/kloc-workers in the 0 th and 9 th centuries are making parchment.
After you have the paper, the artists who are responsible for copying (usually several, some are responsible for copying words and some are responsible for painting) first divide the parchment according to the content to be copied, and then copy it sentence by sentence. The artwork drawn by this artist is more like the decompression game The Secret Garden, which was particularly popular last year. Artists need to draw the edges with black lines first, and then color them. But unlike us, because the materials are extremely expensive and the production cycle is long, I am afraid that coloring these books will not help the artists to decompress, especially when filling those parts that need to be colored with gold leaves.
But let's go back to the original question: since they have worked so hard, why do these illustrations look less funny than serious?
Answering this question is much more difficult than expected. When we were at school, we studied the Middle Ages and said, The Middle Ages are a thousand years of darkness and a thousand years of retrogression of civilization? . This statement may not be appropriate at present, but it gave people this impression in the Middle Ages precisely because we knew very little about it. Until now, it is difficult for historians to solve many medieval puzzles. After all, what we can explain is only a small part. The lack of historical materials has largely caused these manuscripts to look very funny in our eyes.
For example. Maybe I heard of Twenty-four Filial Pieties when I was a child? Sleeping on the ice for carp? This story. Zhu, the mother of the protagonist Wang Xiang, is ill and wants to eat fish. But it's too cold to fish at this time. Filial Wang Xiang simply took off his coat and lay on the ice, hoping to melt the ice and fish. As a result, the ice suddenly cracked and two carp jumped out. Neighbors say this is due to Wang Xiang's filial piety.
The story is not complicated, but if you don't know the cause and effect, it is difficult to justify yourself directly by looking at the following picture:
The story of "carp sleeping on the ice"
However, people who know the story may say it as soon as they read it Oh, how about this? Sleeping on the ice for carp? . ? I don't think it's funny or funny. This is the great difference between no context and no context.
Therefore, when we look at any works of art, context is very important, not just medieval manuscripts. This is why many art historians insist that works of art should not be placed in brightly lit museums, but should try to keep a work depicting Christ in its original position. Without the church, some information that can only be found in the local environment may be lost.
So we look back at the two unlucky people at the beginning of the article. The picture with a knife in his head comes from Manuseku's manuscript, which was made in14th century. This manuscript contains 138 illustrations, and the main content is German poetry. Is the little brother who was killed and smiled in the picture the bard Reinmar? Where is it? Brenne Berg, serving the German cathedral in regensburg. There is no doubt that no one can die from a unipolar plug. In this place, little brother smiles probably because he believes he will go to heaven after death. If so, then death is nothing. I feel my life is coming to an end, but I can only pretend to smile. , but the beginning of a new life in sunshine.
Manuseku manuscript illustration
However, for historians, the more they study, the more problems they encounter. Although the above inference may be true, scholars have found that Reinmar? Where is it? The name Blenet Berg does not belong to a person, but to a family. Just like the Japanese knife maker Murakami, will it last forever? Murakami This name (brand), no matter which generation of family members are in charge, is the knife made? The knife being made in the village? . In the Brenne Berg family, the most famous poet is Reinmar? Second generation order? It's supposed to be him in the photo, but he wasn't murdered, but his son? Reinmar III? This is a bloody disaster. We don't know what's strange about this, whether it's the author's mistake or something else.
The unlucky ghost in the above picture, like a king pierced by a sword, is Eglon, king of Moab. Different from the story just now, the protagonist in this picture is the assassin on the right. Their stories can be found in the Bible: Judges 3: 15-3 1. The Book of Judges tells how God's people suffered and how God sent a savior, that is, a judge, to save believers.
In this story, the Israelites who believe in God are ruled by the king of Moab, and their lives are very difficult. God sent Ehud. Ehud gave a gift from Israel to the king of Moab. When he met the queen of Moab, Ehud said, I have something confidential to tell you. Please ask people around you to leave. Wang Wan never thought that Ehud was left-handed. Therefore, when he stabbed the potbellied king with his left hand, the king had no time to react.
So, is this painting of King China just to show his deep affection for him? Stabbed to death before you knew it? . For artists who copy religious manuscripts, it is far more important to be close to the original than to play freely.
In addition to being ridiculed, King Moab has different appearances in other artists' works, but the way to die is the same.
When we walk in the world, we will see many works of art that go against our contemporary common sense. For example, at the left entrance of Notre Dame de Paris, there is a statue of Saint Denis with his head cut off. The saint, a bishop of Paris, was beheaded by the Roman emperor around 250 AD. It is said that after he was martyred, he continued to preach with his head in his arms until he walked ten kilometers away.
This story may sound absurd. But in fact, this is almost as outrageous as catching carp on the ice without wearing a shirt in winter. The point is the moral behind it. Whether filial piety or religious piety, these implications are the focus of artists' creation.
If you see an interesting work of art outside, it doesn't hurt to have a good laugh. If you can arouse your curiosity about art, continue to dig and find the story behind it, you will certainly gain something.
May everyone have a job waiting for us in a corner in every trip.