The revered kingdom of France
Art World
By Kinjal Trivedi
Homo Sapiens were one of the first set of genes that were capable of artistic expression. No matter which part of the world we were located in, we used the natural elements surrounding us to make sense of the findings and use them as adornments.
Architecture:
The French people had their own ways of finding these natural elements. At first they used natural rock formations to create monolithic structures of 14 feet to 140 feet to create storylines of what they portrayed as their reality. They built many big houses or palaces for the elite and smaller houses for the villagers. Since the weather condition was mostly cold they built structures of wood and stone.
If you drive past the countryside of France, you will come across these villages with beautiful ‘medieval’ architecture that date as far back as 13000 BC to 15000 BC.
Yes! That old and still standing strong!
Once the kingdoms were formed in different areas, the kings and queens built palaces of stones and adorned them with intricate gold paint and gold sheets.
Carolingian art is one of the eras approximate 120-year period from 750 to 900—during the reign of Charles Martel, Pippin the Younger, Charlemagne, and his immediate heirs—popularly known as the Carolingian Renaissance. The Carolingian era is the first period of the Medieval art movement known as Pre-Romanesque. For the first time, Northern European kings patronized classical Mediterranean Roman art forms, blending classical forms with Germanic ones, creating entirely new innovations in figurine line drawing, and setting the stage for the rise of Romanesque art and, eventually, Gothic art in the West.
Fashion:
King Louis XIV was well-known for making a definite mark in French fashion history. During his 72 year reign from 1643 to 1715, King Louis XIV made his own fashion statement with fancy shoes, diamonds, perfumes and wigs. King Louis helped establish and boost his country’s luxury fashion status.
Theatre:
Southern France, and especially Provence and Languedoc, is known for its many intact Gallo-Roman monuments. Lugdunum, modern Lyon, was at the time of the Roman Empire the largest city outside Italy and gave birth to two Roman Emperors. The city still boasts some Roman remains including a Theater.
They created massive amphitheaters that bring together the community to perform plays and dramas.
Painting:
Painting, the representation of images on a surface, was practiced during the Gothic period in four primary crafts, frescos, panel paintings, manuscript illumination, and stained glass. Frescoes continued to be used as the main pictorial narrative craft on church walls in southern Europe as a continuation of early Christian and Romanesque traditions. In the north, stained glass remained the dominant art form until the fifteenth century. At the end of the 14th century and during the 15th century French princely courts like those of the dukes of Burgundy, the duke of Anjou or the duke of Berry as well as the pope and the cardinals in Avignon employed renowned painters, like the Limbourg Brothers, Barthélemy d’Eyck, Enguerrand Quarton or Jean Fouquet, who developed the so-called International Gothic style that spread through Europe and incorporated the new Flemish influence as well as the innovations of the Italian early Renaissance artists.
These are the few elements that even fashion houses from around the world take inspiration from.
A course in Art History or History of Fashion or Architecture would give you all the information about the heritage and more.
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