Medieval people lived surrounded by images, all of them meaningful, although their meaning may sometimes be obscure to us.This collection of photographs is intended to show just how inescapable such images were, not just in great urban centers like London, Paris,or Dijon, but also in out-of-the-way towns and small village churches.
The fact that most of these pictures were taken in Burgundy, in the north eastern part of modern-day France, is a fortunate coincidence. It happens to be the part of France I know best, but it was also an important cultural crossroads in the Middle Ages. The Celtic inhabitants of the region were first Rome's great opponents, and then, it in the early centuries of the Common Era, became the most enthusiastically Romanized of the Gallo Romans; the area became Christian relatively early, and pagan sanctuaries often morphed apparently seamlessly into Christian holy places; artistic influences from North and South meet here; finally, during the 14th and 15 centuries, Burgundy was at least as closely associated with England as with France, siding with the English in the Hundred Years War.
The image gallery list provides thumbnails and brief descriptions; click on these for larger pictures. From the list, you can also connect to a glossary of terms which may be unfamiliar.
The organization is a bit eccentric; sometimes it proceeds thematically, sometimes it encourages you to explore and become familiar with a single location. I hope this isn't too annoying. Except where noted, I took all the pictures myself, during the summer of 1998.