Contrary to popular belief, people in the Middle Ages loved color – and could afford it. They also liked to be, well, naked. Which makes sense, considering how much Medieval people liked throwing rotten vegetables at each other.
Some people take the term “Dark Ages” a little too literally. There is a notion in popular culture that the Medieval Period was a time when everyone lived in absolute poverty, wore clothes that looked like they were sewn together by a 6-year-old, and bathed zero times during their entire lives. The dark-filtered movies and shows depicting the Medieval period are supposed to symbolically reflect how bleak everyone’s life was.
Medieval clothes: Holywood vs. reality
A great example of this is the filter used in the European portion of The Kingdom of Heaven, which holds a rather negative view of Medieval Europe.
Raggedy grey clothing and a dark filter (and swords from the wrong centuries, but I digress):
This is what Medieval Europeans of that time period actually wore:
You may be forgiven if you think that these are just nobles, so here are some peasants:
Nobles wore embroidered dyed clothing. Peasants wore simpler versions, but they still weren’t rotten-vegetables-covered rags (again, unless you were a bad musician).
Yes, the Medieval Period could be hard on people. But, it wasn’t gloomy and it wasn’t necessarily a whole lot better or worse for the average person than Antiquity or the Early Modern Period.
Medieval Architecture
The same holds true of Medieval architecture, which was also often colorfully decorated. This is particularly true of churches.
This is how Hollywood often depicts churches (of any era). Cold, grey, and lifeless:
Eastern Tradition
Russians who traveled to Greece in the late 10th century described the churches they saw as follows:
Then we went on to Greece, and the Greeks led us to the edifices where they worship their God, and we knew not whether we were in heaven or on earth. For on Earth there is no such splendor or such beauty, and we are at a loss how to describe it. We know only that God dwells there among men, and their service is fairer than the ceremonies of other nations. For we cannot forget that beauty.
Russian churches built afterward incorporated the Greek elements into their exterior and especially interior design. This is what Russian Orthodox churches look like from the outside.
This is what most Orthodox churches look like on the inside. It’s an art style that hasn’t changed much in over a thousand years and even remains fairly constant across most of Eastern Europe.
Western Tradition
Let’s go through some more churches where Medieval people worshiped in the Middle Ages.
This is the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran, finished in the early 4th century. Technically, it was built before the Middle Ages, but people in Italy worshipped in the splendor of many churches in the same style throughout the whole of the Middle Ages.
This is the Hagia Sophia, finished in 537, the Middle of the Dark Ages. Unfortunately, Muslims destroyed the Christian Orthodox murals (see Russian Orthodox church above) which would have once graced its walls and ceilings after Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Empire in the 15th century. Islam doesn’t allow the painting of sentient beings, so the Christian artwork was considered sacrilegious.
This is Basilica of Saint Servatius, finished in 550 AD, the Middle of the Dark Ages.
This is the Aachen Cathedral, finished in 805, the end of the Dark Ages.
The next two images are the Santiago de Compostelo Cathedral and Cathedral of Pisa, both dating to the 11th century. This is what was being built in Europe around when the Crusades first began.
This is the Scrovegni Cathedral, finished in 1305 A.D. and demonstrating some of the art styles which would evolve into the Renaissance murals found on later churches like the Sistine Chapel.
Many of the Medieval churches still around today have had their Medieval artwork destroyed or allowed to decay without restoration.
You mentioned nudity?
Yes, I did.
Nudity was very common until the Protestant Reformation and public bathing was very popular in the Middle Ages.
The above are illuminated manuscripts circa 14th century.
Nudity was a symbol of purity in the middle ages and everyone participated in it. Bathing, dancing, games, and feasts in the nude among mixed company were very common.
To this:
Many thanks to Slavik Chukhlebov for his answer on Quora on Medieval clothing and architecture and to Glen Monroe for her answer on nudity in the Middle Ages. You will find more images in their answers.
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Wonderful post, Nicholas! I have always wondered why most of period dramas in English are so colourless. It feels like the sun never dawned in the old times.
In India, the people of old times dyed cotton clothes with the brightest vegetable colours. The paintings of Ajanta, Ellora and Elephanta caves are a proof. And since there’s proof of trade existing between continents even before sea route was found, I’m sure merchants would have shared this skill, if they didn’t know it already.
I know, right? It’s often quite strange how we look upon the past…
Very informative and fun, Nicholas. Thanks.
Glad you enjoyed it, John! Thank you 🙂
Love the article. It took me a moment to realize why the women all had little pot guts (and the men didn’t). These women had all had at least one child before :).
Hadn’t realized that until you pointed it out! Brilliant!
I really liked this piece. It described a really engaging and interesting subject and the pictures that were included to illustrate the article published here on the pages were really particularly excellent. How it looked was really good and I would say also that it brings towards the reading of it by me as a reader great interest and further to this point I am making as the means with which I am getting across the viewpoint I would like to express in regards to the subject mentioned I really think that the article has presented a highly inspirational message especially one that resonates strongly as a writer. I like to show the colour that was present throughout the years of the medieval period when I depict the scenery and the styles that are followed by the people during this period in the way that they dressed. The way that the buildings appear to be especially things like churches and possibly certainly also relevant to castles and people’s homes as part of those belonging to high society and upper classes and those belonging to lower classes in the social structure that happened to be practised during this time in history. I believe strongly as a writer and also from the viewpoint given in the sentiment of this comment as a reader of fiction and a viewer of films as well that are mostly represented by the specific genre of fiction and filmmaking such as the historical fiction genre that to depict the styles of the time and the colours that were likely to have been used during this period also and the art followed by artists is really essential to achieve a properly historically accurate and true representation of the period in terms of buildings outside and inside of them and the way people dressed. I have enough knowledge already to know from what I have seen in paintings from this period and when I have read particular books pertaining to such subject matter as well as having watched films about it that the Dark Ages was not like this because of the colour.
Thank you, James 🙂
Loved that. Brilliant! Thanks.
Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it, Mary 🙂
Loved this, Nicholas. What wonderful illustrations! A feast for the eyes. People have the same idea about the Plymouth Pilgrims – they dressed in black and had buckles on the hats and shoes. What a joke! No buckles and the Pilgrims loved color – dressed in blues, greens, reds, yellows – whatever plants they could use for dyes. They were NOT Puritans, but Separatists.
I didn’t know that! That’s fascinating. If you ever want to do a guest post on the subject, let me know!