Early Medieval Europe

Between 400 and 1400

• During this thousand year time period, we see some innovation but mostly a repressed society, both in terms of art and architecture, but also in terms of politics and religious and social freedom.
• Known as the Middle Ages as well as the Dark Ages
• For the most part, civilization was rough and uncivilized
• Combination of Greco-Roman heritage
• Cultures of the non-Roman peoples north of the Alps, and Christianity.

Romans called everyone “barbarians”

• Many northerners had risen to prominent positions within the Roman army and government.
• Others established their own areas of rule
• sometimes with Rome’s approval
• sometimes in opposition to Rome.

The adjective medieval and the noun Middle Ages 

• very old terms
• outdated view of the 1,000 years between Christianity becoming Rome’s official religion and the rebirth (Renaissance).

ART OF THE WARRIOR LORDS, 5th to 10th Centuries

• After the fall of Rome in 410, the Huns, Vandals, Merovingians, Franks, Goths, and other non-Roman peoples competed for power and territory in the former northwestern provinces of the Roman Empire.
• The surviving art of this period consists almost exclusively of small-scale status symbols,especially portable items of personal adornment such as bracelets, pins, and belt buckles, often featuring cloisonné ornament.
• The decoration of these early medieval objects displays a variety of abstract and zoomorphic motifs. Especially characteristic are intertwined animal and interlace patterns.

CHRISTIAN ART: SCANDINAVIA, BRITISH ISLES, SPAIN, 6th to 10th Centuries

The Christian art of the early medieval British Isles is called Hiberno-Saxon (or Insular).The most important extant artworks are the illuminated manuscripts produced in the monastic scriptoria of Ireland and Northumbria.

• The most distinctive features of these Insular books are the full pages devoted neither to text nor to illustration but to pure embellishment in the form of carpet pages made up of decorative panels of abstract and zoomorphic motifs.
• Some Hiberno-Saxon books also have full pages depicting each of the Four Evangelists or their symbols. Text pages often feature enlarged initial letters of important passages transformed into elaborate decorative patterns.
• *In Spain, Visigothic churches of the sixth and seventh centuries were basilican in plan but had square apses and often incorporated horseshoe arches, a form usually associated with Islamic architecture.
• *Scandinavian churches of the 11th century are notable for their carved wooden decoration recalling the pre-Christian art of the Vikings.

CAROLINGIAN ART, 768–877

• Charlemagne, king of the Franks since 768, expanded the territories he inherited from his father, and in 800, Pope Leo III crowned him emperor of Rome (r. 800–814). Charlemagne reunited much of western Europe and initiated a revival of the art and culture of Early Christian Rome.
• Carolingian illuminators merged the illusionism of classical painting with the northern linear tradition, replacing the calm and solid figures of their models with figures that leap from the page with frenzied energy.
• Carolingian sculptors revived the imperial Roman tradition of equestrian ruler portraiture and the Early Christian tradition of depicting Christ as a statuesque youth.
• Carolingian architects looked to Ravenna and Early Christian Rome for models, but transformed their sources, introducing, for example, the twin-tower western facade for basilicas and employing strict modular plans in their buildings.

OTTONIAN ART, 919–1024

• In the mid-10th century, a new line of emperors, the Ottonians, consolidated the eastern part of Charlemagne’s former empire and sought to preserve and enrich the culture and tradition of the Carolingian period.
• Ottonian architects built basilican churches with the towering spires and imposing west works of their Carolingian models but introduced the alternate-support system and galleries into the interior elevation of the nave.
• Ottonian sculptors also began to revive the art of monumental sculpture in works such as the Gero crucifix and the colossal bronze doors of Saint Michael’s at Hildesheim.
• Ottonian painting combines motifs and landscape elements from Late Antique art with the golden backgrounds of Byzantine art. Byzantine influence on Ottonian art became especially pronounced after Otto II married Theophanu in 972.

ART OF THE WARRIOR LORDS

Rome’s started to lose power in Late Antiquity

• Wars and competition for political authority
• Fights among the Huns, Vandals, Merovingians, Franks, Goths, and other non-Roman peoples of Europe.

As soon as one group established itself, another pushed them out.

• Visigoths were forced southward into Spain.
• Ostrogoths moved from Pannonia (where Hungary, Austria, and the former Yugoslavia meet) to Italy.
• Anglo-Saxons controlled what had been Roman Britain.
• Celts inhabited France and parts of the British Isles, including Ireland.
• In Scandinavia, the Vikings were in charge.

Made small portable “status symbols”

• weapons and luxury items of such as bracelets, pendants, and belt buckles
• were buried with the dead.

Regarded these objects as treasures.

• Enhanced the prestige of their owners

Beowulf

• Swedish hero and later king in the epic poem
• one of the oldest surviving pieces of literature in the English language.
• friends cremate the hero and place his ashes in a huge tumulus (burial mound) overlooking the sea.
• Describes Beowulf’s killing the water monster Grendel and its mother
• his death in combat with a dragon
• Includes both pagan and Christian elements.

MEROVINGIAN FIBULAE 

Fibulae

• decorative pin the Romans wore.
• Men and women used fibulae to fasten their clothes.
• Made of bronze, silver, or gold,
• sometimes used precious or semiprecious stones.

Part of a larger find of jewelry of the mid-sixth century.

• Probably belonged to a wealthy Merovingian woman and was buried with her.

Looks like the fibulae used on Justinian in the mosaic at San Vitale in Ravenna.

Zoomorphic elements – abstract decorative design

• Animal forms are almost unrecognizable.
• A fish is above the center of each pin.
• The looped forms around the edges are eagles’ heads
• red garnets for the eyes

Fibulae

SUTTON HOO SHIP BURIAL 

The Beowulf saga also recounts the funeral of the warrior lord Scyld

• Laid to rest in a ship set out in the North Sea
• Loaded with arms and armor and expensive jewelry.

In 1939

• archaeologists uncovered a ship full of treasure in a burial mound at Sutton Hoo, near the sea, in Suffolk, England.
• Sutton Hoo ship was not sent out to sea
• New tradition of burying great lords with their wealth

Found

• a gold belt buckle
• 10 silver bowls
• Silver plate
• 40 gold coins (perhaps to pay the 40 men who would row the deceased across the sea on his final voyage).

Also placed in the ship were two silver spoons inscribed “Saulos” and “Paulos,”

• Saint Paul’s names in Greek before and after his baptism.
• May allude to a conversion to Christianity.

Purse cover decorated with cloisonné (enameled).

• Made by soldering small metal strips, or cloisons (French for “partitions”), edge up, to a metal background
• Filled the compartments with semiprecious stones, pieces of colored glass, or glass paste
• fired to resemble sparkling jewels.

Cloisonné is a cross between mosaic and stained glass

medieval artists used it only on a miniature scale.

Four symmetrically arranged groups of figures make up the lower row.

• End groups is of a man standing between two beasts.
• He faces front
• they appear in profile.

The two center groups

• represent eagles attacking ducks.
• The beaks of the eagles fit against the beaks of the ducks.

Above these figures

• three geometric designs.
• In the central design, an interlace pattern, the interlacements evolve into squirming animals.

Woven linear patterns are common in Islamic art.

• Interlace with animals was not common in Islam
• Was common medieval Europe

Tried to imitate what they saw in paintings, mosaics and architecture

Sutton Hoo Ship Burial

Sutton Hoo Ship Burial: Sutton Hoo Ship Burial, c. 700 (British Museum, London)

Multiple bronze, gold and silver objects of Anglo Saxon origin, found in Suffolk, England, including: a helmet, sceptre, sword, hanging bowl, bowls and spoons, shoulder clasps, a belt buckle, and purse lid.

Speakers: Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker

Vikings

• landed in the British Isles in 793
• Traders and pirates of Scandinavia
• known as (named after the viks—coves or “trading places”—of the Norwegian shoreline).

Destroyed the Christian monastic community on Lindisfarne Island off the northeastern coast of England.

• Norsemen (North men)
• attacked the monastery at Jarrow in England
• another one on Iona Island, off the west coast of Scotland.

From this time until the mid-11th century, the Vikings created terror in western Europe. 

• Seasonally attacked European coasts, harbors, and river settlements from their ships.
• Their fast longboats took them from Ireland, Russia, Iceland and Greenland
• Their boats were not as deep as traditional boats and most had a V shaped hull, allowing them to slice through the water at impressive speeds.
• Even to Newfoundland in North America, long before Columbus arrived.

Didn’t just want to attack, but also wanted to colonize the lands.

In the early 11th century, the whole of England was part of a Danish empire.

Vikings settled in northern France in the early 10th century

• Territory came to be called Normandy

OSEBERG SHIP BURIAL 

Decorated their wooden ships.

• Ship burial near the sea at Oseberg, Norway.
• Ship was more than 70 feet long.
• Buried under a mound of dirt
• Contained the remains of two women. 

The size of the burial

• the carved wooden ornament
• the people who were buried there must have been important.
• May have carried many precious objects that robbers removed.

This is part of a post carved with an animal-head

CHRISTIAN ART: SCANDINAVIA, BRITISH ISLES, SPAIN

Warlords were creating and taking artworks that were made from abstract and animal designs,

In northern Europe

• Christian missionaries were establishing monasteries
• Sponsored artworks with Christian themes.

Very different from works produced in Italy and the Byzantine Empire.

STAVE CHURCH, URNES 

By the 11th century

• Much of Scandinavia had become Christian
• The artwork and styles fo the vikings was still present

Stave church portal at Urnes, Norway.

• staves are wedge-shaped timbers placed vertically
• Elongated animal forms intertwine with plants.
• Looks like natural plants
• This is from an 11th century church and was later incorporated into a 12 century church.

HIBERNO-SAXON ART 

Fifth century

• Started to convert Irish Celts to Christianity
• Developed a sect of Christianity different from the Roman Church
• mostly because they were isolated from everyone else
• Wanted to be away from temptations and distractions.

Irish monks set up monasteries in Britain and Scotland.

In 563

• Saint Columba founded a monastery on the Scottish island of Iona
• converted the natives to Christianity. 

In 635

• Iona monks established the monastery at Lindisfarne off the northern coast of Britain 

Hiberno-Saxon 

• Hibernia was the Roman name of Ireland
• flourished within the monasteries of the British Isles.
• Produced illuminated manuscripts.
• Books were used to Christianize the British Isles.
• Literally brought the Word of God to illiterate people
• The people revered the monks
• Books were rare and treated as treasures
• Started creating libraries and scriptoria (writing studios) in monasteries and major churches.

The word evangelist 

• comes from the Greek word for “one who announces good news”.

The authors of the Gospels

• First four books of the New Testament
• Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John
• Matthew was the angel, Mark the lion, Luke the ox and John the eagle.
• known as the Four Evangelists.

Matthew was a tax collector in Capernaum before Jesus called him to become one of his apostles.

• Matthew’s symbol is the winged man or angel.

Mark was the first bishop of Alexandria in Egypt

• suffered martyrdom.
• One tradition says that Peter dictated the Gospel to Mark, or at least inspired him to write it.
• Mark’s Gospel begins with a voice crying in the wilderness,
• His symbol is the lion, the king of the desert.

Luke was a disciple of Saint Paul, who refers to him as a physician. 

• Luke’s symbol is the ox
• His Gospel opens with a description of the priest Zacharias sacrificing an ox.

John was one of the most important apostles.

• Sat next to Jesus at the Last Supper and was present at the Crucifixion, Lamentation, and Transfiguration.
• John was also the author of the Apocalypse, the last book of the New Testament, which he wrote in exile on the Greek island of Patmos.
• The Apocalypse records John’s visions of the end of the world, the Last Judgment, and the Second Coming.
• John’s symbol is the eagle, the soaring bird connected with his apocalyptic visions.

Priests, monks and nuns, and laypersons each had their own specialized books.  The primary text came to be called the Bible (“the Book”)

• Old Testament of the Jews, written in Hebrew
• New Testament, written in Greek.

In the late fourth century

• Saint Jerome produced the Latin, or Vulgate (vulgar, or common tongue), version of the Bible
• Uses 46 Old and 27 New Testament books.

Before the invention of the printing press in the 15th century, all books were written by hand (“manuscripts,” from the Latin manu scriptus).

Bibles were extremely difficult to produce

• Only a few early monasteries had a complete Bible. 
• Often gathered several biblical books in separate volumes.
• The Pentateuch contains the first five books of the Old Testament
• begins with the Creation of Adam and Eve (Genesis).

The Gospels (“good news”) are the New Testament works of Saints Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John and tell the story of the life of Christ.

• Psalters contained the 150 psalms of King David
• written in Hebrew
• translated into both Greek and Latin.

The Church also frequently used other types of books. 

• The lectionary contains passages from the Gospels used in the order that the priests read them during Mass throughout the year.
• Breviaries were the texts used by monks’ for daily recitations.
• Sacramentaries are the prayers priests recite during Mass.
• Benedictionals are the bishops’ blessings.

Most popular was the Book of Hours

• prayers to be read at specific times throughout the day, much like a daily devotional

BOOK OF DURROW 

May have been written and decorated in the scriptorium at Iona

In the late Middle Ages it was in the monastery in Durrow, Ireland.

Full pages devoted to decoration. 

• Made the books prestigious

Between the text pages are carpet pages

• resembling textiles
• Were decorative panels of abstract and zoomorphic designs.

Enlarged the initial letters of an important passage

• Made the letters into elaborate decorative patterns.
• Nothing else like it in classical art.
• Because the artists were isolated, they could do what they wanted.

Each of the four Gospel books has a carpet page that faces a page dedicated to the evangelist who wrote that Gospel.

• Were almost like Chapter markers

The symbol of Saint Matthew is a man (later with wings)

• Artist only drew the head and two feet.
• Wears a robe made of yellow, red, and green squares
• Resembles cloisons (jewelry) filled with intricate abstract designs.

LINDISFARNE GOSPELS 

• Made in the monastery on Lindisfarne Island
• contains several ornamental pages.

Usually on the last page, there is an inscription telling us who made the book

• This is called the colophon
• According to the colophon, Eadfrith, bishop of Lindisfarne, wrote the Lindisfarne Gospels.

Lindisfarne pages are very intricate.

• Patterns of animals eat each other, curling over and twisting into each other.
• Lots of movement, static cross
• Rich color.

Saint Matthew in the Lindisfarne Gospels.

• Possibly one of the books a missionary brought from Italy to England.
• Matthew is shown as a philosopher or poet
• Writing his account of the life of Christ.
• A curtain tells us he is indoors.

The painter labeled Matthew in a combination of Greek (O Agios) and Latin (Mattheus)

• Greek was the language of the New Testament
• Latin was that of the Church of Rome. 

With Matthew is his symbol, the winged man (labeled imago hominis, image of the man).

• Not sure who the man is behind the curtain

BOOK OF KELLS 

• Was written and decorated either at Iona or a closely related Irish monastery.
• Named after the monastery in central Ireland that owned it
• Was housed in an elaborate metalwork box.
• Probably displayed the book on a church altar.
• Used during Christmas services.  
• Tells the story of the nativity of Jesus in the Gospel of Saint Matthew. 

The initial letters of Christ in Greek (XPI, chi-rho-iota) almost fill the entire page

• Autem (abbreviated simply as h) and generatio— appear at the lower right.
• Together they read: “Now this is how the birth of Christ came about.” 

The page corresponds to the opening of Matthew’s Gospel, the passage read in church on Christmas Day. 

Not just abstract pattern.

• The letter rho ends in a male head
• Animals are at its base to the left of h generatio. 
• Half-figures of winged angels appear to the left of chi
• many other figures, human and animal.

HIGH CROSS OF MUIREDACH 

Most of the work from this time is small and portable.The crosses though are very large and very heavy.

• More than 20 feet tall
• Stands over burial grounds next to monasteries.
• Writing on the bottom of the west side asks a prayer for a man named Muiredach.

Muiredach

• Influential Irish cleric.
• Led one of Ireland’s oldest monasteries, founded in the late fifth century.
• The cross probably marked his grave.

The circle intersecting the cross is typical of Celtic crosses.

• At the center of the west side is a depiction of the crucified Christ.
• On the east side Christ stands as judge of the world
• Below him the souls of the dead are being weighed on scales.

VISIGOTHIC SPAIN

In the early fifth century

• Roman cities fell to German invaders (Visigoths)
• Had converted to Christianity.

San Juan Bautista (Saint John the Baptist) at Baños de Cerrato,

• Visigoth king built in 661
• Was cured after taking a bath in the waters there

Visigothic churches are basilican in form

• often have multiple square apses.

Horseshoe arches that look Islamic but predates the Muslim invasion.

• Wasn’t until 300 years later, in 711 that Muslim armies crossed into Spain from North Africa
• Brought Islam

MOZARABIC SPAIN 

Islamic leaders from Córdoba took over the Visigoths

Christian culture called Mozarabic (Christians living in Arab territories) flourished.

Beatus, monk of San Martín at Liébana

• Wrote about the Apocalypse around 776. 
• Was copied and illustrated.
• One copy was produced at the monastery of San Salvador at Tábara in the kingdom of Léon in 970.
• The colophon (publishers illustration) presents the earliest known depiction of a scriptorium. 

Combination of exterior and interior views of the building.

• At the left is a bell tower
• A monk on the ground floor rings the bells.
• Islamic-style glazed-tile walls on the outside.

Three monks perform their duties.

• Two monks in the main room as the scribe and the painter.
• A third monk uses scissors to cut sheets of paper.

December 25, 800

• Pope Leo III crowned Charles the Great (Charlemagne), king of the Franks.
• Charlemagne came to be seen as the first Holy (that is, Christian) Roman Emperor. 
• Charlemagne’s coronation (The crowning) was in Saint Peter’s basilica in Rome.

United Europe

• Brought back the glory of ancient Rome.
• His name (Carolus Magnus in Latin) was used to define an entire era, the Carolingian period.

EQUESTRIAN STATUETTE 

• Larger than the horse so that he is the center of attention
• Charlemagne (or Charles the Bald) is on parade.
• Wears imperial robes instead of a general’s cloak
• His sword is visible.
• On his head is a crown
• In his left hand he holds a globe, a symbol of world domination.

Charlemagne’s Renovatio Imperii Romani

His official seal has the words renovatio imperii Romani (renewal of the Roman Empire).

Revived the glory of Early Christian Rome.

• Supported the arts
• Commissioned portrait sculptures and illustrated manuscripts.

Invited the best artists from western Europe and the Byzantine East to come see him

Could read and speak Latin and Frankish fluently.

• Could also understand Greek
• Studied rhetoric (persuasive speaking) and mathematics.
• Never learned to write properly.

Some of his major projects included the recovery of the true text of the Bible

• It had become corrupt over time
• Hired many scholars to correct the mistakes that had happened over years.
• Charlemagne’s scribes created a more easily written and easier to read version of Latin script called Caroline minuscule.

The “Carolingian Renaissance”

• Was energetic, brilliant emulation of the art, culture, and political ideals of Early Christian Rome.
• Charlemagne’s (Holy) Roman Empire existed in central Europe until Napoleon destroyed it in 1806.

CORONATION GOSPELS 

• Charlemagne was interested in education, the arts, and culture.
• Placed high value on books, both sacred and religious.

Purple vellum Coronation Gospels (also known as the Gospel Book of Charlemagne),

• Text written in gold letters.
• The full-page illuminations show Matthew, Mark, Luke and John at work.

Clothing wraps around the body.

• Used color and shading, not line, to create shapes.
• The chair, the lectern, and the toga are Roman.

EBBO GOSPELS 

The lines in the painting create intense energy.  Implied movement such as this has not been used in previous works.

Matthew writes quickly.

• the winged man in the upper right corner tells us the man is Matthew
• His hair stands on end
• his eyes are open wide
• the landscape behind him looks like its alive. 

UTRECHT PSALTER

Psalms of David in three columns

• Done in Latin capital letters.

The artist illustrated each psalm with a pen-and-ink drawing. 

Based on the clothing its thought the artist copied manuscripts made 400 years earlier. 

• Wanted to make the book appear “ancient.”
• People act out scenes from scripture.
• “We are counted as sheep for slaughter,” the artist drew slain sheep on the ground in front of a walled city.
• At the left, the people fall on the ground before a temple because the psalm reads “our soul is bowed down to the dust; our belly cleaveth unto the earth.”
• The artist’s response to “Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord” was to depict Christ, flanked by six pleading angels, reclining in a bed overlooking the slaughter below.

LINDAU GOSPELS

Charlemagne and his successors

• Commissioned numerous works of art that used expensive materials
• Book covers made of gold and jewels and sometimes ivory or pearls.
• Believed that gold and gems glorified the Word of God.
• The gold cover is huge.

A young Christ is nailed to the cross.

• Surrounding Christ are pearls and jewels
• Each jewel is raised on little gold claw feet so that they are protected and reflect more light
• The four angels and the personifications of the Moon and the Sun are above the cross
• The crouching figures of Mary and Saint John below Christ.
• Not sure who the other two figures are

Charlemagne encouraged the use of Roman building techniques.

• Went to Rome and Ravenna.

Palatine Chapel in AACHEN, Germany

• Imported purple marble columns from Ravenna for his Palatine Chapel.
• The plan of the Aachen chapel resembles that of San Vitale.
• The Aachen plan is simpler.
• Doesn’t have the odd piece like San Vitale did
• Two towers with spiral staircases on either side of the entrance

Doesn’t flow the same as San Vitale

• Appears more geometric
• Appears very strong, which will show up later in the Romanesque style
• Charlemagne would stand in the center arch so that everyone below could see him
• Directly behind the arch was his marble throne.
• Could look down at the altar while seated on the throne

The ceiling interior looks very similar to the Hagia Sophia

SAINT GALL

Document shows the ideal plan for a Benedictine monastery at Saint Gall in Switzerland

• Tells us what it was like to live in a monk community
• Monks made rules for themselves.
• Benedict of Nursia (Saint Benedict) founded the Benedictine order in 529.
• By the ninth century, the “Rule” Benedict wrote had become standard for all European Monks.
• Saint Benedict believed the clergy were corrupt because the Church had become worldy.

Thought that idleness and selfishness led to the neglect of God and of the Church.

The cure was living together in an abbey under the absolute rule of an abbot the monks elected (or an abbess the nuns chose)

• Would make sure that the monks spent each hour of the day in useful work and in sacred reading. 
• Manual labor had been considered disgraceful, only for the poor and slaves.
• Benedict said it was our duty to work.

The idea of a “work ethic” comes from this idea of spirituality. 

• Some of Saint Benedict’s followers emphasized spiritual “work” over manual labor.
• Cistercians, put his teachings about the value of physical work into practice.
• These monks cleared out forests, drained swamps, built roads, bridges, and dams
• Also built churches and their own living quarters.

This drawing was commissioned by Haito, an abbot

Sent it to the abbot of Saint Gall around 819 as a guide for rebuilding their monastery.

The main purpose of the design was to separate the monks from the laity (nonclergy) who also lived there.

• Near the center was the church with its cloister, a colonnaded courtyard.
• Only monks could enter the cloister, which was a worship area they could walk around.

Around the cloister were other buildings: dorm, cafeteria, kitchen, and storage rooms.

• Also had a room for the sick, school, guest house, bakery, brewery, and workshops.

The basilica became mainstream

The monastery church at Saint Gall was a traditional basilica

• Did have features not found in any Early Christian church.
• Had a second apse on the west end of the building
• Was used to house extra altars and relics.

Clergy were often scribes and scholars

• Almost all of them could read and write
• Almost everyone else could not
• Monks read, copied, illuminated, and bound books with decorative covers.
• Libraries became centers of study.
• Saint Benedict’s required manual labor and sacred reading, writing and copying books, studying music for chanting and teaching.

Transept at Saint Gall.

• The Saint Gall transept is as wide as the nave on the plan and was probably the same height.
• Tight and cohesive unit.

CORVEY

Some Carolingian basilicas had towers on the west end.

• This came to be known as the westwork (German Westwerck, “western entrance structure”).
• Also referred to it as a castellum (Latin, “castle” or “fortress”) or turris (“tower”).

The sole surviving example is the abbey church at Corvey.

• On the second floor was a two-story chapel with an aisle and a gallery on three sides.
• The emperor could watch and participate in the service below.
• Also had a second altar for special celebrations

Charlemagne was buried in the Palatine Chapel at Aachen.

• His empire survived him by fewer than 30 years.
• When his son Louis the Pious died in 840
• His sons divided the Carolingian Empire among themselves.

After bloody wars, the brothers signed a treaty at Verdun in 843 partitioning the land into western, central, and eastern areas

• Viking fighting helped bring about the collapse of the Carolingians. 
• The empire’s breakup into weak kingdoms brought a time of confusion to Europe.

Only in the 950’s did the eastern part of the empire come together under the rule of a new group of German emperors called the Ottonians. 

• The pope crowned the first Otto in Rome in 962
• Otto assumed the title of emperor of Rome.
• The three Ottos made were able to defend themselves from invaders in the East
• Also remained free from Viking attacks

The Christian Church, which had become corrupt and disorganized, recovered in the 10th century.

• The new German emperors also created ties with Italy and the Church.
• The pagan invaders had become Christian.

Ottonian architects built basilican churches with towering spires and westworks.

Also introduced new features.

GERNRODE

Saint Cyriakus at Gernrode.

• Part of a convent founded in 961.
• Construction of the church began the same year.

They took an old basilica church and enhanced it

• The church has a transept at the east
• Square choir in front of the apse.
• One of the first to have a gallery (an aisle) between the ground-floor and the clerestory

Dont know what these galleries in Ottonian churches were for.

• May have held additional altars.
• May also have been where the choirs sang.

HILDESHEIM

Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim, Germany.

• Great patron of Ottonian art and architecture
• Built the church of Saint Michael at Hildesheim.
• Made the church a center of learning
• Was a scholar, loved the arts, and a bronze caster.

In 1001, Bernward traveled to Rome as the guest of Otto III.

• During this stay, he studied at the monuments of the empire the Carolingian and Ottonian emperors.

Built between 1001 and 1031

• Has a double-transept plan, tower groupings, and a westwork.
• The nave seems works as a hall that connects them.
• Thick columns at the corners of each square.

HILDESHEIM DOORS 

• Dated to 1015
• more than 16 feet tall.
• Each was cast a single piece.
• The doors illustrate Original Sin and Redemption

Carolingian sculpture was mostly small-scale art made in ivory and gold and silver.

• The Hildesheim doors are huge
• The 16 individual panels are similar to books that they’ve also made
• Monks would see the doors every time they walked into the church.
• For more images and up close views, click here.

The panels of the left door

• Book of Genesis
• Starts with the creation of Eve (at the top)
• At the bottom, Adam and Eve’s son Abel is murdered by his brother Cain

The right door tells about the life of Christ (reading from the bottom up)

• Starts with the Annunciation
• Ending with the appearance to Mary Magdalene after the Resurrection.

The Old Testament was interpreted as foretelling the New Testament. 

• The panel showing the Fall of Adam and Eve next to the Crucifixion on the other door. 
• Eve nursing the infant Cain is opposite Mary with Christ in her lap.

In the fourth panel from the top on the left door, God, portrayed as a man, accuses Adam and Eve after they have eaten the apple.

• He jabs his finger at them
• They try to hide from him
• Adam points at Eve and Eve points at the snake

Bernward’s Column 

Within the church stood a bronze spiral column

• Missing its capital and a cross.
• The seven spiral bands tell the story of Jesus’ life in 24 scenes
• Begins with his baptism 
• Ends with his entry into Jerusalem. 
• These are the missing episodes from the story told on the church’s doors. 
• Similar to Trajan’s column in Rome

GERO CRUCIFIX 

Archbishop Gero commissioned in 970.

• Carved in oak and then painted and gilded.
• A compartment in the back of the head held the bread eaten during the Last Supper

A story tells how a crack developed in the wood of Gero’s crucifix but miraculously healed. 

• There are other tales of these works healing themselves or people

The sculptor depicted Christ as a real dying person, which was unusual.  Christ was never depicted suffering, until now.

• Blood is on his forehead
• Mmissing the crown of thorns.
• His eyelids are closed, and his face is in pain.
• Christ’s body sags under its own weight.
• The muscles are stretched to their limit.

UTA CODEX 

Lectionary (read during a church service)

• Made at Regensburg, Germany
• Made for Uta, abbess (woman in charge of a group of nuns) of Niedermünster.

Shows the important role that women played in religious life and as patrons of the arts.

• Near the end of her life, Uta gave the nuns a codex
• Full of illuminations.
• It had a gold, jewel, and enamel case
• These books were thought of as sacred objects
• Illustrates the important role women played in not only religious life but also as important patrons of the arts.

Dedication page 

• Depicts the Virgin Mary with the Christ Child in her lap. 
• Labeled Virgo Virginum (Virgin of Virgins)
• Uta and the nuns looked up to Mary
• Uta is at the bottom giving the book to Mary. 

LECTIONARY OF HENRY II 

Book of Gospel readings for the Mass

• Was a gift to Bamberg Cathedral.

Annunciation of Christ’s birth to the shepherds

• Angel has just flown above a hill
• The wind moves his robes.

GOSPEL BOOK OF OTTO III 

Otto III wanted to revive the Christian Roman Empire.

• Moved his court to Rome
• Wanted to create a new city of Roman imperialism.
• Never happened. 
• Died at age 21.

Otto III is portrayed in a Gospel book that takes his name.

• Represented the emperor on his throne.
• Holds the scepter and globe with a cross that represents his authority.

At his sides are the clergy and the barons (the Christian Church and the state)

• both give him their support.