Lecture 2: Carolingian and Ottonian Art

Carolingian and Ottonian Art ............................................................

Lecture 2

I have chosen to begin the survey historically with Charlemagne and

his coronation as Emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome, on Christmas Day,

800. The reason for this choice is that the event is a convenient marker
     for the beginning of a centralized political power for the ¿ rst time in
     Europe since the dissolution of the Roman Empire in the West in 476.

B

efore we begin our survey of European art with the Carolingian

dynasty, we take a brief backward glance to the illuminations

produced by Irish monks in the early Middle Ages. Here, we see the

animal style of the nomadic German tribes combined with Celtic elements

to make a statement about the earlier pagan world and its domestication by

Christianity and the divine order. During the period following the Roman

Empire, the only unifying force on the European continent was the Roman

Catholic Church, whose spread was made possible by the astonishing Roman

expansion across the continent and into Britain.

But Christian missionaries went even further than the Romans. Ireland, unlike

England, had never been part of the Roman Empire, and the missionaries

who reached Ireland in the early Middle Ages found a religiously responsive

population, but one that had no interest in Roman or Mediterranean culture.

When some Irish Christians sought to deepen their faith, they congregated

in hermit groups, away from the cities, and spread throughout Ireland and

Britain. These hermit communities developed into the ¿ rst monasteries.

In these Irish monasteries, countless copies of the Bible and other Christian

texts were produced. The illuminations of these texts—their painted

decorations—combined the animal style of the nomadic German tribes with

Celtic elements and used elaborate ornamental designs rather than pictures of

biblical events. Our example shows a carpet page, with a design in the shape

of a cross, from The Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 700 A.D.) The embellishment

of this book page is staggeringly intricate. Compressed with manic intensity

into the smallest spaces, the design consists, in part, of stylized, fantastic