Carolingian art

There was for the first time a thoroughgoing attempt in Northern Europe to revive and emulate classical Mediterranean art forms and styles, that resulted in a blending of classical and Northern elements in a sumptuous and dignified style, in particular introducing to the North confidence in representing the human figure, and setting the stage for the rise of

Having established an Empire as large as the Byzantine Empire of the day, and rivaling in size the old Western Roman Empire, the Carolingian court must have been conscious that they lacked an artistic style to match these or even the post-antique (or "sub-antique" as Ernst Kitzinger called it)^[1] art still being produced in small quantities in Rome and a few other centres in Italy, which Charlemagne knew from his campaigns, and where he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in Rome in 800.

As symbolic representative of Rome he sought the renovatio (revival) of Roman culture and learning in the West, and needed an art capable of telling stories and representing figures with an effectiveness which ornamental Germanic

But it was more than a conscious desire to revive ancient Roman culture. During Charlemagne's reign the Byzantine Iconoclasm controversy was dividing the Byzantine Empire. He supported the Western church's consistent refusal to follow iconoclasm; the Libri Carolini sets out the position of his court circle, no doubt under his direction. With no inhibitions from a cultural memory of Mediterranean pagan idolatry, he introduced the first Christian monumental religious sculpture, a momentous precedent for Western art.

Reasonable numbers of Carolingian

With the end of Carolingian rule around 900, high quality artistic production greatly declined for about three generations in the Empire. By the later 10th century with the

Illuminated manuscripts

The most numerous surviving works of the Carolingian renaissance are

The

In the second half of the 9th century the traditions of the first half continued. A number of richly decorated Bibles were made for Charles the Bald, fusing Late Antiquity forms with the styles developed at Rheims and Tours. It was during this time a Franco-Saxon style appeared in the north of France, integrating Hiberno-Saxon interlace, and would outlast all other Carolingian styles into the next century.

Charles the Bald, like his grandfather, also established a Court School. Its location is uncertain but several manuscripts are attributed to it, with the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram (870) being the last and most spectacular. It contained Touronian and Rheimsian elements, but fused with the style that characterized Charlemagne's Court School more formal manuscripts.

With the death of Charles the Bald patronage for manuscripts declined, signaling the beginning of the end, but some work did continue for a while. The

Luxury Carolingian manuscripts were intended to have

Important Carolingian examples of goldsmith's work include the upper cover of the

.

The

rock crystal which survive; this shows large numbers of figures in several scenes showing the unusual subject of the story of Suzanna

.

Mosaics and frescos

Sources attest to the abundance of wall paintings seen in churches and palaces, most of which have not survived. Records of inscriptions show that their subject matter was primarily religious.^[7]

Evangelist's symbols and the twenty-four elders from the Apocalypse. This mosaic no longer survives, but an over-restored one remains in the apse of the oratory at Germigny-des-Prés (806) which shows the Ark of the Covenant

adored by angels, discovered in 1820 under a coat of plaster.

The villa to which the oratory was attached belonged to a key associate of Charlemagne, Bishop

Ingelheim contained historical images from antiquity to the time of Charlemagne, and the palace church contained typological

scenes of the Old and New Testaments juxtaposed with one another.

Fragmentary paintings have survived at

Cividale, Brescia and Milan

.

Spolia

Spolia is the Latin term for "spoils" and is used to refer to the taking or appropriation of ancient monumental or other art works for new uses or locations. We know that many marbles and columns were brought from Rome northward during this period.

Perhaps the most famous example of Carolingian spolia is the tale of an equestrian statue. In Rome, Charlemagne had seen the

Constantine and thus held great accord—Charlemagne thus brought an equestrian statue from Ravenna, then believed to be that of Theodoric the Great

, to Aachen, to match the statue of "Constantine" in Rome.

Antique

carved gems were reused in various settings, without much regard to their original iconography

.

See also

• Carolingian architecture
• Codex Vaticanus 3868

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Notes

1. ^ Kitzinger, 8
2. ^ Kitzinger, 40–42
3. ^ Kitzinger, 69. Dodwell, 49 discusses the reasons for this.
4. ^ Dodwell, 52
5. ^ Lasko, 60–68
6. ^ Lasko, 64–65, 66–67; picture of the dish
7. ^ Dodwell, p. 45
8. ^ Beckwith, 13–17

References

• Beckwith, John. Early Medieval Art: Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque, Thames & Hudson, 1964 (rev. 1969),
  ISBN 0-500-20019-X
• Dodwell, C.R.; The Pictorial Arts of the West, 800–1200, 1993, Yale UP,
  ISBN 0-300-06493-4
• Gaehde, Joachim E. (1989). "Pre-Romanesque Art".
  ISBN 0-684-18276-9
• Hinks, Roger. Carolingian Art, 1974 edn. (1935 1st edn.), University of Michigan Press,
  ISBN 0-472-06071-6
• Kitzinger, Ernst, Early Medieval Art at the British Museum, (1940) 2nd edn, 1955, British Museum
• Lasko, Peter, Ars Sacra, 800-1200, Penguin History of Art (now Yale), 1972 (nb, 1st edn.)
  ISBN 978-0-14056036-7
• "Carolingian art". In Encyclopædia Britannica Online

Further reading

• Holcomb, M. (2009). Pen and Parchment : Drawing in the Middle Ages. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. (see index)

External links

• Ross, Nancy, Carolingian Art Archived 2014-10-06 at the Wayback Machine, Smarthistory, undated