Whenever I see a painting or a drawing from the Medieval period in Europe, I can´t believe how far back the continent had fallen since the collapse of the Roman Empire and Antiquity. The arts and sciences were lost literally, books, scrolls and works of art vandalized and burned. The dark ages (they were not called that without reason) with their great chaotic migration period, the rise of barbarian germanic, slavic and celtic peoples, the purposeful withholding of knowledge by the ever expanding catholic church have done irreparable damage to a continent, that fell into a thousand year standstill. Compare works of art from Antiquity with those of the Medieval period (examples one, two and three). It´s flabbergasting! Medieval art had it´s highlights too, without question. There are great sculptures, jewel treasures, scriptures and pretty cool music. It´s just a very different level of ambition.

European Antiquity in turn was interconnected with the great Asian and Egyptian civilizations. There was a long-lasting mutual exchange of culture, artistically  and scientifically. A recent visit to the Neues Museum in Berlin confirmed this impression once again. My favorite piece of exhibition is the so-called "Berlin Green Head", a fascinating sculpture, a milestone in human accomplishment from around 450 B.C. The baldness hints to the depicted person being a priest. The showing of wrinkles and a very definite individual characterization also suggest a greek influence, which at the time was totally en vogue in Egypt. This kind of craftsmanship didn´t return to Europe until the Renaissance. The only Europeans which could come up with artistry of this kind during the dark ages, were the stone masons of the great cathedral building era with their secret geometrical knowledge of Antiquity; they created a movement in which their knowledge was passed on and called themselves freemasons. But that´s a different story for perhaps another blogpost...