CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 16 QUESTIONS WHILE READING
Can you discuss the materials, forms, and iconography of the art of the warrior lords?
Can you explain how Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts were made?
Can you explain how Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts adapt Early Christian models to local
tastes?
Do you have definitions for all of the terms introduced in this chapter?
Can you explain the art and architecture of the so-called Carolingian Renaissance?
Can you distinguish a Carolingian basilica from an Early Christian church?
Can you describe the material, formal, and iconographic characteristics of Ottonian
figural art?
Can you identify the general characteristics of Ottonian churches?
16
EUROPE AFTER THE FALL OF ROME
EARLY MEDIEVAL ART IN THE WEST
TEXT PAGES 420-445
Name three traditions, which fused to create early medieval society in Western
Europe:
a.
b.
c.
ART OF THE WARRIOR LORDS
Define or identify the following terms:
Cloisonné
Fibula
Viking
1. Briefly describe the style of the decoration of the Merovingian fibula shown
in FIG. 16-1.
2. What was found at Sutton Hoo, and what was its importance?
3. Describe the style of the decoration on the panel from Urnes (FIG. 16-4) and
the Viking ship found near Oseberg Norway (FIG. 16-3):
HIBERNO-SAXON ART
Define or identify the following terms:
Hiberno-Saxon
Mozarabic
scriptorium
1. What can explain the differences in the two pages from the Lindesfarne Gospel
illuminate on FIGS. 16-6 and 16-7.
2. List three characteristics of the style utilized on the chi-roh-iota page from the
Book of Kells (FIG. 16-8).
a.
b.
c.
3. What design shown on the Muiredach cross identifies it as Celtic? Draw this in
the space below.
CAROLINGIAN ART
Define or identify the following terms:
Cloister
Crossing
Module
Monastery
Westwork
1. What was the significance of Charlemagne being crowned in Rome in the
year 800?
What effect did that have on the art of Northern Europe?
2. List three ways in which the artist of the Gospel Book of Archbishop Ebbo of
Reims (FIG. 16-13) has modified the style found in the Gospel Book of
Charlemagne (FIG. 16-12).
a.
b.
c.
Which manuscript is most closely related to the style of the Utrecht Psalter
(FIG. 16-14)?
In what way?
3. The Palatine Chapel of Charlemagne resembles the church of San Vitale in
Ravenna, but is distinguished by:
a.
b.
4. Although the church of the monastery of St. Gall is a three-aisled basilica, it
differs from its Early Christian prototypes in the following ways:
a.
b.
c.
What is significance of its modular construction?
OTTONIAN ART
Define or identify the following:
Bishop Bernward
reliquary
1. List two features of the church of Saint Cyriakus of Gernrode that would be
important for later medieval architecture:
a.
b.
2. Describe the alternate-support system; you may sketch it in the space below:
3. The style of the figures on the bronze doors at St. Michael's at Hildesheim (FIG.
16-24) probably derives from manuscript illumination of the period. In what
major way does it differ from its prototypes?
4. Name a possible source for the Triumphal Column in Saint Michael’s at
Hildesheim (FIG. 16-25):
5. List three features of the Gero crucifix (FIG. 16-26) that contribute to the
expression of suffering:
a.
b.
c.
6. What two stylistic features seen in the Lectionary of Henry II (FIG. 16-28) were
not apparent in earlier Carolingian illumination?
a.
b.
DISCUSSION QUESTIONS
1. Compare the abstract decorative art of the Early Middle Ages in Europe
as seen in the ornamental page from the Lindisfarne Gospels (FIG. 16-6) with
the Islamic decorative style as seen in the Ardebil Carpet (FIG. 13-26). In what
ways do they resemble each other? What is distinctive about each?
2. Discuss the importance of Charlemagne's role in the history of art.
3. Compare the plan of St. Gall (FIG. 16-19) to the plan of Old Saint Peters in
Rome (FIG. 11-7) and Santa Sabina (FIG. 11-8). What similarities do you see,
and what changes have been made?
4. Discuss the historical and political factors represented by the image of the
enthroned Otto III from his gospel book (FIG. 16-29). In what ways is this
image related to the changing political and religious situation in Western
Europe?
5. Discuss the treatment of space and volume in manuscript illumination,
comparing pages from the Book of Durrow (FIG. 16-5), the Coronation
Gospels (FIG. 16-12), the Ebbo Gospels (FIG. 16-13), and the Uta Codex (FIG.
16-27).
6. Compare Crucifixion images from an Early Christian ivory (FIG. 11-21), a
Byzantine mosaic at Daphni (FIG. 12-22), a Carolingian manuscript cover
(FIG. 16-15), and the Ottonian Gero Crucifix (FIG. 16-26). How is the mood
different in each of the images, and how do the formal characteristics create
the mood?
LOOKING CAREFULLY AND DESCRIBING
Hiberno-Saxon artists worked in complex flat patterns, but if you look very
carefully you will see that the way they organized their patterns was very
different. Write at least a page comparing the Carpet page from the
Lindesfarne Gospels (FIG. 16-6 and Frontispiece of chapter 16) and the chirho-iota page from the Book of Kells (FIG. 16-8). Look first at the underlying
structure of each page. What large forms do you see, what symmetry and
what asymmetry? What sort of a frame is used? Which forms are based on
vertical and horizontal lines, which on diagonals, which on curves? Then start
to look within the major forms and between them. What do you see? How are
these forms composed? Are they different in the two pages? Do you see small
heads and feet or only abstract interlace? If you have a magnifying glass,
apply it to the pages. Keep looking, closer and closer and describe what you
see. Then write down the feelings you might have if you had to create such a
work from the ground (or rather parchment) up.