In the Western world, mediaeval art defines a period of some 1000 years, also known as the Middle Ages, which begins with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD (the eastern Roman provinces form the Byzantine Empire, a mighty power into the 11th century) and eventually ushers in the Early Renaissance at the turn of the 15th century. Petrarch, the 14th-century Italian poet and scholar, famously referred to this period as the Dark Ages, a descriptor that is frequently, and misleadingly, deployed to this day. As a great admirer of Greco-Roman society, he considered classical learning to be the ‘light’ and thus considered the period between the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire and his own lifetime (c.1330s) a period of intellectual darkness. Subsequent historians would pick up on this idea, identifying the period as a ‘middle’ point between the end of antiquity and the rebirth of classical learning in the Renaissance.
However, the mediaeval period is a crucial bridge between these periods. As the Eastern Roman Empire splintered into various smaller feudal kingdoms, many artistic styles and periods emerged. Although these are difficult to concisely define, broadly speaking they include early Christian and Byzantine, Anglo-Saxon and Viking, Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque and Gothic. The rise and spread of Christianity throughout Europe saw the unification of various secular arts and a sophisticated visual culture built throughout the mediaeval period, producing prominent works in numerous disciplines – manuscripts, architecture, sculpture, mosaic, textiles, ivories and painting.