Depictions of Music in Visual Arts in Medieval Period

In order to have some logical procedure for discussing the images, one would need to impose some sort of arbitrary categories. One possibility would be in terms of the medium. The art of this period falls into a relatively small number of genres. First, there is the art of the cathedrals. In this category falls sculpture, bas-relief, stained glass, icons, frescos, and altarpieces. Second, there are illuminated manuscripts, as well as drawings done in the margins of psalters and other non-sacred texts. Finally, in the art of the early Italian Renaissance, there are what would now be considered secular paintings, ones not created primarily for religious reasons.

Another fairly obvious scheme derives from the fact that there are not a large number of ways in which to produce musical sound vibrations; hence, medieval instruments fall into the standard categories of strings, winds, and percussion, to which can be added the human voice and ensembles of various sorts. These can be broken in

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r instruments, and suggest that some or all of the scene may represent a song-school rehearsal. Figure 5 is an especially attractive rendition of David holding a bowed lyre. This is a twelfth-century ivory carving on the cover of the Lothair Psalter (British Library MS. Add. 37768; plate 34 in Remnant, 1978, p. 47). Figure 6 is an idealized depiction of the late Roman author Boethius playing a monochord. It is an illustration in a twelfth-century English manuscript of his De Musica (Cambridge University Library MS. Ii.3.12, folio 61v.; Plate 10 in Remnant, p. 26). Boethius, in this treatise, transmitted what was known of ancient music to the medieval world, and so he became an archetypal figure somewhat like David. The monochord was essentially the instrument on which Pythagoras discovered the first laws of musical harmony; this may be why the letters A-E appear on the soundbox of the instrument in BoethiusÆ lap. With Figure 7 the timeline leaps ahead about a century. The Crusades had put Europe in touch with the Muslim world, and classical learning and Islamic musical instruments penetrated Europe as a result. The lute (al oud), the rebec, the canon, the shawm, among others, were such instruments. Figure 7 (from Kinsky, 195
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Harrison Rimmer, Utrecht University, Cathedral Figure, , Italian Renaissance, Leon Castile, MS Ii312, Cathedral Florence, Eric Blom, IX Montagu, musical instruments, harrison rimmer, harrison rimmer 1964, rimmer 1964, kinsky 1951, remnant 1978, library ms, british library, university library, montagu 1976, british library ms, ensemble performed, kinsky 1951 viii, library ms add, rimmer 1964 david,
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