SOURCE1 A detail from the Mariacki altar in the Church of Our Lady in Kraków, Poland, showing the arrest of Jesus. It was carved by Wit Stwosz in the late ýfteenth century.
Content
In one scene on the altarpiece depicting Jesus’ arrest, the figures, except Jesus, wear attire familiar to the artists time and place, from late fifteenth-century Europe. The soldier appears as a knight of the Late Middle Ages, not a Roman soldier from the first century CE. The buildings in the background also reflect the late fifteenth century. Before modern archaeology, artists depicted historical scenes with contemporary clothing and objects due to limited knowledge of past societies.
Context
The Church was a powerful and important institution in medieval Europe. Great expense went into embellishing churches with works of art such as this. Artists were commissioned to undertake such projects and employed people to help them in their task.
Comment
Can we trust this image? We can trust this image to reflect the significance of religious artworks to the Church in the Middle Ages. However, it is not an accurate depiction of how things looked during Jesus’ time. As students of the Middle Ages, we can trust that the artist used contemporary models to create these images. Therefore, it accurately represents the attire and objects of late medieval Europe, including knights’ armor, headdresses, coats, and belts common to that era
Jacaranda Humanities Alive 8 Victorian Curriculum Third Edition
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