| When it comes to the Dark Ages of the Europe, you will come up with the tenebrous days when the wars broke out, people were destituted and the epidemic raged. People couldn’t feel happy at all in their life, the belief and the redemption like Christianity dominated the mainstream society in the turbulent age. The Christian arts rose sharply after the promulgation of the Edict of Milan. The arts in the Middle Ages is gorgeous and endowed with golden radiance in line with arts and history. The rise of the Christianity brought abundant church buildings. Meanwhile, the sculptures, decorations and murals are indispensable under the influence of sculpture arts in Ancient Greek and Roman. In a era without painting and paper-making, the pope and priests wanted all the royal nobility and common people could have access to come into contact with Christianity widely and have a profound understanding of the doctrines in Bible, therefore, numerous manuscripts illustrations printed on parchments and their writers appeared. The above manuscripts illustrations were easy to carry, learn and appreciate and became the most popular way to spread and interpret the religious doctrines. Also, the appearance of the manuscripts became the powerful tools to record the society regime, customs, and religious relief and the authoritative evidence for the modern scholars to study the Middle Age. The manuscripts became the combination of arts aesthetics and historical significance. Renowned art historians studied the image symbols for the iconology. The paper systemizes the manuscript illustrations in the Middle Age and studies the image symbols form religious beliefs, arts aesthetics, and styles. The author also wants to study the images in illustrations of seven epochs in Middle Ages according to Image Principles and discuss the achievements and transformation in this period and its influence to the future. |
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