EARLY MEDIEVAL ART

metalwork, woodcarving, and manuscripts

 

 

Around the time of Constantine, the borders of Rome became unstable.  The names of various barbarian tribes — the Ostragoths, the Visigoths, Huns, Vandals, Franks — come from Roman sources.   These were the so-called “barbarian” tribes.  Many of these were Germanic tribes.

 

Within Rome, the language was Latin.  Outside of Rome, the Germanic languages were predominant.

 

Note that the Germanic peoples did not write, so we do not have their accounts of what happened.   In contrast, the Romans present a biased and even racist picture.  In fact, the Germans and the Romans were much more intertwined than suggested by Roman historians.  We know that the Visigoths were mercenary soldiers that worked for the Roman empire.   We know that some Germans rose to prominent positions within the Roman army and government.  Therefore, much of the army on both sides of the border were Germanic soldiers.

 

The maps that represent this period provide political distinctions, not ethnic distinctions. 

 

The year 476 marks that end of the last Western Roman emperor — thereafter, the Western empire was ruled by Germanic Kings.

 

Germanic Metalwork

 

Frankish looped fibula, 6th - 7th century Frankish fibula, 6th - 7th century

 

The fibula on the left is about four inches long.  It's a piece of jewelry — a fibula, which is a pin.  This example was found in France, and although this is a lavish example, many of these were produced by the so-called barbarian tribes.   As shown on the right, there are many examples that depict eagles which were military symbols of the Roman empire.  These were probably worn by the Visigoth soldiers who were part of the Roman military.  Therefore, this would represent a combination of Roman imagery and non-Roman metalwork.

 

Returning to the example on the left, note that this fibula was probably produced after the Roman rule of the Western empire had ended.  It  was crafted from silver and then gilded.  It is inlaid with garnets.  We also see cloisonné — an artistic technique that where small gold strips were used to create partitions that were filled with glass paste and fired. 

 

These personal adornments did represent an emblem of authority — but these were also fashionable.  These fibula often included animal motifs, although often abstracted.  On the left, there is a cloisonné fish.  Above the fish is a small cross.  The overall composition seems to be fashioned as a nail -- a symbols the crucifixion.  Thus, the fibula on the left also stands as a symbol of Christianity.

 

Goldsmiths were well-paid and worked with well-respected patrons.  They were not anonymous craftsmen.

 

Sutton Hoo Ship Burial

 

 

The Anglo-Saxon tribes were Germanic peoples from the coast of the North Sea, and they began to invade Britain during the 5th century.  They displaced the Roman-British culture of the south, and eventually this territory became known as England (or Angle-land).

 

The Sutton Hoo discovery is really very analogous to Tutankhamen’s Tomb.  This was a royal burial that was found intact in a burial mound at Sutton Hoo in England.  It was excavated in 1939.

 

This was the burial of a Germanic king — probably King Redwald — around 625-630.  He was a sea-faring warrior. It is also known that he was given a Christian baptism right before his death.   It was a ship burial filled with funerary objects.  That is, when the king died, they buried him in a boat, surrounded by his treasures.  It was a collection that revealed the range of contacts of this ruler.  The leather and wood disintegrated, but the metal remained and could be excavated.  Here are some examples:

 

A ceremonial cauldron  
Silver bowls — which were made in Constantinople  
Drinking horns  
Belt Buckles
Belt Buckle

 

   

Sutton Hoo, Purse Lid, ca. 625

 

 

This was the lid of a leather purse that contained 37 gold coins that were all minted in the Frankish kingdom.

 

The white background is a later restoration, but the cloisonné is original.  At the bottom, we see an eagle attacking a duck.  The eagle probably symbolizes the king  The red garnet stones are traditional, but the millifiore glass that can be seen in the the leg joints are new and are part of an English tradition. 

 

We also see a man flanked by two animals, which must have had significance.  It is a motif seen in the art of the Ancient Near East, and probably represents power.

 

Sutton Hoo is really the only ship burial that art historians and archaeologists have been able to study as an intact site.  King Tut’s burial was one of many, and he was really a minor king. This is not the case with the Sutton Hoo site — this is probably one of the richest of these ship burials.

 

During the 7th century, Anglo-Saxons began to convert to Christianity, but the tradition of jewelry making continues.      

 

Viking Woodcarving

Oseberg, Norway, ca. 825

 

 

Animal Head Post from Oseberg, Norway, ca. 825

 

 

Another group of peoples associated with northern Europe were the Vikings, who were pagan traders and pirates.  The “Viks” were their trading places along the Norwegian coastline.  They produced excellent boats which allowed them travel east to Russia and west to Iceland and Greenland and even, for a short time, to Newfoundland in North America.  And they conquered and colonized large territories in what is now Ireland, England , France — and even Russia.

 

We know that the Vikings built their ships in wood and that they excelled in wood carving.  This fragment is from another ship burial — this one in Oseberg, Norway.  This was part of Viking ship burial for two women — it probably also held many treasures, but was robbed before it was rediscovered in 1903.

 

In this carved detail, we see a roaring beast — it resembles a lioness.  What is particularly important, however, is that is another example of a non-Roman artistic tradition — specifically, the display of interlace patterns.

 

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

 

 

By the 11th century, Christianity had reached Scandinavia.  However, the arts of the indigenous people continued to be expressed.

 

On the right is a doorway for a wooden stave church that was built in the 11th century.  Over time, the church disintegrated, but these carved panels were preserved and incorporated into the walls of a 12th century church.    Although it was used in a Christian building, the wood carving clearly displays pre-Christian artistic traditions.  Here we see elongated, writhing, interlaced animals.  

 

Hiberno-Saxon Manuscripts

 

The art of the Irish-English island known as Ireland is called Hiberno-Saxon art.  It is also called insular art because Ireland did not have cities and was not a Roman province.  So its native artistic traditions were not influenced by the Greco-Roman world. 

 

The Celts in Ireland had been Christian since 432, when St. Patrick established a church in Ireland.

 

Although the Irish were subjects of the popes in Rome, they quickly established their own liturgical practices and their own calendar of holidays.  In Ireland they very quickly embraced the idea of monks and monasticism and their monasteries were often located in very harsh and inaccessible places -- like Skellig Michael.

 

As discussed earlier, Monasticism began in Egypt where Christians went out as hermits. This was encouraged by St. Anthony, who wanted to flee the temptation of the world.   Later, monks lived together so that they get away from civilization and get closer to God.  Monasticism begins in Egypt, but the idea traveled quickly within decades — reaching as far as Ireland.  Most Hiberno-Saxon art was produced in the context of the monastery.  They usually contained a library and a scriptorium, a studio where books were transcribed and illustrated.  Most of the art produced was related to the illustration of manuscripts.

 

Man, symbol of Matthew, Book of Durrow, ca. 660-680 Lion, symbol of Mark, Book of Durrow, ca. 660-680

 

The book of Durrow is believed to have been made in Ionia, Scotland.  During the late Middle Ages, it was housed in Durrow, Ireland — hence the modern nickname. 

 

These two pages are called carpet pages — that is, a page which has no text and which does not illustrate the text. 

 

On the left is a simplified rendering of a man.  Really the only clues are the head and the profile feet.  The body is bell-shaped and rendered in a checker board pattern of yellow, red, and green which is akin to an example of cloisonné metal work — truly anti-classical.  Still, there was clear knowledge that a man was the Symbol for St. Matthew. 

 

This is Gospel book that contained the New Testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  On the right, is the carpet page for St. Mark.   Notice the interlace on the border. 

 

So what does this art represent from an artistic point of view?  We know that books from the Mediterranean were brought to the libraries of the monasteries in Ireland.  We also know that they were copied in the scriptoria.  This book was certainly based on a Greco-Roman prototype, but the art was purely Hiberno-Saxon and based on jewelry tradition.

 

Ornamental page,  Lindisfarne Gospel, ca. 698-721

 

 

This is the Cross Page (which is also a carpet page) from the Lindisfarne Gospel.   We know the history of this book because of a note that was inserted inside around 950-970 which read:

 

Eadfrith, Bishop of the church of Lindisfarne, originally wrote this book in honour of God and St. Cuthbert and the whole company of saints whose relics are on the island.  And AEthelwald, Bishop of Lindisfarne islanders bound it on the outside and covered it, as he knew well how to do.  And Billfrith, the anchorite, wrought the ornaments on the outside and adorned it with gold and with gems and gilded silver, unalloyed metal.  And Aldred, unworthy and most miserable priest, glossed it in English with the help of God and St. Cuthbert.

 

We know that St. Cuthbert was the Bishop of Lindisfarne and that he died in 687.

Eadfrith was the Bishop from 698-721 — hence the book was made during this period.

AEthelwald was bishop from 724-740, when the book was bound.

Aldred, “the unworthy & miserable priest,” added a word for word translation in the spaces between the lines of the Latin text.

 

Today, it no longer had its original binding.

 

Almost all of the focus is on the cross, even though there is as much ornament outside of the cross as within it.  The interlace derives from metalwork, and the whole page is almost like a living thing. 

 

Book of Kells, Chi-rho-iota page

 

 

The Book of Kells is the most elaborate of the Hiberno-Saxon Gospel books.  It is believed to have been written and decorated at the Monastery of Ionia.  Later, it was owned by a monastery at Kells, which is where the name came from. 

 

Chi-Rho-Iota are the first three letters of Christ in Greek.  In the Book of Kells, this page appears in the Gospel of St. Matthew at the first mentioning of Christ.

 

Hence, this is a holy treatment of the lettering.  It is extremely elaborate and seems like visual way to shout Christ's name. 

 

[Just as an aside, "Liber" is the word for book, and this is another word that is frequently decorated and treated as a work of art.]

 

The Tradition of Copying Manuscripts from Earlier Images

 

The Scribe Ezra, Codex Amiatinus, ca. 689-716 St. Matthew,  Lindisfarne Gospel, ca. 698-721

 

Although the interlace tradition is perhaps the most recognizable, Hiberno-Saxon artists did execute works in other styles.

 

As noted earlier, manuscripts were copied from other manuscripts brought from Italy to England. On the left is the Scribe Ezra in the Codex Amiatinus.   We see the use of some Greco-Roman illusionism, and it seems very much like an Early Christian scene. The light is hitting leg the scribe's leg.  We clearly see light and dark.  Ezra, with his feet toward us, is set back in space.  We also see the open armoire and the front and sides of books.  We even see the shadow of the books.

 

In contrast, the St. Matthew from the Lindisfarne Gospel was executed at almost exactly the same time as the Scribe Ezra in the Codex Amiatinus.  In fact, the artist of the Codex Amiatinus and the artist of the Lindisfarne Gospels probably copied from a very similar source for their composition.   

 

Recall that the man (or angel) is the symbol of Matthew, and we do see that attribute.  Matthew is shown writing, but he is not naturalistic at all.  Still, this image is not simply decorative.  The artist emphasizes the importance of the author portrait; the act of writing is seen here as a spiritual act.  At the same time, this is clearly an image which in NOT part of the Antique world.  There is no space.  The image is up front near the picture plane.  The body is not turning — it's flat and floating in space.  The drapery folds are simple lines.  There is no body beneath the drapery, and we see highly decorated hair.  Although there is no interlace, per se, what we see is a Northern artist working in a familiar way — turning a tonal picture into an abstracted pattern.

 

High Cross of Muiredach, Monasterboice, Ireland, 923

 

 

Another form of art associated with the British Isles in the high cross. These were made for and at a monastery.  These appeared on the burial grounds associated with monasteries.  Most were erected between the 8th and 10th centuries.  Some are very large — over 17 feet high.

 

They display a very typical form.  We see a large cross rising from a base and a circle intersecting the cross.  Early high crosses are ornamented with interlace.  Later ones have figural panels with scenes from the life of Christ.  These have been interpreted as sermons in stone.  These can be viewed as large scale, public sculpture, akin to missionary art.  In the missionary context, the cross is as much a representation or didactic tool as it is a symbol of Christian faith.