TERMS AND THINGS FOR EARLY MEDIEVAL THROUGH ROMANESQUE ART

I. BARBARIAN ART IN WESTERN EUROPE, ca. A.D. 500-800

Animal Interlace Style: a style of art which uses animal forms abstracted into a complex flat linear pattern. Widely used by the Germanic invaders of the Western Roman Empire, it can be seen in Scandinavian art (Gummersmark Brooch, 6th), Anglo-Saxon art (buckle from Sutton Hoo, ca. 630), and in Frankish art of the Merovingian period (6th-8th centuries). Later appears in Christian art (Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts). It also appears on the keel of a Viking ship of around 800 found in Norway (Oseberg Ship).

Gem or Jewel Style: a style of art which uses flat, polychrome enlays of gems or enamel (glass paste) to define forms. Appears in Visigothic art in Spain (Votive Crown of Recceswinth, 7th; Eagle fibulae, 6th), Ostrogothic and Lombardic art in Italy, and Anglo-Saxon art.

Sacramentary of Gelasius: a Merovingian illuminated manuscript of ca. 750 which shows the adaptation of the Animal Interlace and Gem Styles to the needs of monastic Christianity in a book of readings from the Bible to be used in saying the Mass.

Hiberno-Saxon Style: a style of manuscript illumination which developed in England and Ireland (Hibernia in Latin) after the Synod of Whitby of 663 had reconciled the Roman Catholic and Irish churches. Noted for its luxuriant Animal Interlace ornament and adaptation of Byzantine/Early Christian figural scenes into flat pattern: Book of Durrow, ca. 680, Man of St. Matthew.. Disappeared around 800 when many of the monasteries which produced these manuscripts were sacked by Vikings.

Lindisfarne Gospels: copied and illuminated by the monk Eadfrith at a monastery on the island of Lindisfarne off the coast of northeast England around 695. Its carpet Cross pages utilize the Animal Interlace style, but its author portraits of the Evangelists clearly copy Byzantine Greek prototypes (St. Matthew), albeit in a very flat way.

Book of Kells: a heavily illuminated Gospels produced in northern England and Ireland around 800. Utilizes Animal Interlace style in its elaborate Initial pages which begin each Gospel (Chi Rho monogram beginning Matthew), while its figural scenes are very flat and abstract (Virgin and Child).

The Frank’s Casket: named after a man it belonged to, carved in whale bone in northern England around 700. It depicts scenes from Christianity and Norse mythology in a flat, 2D, but lively style, and has runic writing. The justaposition of scenes appears odd: the violent story of Weyland the Smith appears next to the Three Magi.

II. WESTERN HONCHOS AND PEOPLES

Charlemagne: King of France 768-800, crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome on Christmas Day, 800. Ruled an empire which consisted of France, western Germany and northern Italy, started the Carolingian Renaissance in literature and the arts which aimed at reviving ancient Roman civilization.

Charles the Bald: King of France (the western part of Charlemagne's empire) 840-877. Commissioned or was given a number of illustrated manuscripts.

Alcuin: great English scholar brought by Charlemagne to his court in 781 to revive and preserve ancient culture. Died in 804, spent the last years of his life at Tours revising the translation of the Bible. The early Christian illustrated Bibles which he used to edit the translation had an important influence on the Tours' school of manuscript illumination (ca. 840-875).

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Alfred the Great: King of Wessex in southern Europe 871-899. Turned back the Viking threat from the north, fostered a cultural revival which included the establishment of a notable school of manuscript illumination based on Carolingian precedent at Winchester.

Vikings: pagan Scandinavians who destabilized western Europe through their raids between 800 and 1000 (when they converted to Christianity). Great seafarers, they took over northern England and Ireland, and settled Iceland and Greenland between 850 and 950. Vikings also conquered the Ukraine, and became the palace guard for the Byzantine emperor!

Normans: Vikings who settled in northwestern France and whose ruler was recognized as a Duke in 911 by the King of France. Became one of the most vital people of the 11th and 12th centuries; took over England in 1066, southern Italy in 1071, and Sicily by 1130.

III. CAROLINGIAN BUILDINGS

Aachen: city in western Germany where Charlemagne made his capital. Remains of an audience hall and a circular chapel survive, dated 792-806. The chapel shows the adaptation of Mediterranean architecture (such as San Vitale at Ravenna) into a new and powerfully vertical Germanic format. One important aspect of this new architecture is a stressed fa?ade (the westwork). A notable school of manuscript illumination was based at Aachen during Charlemagne's lifetime (ca. 792-814).

St. Gall: monastery in Switzerland important in the 9th century, particularly around 900, when the artist Tuotilo and others helped to pass the lessons of Carolingian art to the budding art of Ottonian Germany. A plan for an ideal monastery survives at St. Gall (ca. 820), showing a complete settlement dominated by a basilica church with transepts and apses at the east and west. The west end of this church has two towers.

Church of St. Riquier, Centula Abbey: a typical Carolingian basilica, dedicated in 799 but now known only from an early drawing. Had towers marking its elaborate Westwork (or entry facade) and the transept (crossing).

IV. CAROLINGIAN ARTWORKS

Godescalc Evangelistery: excerpts from the Gospels arranged for reading in the Mass, painted by the Ada Workshop in Charlemagne's palace workshop in the early 780s (781-83). Shows a nascent Classicizing style that looks back the Early Christian art, but the results are still pretty flat and unnaturalistic (Christ Blessing). The name Ada comes from the colophon (end-dedication) of an illuminated Gospels of c. 800 done by the same workshop; this has author portraits before each Gospel (St. Mark), which are more three-dimensional than the Godescalc figures, but still stylized.

Coronation Gospels: illustrated by Byzantine (?) artists working at Aachen in the first decade of the 9th century. The Coronation Gospels (c. 800) have four full-page illuminations depicting the Evangelists (St. John); these have an illusionistic and naturalistic style directly based on the traditions of Classical art.

Ebbo Gospels: painted for Bishop Ebbo of Reims at Reims ca. 820. Style shows that the artists were trained by the Byzantine artists of Aachen's Palace School ca. 800-810, but has an expressionistic character typical of western European art (St. Mark).

Utrecht Psalter: illustrated Book of the Psalms done in ink (not painted) at Reims ca. 820. Style is illusionistic and based loosely on Early Christian compositional models which the artists understood well. The illustrations metaphorically allude to phrases in each Psalm, and probably were devised by Carolingian monks.

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Moutier-Grandval Bible: also called the Alcuin Bible, illustrated at Tours c. 840. It has only four paintings closely based on Early Christian models, including notable scenes of the Creation and Fall of Man.

Vivian Bible: painted for Bishop Vivian at Tours ca. 845 and given to King Charles the Bald (hence often called the First Bible of Chuck the Hairless); has eight pictures. Again closely based on Early Christian models and style. The last picture shows the Bible being presented to Charles, and is based on Roman imperial iconography.

Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram: a sumptuous illuminated Gospels with introductory purple dyed pages with gold letters. Worked on c. 870-77. It has many elaborate paintings, including a notable Adoration of the Lamb by the 24 Elders of the Apocalypse. The picture before this shows Charles the Bald (died 877) enthroned, and is clearly based on an ancient Roman prototype. Later taken to Germany, where it influenced Ottonian illumination.

Lorsch Gospels: notable for its ivory book cover (Virgin and Christ with Ss. Zacharias and John the Baptist) of the early 9th century based on ivories such as Maximian's throne at Ravenna. Style is much more expressionistic than Maximian's throne, especially its turbulent drapery (compare to the Ada Group in manuscript illumination). The Virgin is the same type as the later Byzantine Hodegetria , showing us the way to salvation by gesturing to her son with her right hand.

Lindau Gospels: Gospels with two elaborate gold covers. The earlier, now its back, dates c. 800, and is essentially Hiberno-Saxon in its elaborate but flat linear ornament and figures. The later was created c. 870, and shows a beardless Christ on the cross surrounded by expressive mourning angels. This second cover is clearly based on an Early Christian prototype.

V . ART OUTSIDE THE CAROLINGINAN ANDF OTTONIAN EMPIRES

Beneditional of St. Ethelwold: a book of blessings for a bishop that was produced in Winchester between 971 and 984. There are two paired illustrations before each major festival, they are notable for their liveliness, and especially for their exuberant floral ornament (Mays at the Tomb).

Mozarabic Style: an abstract, at times crude, style found in the art of Christians in northern Spain in the 9th and 10th centuries. It seems to have been influenced by the abstract and flat qualities found in Islamic art, and was used to decorate Commentaries on the Book of Apocalypse by Beatus of Liebana (8th century). It is found in the Morgan Beatus, an illuminated Beatus’ commentary made in northern Spain in the 940s. Its style is very flat and two-dimensional and shows the influence of Islamic art, as does the background, which has flat bands of color. Its content is intense and apolcalyptic ((Woman Clothed with the Sun).

OTTONIAN ART AND ARCHITECTURE

Otto I: Emperor of Germany 936-972, crowned Holy Roman Emperor in 969. Forged an alliance between the Church and his state which became the basis of Ottonian government, started the Ottonian Renaissance in the arts.

Theophano: Byzantine Princess who married Otto II (973-983), mother of Otto III (983-1002), ruled in his name until her death in 991. Maintained close ties with the Byzantine government.

Gero: Archbishop of Cologne 969-976 who commissioned a great wooden crucifix reliquary. The suffering (and lifesize) figure of Christ on the cross shows typical Ottonian expressionism.

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St. Michael's, Hildesheim: monastery church in Germany built by Bishop Bernward 1001-1033 (B. died in 1022). Has sanctuaries facing east and west, with towers at the transepts. Its nave is timber roofed, but has alternating piers and columns forming incipient bays. The exterior has the massive masonry characteriistic of Ottonian architecture. A notable Classicist, Bernward commissioned bronze doors for the church with relief depictions of the Old and the New Testament (ca. 1015). These were roughly based on the Early Christian wooden doors of St. Sabina in Rome (432-440), but the style of the reliefs on Bernward's doors is typically expressive Ottonian. He also commissioned a bronze candelabrum with spiraling relief (imitatinf ancient Roman columns in Rome) depictions of Christ's miracles (ca. 1020); the style of this is similar to that of the doors.

Gregory Master: monastic illustrator, probably at Reichenau in southern Germany, best known for an illumination from an edition of the letters of Pope Gregory the Great, which shows Gregory’s scribe observing the Pope listening to the dove of the Holy Spirit. The best Classicist among Ottonian painters, able to create some three-dimensionality in the figures and space.

Gospels of Otto III: produced ca. 997-1002, probably at Reichenau. Style shows the tendencies toward expressive emotionality and schematicized figures characteristic of Ottonian painting (St. Luke), including an interesting scene of Otto III enthroned between Church and State, with the provinces of his empire bringing him tribute-an image derived from Roman imperial art.

Magdeburg Antependium: an altar frontal or facings carved of small ivory plaques and given to Magdeburg Cathedral by Otto I around 973. A notable plaque (only 5 x 4”!) shows him offering the church to Jesus, who is enthroned on a triumphal wreath. Behind Otto is St. Maurice, who introduces him to Christ. On the other side of Jesus is St. Peter, with his key.


TERMS AND THINGS FOR ROMANESQUE ART

I. German Romanesque

Frederic Barbarossa: Holy Roman Emperor 1152-1190. Greatest German ruler of the High Middle Ages; fought to keep Italy and Germany united. Died in the Third Crusade.

Speyer Cathedral: great church begun in 1030 and completed in 1062 in the Ottonian style with a timber roof, and towers at the west facade and at the transept. At this time the aisles and crypt were groin vaulted. Rebuilt after 1080 in the Romanesque style, nave vaulted after 1106.

Renier of Huy: metalworker from the Mosan region in eastern Belgium who made a bronze font in a notably Classicistic style between 1107-1118 for a church in Liège.

Stavelot Triptych: a small, three winged altarpiece (tri=three, ptych=wing, in Greek) made around 1155 in the Mosan region. Its wings have local enamel rondels (round pictures) depicting stories about Constantine and his mother Helena involving the cross. In the center are two smaller Byzantine triptychs with fragments of wood (the true cross) showing crucfixions, also in enamel. These were apparently given to the Abbott of Stavelot during a diplomatic mission to Constantinople.

II. Italian Romanesque

Desiderius: Abbott of Monte Cassino in southern Italy, which he rebuilt 1066-71 and adorned with art by Byzantine artists. Became Pope Victor in 1086. Tried to revive Early Christian artistic traditions in Italy through a knowledge of Byzantine methods. Influenced art in Rome and northern Italy (Cluny).

San Clemente, Rome: church was rebuilt after the Norman sack of Rome in 1084 in the Classicizing style which had been evolved at Monte Cassino. The upper church was built c. 1120-30. Notable for its elaborate decoration in inlaid stone (Cosmatesque work) and apse mosaic which shows Christ crucified amidst a riot of elaborate floral ornament.

Pisa Cathedral Complex: a group of four buildings (Baptistry, Cathedral, bell-tower=Leaning Tower, cemetary) built between 1060 and the 13th century. The Cathedral is modelled on Early Christian basilicas (such as Old St. Peter's, Rome), and has a timber-roofed nave, vaulted aisles and a dome at the crossing. The apse has a Byzantinizing mosaic and the architect (named Busketos) was a Greek. The arcaded fa?ade is a Tuscan version of an ancient Roman type of columnar decoration; it was not begun until the second half of the 13th century! A set of bronze doors made by Bonanno of Pisa around 1190, these imitate Byzantine church doors and show scenes of the lives of Christ and the Virgin Mary. The compositions are Byzantine but the style is Romanesque in its abstract clarity.