the Islamic world—winnowed out the least authoritative canons and systematized the
contradictory ones. The men at the cathedral schools were largely in training to
become courtiers, administrators, and bishops themselves.
Bishops such as Egbert, archbishop of Trier (r.977–993), appreciated art as well
as scholarship. Plate 4.2, an illustration of the Raising of Lazarus, from the Egbert
Codex (named for its patron), is a good example of what is called the “Ottonian
style.” Drawing above all on the art of the late antique “renaissance” (see p. 21 and
Plate 1.10), the Egbert Codex artists nevertheless achieved an effect all their own.
Utterly unafraid of open space, which was rendered in otherworldly pastel colors,
they focused on the figures, who gestured like actors on a stage. In Plate 4.2 the
apostles are on the left-hand side, their arms raised and hands wide open with
wonder at Christ. He has just raised the dead Lazarus from the tomb, and one of the
Jews, on the right, holds his nose. Two women—Mary and Martha, the sisters of
Lazarus—fall at Christ’s feet, completing the dramatic tableau.
