1. Sandrine Le Bail AP Art History
Early Middle Age
Northern European Art

2. Europe in 306 - 324

3. Europe in 476

5. Attila (395-453)

6. Vikings !!!!!!!

7. Europe in 650

8. 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

9. Anglo-Saxon Metalwork
Art of the Warrior Lords
5th to 10th centuries

10. Map of England, 500 CE
British isles divided
in small kingdoms
Each of them with a
king
Christianity arrived
in 6th century

11. Interlacing Pattern

12. Intricate gold and
jeweled brooches
or belt buckles =
status symbol

14. Animal Style

16. Sutton Hoo
King Raedwald of East Anglia
Found in 1939

18. Sutton Hoo Purse Cover, 600-650
Animal Style

19. Cloisonné Technique

20. Cloisonné technique:
enamelwork in which
colored area are
separated by thin
bands of metal (here
gold)
Garnet and enamel

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

22. 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.

23. Illuminated Manuscripts
Hiberno-Saxon Art
6th-10th centuries

24. Vellum
(calfskin)
or
Parchment

25. Most bookmakers
were monks

28. Scriptoria

29. Importance of monasteries
Scriptorium (pl. scriptoria)
Codex

30. Importance of Monasteries
• Repositories for books and documents
Library filled with sacred texts as well as literary,
scientific and philosophical works by Greek and
Roman authors.
• Learning centers
• Literacy centers

31. Eadfrith, Book of Lindisfarne, c.700

32. Lindisfarne
The Holy
Island

33. Eadfrith,
Book of
Lindisfarne,
c.700
Colored
ornamentation
Active lines
Complex
Interlaces patters
= Carpet pages
(//Oriental rugs)

34. Today in the British museum

36. Saint Matthew
from the Book
of Lindisfarne,
c.700
tempera on
velum

37. Byzantine influence:
- Greek words “Saint
Matthew”
- Angel’s hand
covered
- Flattened and linear
elements
- less soft than
Byzantine painting

38. Book of Kell
(or book or
Colomba),
c.800
- 4 gospels
- Prefatory texts
-Tables
- 680 pages

39. Book of Kell,
Chi-Rho-Iota
page
c. 800
Beginning of the 18th
verse of Matthew
(Birth of Christ)

42. 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

43. 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.

44. Carolingian Art
The Caroligian Renaissance
(551-911 CE)

45. Charlemagne (King 771-814)
• 800 – Crown
Emperor in Rome
• Codified code of
law
• Educational
Reform
• Wanted to unify
his people under
the Church

47. 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

48. 1st Revival of classical Art
Lorsh Gatehouse, c.760

49. 1st Revival of Classical Art
Lorsh Gatehouse, c.760 Arch of Constantine, 315

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

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

52. Charlemagne’s palace, Aachen, c.800
Throne room
Bath complex
Chapel
Main Gate

53. Westwork
Palatine Chapel, Aachen
Odo of Metz,
Palatine Chapel,
Aachen,
792-805

54. San Vitale, Ravenna
Palatine Chapel, Aachen
Narthex
Westwork

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

56. Odo of
Metz,
Palatine
Chapel,
Aachen,
792-805

57. San Vitale, Ravenna

59. Odo of
Metz,
Palatine
Chapel,
Aachen,
792-805
Clerestory
Gallery

63. Monasteries
Saint Benedict of
Nursia
Ora et
Labora
Work, Study and
Pray

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

65. Church Library and scriptorium
Hostel
Entrance
Cloister
Dormitory
Refectory

66. Choir
Transept
Lateral Chapels
Towers
Westwork

68. 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

69. The Ultrecht Psalter, 829-832

70. Richly illustrated ink
drawing of the
psalms of the Bible

71. St. Matthew
from the Ebbo
Gospels,
folio 18v.,
c. 816-35

72. St. Matthew
from the Ebbo
Gospels,
folio 18v.,
c. 816-35

73. Saint John
Saint Luke
Saint Mark

74. 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.

75. 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.

76. 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.

77. Ottonian Art
919-1024

78. Holy Roman Empire
Ottonian Emperors (962-1024)
In contact with the Byzantine
court and the Poppe

80. Ottonian Ivories
Otto I presenting Magdeburg Cathedral to
Christ, 962-968 (MET)
Christ blessing Otto II and
Theophanu, 972-973, Musée de
Cluny, Paris

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

82. Abbey Church of Saint Michael’s,
Hildesheim, Germany, 1001 - 1033
Apse
Westwork
Apse
2 transepts
Westwerk
Entrances

84. Westwork

85. Windows in
clerestory do not
line up with arches
below
(10 windows
9 Arches

87. Transept

88. Bishop Bernward,
Bronze Doors, St.
Michael’s,
Hildesheim,
Germany, c.1015.

89. 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

90. Santa Sabina, Rome

92. Accusation and judgment of Adam and
Eve

93. Expulsion from the Garden of Eden

94. Gero Crucifix,
Cologne,
Germany, ca.
970
187 X 165 cm
6/5 feet
Oldest large scale
crucifix preserved in
Europe.

96. 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.

97. 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.

98. 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.

99. Important for the exam
• Medieval Art concerned more with spiritual
than real world
• “Barbarian Influence”
• 9-11th century – Classical Influence

100. Vocabulary
• Animal Style
• Cloisonné
• Cloister
• Codex
• Gospels
• Horror Vacui
• Scriptorium
• Westwork

101. 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.

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