The medieval art of the Western world covers a vast scope of time and place, with over 1000 years of art in Europe, and at certain periods in Western Asia and Northern Africa. It includes major art movements and periods, national and regional art, genres, revivals, the artists' crafts, and the artists themselves.
Byzantine monumental Church mosaics are one of the great achievements of medieval art. These are from Monreale in Sicily, late 12th century
Detail of The Effects of Good Government, a fresco in the City Hall of Siena by Ambrogio Lorenzetti, 1338.
Scenes of courtly love on a lady's ivory mirror-case. Paris, 1300–1330.
The jewelled cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, c. 870, a Carolingian Gospel book.
Migration Period art denotes the artwork of the Germanic peoples during the Migration period. It includes the Migration art of the Germanic tribes on the continent, as well the start of the Insular art or Hiberno-Saxon art of the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic fusion in Britain and Ireland. It covers many different styles of art including the polychrome style and the animal style. After Christianization, Migration Period art developed into various schools of Early Medieval art in Western Europe which are normally classified by region, such as Anglo-Saxon art and Carolingian art, before the continent-wide styles of Romanesque art and finally Gothic art developed.
Shoulder-clasps from the 7th century Anglo-Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo. Alternate view. British Museum.
Germanic fibulae, early 5th century
Purse lid from Sutton Hoo, c. 625
Tara Brooch, front view, early 8th century
