Early Medieval

Historians often refer to this stage as the Dark Ages.  During this time artists looked to the Greco-Roman tradition for inspiration.  Early Medieval civilization in western Europe represents a fusion of Christianity, the Greco-Roman heritage, and the vibrant yet very different culture of the Celtic- Germanic barbarians.  Over the centuries a new order gradually replaced what had been the Roman Empire resulting eventually in the foundation of today's European nations.  This period of slow change was characterized by struggles for power between competing armies and between church and state.

THE ART OF THE WAR LORDS

The SUtton Hoo purse cover had four symmetrically arranged groups of figures in the lower row.  The two heraldic groupings on the outsides have venerable heritage in the ancient world.  The figures at first seem to be single dense abstract designs, but when viewed closer are actually animals and men snuggled together.  Elaborate interlace patterns are characteristic of many times and places, notably in the art of the Islamic world, but the combination of interlace with animal figures was uncommon outside the realm of the early medieval warlords.  

HIBERNO-SAXON ART

Hiberno-Sazon art's most distincive products were illuminated manuscripts of the Christian Church.  The artists' models for the human figure were generally the abstract designs of buckles and pins, not the world about themor imported works in the classical tradition.  There are however some exceptions.  In the portrait of Saint Matthew from the Lindifarne Gospels his figure is interpreted with lines abstracting the classical model's unfamiliar tonal scheme into a patterned figure.  His face looks like that of a playing card with the folds of his drapery in sharp regularly spaced, curving lines.  The artist used no modeling and there are no variations of light and shade.

CAROLINGIAN ART

Charlemagne united Europe and laid claim to reviving the ancient Roman Empire's glory.  Carolingian Renaissance was a remarkable historical phenomenon, an energetic, brilliant emulation of Early Christian Rome's art, culture, and political ideals.  The Ebbo Gospels illuminator replaced the classical calm and solidity of the Coronation Gospels with an energy that amounts to frenzy and the frail saint almost leaps under its impulse.  HIs hair stands on end, his eyes open wide, the folds of his drapery writhe, and vibrate, the landscape behind him rears up alive.  The artist forsook all fidelity to bodily structure to concentrate on the saint's act of writing.  The native power of expression illustrated became one of the important distinguishing traits of late medieval art.  The Ebbo Gospels artist translated the classical prototype into a new Carolingian vernacular, merging classical illusionism and the North's linear tradition.

OTTONIAN ART


The breakup of the Carolingian empire into weak kingdoms brought a time of darkness and confusion to europe.Only in the mid-tenth century did the eastern part of the former empire consolidate under the rule of the Ottonians.  Otto III dreamed of a revived Christian Roman Empire, but he died at 21 without his dream materializing.  The illuminator represented emperor enthroned holding the scepter and cross inscribed orb that represent his universal authority, confoming to a christian imperial iconographic tradition.  Stylistically remote from Byzantine art, the picture still has a clear political resemblance to the Justinianic mosaic in San Vitale.