Problems in Early Medieval Art -
Story-telling in the Middle Ages: Medieval Narrative Art in Manuscripts,
Mural Paintings and Mosaics

	The art of Medieval Europe was almost entirely based on texts.
The Bible, the Golden Legend, Arthurian romances, and royal chronicles all
provided hundreds of stories that were portrayed in the art commissioned
both for the Christian Church and for private patrons.  Artists instructed
and diverted the viewers using a variety of narrative techniques, some
straightforward, some subtle and cunning.  Manuscripts could include
cycles of illustrations that picked themes from the text, reinterpreting
it for a specific patron.  Mural paintings or stained glass could
incorporate  imagery  meant to construct a message across a
three-dimensional space.  Images from different stories could be
interwoven  to provide a composite message understandable only to the
initiated and educated viewer.  This seminar  will explore  the stories
and methods used by medieval narrative art, and the audience for whom it
was intended.