Medieval Christian Art Feels Contemporary to Me.

We've visited several churches and religious sites of early origins over the past two weeks, with some containing surviving or deposited medieval Christian art. This included the Dominican Basilica of Santa Sabina located on the Aventine Hill overlooking Rome.

One of my favourite works within their collection was a small fragment called "Saint Dominic and the Miracle of the Bread" produced circa 13th century. Its theme references the breaking of bread with Angels who appear and suddenly disappear, as referenced on the Dominicans' website.

This work is a simplified rendering of a mundane activity: the sharing of bread. It also nicely represents a medieval aesthetic which lacked the 'working in the round' or three dimensional quality of the later Renaissance period, and instead features a simplified technique of uncomplicated line and form effortlessly expressing a captured moment. It feels, well, very contemporary in its technique.

Medieval artists tended to employ two-dimensional renderings of allegorical or symbolic motifs to express complex theological concepts to a mostly illiterate population. Works were succinctly rendered to express meaning to the broadest segment of the population.

There's something familiar in this two-dimensional effect in contemporary art which echoes these earlier medieval Christian art-making techniques. I think this has to do with simplified two-dimensional art's ability to quietly convey meaning in an unobtrusively way to the viewer.

Just as the medieval artist tried to initiate the viewer into the world of complex theologies, I think a similar introduction happens in the simplified renderings of contemporary art-making: the viewer is initiated into complex concepts and universal themes often through a simplified rendition of colour, line, and overall composition.

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