HUM 120 History of Western Art
Lebanon College
15 Hanover Street
Lebanon, NH 03766
Ph: 603-448-2445
Fax: 603-448-2491
Spring 2012
HUM120
HISTORY OF
WESTERN ART
Instructor
Donna Stepien
(Donna’s Lecture Week 4: Early Medieval and Romanesque Art)
chapter 14
1. Early Medieval art derives from Germanic and late Roman traditions, and by pre-Christian
art from Northern Europe and the Islamic art of Spain.
After the 5th century fall of the Western Roman Empire, control of the areas in Northern
Europe—which Romans had inhabited—reverted to Germanic tribes: the Ostrogoths, Visigoths,
Alemani, Angles, Saxons, and Franks. These artists worked in the geometric style of the Bronze
and Iron Ages and also created fearsome and imaginative “amimal style” creatures.
Christianity strengthened and flourished in areas previously Roman. It helped unify the many
diverse populations of Europe as it spread to Ireland and even Scandinavia, which had never
been ruled by Rome. In the 8th century the German emperor Charlemagne sought to revive
the glory of the Empire of Constantine and to reestablish exclusive Christian control over the
West, while simultaneously Muslims had made inroads as far as Spain.
NOTE: Muslim was also a monotheistic religion ‘of the Book’ however Muslims were far more
tolerant of Jews than were Christians. Muslims recognized both Abraham and Jesus as part of
their religion in advance of Muhammed. Unfortunately, while Muslims were willing to accept
Christians, the Christians took them for infidels and set out to destroy them.
NOTE: both Islam and Christianity were—and continue to be—missionary religions. They both
set out to convert others to their beliefs and this developed into a fundamental conflict over
ultimate control. This conflict became responsible for the Crusades.
Meanwhile Anglo-Saxon and Hiberno-Saxon (Hiberno = Irish) cultures grew from a fusion of
Celtic, Germanic, and Romanized British traditions. During this time there was a cultural clash
as Christianity overtook Pagan religions of area.
2. In addition to the exquisite examples of metal jewelry and military objects, Anglo-Saxon
and Hiberno-Saxon cultures are also known for producing highly decorated illuminated
manuscripts. The Book of Kells, a wonderful example of Hiberno-Saxon Gospels, was probably
made in the late 8th century in a monastery on Iona, an island off the west coast of Scotland.
In it we see how Hiberno-Saxon scribes melded pagan tradition with Christian gospels. The
most famous folio (manuscript page) in The Book of Kells shows the Gospel of Matthew that
begins the account of Jesus’ birth.
The Greek letters chi rho iota (XPI) form the abbreviation for Christi, the first word in the Latin
sentence Christi autem generatio, “Now this is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about.”
Medieval scribes learned many standard abbreviations for Latin words, and used them like
modern shorthand to save time and space in transcribing long documents or copying texts.
NOTE many animal and human forms hidden in the abstracted letters, i.e. a red-headed boy
nestled in the curve of the rho at the center of the page, possibly symbolizing Jesus. Three
angels hold the left of the long stroke of the letter, an otter catches a salmon and pairs of cats
capture mice. The cat and mouse scene symbolizes triumph of good (cats) over evil (mice). We
will observe this iconography again in the work of Northern Renaissance artists.
3. Gummersmark Brooch is a large silver-gilt pin made in 6th-century Demmark. It uses
several motifs such as spirals, humans, and dragons, interlaced. The viewer must look carefully
to identify them. Gummersmark Brooch is believed to have been used to fasten a cloak to
someone’s shoulders.
4. Purse Cover from Sutton Hoo Burial Ship. An early 7th century burial mound in Sutton
England contained the grave of an unidentified individual and full of wonderful early medieval
metalwork. The occupant was buried in an 86' long ship with weapons, armor and other
equipment for the afterlife. The purse lid is decorated with cloisonné enamel with designs
based on many sources, with animal interlace forming the central piece. This style grew from
the then-popular Scandanavia animal style.
NOTE: similarities in the interwoven serpentines with those on the Gummersmark Brooch,
and the pairs of animals flanking human figures are reminiscent of the animal combat theme
prevalent throughout the ancient near east. NOTE the center in which two pair of Norse hawks
attack Celtic ducks. Also see p428 ‘Recovering the Past,’ and 14-4, Hinged Claps from Sutton
Hoo Burial Ship.
5.Detail, Purse Cover
page 1
HUM 120 History of Western Art
(Donna’s Lecture Week 4: Early Medieval and Romanesque)
See pp430, 431, “The Object Speaks,” p432, “The Medieval Scriptorium,” and
http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/lindisfarne.html. Lindesfarne Gospels. “This legacy
of an artist monk living in Northumbria in the early eighth century is a precious testament
to the tenacity of Christian belief during one of the most turbulent periods of British history.
Costly in time and materials, superb in design, the manuscript is among our greatest artistic
and religious treasures. It was made and used at Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island… the entire
Lindisfarne Gospels is the work of one man, giving it a particularly coherent sense of design.
According to a note added at the end of the manuscript less than a century after its making,
that artist was a monk called Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne between 698 and 721. His superb
skill is evident in the opening pages of each gospel. A painting of the gospel's Evangelist is
followed by an intricately patterned carpet page. Next is the incipit page, that is, an opening
page in which the first letters of the gospels are greatly elaborated with interlacing and spiral
patterns strongly influenced by Anglo-Saxon jewellery and enamel work.”
—http://www.bl.uk/onlinegallery/sacredtexts/lindisfarne.html (28 January 2012)
6. Borgund Stave Church. Borgund, Norway. See p437. Stave churches are named for the
four huge timbers—staves—that form their structural core (Stokstad p437)
7. Map of Carolingian Europe. In 732 Frankish warriors repressed a Muslim invasion
and established a dynasty of rulers known as the Carolingians after their greatest leader,
Charlemagne (Charles the Great,who ruled 768–814). Charlemagne was a fierce, often
violent defender of Christianity who promoted church reform through support of the
Benedictine order of monks and nuns. In 800 Pope Leo III declared him the first rightful
successor to the Christian Roman emperor, Constantine, and crowned him emperor. Like
Constantine before him, Charlemagne began a campagne to glorify his new empire visually
by hiring architects, painters and sculptors, looking to Rome and Ravenna for inspiration.
Charlemagne looked to visual models of the past as way to link his rule to the Roman
Empire’s power and prestige. Although he borrowed heavily from church design in Rome
and Ravenna, the vertical emphasis of the westwork entrance block seems to be a northern
contribution to Christian church architecture
8,9,10. The chapel of Charlemagne’s palace at Aachen, Germany, served as the emperor’s
private chapel, the church of his imperial court, and a martyrium to house saintly relics and
Charlemagne’s mausoleum. Similar to the Church of San Vitale in Ravenna, it has a central
octagonal plan. The core of the chapel is a towering octagon surrounded at ground level
by an ambulatory and ringed by a gallery on the second floor, which overlooks the nave.
The inner octagon is transformed into a sixteen-sided structure thanks to alternating square
and triangular bays. In the gallery, bays divided by diaphragm arches (arches supporting
walls) support transverse barrel-vaulted bays (bays are units of space defined by architectural
elements such as columns, piers, and walls. Columns and railings at the gallery level form a
screen and reemphasize the flat, pierced walls of the octagon.
The vertical emphasis of the western towers of the church and the interior upward thrust were
important architectural contributions of the peoples of the north to the Christian Church.
11. The Ebbo Gospels were produced for Archbishop Ebbo of Reims. During the reign of
Charlemagne’s son and successor, Louis the Pious (who ruled 814–840). the northeastern
monasteries of France were a center for book production. The image seems to vibrate and
wiggle, oddly reminiscent of Van Gogh’s active brush strokes. Historians have assumed this
style was used to show the urgency of Matthew’s task recording the word of God as dictated
by the barely-noticeable angel in the upper right. Note also the odd misuse of perspective.
Stylistic discretion overrulled realistic depiction thus lending a note of excitement in this scene.
Perhaps the artist, working from his (or her) imagination, did not know any other way to depict
space than this incongruous manner (NOTE: this is common to medieval illustrations and
paintings, produced prior to Renaissance developments and depictions of perspective).
12. Lindau Gospels. Only wealthy monasteries could afford the vast numbers of sheep needed
be slaughtered to prepare pages of a manuscript. Manuscripts were usually covered with
leather, wood, and occasionally gold and jewel bedecked covers. The cover shown here was
made between 870–80 for Charles the Bald, son of Louis the Pious. It shows a crucifixion
scene featuring gold figures in relief. They are formed by the repousse technique. Over Jesus’
head figures represent the son and moon while angels hover over the cross and mourners twist
and writhe in grief. The beautiful jewels were intended to remind believers of descriptions of
the beauty of Jerusalem.
page 2
HUM 120 History of Western Art
(Donna’s Lecture Week 4: Early Medieval and Romanesque)
13. The heirs of Louis the Pious divided the empire into three parts, thus laying the groundwork
for the eventual layout of modern Europe. The western portion became France, the east—
during the 10th century—corresponded roughly to modern Germany and Switzerland. Austria
was ruled by Saxon rulers known as the Ottonians after its three principal rulers Otto the I–III.
Otto I took control of Italy in 962 and the Pope crowned him Emperor. This set a precedent
where Otto’s descendants played important roles in politics and policies of the Church,
including dominance over the papacy. This move also united what became Germanic rule of
Germany and Italy. During the 12th century the area was known as the Holy Roman Empire.
Into the 20th century the area remained, sans Italy, as the Habsburg Empire.
This ivory panel shows Otto I presenting a model of the Cathedral of Magdeburg to Christ.
Otto is shown as a tiny figure in the company of Christ and the saints including Peter who
holds the keys to heaven and St. Maurice who presents Otto to Christ. (Otto was a Roman
Christian commander in Africa who was martyred for refusing to worship as the pagans. He is
often depicted during the middle ages as a black man.) Christ sits on a heavenly wreath with
his feet on the arch of the Earth. His hand is extended to receive the offering.
14. Doors of Bishop Bernward. During the 10th and 11th centuries Ottonian artists began a
large sculptural set of doors in wood and bronze. Based on earlier Roman, Byzantine, and
Carolingian works, this significant trend greatly impacted later medieval art. Bishop Bernward
of Hildesheim, Germany, was an important patron of the arts, and a skilled goldsmith. This
pair of bronze doors, made under his direction for his Abbey Church of Saint Michael, were
the most ambitious bronze casting project since the Romans. An inscription running through
the center of the doors states Bishop Bernward installed them in 1015.
15. Detail, Doors of Bishop Bernward.
chapter 15
16. Romanesque Europe. NOTE Romanesque (in the Roman manner) refers to all the
arts produced mid-11th–12th centuries. During the Romanesque period, Europe was
mainly agricultural and not united. Even so, villages grew into towns and a merchant class
of craftsmen developed. Economically the area was governed by the feudal system, a
sociopolitical arrangement where the lands belonged to rulers—kings who claimed divine
right—who granted some of this territory to lesser noblemen called vassals. The vassals would
promise allegiance to their king and military service, which included armed soldiers (known as
knights) and horses. These vassals in turn granted similar terms to their own vassals. Landless
peasants worked the farms and performed manual labor on the estates. For the most part the
merchant class operated outside of the feudal system. Towns could stipulate royal charters
whereby kings could collect taxes and create an independent power base.
17. During the 11th and 12 centuries of the Middle Ages pilgrims made arduous journeys
to holy sites. Large influxes of pilgrims prompted construction of churches to accommodate
their numbers. The Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy in Conques, France is an example of a
Romanesque church built to welcome pilgrims who payed homage to their child saint in a
layout that is known as the pilgrimage plan (p 458). The Church’s cruciform (cross-shaped)
plan with wide transept (arm of the cruciform church, perpendicular to the nave) is typical of
Romanesque pilgrimage churches. At the west a portal opens directly on a broad nave (central
space). Large churches have three portals. Sainte-Foy has one that leads to the central nave
with its side aisles. The elongated sanctuary encompasses the choir and the apse with its
surrounding ambulatory.
Inside there are ribbed barrel vaults covering the nave and groin vaults spanning the side
aisles. Half-barrel vaults called quadrant vaults, the arc of which is one quarter of a circle,
cover the galleries. The vaults over the galleries carry the outward thrust of the nave walls to
the outer walls and buttresses (supports, built against external walls).
Pilgrims assuredly arrived exhausted to study the portal sculpture, an important feature of
pilgrimage churches which told the church’s doctrine. At the Church of Sainte-Foy in Conques
the last judgment in the tympanum (aka, in medieval churches, lunette, a semicircle wall
framed by an arch over the doorway [here; also may be over a window]) explains the passage
from the secular world ‘without’ to the sacred world ‘within’ the church. Inside pilgrims would
hear the plainchant, aka Gregorian chant after Pope Gregory (590–604).
18. Abbey Church of Sainte-Foy showing the pilgrimage plan
19. The Reliquary of Sainte-Foy supposedly contains a fragment of the child saint’s skull.
page 3
HUM 120 History of Western Art
(Donna’s Lecture Week 4: Early Medieval and Romanesque)
20. Christ in Majesty. A wide variety of artistic traditions flourished during the Middle Ages
including Roman, Carolingian, Mozarabic, and Italo-Byzantine. (Carolingians were the Franks,
a Germanic tribe that settled in Northern Gaul. Their most famous leader was Charlemagne
(aka Charles the Great). The apse (semicircular niche prodruding from the wall of a church,
usually containing the altar) pointing in the Church of San Clemente in Tahull in the Catalonian
Pyrenees of Northern Spain shows these influences. The Romanesque artist created a
Byzantine-style pantocrator (Christ as almighty, all-powerful). Byzantine features include the
figure’s frontal pose, the modeling of forms through repeated colored lines of varying width
and shades, and iconographical features such as the alpha and omega and Christ holding a
book inscribed in Latin, “ego sum lux mundi” (“I am the light of the world”) from John 8:12.
Draperies such as in this painting, with loops and folds and mosaic-like application of thin
layers of paint are often found in Carolingian painting. The expressive figures of the Evangelists
pointing toward Christ may be inspired from Southern French art. The Byzantine style appealed
to a local desire for geometry and simplicity of form and the striped background is Mozarabic
(influenced by Muslim arts prevalent in Spain).
21. Church of San Clemente, in which is the drapery, Christ in Majesty.
21. The cathedral complex at Pisa, Tuscany, Italy begun in 1063. Baptistry begun 1153.
Campanile begun 1174. Campo Santo dates from 13th century. When completed in 1350 the
leaning tower of Pisa had already begun to lean. It was 179 feet high. Today it leans about 13’
off perpendicular. Most recently engineers filled its base with tons of lead in an effort to keep
the tower from toppling.
22. Pisa, on the west coast of Tuscany, was a great maritime power and competed with the
Muslim centers for control of the Mediterranean. In 1063 the Pisans won a decisive victory over
Muslim forces and in their jubilation began construction of a great cathedral dedicated to the
Virgin Mary.
23. Designed by the master builder Busiketos, the Pisa cathedral is based on the form of the
cruciform basilica with a long nave having double side aisles crossed by a projecting transept.
A clerestory (the topmost area of a wall, with windows, in a basilica, providing light to the
central nave) rises above the side aisles and second story galleries. The interior nave has
evenly-spaced Corinthian columns reminiscent of Roman Basilicas.
24. Sculptural decoration was an important feature of church portals. The most important
carving was located on the tympanum, the semicircular area above the lintel. The archivolts
(the moldings that follow the coutour of the arch) and the trumeau (the central supporting post)
as wall as the jambs of the door were all covered with relief sculpture.
The tympanum on the West portal of Cathedral of Saint-Lazare Autun shows Christ enclosed
in a mandorla (an almond shaped numbus) with figures of resurrected humans cowering at his
feet. On his left (our right) are the writhing figures of the damned. On His left are the saved
souls reaching toward heaven.
25. Medieval sculpture decorated reliquaries (to hold relics), altars, crucifixes, etc… and was
common to churches. They often served as instruction for those who could not read (who
comprised the majority of the population, as usually the scribes, clergy and wealthy noblemen
were the priviged few who knew how to read and thus controlled the learning through the
scenes depicted on such decoration). This sculpture depicts a common theme, the Throne
of Wisdom, Mary holding Jesus on her lap. Mary is literally a throne for Jesus, a theokotos
(bearer of God). Mary, revered in the West from the 12th century as nurturing, ever-merciful
intercessor, is recognized as second only to Christ. These figures, sculpted in the Auvergne were
once brightly painted and bear the mournful expression typical of sculpture of this area.
26. During the Romanesque period and into the Gothic scribes copyied texts in scriptoria.
This is the illustration on the opening page of the Liber Scivias by Hildegard of Bingen (1098–
1179, p487). Hildegard was a remarkable woman. Born to nobility and wildly intelligent she
entered a convent as a child and eventually served as its leader. She carried on intellectual
correspondence with popes and Emperors writing treatises on subjects including medicine and
natural science.
The text accompanying this illustration reads: “In the year 1141 of the incarnation of Jesus
Christ the Son of God, when I was forty-two years and seven months of age, a fiery light,
flashing intensely, came from the open vault of heaven and poured through my whole brain…
And suddenly I could understand what such books as the psalter, the gospel and the other
Catholic volumes of the Old and New Testament actually set forth”
page 4
HUM 120 History of Western Art
(Donna’s Lecture Week 4: Early Medieval and Romanesque)
Hildegard described visions which she recorded with the help of a monk, Volmar. This
particular image shows Hildegard receiving the flash of divine insight—note the tongues of
flame encircling her head—and she records the vision on a tablet while Volmar, the scribe,
waits in the wings. Some art historians believe this copy of Liber Scuivias was made at the
scriptorium of the monastery of Saint Matthias in Trier, whose abbot was a friend of Hildegard.
Others believe it was made at Bingen under the direction of Hildegard herself.
27. Section of the Bayeux Tapestry; Bishop Odo Blessing the Feast: The Bayeax Tapestry is a
major political document celebrating the victory of William the Conqueror over Harold and
securing his claim to the English thrown. This event promoted William’s half-brother Odo’s
interests as a powerful leader as well. The tapestry was embroidered in eight colors of wool on
undyed linen and stitched together as a strip, revealing the information in linear form. Many
consider the Bayeux Tapestry the first political cartoon strip. It is 230' long and 20" high. Odo,
Bishop of Bayeux, may have had the tapestry commissioned for the dedication of the Cathedral
de Bayeux in 1077. Scholars believe a Norman wrote the narrative, a special illustrator—an
Illuminator—provided the drawings (Illuminations), and women did the embroidery.
------------------------------------------------1. Read St. Benedict of Nursia’s The Rule on MyArtsLab (found within MyArtsLibrary). As the introduction to this excerpt notes, Charlemagne acquired a copy of the sixth-century document, thus influencing Carolingian history. In light of the regulations set out by St. Benedict, re-examine 14-16: Saint Gall Plan (p441) and its detailed representation of each
area of the monastery’s activities. Discuss, and in writing respond to the following questions…
a. In what ways does this plan model the document’s intentions or serve its purposes?
b. Does the plan reveal ways in which ideals of The Rule shape the design of the Plan?
2. Review “The Object Speaks: The Lindisfarne Gospels” (p430) and its background on the
influence of “barbarian” visual traditions moving from jewelry into Christian book arts. Also
NOTE 14-19, “Crucifixion with Angels and Mourning Figures, Lindau Gospels” (p445).
On MyArtsLab link to the PBS Channel 13 video: “Bookbindings of the Morgan” (under
“Multimedia Library” for Chapter 14). This narrated exhibition tour helps us appreciate an
extended history of book art with origins in medieval work.
Discuss, and in writing…
a. define and list as many vestiges of this fine art tradition you believe are retained in current-day book design and production.
.
b. list new technologies that have supplanted the traditional scribe-written books
page 5