Chess as an art. Part 1. The Middle Ages
"The world is like a chessboard, one square is white and the other is black; so life and death, happiness and misery follow each other."
- Svetlana Luchitskaya. The whole world-chessboard
Chess has always played an important role in art, cinema, and literature.
In the painting, the artists depicted not only the partners at the chess game, but also individual elements of the inventory. The game itself was sometimes considered as a model of relations between people, social hierarchy and social processes.
The first representation of chess in European painting was found in a fresco created around 1143. The painting depicts two players in oriental garb squatting on their heels. Interestingly, at that time, chess was perceived as an attribute of the daily life of Muslims.
Chess was also actively used in heraldry. So, for example, on the Polish coat of arms In Section XII, two game boards of different sizes are depicted. The legend of this coat of arms is as follows: the Silesian Golub during a trip came to Africa, where the daughter of a local leader challenged him to a chess game. One of the conditions was that the winner could hit the loser on the head with a chessboard. The pigeon won and hit the princess so that the board cracked.
Coat Of Arms In the 12th-century Architecture
The manuscript" Book of Games " by Alfonso X, King of Castile, Galicia and Leon, contains 150 illustrations, some of which depict a chess game. This book is one of the most important documents for studying board games.
Alfonso X. A book about the game of chess, dice, and backgammon. Christian and Muslim play chess, 1251-1283
Alfonso X. A book about the game of chess, dice, and backgammon. Templars playing chess, 1283
Alfonso X. A book about the game of chess, dice, and backgammon. Astronomical chess, 1283
Alfonso X. A book about the game of chess, dice, and backgammon. Big chess, 1283
Alfonso X. A book about the game of chess, dice, and backgammon. Moors play chess, 1283
Chess is often mentioned in chivalrous novels. In such cases, the game symbolizes the court culture, its ideals, values and aristocratic upbringing.
"The Novel of King Meliadus". Two kings play chess, circa 1352
Anonymous. "The Knight of Sifar", 1464
The Manesian Code. King Otto IV plays chess with his wife, between 1305 and 1340
Miniature of the XV century. History of Renaud de Montauban, 1468-1470
You will learn about the role of chess in the art of other centuries in our future articles. Follow us.
