OTTONIAN ART — 900-1000

As noted earlier, Charlemagne died in 814. Thereafter, the sons of Charlemagne took over the kingdom, but in less than 30 years, it fell apart. Thus, the Ottos took over — Otto I, Otto II, Otto III. They were Saxon — that it, Germanic leaders from Saxony.  The Ottos liked the tradition of the Holy Emperor and saw themselves as preserving the culture of the Carolingian period.

Abbey Church of St. Michael, Hildesheim, Germany

 

One of the great patrons of Ottonian art was Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim. He was a teacher and a scholar, but he was also an accomplished craftsman and knew how to cast bronze. His most prominent project was the Abbey Church of St. Michael, shown above.

Abbey Church of St. Michael, Hildesheim, Germany, Plan

In plan, the Abbey Church of St. Michael  was a basilican church, with some modifications. It had two apses — such as we saw in the Roman Basilica Ulpia.  The entrances are on the side.  Also notice the double transept.   In the interior, however, even with all of these conceptual changes, it still looks like an Early Christian basilican church.  Both  piers and columns are used to screen the side aisles.  

In 1001, Bishop Bernward went to Rome. There he saw the Church of Santa Sabina, which was an early Christian basilican church. He also noticed the doors of Santa Sabina, which were large, wooden doors carved with scenes from the Old and New Testaments.

It is believed that these doors inspired the Bishop to design massive bronze doors for his church. These are over 16 feet high. Each door was cast in a single piece  using the lost wax method of casting. These were a very prominent and public work of art.

On the left, the relief sculpture begins with the Creation of Adam and Eve at the top and ends with the murder of Abel by Cain at the bottom.

The right side of the door shows the Life of Christ. It begins at the bottom with the Annunciation and then continues upward with the Nativity, Three Wise Men, Crucifixion, Resurrection and Christ’s Appearance to Mary Magdalene.

Taken together, the overall design represents the story of Original sin and Redemption through the story of Christ.

Bronze Doors from Hildesheim, Germany

 

Here are some of the details:

Bronze Doors from Hildesheim, Germany, Details
	Adam and Eve, stocky squat figures, are in the garden of paradise.  Eve is offering Adam the apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil (far right).
	Here, God has discovered that Adam and Eve have disobeyed him.  They display shame.  Adam blames Eve and Eve blames the serpent.  God is depicted as an older, bearded man.  We see exaggerated gesture and the figures pushed up front. The scene is not very realistic, but it does hold a lot of emotion.
	Cain and Abel were the sons of Adam and Eve.   In a fit of jealously over Abel's offering to God, Cain killed Abel.
	This detail shows the crucifixion of Christ on the cross. The soldier with the spear is Longinus, the Roman centurion who lanced Christ's side. On the other side, Christ is being offered a sponge soaked in vinegar after crying of thirst.  The two women present are the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdeleine.

 

Column with relief sculpture illustrating the life of Christ, Hildesheim

Within the Church was another large-scale bronze sculpture — a spiral column. It’s not a continuous frieze, but rather consists of seven spiral bands. Still, it was clearly inspired by the Column of Trajan. The narrative reads from the bottom to the top and tells the story of the Life of Jesus from his baptism to his entry into Jerusalem. Basically, this sculpture fills in the narrative elements that were missing from the bronze doors.

Annunciation to Shepherds, Lectionary of Henry II

 

The Ottonians continued the patronage of the book, and the books that they produced were rich and sumptuous. This particular manuscript was commissioned as a gift to Bamberg Cathedral.

Otto II had married a daughter to Byzantine prince — so East and West are no longer enemies. During this period, there is increased contact between the East and West through new centers of trade, such as Venice.

In this miniature, we see a landscape setting and a schematic, abbreviated angel. The angel has a very long body.  There is emphasis on eyes and figure is over-proportioned compared to the rest of the composition.  The shepherds are small and there is no sense of body proportion — look how much larger the hand is than the head. Things are emphasized for symbolic purposes, and the overall design is expressive and emotional. The artist was still aware of Classical modeling, but this is clearly not the primary interest of the artist. And, the background is gold. The Ottonians, therefore, were reviving the Byzantine world, including the use of mystic elements of faith.

Otto III enthroned, Gospel Book of Otto III

 

Otto III was the most committed to the idea of reviving the Christian Roman Empire. As noted above, his mother was Byzantine, and he very consciously saw himself having descended from the imperial lines of the East and the West.  In this portrait of Otto III, we see that he has embraced a Roman Imperial formula for the depiction of power and authority.

Unfortunately, his vision never came to pass. Otto III died young at age 21. It was his request to be buried beside Charlemagne at Aachen.