The Transition from Monks to Lay Painters in Medieval Europe

Before the eleventh century most painters in Europe were monks (members of a religious group that lives in seclusion) and their work was exclusively religious. Such artists worked in a variety of art forms, including metalwork and manuscript illumination (the art of illustrating handwritten books), and they did not sign their work, as art was considered an opportunity for religious meditation not self-advancement. Between the eleventh and the fourteenth centuries, however, painting began being practiced by lay professionals, who had no connection to religious institutions. Inevitably, this had consequences both for working practices and for the art that was produced. These new painters followed a trade like any other. Like the woodworker, the potter, the baker and the weaver, the lay painter offered his technical [#highlight2]proficiency[/highlight2] for fee. He was by no means above asking the baker for use of his ovens to make charcoal, employed as a black pigment. Nor would the artist sneer at the cook, with whom he had many skills in common.

One of the consequences of this transition from monk to artisan was increasing specialization. Painters were painters, not to be confused with illuminators, dyers, or workers in wood and metal. [#highlight5]Such distinctions were rigidly enforced by the guilds—powerful associations of workers within specific trades—that developed to safeguard the employment of tradespeople against competition and economic uncertainty, so that it would have been unthinkable for a painter to be called in to illuminate a book page.[/highlight5]