Reddit reviews Medieval Art

Depends on your discipline in medieval art. What are you looking for?

Marilyn Stokstad wrote a decent survey textbook on medieval art here. It's a good starting point. You can also check out James Snyder's survey on "Medieval Art" but I find it a bit "drier" compared to Stokstad, who gets into function and context a bit more than Snyder's formalist approach.

Check out the slim volumes in the Oxford Art Series. These go for a more thematic approach but they are quite good and accessible. They include Veronica Sekules "Medieval Art"; Lawrence Nees "Early Medieval Art" (great and kind scholar); Susie Nash's Northern Renaissance book, Roger Stalley's book on medieval architecture, and so forth.

From the "Perspective" series, check out Andreas Petzold's book on Romaneque art and the late, great Michael Camille's book on Gothic art. For that matter, check out anything by Michael Camille.

Although long and at times tedious, I love Peter Lasko's "Ars Sacra" (focusing primarily on medieval "minor arts"). It's part of the Yale University Press series on various art topics; I think Paul Williamson wrote a text on Gothic art and there's an old Romanesque title by George Zarnecki.

There are many survey texts on medieval manuscripts: look for books by JJG Alexander, Christopher de Hamel, and Raymond Clemons/Timothy Graham.

I am not going to address survey textbooks on early Christian and Byzantine art here, but if you want I can certainly send a list.

Start with the ones listed above; if you want more titles, please say so. I can try and dig up my reading list for my M.A. and Ph.D. exams, although they are about a decade old.

(Source: Ph.D. in Medieval and Northern Renaissance Art.)

Here is the survey text for general works, and if you haven't read Gombrich's "The Story of Art," it is a must-read for a potential grad student!