Unit 5: The High Middle Ages. Urban renaissance
1. European politics in the High Middle Ages
1.1) General characteristics:
-High middle Ages cover 11th, 12th and 13th centuries
-Fudalism is still the system through which society works
-However, kings are regaining power at the expense of the feudal lords
-A new social group formed by traders and businessmen is born. They get rich through work and business and demand a piece of the power. It is the bourgeoisie.
-Culture is renewed. Gothic art arises.
1.2) Politics
After the fracture of the Carolingian Empire during the ninth century, there remain two great kingdoms in central Europe:
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France, consolidated as a strong kingdom, and a conglomerate of principalities from which the descendants of Charlemagne sought to restore the Roman Empire. This unified state was called, since the 12th century, Holy Roman Empire. It has nothing to do with the ancient Roman Empire. At that time, it encompassed the current Germany, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Austria, eastern France and northern Italy. That is, practically all of Central Europe.
Besides, there were some other kingdoms who played a relevant role:
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The Normans, one of the Germanic tribes who came from the north during the fifth century, settle permanently in England, northern France and southern Italy.
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The Muslims and the Christians continued their struggle, especially in the Iberian Peninsula and in the Byzantine Empire. The Muslim threat on the Byzantine Empire and, above all, on Jerusalem, causes the rest of Christian countries in Europe to form a common army to recover Jerusalem and other places for Christianity at the end of the 11th century. These armies are known as crusaders, and the campaigns carried out by them are called Crusades.
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On the other hand, in 1054, Pope Leo IX, fearing the Normans, sent his cardinals to ask for help from the Byzantine Empire. There, the cardinals did not recognize the authority of Miguel I Cerulario, Patriarch of Constantinople, and he decides to break with the Pope forever. This rupture is known as the East-West Schism. The Christianity of the West, which remained faithful to the Pope of Rome, is known as Catholicism. The Christianity of the East, which remained faithful to the Patriarch of Constantinople, is known as Orthodox.
1.3) Political organization
Sure you remember what the 'Curia Regis' was. Well, it still exists, but it has been divided into two types: if the matters that were going to be discussed with the king were not very important, the Lesser Curia Regis, formed by the king's relatives and palace officials, met. If, on the contrary, matters were important, the Greater Curia Regis met with representatives of the high clergy and the nobility.
Since the 12th century, some representatives of the cities are going to be called to participate in the Greater Curia Regis. This is a very important fact, because it supposes the beginning of Parliamentarism. The first parliament in Europe, and possibly the world, met in Leon in 1188 (Cortes de León), under the reign of Alfonso IX.
2. Agricultural progress
Norman plow: It was made of iron, and the moldboard was larger and heavier than the Roman, so the furrow went deeper and the mouldboard could move more land.
Triennial rotation: This technique consists of dividing a land into three parts. Two of them are cultivated (usually one with wheat and the other with oats) and the other is left fallow. The cultivated lands and those left fallow are rotated annually, which allowed to increase much the agricultural production, as well as the cultivated surface. As a result, the European population grew from 36 to 80 million inhabitants between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries.
In addition, the abundance of agricultural products boosted trade (very small since the Muslims appeared in the Mediterranean) and commercial cities again have a relevance that had been lost since the invasions of the Islamic Empire.
Other advances in agriculture were the invention of the horseshoe, the use of metal (more resistant than wood) and the improvement of the watermill.
3. The medieval city
3.1) Birth of the urban bourgeoisie.
The increase in agricultural production produces an increase in trade and also in the population. Thus, markets appear in each city that attract more and more people. The old cities revive thanks to these markets and other new neighborhoods appear around the markets. These neighborhoods are called boroughs, and the inhabitants thereof, who are usually merchants, are called bourgeois. This is how this new social group was born.
The bourgeoisie are grouped into guilds (merchants' associates or artisans who worked on the same products) and usually have their shops or workshops on the same street. Hence, in the old neighborhoods of the cities, the streets still retain the names of when the guilds were based there: in Madrid's historic district, for instance, we may find the Embroiderers' street, the Cuttlers' street, the Tanners' street, etc.
In the city there are other important spaces: the cathedral, the town hall, the inns, hospitals... These guilds gave protection and support to its members. These members fell under three categories: master craftsman, journeyman and apprentice.
The streets were narrow, dirty and unpaved. There was no sewer system, so the presence of rats and droppings was common. This produced numerous epidemics.
The city in the high middle ages. Normaly they were surrounded by a defensive wall
3.2 City government
At first, the cities were under the jurisdiction of the feudal lords or the high clergy. The bourgeoisie, who were increasingly earning more money from their businesses, did not want to continue to endure the abusive conditions of the lords and fought to obtain certain political independence.
Thus, they were organized into communes whose government fell to a communal council run by the bourgeois themselves. The highest position within the council was that of mayor or burgomaster, and it was held by someone belonging to some rich family of the urban aristocracy. The mayor's headquarters was called City Hall.
Lorenzetti, Ambrogio - The effects of Good Government, 1338
3.3 The rise of the trade
From the eleventh century, European trade, which had suffered a severe setback in the Mediterranean after the Islamic invasion of North Africa, resurfaced again. We have already said that manufacturing and agriculture are increasing. Silver mines are also discovered. The stability of governments provides a good sense of security for trade.
Large-scale trade occurs in the seaports and in the fairs of the cities, where merchants from all over come to buy and sell. Some of these important cities are Venice, Genoa or Pisa in the Mediterranean; and Bruges, Ghent or Hamburg in northern Europe.
4. Society and everyday life
Society is no longer based so much on the possession of the land, but on trade and business. The nobles are still rich, because, after all, they own the lands where business is based, but the merchants who make up the bourgeoisie are gaining ground. Some bourgeois, when they become rich, buy nobility titles, and some noblemen, seeing the success of the trade, decide to become entrepreneurs. These rich entrepreneurs form the urban aristocracy. The small merchants and artisans form another group called the commoners. Besides, there were other minorities, such as the Jews, who were engaged in loans and commerce and were reputed to be very good doctors. They lived in separate neighborhoods called Jewish neighborhoods or aljamas.
Bourgeois women could work in the same job as their husbands.
The Money Lender and His Wife, by Quentin Matsys, 1514
5. The first universities
In the eleventh century the first universities appear: Bologna, Oxford, Palencia and Salamanca. They were communities of teachers and students where they taught, debated and researched. There were two groups of previous studies:
1-The Trivium: grammar, rhetoric and logic.
2-The Quadrivium: arithmetic, astronomy, music and geometry.
When a student mastered these subjects, he specialized in the discipline he chose. The most common degrees were medicine, law and theology.
Teaching at Paris, in a late 14th-century Grandes Chroniques de France
6. Religiosity
There are two aspects of Christianity that were very relevant at this time: the Crusades and the Inquisition.
1) The crusades. The Muslims had conquered the territories in which Jesus lived (called the Holy Land by Christians). These territories include the current West Bank, Israel, part of Egypt, etc. The Christians launched, at the initiative of Pope Urban II, a series of campaigns to expel the Muslims from there. The first crusade took place in 1095.
Among the crusaders were military orders (soldier monks) who defended the conquests and protected the pilgrims. Some of these orders were the Templars, the Hospitalers or the Order of the Holy Sepulcher.
2) The Inquisition. In the 13th century, some heresies appeared in Europe, such as the Waldensian movement (by Pedro Valdo) or Catharism. The Catholic Church created a tribunal to monitor the correct interpretation of Christian dogma. Some orders, like the Dominicans or the Franciscans, preached the official dogma from city to city, living on alms. That is why they are called mendicant orders.
Conference about Berruguete and the Inquisition
7. Gothic art.
This artistic style was developed in the north of France in the 12th century, and it quickly spread throughout the rest of the continent. It survived until the 15th century. Although it has nothing to do with the Goths, it was called "Gothic Art" in a pejorative way because to the people of the Renaissance (XV and XVI centuries) it seemed an art too exaggerated, typical of barbarians (Goths).
7.1) Architecture
The main elements are:
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The pointed arch: tends to rise, towards the heights. It seems lighter than the semicircular arch.
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The ribbed vault: It is formed by the conjunction of the lines derived from the pointed arches.
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The flying buttress: The buttress separated from the walls to give more lightness and to leave space for the stained glass windows. The flying buttress joins it with the wall.
The main building is the cathedral, which gains in height with respect to the Romanesque one (eagerness to reach paradise) and symbolizes the power of the cities.
Characteristics of the cathedral:
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Latin cross shape.
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Three or five naves.
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Ambulatory or double ambulatory.
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Many chapels embedded in the sides or in the apse.
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Large gates and large stained glass windows. It is considered that in the churches the light has to enter, as a symbol of the divinity. This contrasts with the darkness of the Romanesque temple.
Inside, it may have several levels:
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Arcade.
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Gallery.
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Clerestory.
Some important cathedrals and basilicas are: San Denis (first Gothic cathedral), Notre Dame in Paris, Amiens, Albi, Vendome and Chartres. In Spain the most relevant are those of Toledo, Burgos and León.
Flying buttresses. Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris.
Pointed arch. Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Estella, Navarra.
Ribbed vault. Basilica of Notre Dame de Nice
Ribbed vault. Church of St. Sernin in Paris
Flying buttresses. Cathedral of Notre Dame, Paris.
Clerestory
Triforium
Tribune
Pointed Arcade
Laon Cathedral, France
7.2 Sculpture
If the Romanesque sculpture was characterized by rigidity, seriousness in the face of religious figures and the lack of naturalness and movement, the Gothic sculpture becomes more independent of the support and seeks a greater naturalness and movement. There are two types of sculpture fundamentally:
1-Monumental sculpture: It is situated in the tympanum of churches and cathedrals, in mullions, in the facades, and in column capitals.
2-Portable sculpture: These are statues of smaller size, especially of devotional type, wood or marble. There are also profane ones.
Chartres cathedral tympanum, France.
Anunciation group, Cathedral of Reims, France.
Claus Sluter, Well of Mosses, Dijon, France.
Compare these pictures. the one to the left is a late-Romanesque Virgin with Child, and the ones to the right are Gothic ones.
Polychrome carving from the
Romanesque period
French ivory Virgin and Child
Claus Sluter: Virgin from the Champmol Cartuja, Burgundy, France.
Toledo Cathedral. The clock's gate.
7.3 Painting
Painting undergoes a process similar to sculpture. At first it is a very rigid painting with little perspective, still similar to that of the Romanesque. This primitive Gothic style was called Linear Gothic. In addition to the characteristics already mentioned, the backgrounds are flat and with an abundance of golden colors. The forms are unrealistic, since the Christian message to be transmitted is more important than the pictorial detail.
St. Cristobal altarpiece
Queen's Blanca of Castilla psalter
Later, the italo-gothic style appears. This style is more realistic and tries to represent perspective, depth, the image in three dimensions. They also introduce more colors and, little by little, they abandon the golden backgrounds for others that represent the depth of the landscape. The expression of the characters is also more realistic.
Some notable painters in this style were the Italians Cimabue and Giotto.
Cimabue: Crucifix from St. Domingo at Arezzo, Italy.
Giotto: Lamentation after the death of Christ. Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy.
Giotto: Joaquin expelled from the temple. Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy.
Giotto: Christ expelling merchants from the temple. Scrovegni Chapel, Padua, Italy.
Already in the fifteenth century, painters will greatly improve the technique of perspective. This improvement will be led by artists from northern Europe, from the area of what is now the Netherlands. At that time, that area was called Flanders, and that is why this type of painting is known by the name of Flemish style. The characteristics of this painting are:
-Although it seems that it was used in Antiquity, they discovered the oil technique, which consists of mixing oils with pigments and that allows much better painting of details, shadows and lights, since it does not dry as fast as tempera, which was the prior art.
-Amazing attention to detail. The drawing is greatly perfected.
-Themes are not always religious. There is a new social class, the bourgeoisie, which has become rich doing business, which also wants to take portraits. Some notable Flemish artists were Jan van Eyck, Robert Campin or Van der Weyden.
Jan van Eyck: Adoration of the lamb of God.
Jan van Eyck: Arnolfini portrait
Jan van Eyck: Annunciation
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Robert Campin: St. John and St. Barbara
