Defining the Medieval "Arts." During the Middle Ages definitions of the arts were based on assumptions about their value and their production. In general, the arts required specific abilities and training, and ranged from manual crafts (such as carpentry, sculpture, and painting) at the bottom to intellectual or academic labors (such as theology, poetry, and music) at the top. These latter arts were commonly classified as the "liberal arts." The sixth-century scholars Boethius and Cassiodorus developed the standard medieval division of the arts into the trivium and the quadrivium. The trivium became the most basic studies in the medieval schools and universities: grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics (logic). The quadrivium was the higher arts: arithmetic, geometry, astronomy, and music. While the "mechanical" arts—including painting, drawing, sculpting, and architecture—were considered inferior, mere crafts in Roman times, by the thirteenth century their status had been elevated in Europe. This chapter discusses subjects that fall.....
This is a free excerpt of 150 words. This section contains 1,743 words. This
article contains 27,446 words (approx. 91 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Medieval Europe 814-1350: Arts Access Pass.
