Early Middle Age

Northern European Art

Sandrine Le BailAP Art History

Early Middle Age and RomanesqueEarly Middle Age (2 works)53. Merovingian looped fibula. Early medieval Europe. Mid-sixth century C.E. Silver gilt worked in filigree, with inlays of garnets and other stones. 55. Lindisfarne Gospels: St. Matthew, cross-carpet page; St. Luke portrait page; St. Luke incipit page. Early medieval (Hiberno Saxon) Europe. c. 700 C.E. Illuminated manuscript (ink, pigments, and gold on vellum). Romanesque Art (2 works)58. Church of Sainte-Foy. Conques, France. Romanesque Europe. Church: c. 1050–1130 C.E.; Reliquary of Saint Foy: ninth century C.E., with later additions. Stone (architecture); stone and paint (tympanum); gold, silver, gemstones, and enamel over wood (reliquary). 59. Bayeux Tapestry. Romanesque Europe (English or Norman). c. 1066–1080 C.E. Embroidery on linen.

Europe in 306 - 324

Europe in 476

Attila (395-453)

Vikings !!!!!!!

Europe in 650

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

Anglo-Saxon Metalwork

Art of the Warrior Lords5th to 10th centuries

Map of England, 500 CE

British isles divided in small kingdoms

Each of them with a king

Christianity arrived in 6th century

Interlacing Pattern

Intricate gold and jeweled brooches or belt buckles =

status symbol

Animal Style

Merovingian looped fibula. Early medieval Europe. Mid-sixth century C.E. Silver gilt worked in filigree, with

inlays of garnets and other stones.

cloisonné

Merovingian looped fibula. Early medieval Europe. Mid-sixth century C.E. Silver gilt worked

in filigree, with inlays of garnets and other stones.

• Used to fasten garments • Found in the tomb of a wealthy Merovingian

woman • Emblems of office and of prestige • decorative patterns adjusted carefully to the

basic shape of the object • Integration of zoomorphic elements

Characteristics of Early Middle Ages

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

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.

Illuminated Manuscripts

Hiberno-Saxon Art6th-10th centuries

Vellum (calfskin)

or Parchment

Most bookmakers were monks

Scriptoria

Importance of monasteries

Codex

Scriptorium (pl. scriptoria)

Importance of Monasteries

• Repositories for books and documentsLibrary filled with sacred texts as well as literary, scientific and philosophical works by Greek and Roman authors.

• Learning centers

• Literacy centers

A gospel recounts the life of Jesus of Nazareth

and his teachings

Lindisfarne Gospels: St. Matthew, cross-carpet page; St. Luke portrait page; St. Luke incipit page. Early medieval (Hiberno

Saxon) Europe. c. 700 C.E. Illuminated manuscript (ink, pigments, and gold on vellum).

Bishop Eadfrith

LindisfarneThe Holy

Island

cross-carpet page

Saint Luke portrait page

Saint Matthew from the Book of Lindisfarne,

c.700tempera on

velum

Byzantine influence:- Greek words “Saint

Matthew”- Angel’s hand

covered - Flattened and linear

elements- less soft than

Byzantine painting

Saint Luke Incipit Page

Colored ornamentation

Active linesComplex Interlaces

patters

Eadfrith, Book of Lindisfarne, c.700

Today in the British museum

Lindisfarne Gospels: St. Matthew, cross-carpet page; St. Luke portrait page; St. Luke incipit page. Early medieval (Hiberno

Saxon) Europe. c. 700 C.E. Illuminated manuscript (ink, pigments, and gold on vellum)

• Marriage between Christian imagery and the animal-interlace style

• Created by Eadfrith on the Lindisfarne island• 259 leaves – including full-page portraits of each evangelist;

highly ornamental “cross-carpet” pages and the 4 Gospels Gospels (Luke, Matthew, John and Mark) themselves, each introduced by an historiated initial.

• Influenced by a manuscript from Italy (portrait pages)• Decoration typical from Hiberno-Saxon art: decorative

panels of abstract and zoomorphic forms, small, infinitely complex, and painstaking designs

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

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.

Romanesque Art

Western Europe11th – 12th century

Europe in 1092

Historical Background

• End of the great migration• Economic Growth• Political stability• Increase of the population• Vikings Christianized (10th century): Normandy

/ Britain / Sicily• Beginning of the reconquest of Spain by

Christians

Feudal System

Importance o Church

Importance of the church

Importance of the church

• Importance of the pope

• Monasteries – important economic and intellectual centers

Age of pilgrimages

• Fear of Apocalypse in 1000• Crusades (from 1095 to 15th century)• Pilgrimages (Jerusalem, Rome and Santiago)• Importance of Relics• Last Judgment scenes popular

PilgrimagesSantiago / Rome / Jerusalem

Pilgrimage Roads

Liber Sancti JacobiGuide for Pilgrims

Consequence of pilgrimages

• Multiplication of the relics• New important religious centers “building

boom”• Massive flow of People – Need of a new kind

of architecture• Flow of ideas around the continent

Characteristics of Romanesque Architecture

• Revitalization of large scale architecture (monumentality and solidity)

• Large apse• Stone Roofs (fireproof)

In Italy – wood ceilings• Thick walls• Small Windows (dark interiors)• Rib vaults

Barrel vault

Groin Vault

Rib Vault

Thick walls and

Buttresses

Tribune

A Romanesque Bay3 story-nave

Arcade

Triforium

Clerestory

Ambulatory

Transept

Nave

Radiating Chapels

Aisles

Choir

Chevet

Crossing

Crossing Square = ½ nave bay= ¼ side aisle

Romanesque Architecture

Romanesque takes its name from the Roman-like barrel and groin vaults based on round arches employed in many European churches built between 1050 and 1200. Romanesque vaults, however, are made of stone, not concrete.

Romanesque Architecture

Numerous churches sprang up along the pilgrimage roads leading to the shrine of Saint James at Santiago de Campostela. These churches were large enough to accommodate crowds of pilgrims who came to view the relics displayed in radiating chapels off the ambulatory and transept.

France

Church of Sainte-Foy. Conques, France. Romanesque Europe. Church: c. 1050–1130 C.E.; Reliquary of Saint Foy: ninth century C.E., with later additions. Stone (architecture); stone and paint (tympanum); gold, silver, gemstones, and enamel over wood

(reliquary).

Sainte-Foy at Conques, c.1050-1120

Reliquary of Sainte Foy, Conques, 9th

century

Chevet

Radiating chapels

Buttresses

Traverse Ribs

Portal

Tympanum

Last Judgement, tympanum of the west portal, Sainte Foy, Conques, c.1130

Second coming of Christ

MaryS. PeterCharlemagne

Church of Sainte-Foy. Conques, France. Romanesque Europe. Church: c. 1050–1130 C.E.

• Important pilgrimage center – Saint’s relics• Builders have to accommodate large crowds• Latin-cross basilica and radiating chapels• Wooden roofs substituted by stone barrel

vault that needs extra support (buttresses)• Christian stories accessible to a largely

illiterate population through sculptures• Christ in Majesty and Last Judgment

Characteristics of Romanesque Sculpture

• Revitalization of large scale sculpture• Importance of the church portal sculpture

(Last Judgment)• Flattened look / zigzagging drapery• Importance of expression (bigger head and

hands)• Hierarchy of scale

Romanesque sculpture

The Romanesque period brought the revival of monumental stone relief sculpture in cloisters and especially in church portals, where scenes of Christ as last judge often greeted the faithful as they entered the doorway to the road to salvation.

Romanesque Painting

Saint Savin sur Gartempe,

France, XI-XIIth century

• ←→←

Mary and Christ and two Angels, Chapel of Castel Appiano, Italy, c.1200

Romanesque Painting

• Manuscripts and Mural painting• Figures outlined in black and colored• Rich colors• Bi dimensional (flat)• No reality (figures float)• Importance of drapery for decoration (no

definition of the body)• Importance of human figure

Bayeux Tapestry

c.1070-1080

Bayeux Tapestry. Romanesque Europe (English or Norman). c. 1066–1080 C.E. Embroidery on linen.

Embrodery vs tapestry

70 meters

Bayeux Tapestry, c.1070-1080

• Embroidery• Norman Invasion of England (1066)• Commissioned by Bishop Odo, half brother of

William the Conqueror • 230 feet / 70,10 m.• 628 human figures• 731 animals• 376 boats• 70 buildings and trees

Cavalry Attack

First Dinner

The Bayeux Tapestry

After their conversion to Christianity in the early 10th century, the Vikings settled on the northern coast of France. From there, Duke William of Normandy crossed the channel and conquered England in 1066.The Bayeux Tapestry chronicles that war – a unique example of contemporaneous historical narrative art in the Middle Age.

Bayeux Tapestry. Romanesque Europe (English or Norman). c. 1066–1080 C.E. Embroidery on linen.

• Embroidery not tapestry• Continuous frieze like, pictorial narrative of the Norman victory over the Anglo-Saxons in Hastings in 1066 • Seventy-five scenes with Latin inscriptions • Commissioned by Bishop Odo, half brother of the

conquering Duke William (Norman point of view)• Closely related to Romanesque manuscript illumination

(animals on the margins)• Probably sewn by women at the Norman court

(Canterbury?)

Romanesque Art is a mixture of:

• Roman style

• Insular Style

• Byzantine Style

Romanesque Art is a mixture of:

• Roman style

• Insular Style

• Byzantine Style

Romanesque Art is a mixture of:

• Roman style – Roman-style architecture without concrete

• Insular Style – Interlace and abstracts animals

• Byzantine Style – Emotional depictions of Bible stories and the fairly realistic bodies under the drapery

Italy

Cathedral Complex, Pisa

Pisa Cathedral, 1063-1118, completed 1272.

Baptistery, Pisa, 1053-1272

Campanile of Pisa Cathedral, 1174-1271

Romanesque in Italy

The regional diversity of Romanesque art and architecture is especially evident in Italy, where the heritage of ancient Rome and Early Christianity was strongest.

Romanesque in Italy

Romanesque churches in Pisa and Florence have timber roofs in contrast to the vaulted interiors of northern European buildings. The exterior often feature marble paneling of different colors. Churches campaniles were usually freestanding, as were baptistery, which took the form of independent central-plan building.

Wiligelmo, Creation and Temptation of Adam and Eve, Modena

Cathedral, Italy, c.1110

Bibliography

• Adams, Laurie Schneider. Art across Time. 4th ed. Boston:McGraw-Hill, 2011.

• Kleiner, Fred S. Gardner’s Art Throught the Ages: A Global History. 13th ed. Thomson/Wadsworth, 2009.

• Stokstad, Marilyn and Cothren, Michael. Art History. 5th ed. Prentice Hall, 2014.

And …

• Nici, John, Barron's AP Art History, Barron, 3rd Edition, 2015