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Reviewed Work(s): The Rise of the Artist in the Middle Ages and Early Renaissance by
Andrew Martindale
Review by: Ronald W. Neperud
Source: Studies in Art Education, Vol. 15, No. 1 (Autumn, 1973), pp. 70-72
Published by: National Art Education Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1320061
Accessed: 09-10-2016 18:14 UTC
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REVIEWS
Martindale, Andrew, THE RISE OF THE ARTIST IN THE MIDDLE AGES AND
EARLY RENAISSANCE, New York: McGraw Hill, 1972, 144 pp.
Originally, the content of this book appeared as a chapter in the voluminous The
Flowering of the Middle Ages, 1966, a Thames and Hudson publication. Now, in a
somewhat revised and enlarged form, Rise of the Artist traces the changing attitudes
toward art and artists during the middle ages and the early Renaissance from
approximately 1300 to 1450. A chapter is devoted to each position of the artist in town
and country, in the court, in the cloister, as architect, and finally in the Renaissance.
Using such sources as taxation rolls and ordinances, the author indicates that artists as
image-makers in the early middle ages were but one craftsman among the makers of
shoes, clothing, bread and other necessities of life. Medieval trades and crafts were
organized on a guild basis by city, the guiding ordinances of which provide some insights
into the role of the painter. Painters during the thirteenth century whether in London,
Florence, or Paris were primarily engaged in nothing more glamorous than the painting of
saddles and horse trappings or armor.
"Image-makers" were quite commonly specialized masons of whom the imagier most
nearly approached the sculptor; among these was a Claus Sluter, the sculptor of the Duke
of Burgundy. Senior masons were accorded the highest prestige as a sort of engineer in
charge of the construction of chapels and the like. The author concludes that public
recognition for a painter or image-maker was nonexistent. An interesting account is
related of the recognition accorded Giotto in Florence. In a successful attempt to get him
to stay in the city, this foremost of early Florentine painters was made City Architect in
1334. In effect, the most appropriate existing honor was bestowed rather than raising the
craft of painting to a level of honor.
The author speculates that the initial rise of the artist had little to do directly with
artistic matters. The first development in the relationship of the artist to royal circles was
to find a place for him in the household. A distinction was made between general service
to the king and service at court with membership in the royal familia of the highest honor.
The position in the household might range from usher and sergeant-at-arms to the more
common valet de chambre or personal attendant to the king. The object of retaining a
painter was to insure availability of the services of a good craftsman when needed. The
lot of the artist particularly in assignment to lesser members of the royal family was not
particularly an envied one with payments uncertain, and demands outrageous, often for
such monotonous productions as numerous pennants and banners.
The greatest achievement of the monastic artists was in the period prior to the
fourteenth century. The author confines his discussion to those artists belonging to a
religious community and bound by vows to some form of religious observance. St.
Benedict in the monastic Rule, the basis of western monasticism, defined the conditions
for admittance of craftsmen to a monastery. These forbade that they allow their skill to
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BOOK REVIEWS
71
some interesting speculations about the degree of control the architect extende
appears that early in medieval times the architect's influence may have ended w
problems of general design and engineering, giving painters and sculptors a relatively
hand. The change toward the architect as "master-mind" becomes apparent in such l
examples as portions of Canterbury cathedral or the work of Brunelleschi in Floren
The division between the labor and the planning of architecture was apparen
The author questions the commonly held view of the anonymous medieval artist
renaissance periods suggests no less an individualism for the medieval artist. Howev
there are few detailed records of the medieval artists while art and artists become the
object of intelligent interest among educated and articulate men during the Renaissance.
Apparently, there was "little evidence for an informed interest in the arts by non-artists at
all" during the middle ages. It is suggested that the entry of artists into the royal circle, if
even for other than artistic purposes, was a step towards professional recognition. It
becomes clear that it is difficult, indeed dangerous, to generalize about the rise of the
artist in the middle ages in terms of the often fragmentary and scattered accounts.
Having been initially accepted among royal circles for other than purely artistic
reasons, the artist during the Renaissance gradually gained a new respectability. This new
dignity came as a result of renewed interest in classical literature wherein the artist was
regarded more favorably than in the middle ages. The author regards the interests in
antiquities as effective in changing attitudes "because the artists had themselves narrowed
the credibility gap between the two images of themselves as city craftsmen and as
'near-gentlemen'. Moreover, this area of propaganda could only be effective because of
the compelling fascination of Classical antiquity, as polite fashion followed in the wake of
humanistic enthusiasm." The result of this interest was an increased awareness of the
original Flowering of the Middle Ages was a "glossy" work, not particularly sympathetic
cliches. It serves to call to our attention that perhaps too often in our haste to give
students historical overviews, art becomes reduced to a generality lacking any connection
to individuals in that slide, illustration, or stylistic definition, existing as in Malraux's
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72
which to view art, the scholarship of Martindale and others provide that knowledge i
light of which our pre-conceptions diminish while re-vitalizing our relationships to
visual arts.
to further consider how societies regard and value artists and art today. This entire ar
values of that culture. We are shown that art derives from the environmental,
psychological, and historical components of human existence. By isolating art from social
factors, we isolate it from life.
Reviewed by F. Graeme Chalmers, assistant professor, Graduate Programmes in Fine Arts,
Sir George Williams University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
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