images should be neither venerated nor destroyed and that they could help to instruct the
faithful. The emphasis on didactic art that could convey an important message became a
leading feature of Carolingian art, sometimes joined with a growing ability to evoke
personal empathetic responses to the image. Images thus assumed a place of special
significance, enhanced by the tendency to make grand artistic works to mark special
personal and political moments.
The first important Carolingian building in France was the new monastery church at
Saint-Denis, begun at the death of King Pepin to house his tomb, and completed and
dedicated by his son Charlemagne in 775. Excavations suggest that the basilican church
had a large transept, a feature previously contained only in the apostolic basilicas of St.
Paul in Rome, and thus announcing a major
Crucifixion. Upper cover of the
binding of the Lindau Gospels,
Morgan MS M1. Gold and jewels, c.
870. Courtesy of the Pierpont Morgan
Library, New York.
feature of Carolingian artistic production, the relationship to early Christian and papal
Roman art. The feature of the transept seems to have become common, even standard, in
later Carolingian basilicas. The great basilica built during the 790s by Angilbert at Saint-
Riquier (Centula) in northeastern France, now known from extensive literary descriptions
and from some postmedieval drawings, had not only a transept but also several massive
towers. An outstanding source of information for architecture and many other subjects is
The Encyclopedia 325