Medieval

Hiberno-Saxon

Book of Kells

• Scriptorium = Latin, “a place for writing,” where books were copied and illuminated

• Illumination, from the Latin illuminare, “to light up or illuminate.”

• A scribe wrote the text for a book, and an illuminator painted the pictures and deocrations.

• Materials

  • Vellum

  • Quill pen

  • Pigment

• Full-page illustrations

  • Vibrantly colored

  • Intricacy and delicate details

  • Includes the writings of each of the four Gospel authors = Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John

  • Both author portrait pages and pages that shows the symbols associated with each of the Gospel authors

  • Not structured the way that modern books are

  • Canon table

    • Kind of concordance that allows you to find the passages that you’re interested in

    • Elaborate in their description and almost architectural with colonnades and Roman arches

  • Earliest representation of the Virgin and Child in a manuscript in western Europe

  • Looks like from Byzantium and Ethiopia

  • Carpet page

    • Cross to elaborate that it almost ceases to be a cross because it’s got two cross beams

    • Circles with intricate interlacing in each of them

    • Circles are so large that they almost overwhelm the cross itself

Chi Rho Page

• Dense with decoration

  • Intricate interlacing and spirals

  • Looks like filigree work that we find in metalworking of this era in Ireland

  • Difficult to make out the forms

    • Human heads, angels, animals, birds

    • Some as part of the interlace or these interwoven designs

    • Some very clearly articulated

      • Two cats caught a mice who are biting a eucharist host

• Chi rho - first letters in Christ’s name in Greek

  • See it frequently in early Christian art as a way of marking Christ’s presence

Carolingian

Aachen Palace Chapel

• Center of Charlemagne’s empire

• Most of the current decorations are from the 19th century

  • Done when Germany was unifying into a single state

  • Restorers didn’t know where things went

  • Remade to Baroque

• Originally had mosaic and stone revetment

• Napoleon conquered Europe; Holy Roman Empire ended → Napoleon stole works of art from places he conquered

  • In Aachen, he took columns and capitals.

  • Mostly returned after Napoleon’s defeat

• Architectural additions

  • Gothic era: choir

  • 12th century: chandelier

  • Ottonians: ambo (pulpit)

    • Originally in the center

    • Covered in gold, previous stones, and ivory panels.

      • Two panels represent Dyonysos (god of wine) → date back to pre-Christian Rome

        • Ottonians used Roman objects as a way of expressing the legitimacy of their rule (inheritors of the Roman Empire)

    • Some elements may have come from the Islamic world and Byzantine Empire

• Nothing matches → collage of different materials, scales, and techniques.

  • Taking separate treasures and put them together

• Charlemagne’s original structure → very tall, domed interior space and an octagonal ambulatory that supports a two-storied gallery

  • Unique among Carolingian chapels

    • Did not place special emphasis on the altar

  • Octagonal plan → tradition of early Christian mausoleums and baptisteries

    • Eight sides symbolize regeneration (Christ’s resurrection eight days after Palm Sunday)

  • Centrally planned

    • Unusual design for northern Alps

    • Chosen for symbolic meaning → recalling important historical precedents

      • San Vitale in Ravenna

      • Hagia Sophia in Constantinople

      • Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem

        • Building program started by constantine’s mother

  • Charlemagne linking the building to the legacies of ancient Rome and Constantine

    • Presenting Aachen as a new Rome and himself as a new Constantine

    • Location → historic Roman site with hot springs used for bathing

    • Relic of St. Martin’s cloak

      • Roman soldier had a vision of Jesus after sharing his cloak with a beggar → reinforcing the link of Charlemagne’s rule with Rome

    • Elements taken from Rome and Ravenna

      • Charlemagne asked the pope for spolia

        • Ancient columns

        • Symbolic way of saying that his empire was recalling the grandeur of ancient Rome

  • Original dome

    • Based on classical models

    • Bore an apocalyptic mosaid program

    • Lamb of God (symbolize Jesus) surrounded by tetramorph (symbolize four Gospel writers) and 24 elders described in Revelation

      • Lam of God later obstructed by chandelier

• Charlemagne’s body still remains here

  • Entombed in an elaborate golden reliquary in the Gothic extension

• Charlemagne’s marble throne

  • Originally in the center of the octagon on the first floor

  • Directly below Lam of God → creating a visual link between the emperor and Jesus

Page with Matthew the Evangelist from the Coronation Gospels

• Coronation Gospels discovered in Charlemagne’s tomb within the Palatine Chapel by Otto III

  • Charlemagne buried enthroned (sitting up) with the Gospels in his lap

  • Gospel book → book containing the books of the four evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) who each offer their story of Christ’s life and death

  • Luxury object → written in gold ink on purple-dyed vellum

    • Used in imperial coronation services

  • Artists interested in the revival of classical styles → linked Charlemagne’s rule to Constantine

    • Evident in the poses and clothing of the four evangelists → recall images of ancient Roman philosophers

  • Made before Charlemagne was crowned emperor

• Ebbo Gospels

  • Made for Ebbo the Archbishop of Rheims → one of the major sites for manuscript production at the time

  • Author portraits consistent with elements of classical revival

    • Making figures look 3D

      • Through texturing rather than smooth modeling

      • Creating an effect of movement

    • Gradation of sky

    • Architecture and furnishings

  • Brushwork is energized, expressionistic, and frenzied

Page with St. Matthew the Evangelist

Vocabulary

• Hiberno-Saxon

  • AKA Insular art

  • Style of art developed in Ireland and Great Britain from 7th to 9th centuries

  • Result of the interaction between Germanic Anglo-Saxon tribes and Celtic cultures

  • Interlacing and zoomorphic forms

• Zoomorphic Interlacing

  • Decorative motif that combines animal forms with interlace

  • Technique that braids, knots, and loops bands or other motifs into geometric patterns

  • Zoomorphic → “animal form”

    • Features fantastic animals, beasts, and birds with their limbs, bodies, tongues, and tails tangled together.

  • Interlace → decorative element involving looping, braiding, and knotting bands or other motifs into complex geometric patterns.

  • Can be found in a variety of contexts

    • Illuminated manuscripts

    • Metalwork

    • Stone carvings

    • Jewelry

  • Origins likely lie in pre-Christian pagan worship of the natural world

• Synoptic Gospels

  • First three books of the New Testament (Matthew, Mark, Luke)

    • Similar in content, structure, and wording.

    • Influenced each other → share many of the same stories and sayings and often in the same order and wording

    • However, wording of individual stories and overall extent of each gospel.

  • Synoptic → “seeing all together”

  • Important sources of information about the life of Jesus

  • Considered to have been written earlier than the Gospel of John → different perspective on Christ

  • John’s Gospel → not a Synoptic Gospel

    • Covers a different time span that other

    • Locates much of Jesus’ ministry in Judaea

    • Portrays Jesus discoursing at length on theological matters

• Tetramorph

  • Symbolic representation of the four evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) as a group of four figures or a single figure

  • Comes from the Greek words tetra → “four” and morph → “shape”

  • Based on four living creatures in the Book of Ezekiel

    • Described as having a human face and animal body

    • Mark: lion

      • His Gospel begins with ST. John the Baptist whose voice is like a lion’s

    • Luke: ox

      • His Gospel begins with the sacrifice of Zachariah to God and the ox symbolizes sacrifice and spiritual life

    • Matthew: angel

      • His Gospel begins with the genealogy of Jesus which is a list of his human ancestors

      • Symbolizes the combination of the natural and supernatural

      • Represents his emphasis on Jesus’ human and divine nature

    • John: eagle

      • Considered wise and clairvoyant

      • John’s Gospel is more abstract and theological than the others

  • Common in illuminated Gospel books

• Scriptorium

  • Room in a medieval monastery where scribes copied and illuminated manuscripts by hand

  • Comes from the Latin word scribere, meaning “place for writing”

  • Scribes wrote the text while illuminators painted the pictures and decorations

  • Manuscripts were written on parchment made from animal skin and decorated with precious materials like gold leaf and gemstones

  • Scribes often worked in groups in silence

  • Scribes needed to work in well-lit conditions

  • Most common in Benedictine monasteries, but not all monasteries had special rooms for scribes.

    • Scribes often worked in the monastery library or in their own rooms