149-519: The Barberini Gospels is an illuminated Hiberno-Saxon manuscript Gospel Book ( Rome , Vatican City , Biblioteca Apostolica , Barberini Lat. 570, also known as the Wigbald Gospels ), assumed to be of a late 8th-century origin. After coming to light following its move to the Vatican Library in 1902 this luxury Gospel book had been largely ignored by the academic community until it became
298-764: A "more specific phase from the 6th to 9th centuries, between the conversion to Christianity and the Viking settlements". C. R. Dodwell , on the other hand, says that in Ireland "the Insular style continued almost unchallenged until the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1170 ; indeed examples of it occur even as late as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries". The Insular style is most famous for its highly dense, intricate and imaginative decoration, which takes elements from several earlier styles. Late Iron Age Celtic art or "Ultimate La Tène ", gave
447-541: A Pictish origin for these forms, or another common source. The carvings come from both pagan and early Christian periods, and the Pictish symbols, which are still poorly understood, do not seem to have been repugnant to Christians. The purpose and meaning of the stones are only partially understood, although some think that they served as personal memorials, the symbols indicating membership of clans , lineages, or kindreds and depict ancient ceremonies and rituals Examples include
596-471: A book cover or formed part of a larger altar frontal or high cross . The Ardagh Chalice and the Derrynaflan Hoard of chalice, paten with stand, strainer, and basin (only discovered in 1980) are the most outstanding pieces of church metalware to survive (only three other chalices, and no other paten, survive). These pieces are thought to come from the 8th or 9th century, but most dating of metalwork
745-505: A church in Maaseik in Belgium. A further style of textile is a vestment illustrated in a miniature portrait of Saint Aethelwold in his Benedictional (see above), which shows the edge of what appears to be a huge acanthus "flower" (a term used in several documentary records) covering the wearer's back and shoulders. Other written sources mention other large-scale compositions. Anglo-Saxon glass
894-628: A combination of influences from Mediterranean, Celtic and Germanic styles that arose when the Anglo-Saxons encountered Irish missionary activity in Northumbria , at Lindisfarne and Iona in particular. At the same time the Gregorian mission from Rome and its successors imported continental manuscripts like the Italian St. Augustine Gospels , and for a considerable period the two styles appear mixed in
1043-521: A considerable number of other finds, the discovery of the ship-burial at Sutton Hoo , probably interred in the 620s, transformed the history of Anglo-Saxon art, showing a level of sophistication and quality that was wholly unexpected at this date. The most famous finds are the helmet and matching suite of purse-lid , belt and other fittings of the king buried there, which made clear the source in Anglo-Saxon art, previously much disputed, of many elements of
1192-631: A curved surface, evidently of high quality, though uncertain date (perhaps early 10th century). A Sacrifice of Isaac and an Ascension can be identified, and parts of standing groups of saints, prophets or apostles. Standing equally apart from other survivals is a late slab from the Old Minster, Winchester which appears to show a section of a large frieze with the story from Germanic mythology of Sigmund , which it has been suggested may have been as long as eighty feet wide, and over four feet high. There are literary references to secular narrative tapestries,
1341-452: A dignified classical decorum that are displayed in both Insular and Winchester school art had already influenced continental style, as discussed above, where it provided an alternative to the heavy monumentality that Ottonian art displays even in small objects. This habit of mind was an essential component of both the Romanesque and Gothic styles, where forms of Anglo-Saxon invention such as
1490-407: A distinctive rougher finish to their vellum, compared to the smooth-polished surface of contemporary continental and all late-medieval vellum. It appears that, in contrast to later periods, the scribes copying the text were often also the artists of the illuminations, and might include the most senior figures of their monastery. In England the pull of a Continental style operated from very early on;
1639-399: A feature of later medieval art, especially Gothic art, in areas where specific Insular motifs are hardly used, such as architecture. The mixing of the figurative with the ornamental also remained characteristic of all later medieval illumination; indeed for the complexity and density of the mixture, Insular manuscripts are only rivalled by some 15th-century works of late Flemish illumination. It
SECTION 10
#17328510663871788-569: A few contemporary continental examples have survived. The references to specific works by the 11th-century monastic artist Spearhafoc , none of which have identifiably survived, are about works in precious metal, and he is one of a small number of metalwork artists from the period whose name we know and whose work is described in any way. According to several sources, including the Norman chronicler Goscelin , who knew him personally, Spearhafoc "was outstanding in painting, gold-engraving and goldsmithery",
1937-424: A general history of the world, and inscriptions in runes in both Latin and Old English . We have few Anglo-Saxon panels from book-covers compared to those from Carolingian and Ottonian art but a number of figures of very high quality in high relief or fully in the round. In the last phase of Anglo-Saxon art two styles are apparent: one a heavier and formal one drawing from Carolingian and Ottonian sources, and
2086-583: A gilded sword did not make a man a ceorle , the lowest rank of free men. Apart from Anglo-Saxon architecture , which survives entirely in churches, with only a handful of largely unaltered examples, monumental stone sculpture survives in large stone crosses, an equivalent to the high crosses of the Celtic areas of Britain. Most sculpture was probably once painted, clarifying the designs, which are mostly in relatively low relief and not finished with great precision, and now almost all badly worn and weathered. Dating
2235-488: A goldsmith was then regarded as the most prestigious branch. One 11th-century lay goldsmith was even a thegn . Many monastic artists reached senior positions; Spearhafoc's career in metalwork was paralleled in less sensational fashion by his contemporary Mannig, Abbot of Evesham (Abbot 1044–58, d. 1066), and at the end of the previous century Saint Dunstan had been a very successful Archbishop of Canterbury. Like Spearhafoc, Mannig's biography, with some precise details,
2384-601: A great influence in Northern France throughout the 11th century, in the so-called "Channel school", and Insular decorative elements such as interlace remained popular into the 12th century in the Franco-Saxon style. Pagan Anglo-Saxon metalwork initially uses the Germanic Animal Style I and II decoration that would be expected from recent immigrants, but gradually develops a distinctive Anglo-Saxon character, as in
2533-558: A greater number of manuscripts surviving than works in other media, even if in most cases illuminations are restricted to initials and perhaps a few miniatures. Several ambitious projects of illumination are unfinished, such as the Old English Hexateuch , which has some 550 scenes in various stages of completion, giving insight into working methods. The illustrations give Old Testament scenes an entirely contemporary setting and are valuable images of Anglo-Saxon life. Manuscripts from
2682-468: A group of finely worked liturgical jewels, and there are a number of high quality disk brooches. The most ornate of earlier ones are colourful and complicated with inlays and filigrees, but the 9th century Pentney Hoard , discovered in 1978, contained six splendid brooches in flat silver openwork in the " Trewhiddle style ". In these small but fully formed animals, of no recognisable species, contort themselves in foliage and tendrils that interlace, but without
2831-501: A major abbey church in the Insular period remain hard to imagine; one thing that does seem clear is that the most fully decorated manuscripts were treated as decorative objects for display rather than as books for study. The most fully decorated of all, the Book of Kells, has several mistakes left uncorrected, the text headings necessary to make the Canon tables usable have not been added, and when it
2980-516: A more elaborate initial with colouring, showing Insular characteristics still more developed, even in such an outpost. From the same scriptorium and of similar date, the Bobbio Orosius has the earliest carpet page , although a relatively simple one. Durham Gospel Book Fragment . The earliest painted Insular manuscript to survive, produced in Lindisfarne c. 650, but with only seven leaves of
3129-481: A much lower level, from the Romano-British industry, but Bede records that Benedict Biscop brought glass-makers from Gaul for window glass at his monasteries. It is not clear how much Anglo-Saxon glass was imported, but canes of millefiori coloured glass almost certainly were; one of these was in the purse at Sutton Hoo. Otherwise recycling of Roman glass may have avoided the need to import raw glass; evidence for
SECTION 20
#17328510663873278-483: A new style appears in a manuscript of the biographies by Bede of St Cuthbert given by Æthelstan to the monastery in Chester-le-Street about 937. There is a dedication portrait of the king presenting his book to the saint, the two of them standing outside a large church. This is the first real portrait of an English king, and heavily influenced by Carolingian style, with an elegant inhabited acanthus border. However,
3427-494: A number of these survive in Scandinavian museums. While larger works are all lost, several small objects and fragments have survived, nearly all having been buried; in recent decades professional archaeology as well as metal-detecting and deep ploughing have greatly increased the number of objects known. Among the few unburied exceptions are the secular Fuller Brooch , and two works made in Anglo-Saxon style carried to Austria by
3576-552: A painted face on a reused stone at Winchester , dating to before 903, and so an important early example of the Winchester figure style. A metaphor in a letter of Alcuin speaks of "stars, like the painted ceiling of a great man's house". However, no paintings that are at all complete have survived on either wall or panel. As in the rest of the Christian world, while monumental sculpture was slowly re-emerging from its virtual absence in
3725-518: A quieter style more typical of Frankish manuscripts of the period. Yet the same artist almost certainly produced both pages, and is very confident in both styles; the evangelist portrait of John includes roundels with Celtic spiral decoration probably drawn from the enamelled escutcheons of hanging bowls . This is one of the so-called "Tiberius group" of manuscripts, which leant towards the Italian style, and appear to be associated with Kent , or perhaps
3874-494: A society where common stylistic influences were spread across a great number of types of object in art, applied art and decorative art . Across all the islands society was effectively entirely rural, buildings were rudimentary, and architecture has no Insular style. Although related objects in many more perishable media certainly existed and have not survived, it is clear that both religious and secular Insular patrons expected individual objects of dazzling virtuosity, that were all
4023-800: A stunning cross-carpet page and portraits of the evangelists Mark and Luke. The gospels of Matthew and Mark and the beginning of Luke survives. From its time in Wales, pages include marginalia representing some of the earliest examples of Old Welsh writing. The manuscript has been at Lichfield Cathedral since the late 10th century, except for a brief period during the English Civil War. St Petersburg Bede . Attributed to Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey in Northumbria between about 730–746, this contains larger opening letters in which metalwork styles of decoration can clearly be seen. There are thin bands of interlace within
4172-565: A style showing many borrowings from English models, especially in initial pages, where Insular influence remained visible in northern France until even the 12th century. The Anglo-Saxon metalwork produced in the Salzburg area of modern Austria has a manuscript counterpart in the " Cutbercht Gospels " in Vienna. By the 10th century Insular elements were relegated to decorative embellishments in England, as
4321-481: A term for a school of late Carolingian illumination in north-eastern France that used Insular-style decoration, including super-large initials, sometimes in combination with figurative images typical of contemporary French styles. The "most tenacious of all the Carolingian styles", it continued until as late as the 11th century. Large stone high crosses , usually erected outside monasteries or churches, first appear in
4470-480: A tradition of Anglo-Saxon pagan monumental sculpture, probably in wood, of which no examples remain (as opposed to later Anglo-Scandinavian pagan imagery), and with which the crosses initially competed. The Anglo-Saxon crosses have survived less well than those in Ireland, being more subject to iconoclasm after the English Reformation . Some featured large figurative sculpture of considerable quality, as on
4619-532: A tradition of which the Bayeux Tapestry is the only survival, and this may have been a stone equivalent, celebrating Sigmund, who was believed to be an ancestor of the intermarried royal houses of both England and Denmark , many of whom were buried in what was then the largest church in England. It is also clear from literary sources that wall paintings were not uncommon, although not a prestigious form, and fragments of painted plaster have been found, as well as
Barberini Gospels - Misplaced Pages Continue
4768-463: A variety of proportions in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. In the Lindisfarne Gospels , of around 700–715, there are carpet pages and Insular initials of unprecedented complexity and sophistication, but the evangelist portraits , clearly following Italian models, greatly simplify them, misunderstand some details of the setting, and give them a border with interlace corners. The portrait of St Matthew
4917-577: Is a copy of it. The Ramsey Psalter (c. 990) contains pages in both the painted and tinted drawing styles, including the first Beatus initial with a "lion mask", while the Tiberius Psalter , from the last years before the Conquest, uses mainly the tinted. Anglo-Saxon culture was coming into increasing contact with, and exchanging influences with, a wider Latin Mediaeval Europe. Anglo-Saxon drawing had
5066-585: Is a masterpiece of the later Winchester style, which drew on Insular, Carolingian, and Byzantine art to make a heavier and more grandiose style, where the broad classicising acanthus foliage sometimes seems over-luxuriant. Anglo-Saxon illustration included many lively pen drawings, on which the Carolingian Utrecht Psalter , in Canterbury from about 1000, was highly influential; the Harley Psalter
5215-807: Is also noticeable that these characteristics are always rather more pronounced in the north of Europe than the south; Italian art, even in the Gothic period, always retains a certain classical clarity in form. Unmistakable Insular influence can be seen in Carolingian manuscripts, even though these were also trying to copy the Imperial styles of Rome and Byzantium. Greatly enlarged initials, sometimes inhabited, were retained, as well as far more abstract decoration than found in classical models. These features continue in Ottonian and contemporary French illumination and metalwork, before
5364-459: Is also often thought to have been begun in Iona and then continued in Ireland, after disruption from Viking raids; the book survives nearly intact but the decoration is not finished, with some parts in outline only. It is far more comprehensively decorated than any previous manuscript in any tradition, with every page (except two) having many small decorated letters. Although there is only one carpet page,
5513-601: Is at the same level as those of better-known manuscripts such as the Book of Kells or the Lichfield Gospels . On the other hand, there are many elements employed in the decoration of this Gospel book which do not seem to belong here, either because they more closely resemble motifs found in non-insular or Continental art or because they are too early, foreshadowing trends of a later, even Romanesque period. Hiberno-Saxon Insular art , also known as Hiberno-Saxon art ,
5662-461: Is based on the same Italian model, or one extremely similar, used for the figure of Ezra that is one of the two large miniatures in the Codex Amiatinus (before 716), but the style there is very different; a far more illusionistic treatment, and an "attempt to introduce a pure Mediterranean style into Anglo-Saxon England", which failed, as "perhaps too advanced", leaving these images apparently as
5811-401: Is decorated by cross motifs, ribbon interlace, lattice work, carpet pages, and the evangelist symbols. After large initials the following letters on the same line, or for some lines beyond, continue to be decorated at a smaller size. Dots around the outside of large initials are much used. The figures are highly stylised, and some pages use Germanic interlaced animal ornament, whilst others use
5960-465: Is dominated by a cross, but the whole surface of the cover is decorated, with interlace panels between the arms of the cross. The cloisonné enamel shows Italian influence, and is not found in work from the Insular homelands, but the overall effect is very like a carpet page. Cathach of St. Columba . An Irish Latin psalter of the early 7th century, this is perhaps the oldest known Irish manuscript of any sort. It contains only decorated letters, at
6109-558: Is from a former abbey at Breedon-on-the-Hill in Mercia, with a number of elements of different dates, including lively narrow decorative strip friezes, many including human figures, and panels with saints and the Virgin. The most intriguing fragments are firstly a group, now at Canterbury Cathedral , from St Mary's Church, Reculver , in Kent, from a large composition with many figure scenes and groups on
Barberini Gospels - Misplaced Pages Continue
6258-430: Is given in the chronicle maintained by his abbey. His work also had a miracle associated with it – the lay goldsmith Godric stabbed his hand with an awl during the work on the large shrine at Evesham, which was miraculously healed overnight. Spearhafoc and Mannig are the "only two goldsmiths of whom we have extended accounts", and the additional information given about Godric, the leader of a team brought in by Mannig for
6407-451: Is mentioned by many foreign sources, and the few remaining engraved figures closely parallel the far more numerous pen-drawn figures in manuscripts, also an Anglo-Saxon speciality. Wall-paintings, which seem to have sometimes contained gold, were also apparently often made by manuscript illuminators, and Goscelin's description of his talents therefore suggests an artist skilled in all the main Anglo-Saxon media for figurative art – of which being
6556-447: Is nearly complete. The important artistic centres, in so far as these can be established, were concentrated in the extremities of England, in Northumbria , especially in the early period, and Wessex and Kent near the south coast. Anglo-Saxon art survives mostly in illuminated manuscripts , Anglo-Saxon architecture , a number of very fine ivory carvings, and some works in metal and other materials. Opus Anglicanum ("English work")
6705-510: Is the Garland of Howth , which is in a damaged condition. Two of its illuminated pages remain, decorated with the common motifs of the Insular style. A distinctive Insular type of book is the pocket gospel book , inevitably much less decorated, but in several cases with Evangelist portraits and other decoration. Examples include the Book of Mulling , Book of Deer , Book of Dimma , Book of Armagh , and
6854-497: Is the hogback , low grave-marker shaped like a long house with a pitched roof, and sometimes muzzled bears clutching on to each end. Ornament is sometimes a crude pattern of scoring, or scale-like elements presumably representing roofing shingles, but may include interlace and images. Many fragments, parts of friezes and panels with figure and ornamental carving, have been recovered by archaeology, usually after being reused in rebuilt churches. The largest group of Anglo-Saxon sculpture
7003-677: Is the most impressive remaining Anglo-Saxon cross, though as with most Anglo-Saxon crosses the original cross head is missing. Many Anglo-Saxon crosses were much smaller and more slender than the Irish ones, and therefore only had room for carved foliage, but the Bewcastle Cross , Easby Cross and Sandbach Crosses are other survivals with considerable areas of figurative reliefs , with larger-scale figures than any early Irish examples. Even early Anglo-Saxon examples mix vine-scroll decoration of Continental origin with interlace panels, and in later ones
7152-568: Is the same person as Wigbold, author of the Quaestiones in Octateuchum . The Barberini Gospels contains one illuminated canon table, four Evangelist portraits , and fifteen decorated initials . The book follows a fairly standard format in which each separate Gospel book opens with an evangelist portrait of the author and a large decorated initial, or incipit , at the beginning of the text. Another large decorated initial, often referred to as
7301-462: Is uncertain, and comes largely from comparison with manuscripts. Only fragments remain from what were probably large pieces of church furniture, probably with metalwork on wooden frameworks, such as shrines, crosses and other items. The Insular crozier had a distinctive shape; the survivals, such as the Kells Crozier and Lismore Crozier all appear to be Irish or Scottish, and from rather late in
7450-526: Is usually difficult. Sculpture in wood was very likely more common, but almost the only significant large survival is St Cuthbert's coffin in Durham Cathedral , probably made in 698, with numerous linear images carved or incised in a technique that is a sort of large-scale engraving. The material of the earliest recorded crosses is unknown, but may well have been wood. From various references (to its destruction by Christians) there would seem to have been
7599-689: Is why that find transformed thinking about early Anglo-Saxon art. Objects from the Royal Anglo-Saxon tomb in Prittlewell in Essex, dating from the late 6th century and discovered in 2003, were put on display in Southend Central Museum in 2019. The earliest Anglo-Saxon coin type, the silver sceat , forced craftsmen, no doubt asked to copy Roman and contemporary continental styles, to work outside their traditional forms and conventions in respect of
SECTION 50
#17328510663877748-515: The OED in 1908, and is also used by linguists for the Insular Celtic languages . Initially used mainly to describe the style of decoration of illuminated manuscripts, which are certainly the most numerous type of major surviving objects using the style, the term is now used more widely across all the arts. It has the advantage of recognising the unity of styles across Britain and Ireland, while avoiding
7897-526: The Anglo-Saxon mission 's foundation at Echternach Abbey (though the important Echternach Gospels were created in Northumbria), and the major monastery at Tours , where Alcuin of York was followed by another Anglo-Saxon abbot, between them covering the period from 796 to 834. Although Tours' own library was destroyed by Norsemen, over 60 9th century illuminated manuscripts from the scriptorium survive, in
8046-573: The Anglo-Saxon mission , the Tassilo Chalice (late 8th century) and the Rupertus Cross . Especially in the 9th century, Anglo-Saxon styles, sometimes derived from manuscripts rather than metal examples, are found in a great number of smaller pieces of jewellery and other small fittings from across northern Europe. From England itself, the Alfred Jewel , with an enamel face, is the best known of
8195-539: The Book of Kells , Lindisfarne Gospels , Book of Durrow , brooches such as the Tara Brooch and the Ruthwell Cross . Carpet pages are a characteristic feature of Insular manuscripts, although historiated initials (an Insular invention), canon tables and figurative miniatures, especially Evangelist portraits , are also common. The designation as Insular derives from the phrase Insular script , first cited by
8344-627: The British Museum , the National Museum of Ireland , the National Museum of Scotland , or local museums in the islands. Each of their designs is wholly individual in detail, and the workmanship is varied in technique and superb in quality. Many elements of the designs can be directly related to elements used in manuscripts. Almost all of the many techniques known in metalwork can be found in Insular work. Surviving stones used in decoration are semi-precious ones, with amber and rock crystal among
8493-576: The Eassie Stone and the Hilton of Cadboll Stone . It is possible that they had subsidiary uses, such as marking tribal or lineage territories. It has also been suggested that the symbols could have been some kind of pictographic system of writing. There are also a few examples of similar decoration on Pictish silver jewellery, notably the Norrie's Law Hoard, of the 7th century or perhaps earlier, much of which
8642-680: The Gregorian mission from Rome had brought the St Augustine Gospels and other manuscripts now lost with them, and other books were imported from the continent early on. The 8th-century Cotton Bede shows mixed elements in the decoration, as does the Stockholm Codex Aureus of similar period, probably written in Canterbury . In the Vespasian Psalter it is clear which element is coming to dominate. All these and other members of
8791-556: The Hiberno-Scottish mission and Anglo-Saxon missions. The influence of Insular art affected all subsequent European medieval art, especially in the decorative elements of Romanesque and Gothic manuscripts. Surviving examples of Insular art are mainly illuminated manuscripts , metalwork and carvings in stone, especially stone crosses . Surfaces are highly decorated with intricate patterning, with no attempt to give an impression of depth, volume or recession. The best examples include
8940-606: The Lindau Gospels (now in the Morgan Library , New York ) was made in southern Germany in the late 8th or early 9th century, under heavy Insular influence, and is perhaps the best indication as to the appearance of the original covers of the great Insular manuscripts, although one gold and garnet piece from the Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard , found in 2009, may be the corner of a book-cover. The Lindau design
9089-646: The Monymusk Reliquary has always been in Scotland. In general it is clear that most survivals are only by chance, and that we have only fragments of some types of object—in particular the largest and least portable. The highest quality survivals are either secular jewellery, the largest and most elaborate pieces probably for male wearers, or tableware or altarware in what were apparently very similar styles—some pieces cannot be confidently assigned between altar and royal dining-table. It seems possible, even likely, that
SECTION 60
#17328510663879238-633: The Old Testament on the east side, and the New on the west, with a Crucifixion at the centre of the cross. The 10th-century Muiredach's High Cross at Monasterboice is usually regarded as the peak of the Irish crosses. In later examples the figures become fewer and larger, and their style begins to merge with the Romanesque, as at the Dysert Cross in Ireland. The 8th-century Northumbrian Ruthwell Cross , unfortunately damaged by Presbyterian iconoclasm ,
9387-589: The Picts of Scotland north of the Clyde-Forth line between the 6th–8th centuries are particularly striking in design and construction, carved in the typical Easter Ross style related to that of Insular art, though with much less classical influence. In particular the forms of animals are often closely comparable to those found in Insular manuscripts, where they typically represent the Evangelist's symbols, which may indicate
9536-551: The Quoit Brooch Style of the 5th century. Anglo-Saxon brooches are the most common survivals of fine metalwork from the earlier period, when they were buried as grave goods . Round disk brooches were preferred for the grandest pieces, over continental styles of fibulae and Romano-British penannular brooches , a consistent Anglo-Saxon taste throughout the period; the Kingston Brooch and Harford Farm Brooch are 7th-century examples. Decoration included cloisonné ("cellwork"), in gold and garnet for high-status pieces. Despite
9685-467: The Ruthwell Cross and Bewcastle Cross (both probably around 800). Vine-scroll decoration and interlace are seen in alternating panels on the early Northumbrian Ruthwell, Bewcastle and Easby Crosses , though the vine-scroll is already more prominent, and has faces to itself. Later Southumbrian crosses often only use vine-scrolls. There may be inscriptions, in the runic or Roman scripts, and Latin or Old English , most famously at Ruthwell, where some of
9834-470: The Temptation and Arrest of Christ are included, as well as a Madonna and Child, surrounded by angels (the earliest Madonna in a Western book). More miniatures may have been planned or executed and lost. Colours are very bright and the decoration has tremendous energy, with spiral forms predominating. Gold and silver are not used. The Book of Kells is held in Trinity College Dublin . A lesser known Insular manuscript in Trinity College Dublin's library
9983-409: The incipit initials are so densely decorated, with only a few letters on the page, that they rather take over this function. Human figures are more numerous than before, though treated in a thoroughly stylised fashion, and closely surrounded, even hemmed in, by decoration as crowded as on the initial pages. Books, however, are the most directly depicted objects in the illustrations. A few scenes such as
10132-442: The "Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art" and the "English Romanesque art: 1066–1200" exhibition catalogues, despite both being published in 1984. These include the ivory triangle mount with angels and the "Sigurd" stone relief fragment (discussed above), both from Winchester, and the ivory "pen-case" and Baptism (illustrated above), both in the British Museum. The energy, love of complicated twining ornament, and refusal to wholly respect
10281-434: The "Tiberius" group of manuscripts were written south of the river Humber , but the Codex Amiatinus , of before 716 from Jarrow, is written in a fine uncial script, and its only illustration is conceived in an Italianate style, with no Insular decoration; it has been suggested this was only because the volume was made for presentation to the Pope. The dating is partly known from the grant of additional land secured to raise
10430-461: The 8th century in Ireland, perhaps at Carndonagh , Donegal , a monastic site with Ionian foundations, apparently later than the earliest Anglo-Saxon crosses , which may be 7th-century. Later Insular carvings found throughout Britain and Ireland were almost entirely geometrical, as was the decoration on the earliest crosses. By the 9th century figures are carved, and the largest crosses have very many figures in scenes on all surfaces, often from
10579-401: The British Celts of the west and the Franks . The Kingdom of Northumbria in the far north of England was the crucible of Insular style in Britain, at centres such as Lindisfarne , founded c. 635 as an offshoot of the Irish monastery on Iona , and Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey (674) which looked to the continent. At about the same time as the Insular Lindisfarne Gospels was being made in
10728-402: The Celtic (Irish and Pictish ) and Anglo-Saxon elites had long traditions of metalwork of the finest quality, much of it used for the personal adornment of both sexes of the elite. The Insular style arises from the meeting of their two styles, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon animal style , in a Christian context, and with some awareness of Late Antique style. This was especially so in their application to
10877-517: The Christian period have been found in archaeological contexts that suggest they were rapidly hidden, lost or abandoned. There are a few exceptions, notably arm-shaped reliquaries such as the Shrine of Saint Lachtin's Arm , and portable book-shaped (" cumdachs ") and house-shaped shrines for books or relics , several of which have been continuously owned, mostly by churches on the Continent—though
11026-469: The Conquest was both made in England and firmly in an Anglo-Saxon tradition, points now accepted by French art-historians. Such tapestries adorned both churches and wealthy houses in England, though at 0.5 by 68.38 metres (1.6 by 224.3 ft, and apparently incomplete) the Bayeux Tapestry must be exceptionally large. Only the figures and decoration are embroidered, on a background left plain, which shows
11175-541: The Early Christian period, small-scale sculpture in metalwork, ivory carving and also bone carving was more important than in later periods, and by no means a "minor art". Most Anglo-Saxon ivory was from marine animals, especially the walrus , imported from further north. The extraordinary early Franks Casket is carved from whalebone , which a riddle on it alludes to. It contains a unique mixture of pagan, historical and Christian scenes, evidently attempting to cover
11324-610: The Evangelist on either side. Patronage by the great figures of the land, and the largest monasteries, became extravagant in this period, and the greatest late Anglo-Saxon churches must have presented a dazzling spectacle, somewhat in the style of Eastern Orthodox churches. Anglo-Saxon taste revelled in expensive materials and the effects of light on precious metals, which were also embroidered into fabrics and used on wall-paintings. Sections of decorated elements from some large looted works such as reliquaries were sawn up by Viking raiders and taken home to their wives to wear as jewellery, and
11473-472: The Insular period. These later works, which also including the 11th century River Laune and Clonmacnoise Croziers are heavily influenced by Viking art and have interlace patterns in the Ringerike or Viking art#Urnes-styles . The Cross of Cong is a 12th-century Irish processional cross and reliquary that shows Insular decoration, possibly added in a deliberately revivalist spirit. The fittings of
11622-521: The Mediterranean world, above all the codex or book. The finest period of the style was brought to an end by the disruption to monastic centres and aristocratic life caused by the Viking raids which began in the late 8th century. These are presumed to have interrupted work on the Book of Kells ; no later Gospel books are as heavily or finely illuminated as the masterpieces of the 8th century. In England
11771-548: The Romanesque period further removed classical restraints, especially in manuscripts, and the capitals of columns. Anglo-Saxon art Anglo-Saxon art covers art produced within the Anglo-Saxon period of English history, beginning with the Migration period style that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them from the continent in the 5th century, and ending in 1066 with the Norman Conquest of England , whose sophisticated art
11920-638: The Vikings back to a line running diagonally across the middle of England, above which they settled in the Danelaw , and were gradually integrated into what was now a unified Anglo-Saxon kingdom. The final phase of Anglo-Saxon art is known as the Winchester School or style, though it was produced in many centres in the south of England, and perhaps the Midlands also. Elements of this begin to be seen from around 900, but
12069-527: The Winchester School or style only survive from about the 930s onwards; this coincided with a wave of revival and reform within English monasticism, encouraged by King Æthelstan (r. 924/5-939) and his successors. Æthelstan promoted Dunstan (909–988), a practising illuminator, eventually to Archbishop of Canterbury , and also Æthelwold and the French-trained Norseman Oswald . Illumination in
12218-562: The artist. There are four Evangelist portraits , clearly derived from the classical tradition but treated without any sense of depth; the borders around them are far plainer than the decoration of the text pages, and there is clearly a sense of two styles which Eadfrith does not attempt to integrate wholly. The carpet-pages are enormously complex, and superbly executed. Lichfield Gospels Likely made in Lichfield around 730, this deluxe gospel-book contains eight major decorated pages, including
12367-446: The beginning of each Psalm, but these already show distinctive traits. Not just the initial, but the first few letters are decorated, at diminishing sizes. The decoration influences the shape of the letters, and various decorative forms are mixed in a very unclassical way. Lines are already inclined to spiral and metamorphose, as in the example shown. Apart from black, some orange ink is used for dotted decoration. The classical tradition
12516-583: The best known piece of Anglo-Saxon art is the Bayeux Tapestry which was commissioned by a Norman patron from English artists working in the traditional Anglo-Saxon style. Anglo-Saxon artists also worked in fresco , stone , ivory and whalebone (notably the Franks Casket ), metalwork (for example the Fuller brooch ), glass and enamel , many examples of which have been recovered through archaeological excavation and some of which have simply been preserved over
12665-435: The book remaining, not all with illuminations. This introduces interlace, and also uses Celtic motifs drawn from metalwork. The design of two of the surviving pages relates them as a two-page spread. Book of Durrow . The earliest surviving Gospel Book with a full programme of decoration (though not all has survived): six extant carpet pages, a full-page miniature of the four evangelist's symbols, four full-page miniatures of
12814-489: The book, which was a new type of object for both traditions, as well as to metalwork. The role of the Kingdom of Northumbria in the formation of the new style appears to have been pivotal. The northernmost Anglo-Saxon kingdom continued to expand into areas with Celtic populations, but often leaving those populations largely intact in areas such as Dál Riata , Elmet and the Kingdom of Strathclyde . The Irish monastery at Iona
12963-688: The centuries, especially in churches on the Continent, as the Vikings , Normans and Reformation iconoclasm between them left virtually nothing in England except for books and archaeological finds. Metalwork is almost the only form in which the earliest Anglo-Saxon art has survived, mostly in Germanic-style jewellery (including fittings for clothes and weapons) which was, before the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England , commonly placed in burials. After
13112-427: The commonest, and some garnets . Coloured glass, enamel and millefiori glass, probably imported, are also used, as seen in the late 6th century Ballinderry Brooch . The gilt-bronze Rinnegan Crucifixion Plaque (NMI, late 7th or early 8th century) is the best known of a group of nine recorded Irish metal Crucifixion plaques and is comparable in style to figures on many high crosses; it may well have come from
13261-520: The complex animals of the Jelling style are mostly rather incompetently depicted in England, but traces of the next Mammen style are hard to detect; they are much clearer on the Isle of Man . They are "perhaps, dimly" evident in the cross shaft from St Oswald's Priory, Gloucester (illustrated above right). In general the traces of these styles in other media are even fainter. A uniquely Anglo-Scandinavian form
13410-400: The continent of Europe; carpet-pages are not found, but many large figurative miniatures are. Panels of interlace and other Insular motifs continue to be used as one element in borders and frames ultimately classical in derivation. Many continental manuscripts, especially in areas influenced by the Celtic missions, also show such features well into the early Romanesque period. "Franco-Saxon" is
13559-455: The conversion, which took most of the 7th century, the fusion of Germanic Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Late Antique techniques and motifs, together with the requirement for books, created the Hiberno-Saxon style, or Insular art , which is also seen in illuminated manuscripts and some carved stone and ivory, probably mostly drawing from decorative metalwork motifs, and with further influences from
13708-407: The early 8th century, the Vespasian Psalter from Canterbury in the far south, which the missionaries from Rome had made their headquarters, shows a wholly different, classically based art. These two styles mixed and developed together and by the following century the resulting Anglo-Saxon style had reached maturity. However Anglo-Saxon society was massively disrupted in the 9th century, especially
13857-570: The eastern coast as a satellite in 635. However Northumbria remained in direct contact with Rome and other important monastic centres were founded by Wilfrid and Benedict Biscop who looked to Rome, and at the Synod of Whitby it was the Roman practices that were upheld, while the Iona contingent walked out, not adopting the Roman Easter dating until 715. What had finally settled into a broad consensus as to
14006-497: The emphatic geometry of the earlier "ribbon" style. Ædwen's brooch , an 11th-century Anglo-Scandinavian silver disk brooch, shows influence from Viking art , and a fall-off from the highest earlier standards of workmanship. In 2009 the Staffordshire hoard , a major hoard of over 1,500 fragments of 7th and ?8th century metalwork pieces, mostly gold and military in nature, many with gold and garnet cloisonné inlays of high quality,
14155-464: The end of this period), this is a Gospel Book in the style of the Book of Durrow, but more elaborate and complex. All the letters on the pages beginning the Gospels are highly decorated in a single composition, and many two-page openings are designed as a unit, with carpet pages facing an incipit ("Here begins..") initial page at the start of each Gospel. Eadfrith was almost certainly the scribe as well as
14304-431: The evangelists' symbols, four pages with very large initials, and decorated text on other pages. Many minor initial groups are decorated. Its date and place of origin remain subjects of debate, with 650–690 and Durrow in Ireland, Iona or Lindisfarne being the normal contenders. The influences on the decoration are also highly controversial, especially regarding Coptic or other Near Eastern influence. The manuscript
14453-520: The existence of workshops in the mid-to-late medieval period, the craftsman may not always have had been responsible for the full design of the works, for example the execution of portions of the Ardagh Chalice evidences a lack of skill compared to the rest of the piece. There are a number of large penannular brooches , including several of comparable quality to the Tara brooch . Almost all of these are in
14602-425: The finest church pieces were made by secular workshops, often attached to a royal household, though other pieces were made by monastic workshops. The evidence suggests that Irish metalworkers produced most of the best pieces, however the finds from the royal burial at Sutton Hoo , from the far east of England and at the beginning of the period, are as fine in design and workmanship as any Irish pieces. Even excepting
14751-553: The first major manuscripts only appear around the 930s. The style combined influences from the continental art of the Holy Roman Empire with elements of older English art, and some particular elements including a nervous agitated style of drapery, sometimes matched by figures, especially in line drawings, which are the only images in many manuscripts, and were to remain especially prominent in medieval English art. Early Anglo-Saxon manuscript illumination forms part of Insular art ,
14900-461: The first phase of the " Winchester style" developed. The first plant ornament, with leaves and grapes, was already seen in an initial in the Leningrad Bede , which can probably be dated to 746. The other large initial in the manuscript is the first historiated initial (one containing a portrait or scene, here Christ or a saint) in the whole of Europe. The classically derived vine or plant scroll
15049-575: The foot of the cross and writing, and God the Father creating the world with a pair of compasses . All of these were later used across Europe. The earliest developed depiction of the Last Judgement in the West is also found on an Anglo-Saxon ivory, and a late Anglo-Saxon Gospel book may show the earliest example of Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross in a Crucifixion . The Junius manuscript opens with
15198-448: The former type becomes the norm, just as in manuscripts. There is literary evidence for considerable numbers of carved stone crosses across the whole of England, and also straight shafts, often as grave-markers, but most survivals are in the northernmost counties. There are remains of other works of monumental sculpture in Anglo-Saxon art, even from the earlier periods, but nothing comparable from Ireland. The stone monuments erected by
15347-597: The full repertoire of Celtic geometric spirals. Each page uses a different and coherent set of decorative motifs. Only four colours are used, but the viewer is hardly conscious of any limitation from this. All the elements of Insular manuscript style are already in place. The execution, though of high quality, is not as refined as in the best later books, nor is the scale of detail as small. Lindisfarne Gospels Produced in Lindisfarne by Eadfrith , Bishop of Lindisfarne , between about 690 and his death in 721 (perhaps towards
15496-420: The generations of cattle, amounting to 2,000 head in all, which were necessary to make the vellum for three complete but unillustrated Bibles, which shows the resources necessary to make the large books of the period. Many Anglo-Saxon manuscripts written in the south, and later the north, of England show strong Insular influences until the 10th century or beyond, but the pre-dominant stylistic impulse comes from
15645-504: The gods, a theme detected in other Christian monuments in Britain and Scandinavia, and which could be turned to Christian advantage. Anglo-Scandinavians took up Anglo-Saxon sculptural forms with great enthusiasm, and in Yorkshire alone there are fragments from more than 500 monumental sculptures of the 10th and 11th centuries. However quantity was not matched by quality, and even the products of
15794-525: The heads on the obverse , with results that are varied and often compelling. Later silver pennies , with largely linear relief heads of kings in profile on the obverse, are more uniform, as representatives of what was a stable and respected currency by contemporary European standards. A number of complete seax knives have survived with inscriptions and some decoration, and sword fittings and other military pieces are an important form of jewellery. A treatise on social status needed to say that mere ownership of
15943-406: The homes of the elite. Only a few pieces have survived, including three pieces at Durham placed in the coffin of St Cuthbert, probably in the 930s, after being given by King Athelstan ; they were made in Winchester between 909 and 916. These are works "of breathtaking brilliance and quality", according to Wilson, including figures of saints, and important early examples of the Winchester style, though
16092-489: The inhabited and historiated initials became more important than they ever had in Anglo-Saxon art itself, and works like the Gloucester Candlestick (c. 1110) show the process in other media. Anglo-Saxon iconographical innovations include the animal Hellmouth , the ascending Christ shown only as a pair of legs and feet disappearing at the top of the image, the horned Moses , St John the Evangelist standing at
16241-446: The initials in the text combine Carolingian elements with animal forms in inventive fashion. Miniatures added in England to the continental Aethelstan Psalter begin to show Anglo-Saxon liveliness in figure drawing in compositions derived from Carolingian and Byzantine models, and over the following decades the distinctive Winchester style with agitated draperies and elaborate acanthus borders develops. The Benedictional of St. Æthelwold
16390-473: The kingdom of Mercia in the heyday of the Mercian Supremacy . It is, in the usual chronology, the last English manuscript in which "developed trumpet spiral patterns" are found. The 9th century, especially the latter half, has very few major survivals made in England, but was a period when Insular and Anglo-Saxon influence on Carolingian manuscripts was at its height, from scriptoria such as those at
16539-498: The later half, by the Viking invasions, and the number of significant objects surviving falls considerably, and their dating becomes even vaguer than of those from a century before. Most monasteries in the north were closed for decades, if not forever, and after the Canterbury Bible of before 850, perhaps well before, "no major illuminated manuscript is known until well on into the tenth century". King Alfred (r. 871–899) held
16688-623: The least common survivals, and the Easby Cross was repaired with lead in a way described in early documents. Like many monuments from the area of the Danelaw , the Gosforth Cross combines Christian images with those from pagan mythology; apart from a Crucifixion scene, and perhaps scenes of the Last Judgement , all the other images appear to belong to the Norse myth of Ragnarök , the destruction of
16837-462: The like, which contemporaries did not bother to mention and which represents a gap in our knowledge for the Early Medieval period throughout Europe. Relatively little art survives from the rest of the century after 1066, or at least is confidently dated to that period. The art of Normandy was already under heavy Anglo-Saxon influence, but the period was one of massive despoliation of the churches by
16986-490: The love of spirals, triskeles , circles and other geometric motifs. These were combined with animal forms probably mainly deriving from the Germanic version of the general Eurasian animal style , though also from Celtic art, where heads terminating scrolls were common. Interlace was used by both these traditions, as well as Roman art (for example in floor mosaics ) and other possible influences such as Coptic art , and its use
17135-520: The main city, York, are described by David M. Wilson as "generally miserable and slipshod". In the early stages the successive styles of Norse art appear in England, but gradually as political and cultural ties weakened the Anglo-Scandinavians fail to keep up with trends in the homeland. So elements of the Borre style are seen, for example in the "ring-chain" interlace on the Gosforth Cross, and then
17284-403: The massive Sandbach Crosses from Mercia, with oblong sections mostly covered by figures on the wider faces, like some Irish crosses. The Gosforth Cross , of 930–950, is a rare example to survive complete; most survivals are only a section of the shaft, and iconoclasts were more concerned to destroy imagery than ornament. Many crosses must have just fallen over after some centuries; headpieces are
17433-441: The members of letters. It also contains the earliest historiated initial , a bust probably of Pope Gregory I , which like some other elements of the decoration, clearly derives from a Mediterranean model. Colour is used, although in a relatively restrained way. Book of Kells Usually dated to around 800, although sometimes up to a century earlier, the place of origin is disputed between Iona and Kells , or other locations. It
17582-441: The more dazzling because of the lack of visual sophistication in the world in which they were seen. Especially in Ireland, the clerical and secular elites were often very closely linked; some Irish abbacies were held for generations among a small kin-group. Ireland was divided into very small "kingdoms", almost too many for historians to keep track of, whilst in Britain there was a smaller number of generally larger kingdoms. Both
17731-475: The only evidence. A different mixture is seen in the opening from the Stockholm Codex Aureus (mid-8th century, above left) where the evangelist portrait to the left is in a consistent adaptation of Italian style, probably closely following some lost model, though adding interlace to the chair frame, while the text page to the right is mainly in Insular style, especially in the first line, with its vigorous Celtic spirals and interlace. The following lines revert to
17880-438: The origin of their style is a puzzle; they are closest to the wall-painting fragment from Winchester mentioned above, and an early example of acanthus decoration. The earliest group of survivals, now re-arranged and with the precious metal thread mostly picked out, are bands or borders from vestments, incorporating pearls and glass beads, with various types of scroll and animal decoration. These are probably 9th century and now in
18029-586: The origins of the style may be disturbed by the continuing assessment of the large numbers of decorated metalwork finds in the Staffordshire Hoard , found in 2009, and to a lesser extent the Prittlewell princely burial from Essex , found in 2003. Christianity discouraged the burial of grave goods so that, at least from the Anglo-Saxons, we have a larger number of pre-Christian survivals than those from later periods. The majority of examples that survive from
18178-730: The other the Winchester style, drawing from the Utrecht Psalter and an alternative Carolingian tradition. A very late boxwood casket, now in Cleveland, Ohio , is carved all over with scenes from the Life of Christ in a provincial but accomplished version of the Winchester style, possibly originating in the West Midlands , and is a unique survival of late Anglo-Saxon fine wood carving. The textile arts of embroidery and "tapestry", Opus anglicanum , were apparently those for which Anglo-Saxon England
18327-409: The painting very likely mainly in illuminated manuscripts . It was probably his artistic work which brought him into contact with the royal family, and launched his rapid promotion in the church. Even the imprecise details given, mostly by Goscelin, are therefore valuable evidence of what Anglo-Saxon metalwork was like. Anglo-Saxon skill in gold-engraving, designs and figures engraved on gold objects,
18476-510: The poem the Dream of the Rood is inscribed together with Latin texts; more often donors are commemorated. It has also been suggested that as well as paint, they may have been embellished with metalwork and gems. Typically, Anglo-Saxon crosses are tall and slender compared to Irish examples, many with a nearly square section, and more space given to ornament than figures. However, there are exceptions, like
18625-451: The possessions of the dispossessed nobility by the new Norman rulers in their first decades, as well as the Norsemen before them, and the English Reformation after them, and most survivals were once on the continent. Anglo-Saxon taste favoured brightness and colour, and an effort of the imagination is often needed to see the excavated and worn remains that survive as they once were. Perhaps
18774-784: The production of this is slender. Glass is sometimes used as a substitute for garnet in jewellery, as in some pieces from Sutton Hoo. Enamel was used, most famously in the Alfred Jewel , where the image sits under carved rock crystal , both materials are extremely rare in surviving Anglo-Saxon work. The unique decorated leather cover of the small Northumbrian St Cuthbert Gospel , the oldest Western bookbinding to survive unaltered, can be dated to 698 or shortly before. It uses incised lines, some colours, and relief decoration built up over cord and gesso or leather pieces. Larger prestige manuscripts had metalwork treasure bindings , several of which are mentioned, but there may well have been much decorated leatherwork for secular satchels, purses, belts and
18923-746: The shrine, is also unique among the surviving evidence. Some twenty years after the miracle, he joined the Abbey of Evesham, presumably in retirement, and his son later became Prior there. In the final century of the period some large figures in precious metal are recorded; presumably these were made of thin sheets over a wooden core like the Golden Madonna of Essen , the largest example of this type of Early Medieval figure to survive from anywhere in Europe. These appear to have been life-size, or nearly so, and were mostly crucifixes , sometimes with figures of Mary and John
19072-534: The small new ruling class, who had almost entirely dispossessed the old Anglo-Saxon elite. Under these circumstances little significant art was produced, but when it was, the style often showed a slow development of Anglo-Saxon styles into a fully Romanesque version. The attribution of many individual objects has jumped around across the boundary of the Norman Conquest, especially for sculpture, including ivories. A number of objects are claimed for their period by both
19221-514: The smallest of all, the Stonyhurst Gospel (now British Library ), a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon text of the Gospel of John, which belonged to St Cuthbert and was buried with him. Its beautifully tooled goatskin cover is the oldest Western bookbinding to survive, and a virtually unique example of Insular leatherwork, in an excellent state of preservation. Both Anglo-Saxon and Irish manuscripts have
19370-403: The southern Anglo-Saxon regions, though northern areas also had direct contacts with the Continent. The origins of the overall format of the carpet page have often been related to Roman floor mosaics, Coptic carpets and manuscript paintings, without general agreement being reached among scholars. Unlike contemporary Byzantine art , and that of most major periods, Insular art does not come from
19519-567: The style its special character. Most Insular art originates from the Irish monastic movement of Celtic Christianity , or metalwork for the secular elite, and the period begins around 600 with the combining of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon styles. One major distinctive feature is interlace decoration, in particular the interlace decoration as found at Sutton Hoo , in East Anglia . This is now applied to decorating new types of objects mostly copied from
19668-521: The style merged into Anglo-Saxon art around 900, whilst in Ireland the style continued until the 12th century, when it merged into Romanesque art . Ireland, Scotland and the kingdom of Northumbria in Northern England are the most important centres, but examples were found also in southern England , Wales and in Continental Europe, especially Gaul (modern France), in centres founded by
19817-420: The style of Insular manuscripts. By the 10th century Anglo-Saxon metalwork had a famous reputation as far afield as Italy, where English goldsmiths worked on plate for the altar of St Peter's itself, but hardly any pieces have survived the depredations of the Norman Conquest in 1066, and the English Reformation , and none of the large-scale ones, shrines, doors and statues, that we know existed, and of which
19966-423: The subject of a doctoral dissertation in 2004. Earlier writing includes some brief comparisons of its iconography with that of its contemporaries and an inconclusive debate regarding the site of its production. There have also been speculations about a colophon , an entreaty for the reader to pray for one Wigbald and its role in providing a connection to a specific historical context. It is not known whether this
20115-858: The subject very clearly and was necessary to cover very large areas. All kinds of textile arts were produced by women, both nuns and laywomen, but many were probably designed by artists in other media. Byzantine silks were available, though certainly expensive, in Anglo-Saxon England, and a number of pieces have been found used in burials and reliquaries. Probably, as in later vestments, these were often married with locally embroidered borders and panels. If we had more Anglo-Saxon survivals, Byzantine influences would no doubt be apparent. The most highly valued embroideries were very different, fully worked in silk and gold of silver thread, and sometimes with gems of various sorts sewn in. These were used for vestments, altar-cloths and other church uses, and similar roles in
20264-473: The use of the term British Isles , a sensitive topic in Ireland, and also circumventing arguments about the origins of the style, and the place of creation of specific works, which were often fierce in the 20th century and may be reviving in the 21st. Some sources distinguish between a "wider period between the 5th and 11th centuries, from the departure of the Romans to the beginnings of the Romanesque style" and
20413-620: The “monogram of Christ,” punctuates the beginning of Matthew's account of the Incarnation ; more initials are inserted in a similar fashion at key points in the other Gospel texts. Key to the treatment of the origin of the Barberini Gospels is the striking contrast between two very distinct traditions and painting styles. On the one hand are the elaborate and intricately decorated initials one comes to expect in insular manuscripts of this period. The technical expertise of these embellishments
20562-412: Was already recognised as the finest embroidery in Europe, although only a few pieces from the Anglo-Saxon period remain – the Bayeux Tapestry is a rather different sort of embroidery, on a far larger scale. As in most of Europe at the time, metalwork was the most highly regarded form of art by the Anglo-Saxons, but hardly any survives – there was enormous plundering of Anglo-Saxon churches, monasteries and
20711-529: Was established by Saint Columba (Colum Cille) in 563, when Iona was part of a Dál Riata that included territory in both Ireland and modern Scotland. Although the first conversion of a Northumbrian king, that of Edwin in 627, was effected by clergy from the Gregorian Mission to Kent, it was the Celtic Christianity of Iona that was initially more influential in Northumbria, founding Lindisfarne on
20860-407: Was famous throughout Europe by the end of the period, but there are only a handful of survivals, probably partly because of the Anglo-Saxon love of using threads in precious metal, making the work valuable for scrap. The Bayeux Tapestry is embroidered in wool on linen and shows the story of the Norman conquest of England ; it is surely the best known Anglo-Saxon work of art, and though made after
21009-414: Was found by a metal-detectorist in Staffordshire , then in Mercia. Jewellery is far more often found from burials of the early pagan period, as Christianity discouraged grave-goods, even the personal possessions of the deceased. Early Anglo-Saxon jewellery includes various types of fibulae that are close to their Continental Germanic equivalents, but until Sutton Hoo rarely of outstanding quality, which
21158-462: Was influential in much of northern Europe . The two periods of outstanding achievement were the 7th and 8th centuries, with the metalwork and jewellery from Sutton Hoo and a series of magnificent illuminated manuscripts, and the final period after about 950, when there was a revival of English culture after the end of the Viking invasions. By the time of the Conquest the move to the Romanesque style
21307-587: Was late to use capital letters for initials at all (in Roman texts it is often very hard to even separate the words), and though by this time they were in common use in Italy, they were often set in the left margin, as though to cut them off from the rest of the text. The Insular tendency for the decoration to lunge into the text, and take over more and more of it, was a radical innovation. The Bobbio Jerome which according to an inscription dates to before 622, from Bobbio Abbey , an Irish mission centre in northern Italy, has
21456-507: Was melted down on discovery, and the 8th-century St Ninian's Isle Hoard, with many brooches and bowls. The surviving items from both are now held by the National Museum of Scotland . The true legacy of Insular art lies not so much in the specific stylistic features discussed above, but in its fundamental departure from the classical approach to decoration, whether of books or other works of art. The barely controllable energy of Insular decoration, spiralling across formal partitions, becomes
21605-471: Was mostly made in simple forms, with vessels always in a single colour, either clear, green or brown, but some fancy claw beakers decorated with large "claw" forms have survived, mostly broken; these forms are also found in northern continental Europe. Beads, common in early female burials, and some ecclesiastical window glass was more brightly coloured, and several monastic sites have evidence of glass production. Vessel and bead production probably continued, at
21754-534: Was produced in the post-Roman era of Great Britain and Ireland . The term derives from insula , the Latin term for "island"; in this period Britain and Ireland shared a largely common style different from that of the rest of Europe. Art historians usually group Insular art as part of the Migration Period art movement as well as Early Medieval Western art, and it is the combination of these two traditions that gives
21903-432: Was stolen in 1006 for its cover in precious metals, it was taken from the sacristy , not the library. The book was recovered, but not the cover, as also happened with the Book of Lindisfarne. None of the major Insular manuscripts have preserved their elaborate jewelled metal covers, but we know from documentary evidence that these were as spectacular as the few remaining continental examples. The re-used metal back cover of
22052-414: Was taken to new levels in Insular art, where it was combined with the other elements already mentioned. There is no attempt to represent depth in manuscript painting, with all the emphasis on a brilliantly patterned surface. In early works the human figure was shown in the same geometric fashion as animal figures, but reflections of a classical figure style spread as the period went on, probably mostly from
22201-507: Was to largely oust interlace as the dominant filler of ornamental spaces in Anglo-Saxon art, just as it did in much of Europe beginning with Carolingian art , though in England animals within the scrolls remained much more common than abroad. For some long time scrolls, especially in metal, bone or ivory, are prone to have an animal head at one end and a plant element at the other. All these changes were not restricted to manuscripts, and may not have been driven by manuscript style, but we have
#386613