AP Art History Unit 3 Cheatsheet: Early Europe and Colonial Americas, 200-1750 CE

Eight Major Medieval Traditions (c. 300–1400 CE)

• Late Antique
• Early Christian
• Byzantine
• Islamic
• Migratory
• Carolingian
• Romanesque
• Gothic

Shared Functions & Contexts

• Worship (Jewish, Christian, Islamic)
• Elite/court culture
• Theological & literary study
• Islamic: scientific & mathematical theory

Visual Characteristics

• Stylistic variety across regions
• Naturalism used selectively rather than avoided: much early medieval/Byzantine art favors flat, hierarchic, symbolic figures (e.g., Justinian mosaics, Lindisfarne Gospels), while Gothic and proto-Renaissance works revive naturalism (Reims Annunciation/Visitation, Röttgen Pietà, Giotto's Arena Chapel)
• Religious or courtly subject matter
• Incorporation of text in compositions
• Figural and aniconic (avoiding figural imagery) works

Continuities & Shared Forms

Medieval artists drew from coexisting traditions through:

• Early Medieval & Byzantine: Roman art; migratory motifs from East Europe, West Asia, Scandinavia
• High Medieval: Roman, Islamic, migratory influences
• European Islamic: Roman, migratory, Byzantine, West Asian sources

Facilitation Methods

• Trade networks
• Conquest & political contact

Regional Variation

Before the late Middle Ages, many coexisting regional styles made period-wide generalizations difficult. Isolated revivals of naturalism and classicism occurred, sometimes linked to Roman Christian emperors and church authority.