The Vitality Beneath Darkness

History of Art reveals a chronological scroll of worldwide masterpieces.Not only the exquisite collection from the Winter Palace,but also the robust African sculptures endearingly give off dazzling brilliance through different types of beauty,regardless of dynasties or geographical boundaries.However,when it comes to the Middle Ages,art dramatically turned into a bad taste of poor quality,dull as dishwater.Art fans,especially the domestic ones tend to believe that medieval arts were dreadful and withered.All the signs seem to challenge us:as an irreplaceable link of history,Middle Ages connected the classical antiquity and Renaissance,how could it be so quiet and toneless?The restless sense of confusion made me moony and distracted,as if there was a fish bone in my throat.So I simply chose to take medieval arts and social life of that period as my mission,instead of clinging to the "knowledge-faultage".This paper,based on the theory of iconography and sociology,attempts to make a investigation of the symbols and religious images of medieval arts,and hopefully ex pede Herculem.The first chapter of this paper is the introduction which includes the following aspects:the general view of the masses towards Middle Ages,the origins of the "dark" impression,yet whether this impression is in accordance with historical truth,that means if the development of the entire society has stagnated in the Middle Ages.The latter chapter discusses the new positioning and argumentation given by foreign scholars,and correspondingly,have the domestic counterparts carried out any newly developed appraisal of Middle Ages.The second chapter mainly discusses the factors that influenced the beginning and evolution of medieval arts,and summarizes the forms and social functions of it.Due to the complexity of the causes and development of arts,this chapter takes into account the theories of conditioning factors behind arts of Hagel,Marx,Hippolyte Taine and others.Finally,referring to Taine's "race,milieu,and moment" theory,the motives of medieval arts are summed up in three categories.First,it is the ideological basis of Middle Ages,corresponding to the "moment" factor;secondly,the circumstances of medieval times,corresponding to his"milieu" perspective;and thirdly the multi-ethnic elements of Middle Ages,corresponding to the "race" factor.From the conclusion of the second chapter can we learn that the main function of medieval arts is mass education.In the third chapter,the mass education through medieval arts is categorized into three levels of symbolism,and each level is deduced with examples respectively.Because one main doctrine of Christianity in Middle Ages was to worship God,thus one main connotation of medieval arts was also consistent with it.The second was to educate the masses to despise heresy,and thus to discuss the meanings and connotations of the evil spirit(Satan)in medieval arts.In the end,the masses were warned to abide by their own obligation,that is to be obedient to God and admit their sins so that human could obtain the path to heaven,which leads to the human-themed arts in Middle Ages.The fourth chapter discusses the specific forms and works in the Middle Ages,which include the varieties of paintings,architectures,sculptures and handicraft works.This chapter interprets the elements and formal analysis in medieval arts,such as scale,composition,color,texture,etc.In addition,this chapter also analyzes the symbols and religious images within as well as the interpretation of the symbolic meanings.The fifth chapter is the conclusion for the whole paper.In this chapter,the main ideas and perspectives of each chapter are compiled and summarized.As well as the fundamental themes of theological aesthetics,the geopolitical impact of various countries in the middle ages are surveyed.The specific characteristics of medieval arts have endowed with new possibilities to a potential formal feature of art,and the existence of Middle Age arts has reorientated the development of Western arts.