EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPEGARDINER CHAPTER 16-1PP. 407-415

EARLY MEDIEVAL EUROPE - BACKGROUND 500-1000 CE was a great formative

period of western medieval art

Early medieval art is a fusion of:

1. Greco-Roman heritage of N. Western provinces of the Roman Empire

2. The cultures of the non-Roman peoples north of the Alps

3. Christianity

ART OF THE WARRIOR LORDS

Rome’s power wanes in Late Antiquity -> armed conflict and competition for political authority among non-Roman peoples of Europe

As one group establishes control another presses in behind and compels them to move on

Visigoths -> forced south by the Franks

Franks -> established themselves in France and other parts of W. Europe

Anglo-Saxons -> controlled Roman Britain

Celts -> France and Ireland

Vikings -> Scandinavia

Huns Vandals Merovingians Franks Ostrogoths

MEROVINGIAN FIBULAE Pair of Merovingian looped fibulae, mid

6th century, silver gilt worked in filigree, with inlays of garnets and stones

Jeweled fibulae were status symbols among warlords -> pair belonged to a Merovingian woman -> features eagle heads and fish integrated into highly decorative design

Early Medieval art -> mostly small, portable “status symbols”

1. Small scale2. Utilitarian in nature3. Abstract ornament4. Rejection of classical notion of the representation of nature

SUTTON HOO SHIP BURIAL Purse cover, from Sutton Hoo ship

burial in Suffolk, England, ca. 625, gold, glass, and cloisonné garnets, 7 ½ “

This purse cover is one of the many treasures found in a ship beneath a royal burial mound discovered in 1939

CLOISONNE = metalworkers produced this by soldering small metal strips, cloisons, edge up, to a metal background, and then filling the compartments w/semiprecious stones, colored glass and glass paste -> a cross between mosaic and stained glass

4 groups on lower row -> man standing between beasts, in center is eagles attacking ducks/above are 3 geometric designs -> 2 linear and 1 an interlace pattern

Interlace pattern combined w/animal figures -> key EMA

VIKINGS

Vikings = pre-Christian traders and pirates of Scandinavia

In 793 the Vikings land in British Isles and until the mid 11th century they were the terror of W. Europe

Ranged from Ireland, to Russia, to Iceland and Greenland

OSEBERG SHIP BURIAL Animal-head post, from Viking ship

burial, Oseberg, Norway, 825

The Vikings were master wood carvers -> this post from a Viking ship combines the head of a roaring beast w/surface ornamentation in the form of tightly interwoven writhing animals

Perfect example of the union of 2 fundamental motifs of warrior-lord art

1. The animal form2. The interlace pattern

CHRISTIAN ART: SCANDINAVIA, BRITISH ISLES, SPAIN

Powerful warlords amassing artworks dominated by abstract and animal motifs

Elsewhere in N. Europe Christian missionaries were est. monasteries and sponsoring art of Christian content

Early medieval art of N. Europe very different from in Italy and the Byzantine Empire

Fusion of native and imported artistic traditions

The Stave Church at Urnes (12th century) has been placed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list.

In the early Middle Ages many communities throughout northern Europe erected wooden churches on posts buried in the ground -> staves

In Norway, these constructions were ultimately refined into the exceptional stave churches known today.

These religious structures comprise Norway’s most important contribution to world architectural history.

STAVE CHURCH, URNES

Wooden portal of the stave church at Urnes, Norway, ca. 1050-1070

By the 11th century Scandinavia had become mostly Christian -> Viking artistic traditions persist

Intertwining of animal and plant decoration of the portal of this Norwegian church

HIBERNO-SAXON ART Ireland -> Christianization of the Celts

began in the 5th century

Irish monasteries were relatively independent, isolated, inhospitable and inaccessible locations -> far from worldly temptations and distractions

Irish monks est. monasteries in Britain and Scotland

HIBERNO-SAXON = the art of the Irish-English islands -> greatest creations were illuminated manuscripts -> books were scarce and guarded treasures

BOOK OF

DURROW Man (symbol of Saint Matthew), folio 21verso

of the Book of Durrow, possibly from Iona, Scotland, ca. 660-680, ink and tempera on parchment

Hiberno-Saxon book illumination include some pages w/neither text nor illustration but only pure embellishment -> carpet pages

Book of Durrow -> the four gospel books, each w/ a carpet page facing a page w/the symbol of the evangelist who wrote the gospel

The cloak of Saint Matthew’s man resembles a cloisonné brooch w/abstract ornament

THE FOUR EVANGELISTS

EVANGELIST = one who announces good news

THE FOUR EVANGELISTS = authors of the gospels/the first four books of the New Testament

MATTHEW -> winged man/angel MARK -> the lion LUKE -> the ox JOHN -> the eagle

LINDISFARNE GOSPELS

Saint Matthew, folio 25 verso of the Lindisfarne Gospels, from Northumbria, England, ca. 698-721, tempera on vellum

Hiberno-Saxon illuminators were concerned w/abstract design not the depiction of the natural world -> this author portrait of Saint Matthew is an exception -> the inspiration for this may have been a Mediterranean book

Matthew sits in his his study composing his account of the life of Christ -> curtain, seat at an angle, lettering is a combo of Greek and Latin, the winged man symbol, man looking on

Note the peculiar, linear style of barbarian art. No modeling, no light and shade, no illusionism.

Cross and carpet page, folio 26 verso of the Lindisfarne Gospels, from Northumbria, England, ca. 698–721. Tempera on vellum, 1’ 1 1/2” X 9 1/4”

BOOK OF KELLS Chi-rho-iota (XPI) page, folio 34 of the

Book of Kells, probably from Iona, Scotland, late 8th or early 9th century

The greatest achievement of Hiberno-Saxon art is the Book of Kells

Written and decorated in an Irish monastery

The painter transformed the biblical text into abstract pattern, literally making God’s words beautiful -> intricate design recalls early medieval metalwork

HIGH CROSS OF MUIREDACH

High Cross of Muiredach (east face), Monasterboice, Ireland, 923. Sandstone, approx. 18’ high

Early medieval Irish high crosses are exceptional in size

Muirdach’s cross marked his grave and bears reliefs depicting the Crucifixion and Last Judgement

THE CELTIC CROSS = circle intersecting the cross

VISIGOTHIC SPAIN/MOZARABIC SPAIN

San Juan Bautista, Banos de Cerrato, Spain, 661

Basilican church dedicated to Saint John the Baptist is typical of Visigothic architecture in Spain -> entrance portral crowned by a horseshoe arch