French Art: Prehistory to the Middle AgesThe first volume opens with the artifacts left behind by the earliest inhabitants of the area that forms modern France - prehistoric cave dwellers, Celts, Gallo-Romans, and Merovingians - which are examined in Part I, along with the stunning artistic achievements of Charlemagne and his Carolingian successors. Part II explores the development of monumental Romanesque and Gothic sculpture and architecture, as well as the growing importance of manuscript illumination, ivory carving, and precious metalwork. The late Gothic period is the subject of the last section, which concludes with the highly refined and stylized courtly art of the late fourteenth and early fifteenth centuries - the final and perfect flowering of the medieval world. |
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abbey Abbey of Saint-Denis Abbot Abbot Suger altar Amiens Antiquités Nationales apse arch moldings architectural artistic Avignon basilica became Bibliothèque Municipale Bibliothèque Nationale building built Burgundy capitals Carolingian carved castle Cathedral Notre-Dame chancel chapel Charles Chartres Chartres Cathedral Christ Christian church circa Cistercian Cluny color construction decorative depicted edifice eleventh century enamel example figures France French art gallery Gaul gold Gothic Gothic art images ivory Jean Jean Pucelle king Laon Limoges major manuscript master medieval ment Merovingian meters Middle Ages miniatures monks Musée de Cluny Musée des Antiquités Musée du Louvre nave painting Paris period precious region Reims Cathedral relics religious reliquary role Roman Romanesque Romanesque art royal Saint-Benoît-sur-Loire Saint-Denis Saint-Germain-en-Laye Sainte-Chapelle sanctuary scenes sculpture stained glass stained-glass windows statues stone style Suger thirteenth century tion tomb Toulouse tower transept ture tury twelfth century tympanum vaulting Virgin wall West facade