ART HISTORY STUDY GUIDE: Early Medieval
Key Ideas:
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Zoomorphic and interlace patterns
Art of Warrior Lords - portable artwork
Court of Charlemagne wants to revive the great Roman Empire and revives those styles
Ottonian empire revives - large scale art and architecture
Middle Ages was formerly thought to be a period of artistic stagnation and void between two great periods -Roman
and Renaissance, but this not the case
Historical Timeline
Patronage and Artistic Life
6th-8th
Monasteries principle centers of learning and book
production.
Artists were not original and did not say something
fresh or new
Scribes and illustrators had specific jobs
Charlemagne specific wanted to correct mistranslations
Book production in scriptoria
Illuminations in the text -Initial capital letter highly
decorated
Saxon art - cloisonne
Hiberno-Saxon Art C - British Isles
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Viking Art - 8 - 11 C. - Scandinavia/Normandy
Carolinian Art - 8th-9th C. - France/Germany
Ottonian Art - 10th-early 11th C. - Germany
Some Roman technology lost to history
Beginning with Charlemagne, rule is more
stable
ART HISTORY STUDY GUIDE: Early Medieval
Innovations in Architecture
Westworks - towers incorporated into the main structure usually at
the entrance.
Double transept at St. Michaels
Cruciform church structures
Alternating support structure for nave arcade - compound piers
(weight bearing structures with pilasters or engaged columns)
alternate with columns
ART HISTORY STUDY GUIDE: Early Medieval
Major Artistic Characteristics:
Hiberno-Saxon - Zoomorphic and interlace; portable, books,
stone cross monuments with 4 arcs
Viking Art - Zoomorphic and interlace; applied or engraved on
functional objects
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Carolingian art - Westworks on church; cloisters; paintingRoman and Byzantine influence
Ottonian - influenced by Roman and Early Christian, Large
Stone Churches, large scale sculpture
Innovations in Painting
Manuscript art
• Illuminated
• Carpet pages
• Author portraits
• Colophon
Different types of books
(psalters, sacramentaries,
brevaries…..)
Innovations in Sculpture
Viking - piercing, and negative
voids
Merging of Roman and
Byzantine/Early Christian
Christ on Cross - sagging body
indicating weight, shows suffering
Large Bronze doors - positioning
of images indicates pre-figuration
Genesis juxtaposed with Life of
Christ
ART HISTORY STUDY GUIDE: Early Medieval
Innovations in Luxury/Alternative Arts:
Cloisonne: Fibula, Purse cover
Vocabulary
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Fibula
Cloisonné
Hiberno-Saxon
Insular art
Gospel book
Breviaries
Sacramentaries
Benedictionaries
Psalters
Carpet page
Colophon
Author portrait
Imago hominis
Mozarabic
Carolus Magnus
Westwork
Treaty of Verdun
Names you should know
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Charlemagne
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Benedict of Nursia
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Cistercians
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Otto I
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Otto II
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Otto III
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Bishop Bernward
Images You Should Know
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Book of Durrow
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Emeterius, the tower and scriptorium
of San Salvador de Tabara colophon
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St. Matthew, Coronation Gospels
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Palatine Chapel
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St. Matthew, Ebbo Gospels
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Chi-Rho-Iota page from Book of Kells
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Equestrian Portrait of Charlemagne
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Doors with relief panels, St. Michael’s
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Christ Blessing Otto II and Theophana
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Crucifix commissioned by Archbishop
Gero for Cologne Cathedral