“The Temptation of Eve” from the cathedral at Autun dates to about 1130. It was the first large-scale nude sculpture since Antiquity, and has become a hallmark of the “Renaissance of the Twelfth Century.” Although not as naturalistic as Ancient Roman sculptures could get, the Eve portrait gets kudos for representing the nude female body in a positive light.
The Morgan Picture Bible, a.k.a. “The Crusader Bible” is one of the pinnacles of 13th-century French Gothic illumination. Regardless whether it was commissioned by the…
One of the more bizarre expressions of Christianity comes from the Early Medieval Carolingian world. It is a poem we call “The Heiland,” probably written…