Early Middle Age

Northern European Art

Sandrine Le BailAP Art History

Europe in 306 - 324

Europe in 476

Attila (395-453)

Vikings !!!!!!!

Europe in 650

Summary

• 410 - Fall of Rome – Political Chaos• 7th century : Dark Ages – Mass migrations Attila, Vandals, Vikings… created a period of instability• Destruction of the remains of Roman

civilization• Unifying force - Christianity

Anglo-Saxon Metalwork

Art of the Warrior Lords5th to 10th centuries

Map of England, 500 CE

British isles divided in small kingdoms

Each of them with a king

Christianity arrived in 6th century

Interlacing Pattern

Intricate gold and jeweled brooches or belt buckles =

status symbol

Animal Style

Sutton Hoo King Raedwald of East Anglia

Found in 1939

Sutton Hoo Purse Cover, 600-650

Animal Style

Cloisonné Technique

Cloisonné technique:enamelwork in which

colored area are separated by thin

bands of metal (here gold)

Garnet and enamel

Characteristics of Early Middle Ages

• Portable objects (fibuale, belt buckles…)• Interlacing pattern (from Celts)• Horror Vacui• Abstract depictions of animals and figures• Animal style

Art of the Warrior Lords

Other than the ornamentation of ships used for burials, the surviving artworks of this period are almost exclusively small-scale status symbols, especially items of personal adornment such as bracelets, pins, purses and belt buckles, often featuring cloisonné decoration. A mixture of abstract and zoomorphic motifs appear on these portable treasures. Especially characteristics are intertwined animal and interlace patterns.

Illuminated Manuscripts

Hiberno-Saxon Art6th-10th centuries

Vellum (calfskin)

or Parchment

Most bookmakers were monks

Scriptoria

Importance of monasteries

Codex

Scriptorium (pl. scriptoria)

Importance of Monasteries

• Repositories for books and documentsLibrary filled with sacred texts as well as literary, scientific and philosophical works by Greek and Roman authors.

• Learning centers

• Literacy centers

Eadfrith, Book of Lindisfarne, c.700

LindisfarneThe Holy

Island

Eadfrith, Book of

Lindisfarne, c.700Colored

ornamentationActive lines

Complex Interlaces patters

= Carpet pages (//Oriental rugs)

Today in the British museum

Saint Matthew from the Book of Lindisfarne,

c.700tempera on

velum

Byzantine influence:- Greek words “Saint

Matthew”- Angel’s hand

covered - Flattened and linear

elements- less soft than

Byzantine painting

Book of Kell(or book or Colomba),

c.800- 4 gospels

- Prefatory texts-Tables

- 680 pages

Book of Kell, Chi-Rho-Iota

page c. 800

Beginning of the 18th verse of Matthew

(Birth of Christ)

Hiberno-Saxon Art

Art Historians call the Christian art of the early medieval Britain and Ireland Hiberno-Saxon or Insular.The most important existant artworks are the illuminated manuscripts produced in the monastic scriptoria of Ireland and Northumbria

Hiberno-Saxon Art

Insular books feature folios devoted neither to the text nor to illustration but to pure embellishment. “Carpet pages” consist of decorative panels of abstract and zoomorphic motifs. Some books also have full pages depicting the four evangelists or their symbols.Text pages often present the initial letters of important passages enlarged and transformed into elaborate decorative patterns.

Carolingian Art

The Caroligian Renaissance(551-911 CE)

Charlemagne (King 771-814)

• 800 – Crown Emperor in Rome

• Codified code of law

• Educational Reform

• Wanted to unify his people under the Church

Charlemagne and the Arts

1st revival of Classical Art

New emphasis on the human figure(in the same time iconoclast controversy)

Flourishing Architecture

Encouraged the copying if ancient Roman books

1st Revival of classical Art

Lorsh Gatehouse, c.760

1st Revival of Classical Art

Lorsh Gatehouse, c.760 Arch of Constantine, 315

Equestrian Statue of a Carolingian Ruler, 9th c. Orb

Equestrian Statue of a Carolingian Ruler, 9th c. Marcus Aurelius, 2nd c.

Charlemagne’s palace, Aachen, c.800

Throne room

Bath complex

Chapel

Main Gate

Palatine Chapel, AachenWestwork

Odo of Metz,

Palatine Chapel, Aachen,

792-805

San Vitale, Ravenna

Palatine Chapel, Aachen

Narthex

Westwork

Westwork: monumental entrance to a Caroligian church in which 2 towers flank a lower central entrance

Odo of Metz,

Palatine Chapel, Aachen, 792-805

San Vitale, Ravenna

Odo of Metz,

Palatine Chapel, Aachen, 792-805

Clerestory

Gallery

Monasteries

Saint Benedict of Nursia

Ora et Labora

Work, Study and Pray

Plan of the monastery of Saint Gall, Switzerland, c.820

Church Library and scriptorium

Entrance

Hostel

Cloister

Dormitory

Refectory

Westwork

Towers

Transept

Choir

Lateral Chapels

Manuscripts

• Charlemagne had a scriptorium in Aachen• Renounce to the 2-dimensional painting• Wanted to restore a 3-dimension• Use of classical model• More convincing illusions of space

The Ultrecht Psalter, 829-832

Richly illustrated ink drawing of the

psalms of the Bible

St. Matthew from the Ebbo

Gospels, folio 18v., c. 816-35

St. Matthew from the Ebbo

Gospels, folio 18v., c. 816-35

Saint John

Saint Luke

Saint Mark

Carolingian Art

Charlemagne, king of the Franks since 768, expanded the territories he inherited from his father, and in 800, Pope Leo III crowned him emperor of Rome (r.800-814). Charlemagne and his successors initiated a conscious revival of the art and culture of Early Christian Rome.

Caroligian Art

Carolingian Sculptors revived the imperial Roman tradition of portraying rulers on horseback.Artists merged the illusionism of classical painting with the Northern European linear tradition, replacing the calm and solid figures of those models with figures that leap from the page with frenzied energy.

Carolingian Art

Carolingian architects looked to Ravenna and Early Christian Rome for models but transformed their sources, introducing, for example, the twin tower western façade for basilicas and employing strict modular plans for entire monasteries as well as individual churches.

Ottonian Art

919-1024

Holy Roman Empire

Ottonian Emperors (962-1024)

In contact with the Byzantine court and the Poppe

Ottonian IvoriesOtto I presenting Magdeburg Cathedral to

Christ, 962-968 (MET)

Christ blessing Otto II and Theophanu, 972-973, Musée de Cluny, Paris

Abbey Church of Saint Michael’s, Hildesheim, Germany, 1001 - 1033

Abbey Church of Saint Michael’s, Hildesheim, Germany, 1001 - 1033

ApseWestwork

Apse

2 transeptsWestwerk

Entrances

Westwork

Windows in clerestory do not

line up with arches below

(10 windows9 Arches

Transept

Bishop Bernward, Bronze Doors, St.

Michael’s, Hildesheim,

Germany, c.1015.

Bishop Bernward = tutor and advisor to Otto II

15 feet / 4, 5 m tall

each part of the door is cast as a single piece

Santa Sabina, Rome

Accusation and judgment of Adam and Eve

Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

Gero Crucifix, Cologne,

Germany, ca. 970

187 X 165 cm6/5 feet

Oldest large scale crucifix preserved in

Europe.

Ottonian Art

In the mid-10th century, a new line of emperors, the Ottonians, consolidated the eastern part of Charlemagne’s former empire and sought to preserve the culture and tradition of the Carolingian period.

Ottonian Art

Ottonian artists, like other medieval artists, excelled in producing sumptuous small-scale artworks, especially ivory plaques with narrative reliefs, often influenced by Byzantine art. But Ottonian sculptors also revived the art of monumental sculpture in works such as the Gero crucifix and the colossal bronze doors of Saint- Michael’s at Hildersheim.

Ottonian Art

Ottonian architects built basilican churches incorporating the towers and westworks of their Carolingian models but introduced the alternate-support system and galleries into the interior nave elevation.

Important for the exam

• Medieval Art concerned more with spiritual than real world

• “Barbarian Influence”• 9-11th century – Classical Influence

Vocabulary

• Animal Style• Cloisonné• Cloister• Codex• Gospels• Horror Vacui• Scriptorium• Westwork

Questions

• Discuss the themes and subjects used of the paintings in early medieval Gospel books by comparing two specific examples from different part of Europe.

Questions

• Explain the references to early Christian Roman traditions in Carolingian architecture. How did Carolingian builders transform their models?