Mezzanine Floor Art of the Middle Ages

Some scholars date the beginning of the Middle Ages from 475 when the last western Roman emperor abdicated before Odovacar. The Roman state, of course, continued in Eastern Europe until the Turks conquered Constantinoble in 1453, and certainly 1453 is much too late a date to use as the beginning of the Middle Ages. Most scholars prefer 800 ad as the beginning of the Middle Ages, when Charles, king of the Franks, was crowned Emperor in Rome. But for our purposes the Middle Ages start about 300 ad and lasts until about 1400, when the renaissance begins to awaken in Florence, Italy. In many senses it doesn't make much difference since the museum has only a couple of items that date before 800.

Art of the Middle Ages is sadly lacking in this museum but what we have will be found here. To get a feeling for European Art in the middle ages here are a series of thumbnail pictures from the museum.

Click on a thumbnail to visit the museum gallery with pictures from that period. See if you can find the picture you clicked on.

300	Early Christian Art	Coptic		Events 312 Emperor Constantine accepts Christianity 430 St. Augstine dies 496 Clovis, King of the Franks converts to Christianity 597 Christianity begins to convert the Anglo-Saxens in Britian 632 Muhammad dies
700		Byzantine	Islamic	Events 710 Spain conquored by Islam. 732 Islam's Jihad out of Spain is stopped at Tours, France. 800 Charlemagne becomes Emperor of the West. 900 Magyars settle along the Danube and eventually become Hungarians.
1000	Romanesque			Events 1000 Viking Explorers reach America. 1001 Pope sends gold crown to Magyuars to crown St. Stephen as their first Christian King. 1054 Church splits East and West into Latin Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Catholic. 1050- 1200 Rapid development of western Europe with towns, commerce, and agriculture to support them. 1215 Magna Carta limits the excesses of King John of England. 1250 The Huns start to threaten Europe. 1275 Marco Polo reaches China
1300	Gothic			Events 1300 Start of the Crusades. 1348 First major wave of the Black Death which eventually kills almost half the population of Europe. 1378 Western Church splits with two Popes: one in Avignon, the other in Rome.

Visit the museum Mezzanine where all the art of the Middle Ages is located.