: Royal Portraits and Velázquez
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Art Bites 166: Rembrandt, The Great Dutch Master
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Art Bites 165: Sandro Botticelli
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Art Bites 164: The Medici Family, Patrons of the Florentine Renaissance
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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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Art Bites 160: Renaissance Artists: Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Donatello
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Art Bites 159: The Renaissance Defined
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Art Bites 158: Hieronymus Bosch and "The Garden of Earthly Delights"
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Art Bites 156: Pieter Brueghel the Elder for a Slice of Flemish Life
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Art Bites 155: Oil Painting, an Improvement over Tempera
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Art Bites 154: The Northern Renaissance, Flemish Painting, and Jan van Eyck
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Art Bites 152: El Greco and Mannerism
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