Medieval Art, Music, and Literature: Essential Concepts

Medieval Sacred Drama

Medieval sacred drama in Europe originated within a religious context, specifically in the rites of Christian worship, especially around the celebration of festivals like the birth and resurrection of Christ.

Christian Iconography

Christ Pantocrator

Christ Pantocrator is the representation of Christ as Lord of the Universe, typically depicted blessing with his right hand (symbolizing divine justice) and holding the Gospels or the Bible in his left. These representations were displayed both outside and inside the church.

The Tetramorph

The Tetramorph refers to the symbolic animals that represent the Gospels.

Gregorian Chant

Key Characteristics of Gregorian Chant

• It is monophonic singing, i.e., one voice or melody.
• It is without strict meter, and the rhythm is free.
• It is purely vocal music.
• Originally, it did not use any instrumental accompaniment, though the organ was later introduced.
• It is sung prayer, purely religious music.

Romanesque Art and Architecture

Main Elements of Romanesque Architecture

• The chevet often featured staggered semicircular apses or absidioles.
• Construction included two belfry towers.
• A variety of materials were used, such as ashlar, rubble, and ashlar masonry.
• Primarily using the round arch, with occasional use of the pointed arch.
• Construction with columns and pillars.
• Churches typically featured three naves with a barrel vault.

Three Main Characteristics of Romanesque Painting

• Lack of perspective.
• Anti-naturalistic representations of humans.
• Figures delineated by thick lines.

The main purpose of this type of painting was to teach and impress those who saw it.

Historical Context

The Inquisition

The Inquisition was a religious court that prosecuted suspected heresy.

Medieval Iberian Literature and Music

Jarchas

A jarcha is a short, popular lyrical composition from Muslim Iberia (Al-Andalus), which formed the final part of the muwassaha. Examples exist from the 10th-11th centuries. Mozarabic jarchas were composed by educated Arab and Jewish poets, taking traditional Romance lyric as a model. They could be drawn from popular folklore, adapted to suit metrical needs (as they had to be integrated into the muwassaha), or composed as new creations based on traditional patterns. Their importance lies in being the oldest known poetic documents in a Romance language. The main theme was love and the absence of the lover. Metrically, jarchas typically consisted of four lines, with only the even-numbered verses tending to rhyme. Hexasyllabic, heptasyllabic, and octosyllabic lines are common, with consonant rhyme, though sometimes it is assonant.

Cantigas de Amigo

These are love poems of an intimate tone, where a young woman in love confesses her troubles and worries to a confidant. They are written in Galician-Portuguese and feature many parallels and leixa-pren. The stanzas are linked in pairs, where verses from the second stanza are a small variant of the verses of the first stanza.

The Villancico (Carol)

This is a type of musical composition originally derived from a melody sung by common folk. In the Renaissance, between the 15th and 16th centuries, it evolved into songs for one voice with vihuela accompaniment, or for three and four voices. Its popular roots are evident in its minor art metrical verses, usually rhyming in assonance, although consonant rhyme may also occur. Its structure typically consists of:

• Head (Cabeza)
• Gloss (Vuelta)
• Verse-by-verse link (Mudanza)
• Return (Vuelta)