Medieval Sculpture
There were mosaics in the medieval period, but those were mostly in Eastern Europe. There were also some paintings, but mostly what we see is sculpture decorating churches — especially the doorways. The Last Judgment — with God deciding who would go to Heaven and who would go to Hell was a favorite topic. Makes sense for a doorway of a church, right?
Here is the doorway of beautiful Chartres Cathedral in France (which dates from the late medieval period, the 12th century). Above the doorway we see a scene of the Apocalypse, with Christ in the center.
Here is a close up of the figures on either side of the doorway — called jamb figures because of the position they occupy by the side of the portal.
And notice that unlike ancient Greek and Roman sculpture, medieval sculpture was NOT freestanding. It was always attached to the architecture and you can see that the artist had to make the human figure fit into the architecture.
So here, we see figures that are elongated, and fitted onto columns. The artist had to think first about fitting the figure into the space, which did not leave him a lot of room for thinking about the form of the human body. We see the same treatment of the human body that we saw with the medieval mosaic of the Emperor Justinian in San Vitale. The figures are elongated and weightless, there is no concern for real human proportions, and the clothing (or drapery) does not seem three-dimensional; instead, it seems to consist of lines that are carved into the stone. The drapery does not show the form of the body underneath — there is no concern for human anatomy. In addition, there is very little interest in individuality or in human emotion. These — by the way — are all divine figures (do you see the halos?).
