ABAD PERTENGAHAN

Classical Antiquity in the Middle Ages

The classical heritage flourished throughout the Middle Ages in both the Byzantine Greek East and the Latin West. The Byzantines, who called themselves Rhomaioi, or Romans, retained many of the trappings and economic, legal, and administrative institutions of the ancient Roman empire. In the West, rulers such as the Frankish king Charlemagne (r. 768–814) or the Saxon ruler Otto I (r. 936–73) sought to revive a Western Roman Empire and were crowned "Emperor and Augustus" by the pope in Rome.

The Antique Presence in Literature

The culture of antiquity played an important role in the literary and artistic endeavors of the Middle Ages. We owe much of our knowledge of classical Greek poetry, drama, and philosophy to the scribes and illuminators who produced books for the intellectuals and wealthy patrons of Byzantine society, who placed great value on classical learning. Among these, the ninth-century patriarch Photios boasted that he had read hundreds of classical texts. The writings of Cicero, Catullus, Virgil—indeed, most of ancient Latin literature—has come down to us because it was laboriously copied by medieval monks and preserved in monastic, ecclesiastical, and royal libraries. Even in a ruined state, the baths, aqueducts, and sanctuaries of the classical world provoked the people of the Middle Ages to reflect upon the grandeur of the past. Benedict, a canon of Saint Peter's in Rome, and the Englishman Master Gregory, both writing in the twelfth century, were among many authors whose works provide us with medieval descriptions of the marvels of antiquity.

Art and the Classical Tradition

Art objects of all varieties display an awareness of classical tradition through form, decoration, and visual vocabulary. The silver plate showing the Battle of David and Goliath looks to the Old Testament for its theme, but to the classical past for its naturalistic style and use of personification (17.190.396). Medieval artists often employed ancient motifs despite their pre-Christian connotations. The imagery of Dionysos, god of wine, for example, remained popular even after Christianity eclipsed his cult (26.9.9; 17.190.56). As if to deny the distance between antiquity and the present, classical figures might appear on art objects wearing medieval dress and in medieval surroundings (17.190.173ab,1988.1.6). Sculptural and architectural fragments from antiquity were often incorporated on medieval buildings, and extant monuments such as city gates often served as motifs for medieval architects (see images of Porte d'Arroux and nave of Cathedral of Saint-Lazare at left).

In the courts of medieval monarchs, classical history and legend offered models for noble behavior. Rulers in both Byzantium and western Europe borrowed imperial imagery from their Roman predecessors to assert continuity between the classical past and their own enterprise. Greco-Roman divinities, events from the Trojan War, and the feats of Hercules, Alexander, and Julius Caesar appeared not only in illustrated manuscripts, but also in tapestries, decorative sculpture, and small objects exchanged as gifts among aristocrats (47.101.3; 16.106). Sometimes medieval artists based their representations of classical subjects on ancient works of art, such as the coins, cameos, and gems often kept in noble and ecclesiastical collections (38.150.23). These relics from antiquity might even find their way into newly crafted objects designed for religious use (17.190.1406), a vivid demonstration of the way in which medieval artists and patrons saw the pagan past as relevant to the Christian present.

JAMAN RENAISSANCE

Europe and the Age of Exploration

Artistic Encounters between Europe, Africa, Asia, and the Americas

The great period of discovery from the latter half of the fifteenth through the sixteenth centuries is generally referred to as the Age of Exploration. It is exemplified by the Genoese navigator, Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), who undertook a voyage to the New World under the auspices of the Spanish monarchs, Isabella I of Castile (1451–1504) and Ferdinand II of Aragon (1452–1516). The Museum’s Jerkin (26.196) and Helmet (32.132) beautifully represent the type of clothing worn by the people of Spain during this period. (To learn more about Columbus's voyage to the Americas, link to Gold of the Indies.) The age is also recognized for the first English voyage around the world by Sir Francis Drake (ca. 1540–1596), who claimed the San Francisco Bay for Queen Elizabeth; Vasco da Gama's (ca. 1460–1524) voyage to India, making the Portuguese the first Europeans to sail to that country and leading to the exploration of the west coast of Africa; Bartolomeu Dias' (ca. 1450–1500) discovery of the Cape of Good Hope; and Ferdinand Magellan's (1480–1521) determined voyage to find a route through the Americas to the east which ultimately led to discovery of the passage known today as the Strait of Magellan.

To learn more about the impact on the arts of contact between Europeans, Africans, and Indians, link to The Age of Exploration: Early Encounters, Afro-Portuguese Ivories, African Christianity in Kongo, African Christianity in Ethiopia, and The Art of the Mughals before 1600 A.D.

Scientific Advancements and the Arts in Europe

In addition to the discovery and colonization of far off lands, these years were filled with pronounced advancements in cartography and navigational instruments, along with other advances in the study of anatomy and optics. The visual arts responded to scientific and technological developments with new ideas about the representation of man and his place in the world. For example, the formulation of the laws governing linear perspective by Filippo Brunelleschi (1377–1446) in the early fifteenth century, along with theories about idealized proportions of the human form, influenced artists such as Albrecht Dürer (1471–1528) and Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519). Masters of illusionistic technique, Leonardo and Dürer created powerfully realistic images of corporeal forms by delicately rendering tendons, skin tissues, muscles, and bones, all of which demonstrate expertly refined anatomical understanding. The Museum's unfinished Salvator Mundi (32.100.64), begun in 1505 by Dürer, provides a unique opportunity to see the artist's underdrawing and, in the beautifully rendered sphere of the earth in Christ's left hand, metaphorically suggests the connection of sacred art and the realms of science and geography.

Although the Museum does not have objects from this period specifically made for navigational purposes, its collection of superb instruments and clocks reflects the advancements in technology and interest in astronomy at this time. The Metropolitan's collection features Petrus Apianus' Astronomicum Caesareum (25.17). This extraordinary Renaissance book contains equatoria supplied with paper volvelles, or rotating dials, that can be used for calculating positions of the planets on any given date as seen from a given terrestrial location. The Celestial Globe with Clockwork (17.190.636) is another magnificent example of an aid for predicting astronomical events, in this case the location of stars as seen from a given place on earth at a given time and date. The globe also illustrates the sun's apparent movement through the constellations of the zodiac.

Portable devices were also made for determining the time in a specific latitude. During the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, the combination of compass and sundial became an aid for travelers. The ivory diptych sundial was a specialty of the manufacturers in Nuremberg, a city that was known for its exceptional production of sundials. The Museum's Portable Diptych Sundial (03.21.38) is an example of this type of time-telling device from Germany. This diptych features a multiplicity of functions which include giving the time in several systems of counting daylight hours, converting hours read by moonlight into sundial hours, predicting the nights that would be illuminated by the moon, and determining the dates of the movable feasts. It also has a small opening for inserting a weather vane in order to determine the direction of the wind, a feature useful for navigators. However, its primary use would have been meteorological.