Ch 15 Early Medieval Art in Europe

Aachen

Capital of Charlemagne's empire. Charlemagne's palace complex provides an example of the Carolingian synthesis of Roman, Early Christian, and northern styles. Charlemagne, who enjoyed hunting and swimming, built a head quarters and palace complex amid the forests and natural hot springs of Aachen, in the northern part of his empire, and installed his court there in about 794.

Book of Kells

It is a dense thicket of patterns derived from metalworking traditions that embellish- in fact practicaly overwhelm- the Chi Rho monogram of Christ. The illuminators outlined each letter in the Chi Rho monogram, and then they subdivided the letters into panels filled with interlaced animals and snakes, as well as extraordinary spiral and knot motifs.

Mozarabic

Of an eclectic style practiced in christian medieval Spain when much of the Iberian peninsula was ruled by Islamic dynasties. In an exchange of artistic influences, Christian artists incorporated some features of Islamic art into a colorful new style known as Mozarabic. When the Mozarabic communities migrated to northern spain, which returned to Christian rule not long after the initral Islamic invasion, they took this Mozarabic style with them.

west work

The monumental, west-facing entrance section of a Carolingian, Ottonian, or Romanesque church. The exterior consists of multiple stories between two towers: the interior includes an entrance vestibule, a chapel, and a series of galleries overlooking the nave.

Ottonian

a style in pre-romanesque german art, covering also some works from the low countries, northern Italy and eastern France. We call this dynasty Ottonian after its three principal rulers- Otto I, Otto II, and Otto III. After the Ottonian armies defeated the Vikings in the north and the Magyars on the eastern frontiers, the resulting peace permitted increased trade and growth of towns, making the tenth century a period of economic reovery. The Ottonian ideology, rooted in untiy of Church and state, takes visual form on an ivory plaque, one of several that may once have been part of the decoration of an altar or pulpit presented to Madgeburg Cathedral at the time of its dedication in 968.

Animal style

decoration made of interwoven animals or serpents, often found in early medieval Northern European art. By the fifth century CE, the so-called animal style dominated the arts, resulting in an impressive array of serpents, four-legged beasts, and squat human figures. The compositions are generally symmetrical, and artists depict animals in their entirely in profile or from above.

Sutton Hoo

of two Anglo-Saxon cemeteries of the 6th century and early 7th century, one of which contained an undisturbed ship burial including a wealth of artifacts of outstanding art-historical and archaeological significance.