1. Cultural Analysis Through the Eyes of the Artist
Medieval Art
Cultural Analysis Through the Eyes of the Artist

2. Analyzing Art: Crash Course
When you look at a piece of art to analyze for cultural significance, you can focus on the following aspects to keep your analysis from being too vague:
specifics: the artist, the title, when it was created, which medium, etc.
colors: artist’s purpose, placement, symbolic or historical significance
foreground/background: the details, the setting, the historical context
people: facial expressions, gestures, body language, clothing, action
symbols: technique, placement, meaning behind them

3. Canterbury pilgrim badge
(The British Museum)

4. The Three Estates
(British Library)
(The British Museum)

5. Anchoress Greek: anachoretes or “one who lives apart”
From the Ancrene Wisse manuscript
(Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, England)

6. (Cliché Bibliotheque Nationale de France Paris)
Monks
(Cliché Bibliotheque Nationale de France Paris)

7. Martyrdom of Thomas a Becket
Found in a 13th-century English psalter
(The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, MD)

8. A knight
From an illuminated manuscript
(The Warder Collection)

9. Woodcut of the knight from The Canterbury Tales
(Richard Rynson, London)

10. From The Luttrell Psalter
A peasant reaping
From The Luttrell Psalter
(The British Library)

11. Henry I’s nightmare of the three estates rising in rebellion against him
From the Chronicle of John Worcester
Late 12th century
(Corpus Christi College, Oxford, England)

12. Medieval bankers
(The British Library)

13. Vox Clamantis (Latin: “The Voice of One Crying”)
“I throw my darts and shoot my arrows at the world. But where there is a righteous man, no arrow strikes. But I wound those who live wickedly. Therefore let him who recognizes himself there look to himself.”
From the Complete Works of John Gower
(MLS Cotton Tiberius)

14. (The Warder Collection)
Medieval village
(The Warder Collection)

15. Source
"Illustrations - WW Norton & Company." Oct < /illustrations.htm>