 Gravegoods from various North French and Rhineland sites, up to the 6th c. Inter alia, a glass drinking horn from Bingerbruck and a stripped bowl from Reims (London: British Museum) Migration Period art (aka "Barbarian art") is the artwork of Germanic peoples during the Migration period of 300 to 900. It includes the Migration art of the Germanic tribes on the continent, as well the Hiberno-Saxon art of the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic fusion in Great Britain. It examines the different types of art including the polychrome style and the animal style. Location within France Reims (English traditionally Rheims) (pronounced in French) is a city of northern France, 144 km (89 miles) east-northeast of Paris. ...
The main entrance to the British Museum The British Museum is one of the worlds largest and most important museums of ancient history. ...
Human migration denotes any movement of groups of people from one locality to another, rather than of individual wanderers. ...
Migration Period art is one of the major periods of Medieval art. Byzantine art was the high art of the Middle Ages and monumental Church mosaics were the crowing glory. ...
Background
In the 3rd century the Roman Empire almost collapsed and its army was becoming increasingly Germanic in make-up, so that in the 4th century when Huns pushed nomadic German tribes westward, they spilled across the Empires borders and began to settle there. The Visigoths settled in Italy and then Spain, in the north the Franks settled in to Gaul and western Germany, and in the 5th century Scandinavians such as the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain. By the close of the 6th century the Western Roman Empire was almost completely replaced with smaller less politically organized, but vigorous, Germanic kingdoms. The Crisis of the Third Century (also known as the Military Anarchy or the Imperial Crisis ) is a commonly applied name for the crumbling and near collapse of the Roman Empire between 235 and 284 caused by the three simultaneous crises of external invasion, internal civil war and economic collapse. ...
Many historians consider the Huns (meaning person in Mongolian language) the first Mongolian and Turkic people mentioned in European history. ...
The Visigoths, originally Tervingi, or Vesi (the noble ones), one of the two main branches of the Goths (of which the Ostrogothi were the other), were one of the loosely-termed Germanic peoples that disturbed the late Roman Empire. ...
The Franks were one of several west Germanic tribes who entered the late Roman Empire from Frisia as foederati and established a lasting realm in an area that covers most of modern-day France and the region of Franconia in Germany, forming the historic kernel of both these two modern...
Although these kingdoms were never homogeneous, they shared certain common cultural features. Traditionally nomadic, they began to settle and become farmers and fishermen. Archaeological evidence shows no tradition of monumental artwork, such as architecture or large sculpture, preferring instead "mobile" art with a utilitarian function, such as weapons, tools and jewelry. The art of the Germanic peoples is almost entirely personal adornment, portable, and taken to the grave where it would act as an appeasment to dead spirits to protect the living. Communities of nomadic people move from place to place, rather than settling down in one location. ...
Three styles dominate Germanic art. The polychrome style originated with the Goths who had settled in the Black Sea area; and the animal style, found in Scandinavia, north Germany and Anglo-Saxon England. Finally there was Hiberno-Saxon style, a brief but prosperous period that saw the fusion of animal style, Celtic and other motifs and techniques.
Migration art
Polychrome style  Gothic gold eagle fibula with garnet and cloisonné inlays. Ca. 500 A.D. (Nürnberg: Germ. Nat. Mus.) Typical Gothic polychrome applied to an East Asian (Hunnic) theme of the eagle. During the 2nd century the Goths of southern Russia discovered a new found taste for gold figurines and objects inlaid with precious stones. This style was borrowed from Scythians and the Sarmatians, had some Roman influences, and was also popular with the Huns. Perhaps the most famous examples are found in the 4th century Pietrossa Treasure (Petrossa) in Romania, which includes a great gold eagle brooch (picture). The eagle motif derives from East Asia and results from the participation of the forebears of the Goths in the Hunnic Empire, as in the 4th century Gothic polychrome eagle-head belt buckle (picture) from South Russia. Scythia was an area in Eurasia inhabited in ancient times by an Indo-Aryans known as the Scythians. ...
Sarmatian Cataphract from Tanais: compare Pausanias description of armor (text below) Sarmatians, Sarmatae or Sauromatae (the second form is mostly used by the earlier Greek writers, the other by the later Greeks and the Romans) were a people whom Herodotus (4. ...
Aquamarine, platinum, and diamond brooch/pendant worn by Mrs. ...
The Goths carried this style to Italy, southern France and Spain. One well known example is the Ostrogothic eagle fibula from Cesena, Italy, now at the museum in Nuremberg (see picture). Another is the Visigothic polychrome votive crown (picture) of Recceswinth, King of Toledo, found in a votive crown hoard of c. 670 at Fuente de Guarrazar, near Toledo. The popularity of the style can be attested to by the discovery of a polychrome sword (picture) in the tomb of Frankish king Childeric I, well north of the Alps, in the 5th century. Cesena (ancient Caesena) is a city in the Italy, south of Ravenna and west of Rimini, on the Savio River, population (july 2004) 93,110, co-chief of the Province of Forli-Cesena. ...
Nuremberg coat of arms Location of Nuremberg Nuremberg (German: Nürnberg) is a city in the German state of Bavaria, in the administrative region of Middle Franconia. ...
The façade of Toledo cathedral Toledo is a city located in central Spain, the capital of the province of Toledo and of the autonomous community of Castile-La Mancha. ...
Childeric I, (c. ...
Animal style - Main article: Animal style
The study of zoomorphic decorations was pioneered by Bernhard Salin in the early 20th century. He classified animal art of the 400-900 period into three phases: Scandinavian styles I, II and III. For the Migration Period, the first two styles are of importance. Animal style is a type of imagery used in Europe and western Asia during the ancient and medieval periods, characterized by animals or animal-like forms arranged in intricate patterns or combats. ...
 Vendel sword hilt from Norway. Hilt is repoussé Early 6th c. A.D. The gold plate grips and silver gilt mount at the mouth of the scabbard are in Style I. Style I. First appears in northwest Europe, probably originating from the traditions of nomadic Asiatic steppes peoples, it became a noticeable new style with the introduction of chip carving applied to bronze and silver in the 5th century. Characterized by animals in the margins of works that are twisted, exaggerated, surreal, fragmented body parts filling every available space, creating an intense detailed energetic feel. It can be clearly seen in the Norwegien Vendel sword hilt from Grave V, Snartemo Hägebostad, Vest Agder, Norway (see picture). Also in this fibula (picture) from Öland Island, ca. 400-450 A.D. Ohtheres mound Vendel is a parish in the Swedish province of Uppland. ...
Chip carving is a form of wood carving. ...
Ohtheres mound Vendel is a parish in the Swedish province of Uppland. ...
Style II. After about 600 Style I was in decline and Salin's Style II rose in popularity. Displacing the surreal and fragmented animals of Style I, Style II's animals are whole beasts, elongated and intertwined into symmetrical shapes. Thus two bears are facing each other in perfect symmetry, forming the shape of a heart. Examples of Style II can be found on the gold purse lid (picture) from Sutton Hoo (ca. 625). Sutton Hoo parade helmet (British Museum, restored). ...
Christian influence The Church in the early Migration period emerged as the only supranational force in Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire. It provided a unifying element and was the only institution left that could preserve classical civilization. As the conversion of Germanic peoples by the end of the 7th centuries in western Europe neared completion, the church became the prime patron for art, commissioning illuminated manuscripts and other litergurical objects. The record shows a steady decline in Germanic forms and increasing Mediterranean influence. This process occurred quickly with the Goths of Italy and Spain and more slowly the further north one looked. This change can be observed in the 8th century Merovingian codex Gelasian Sacramentary, it contained no Style II elements, instead showing Mediterranean examples of fish used to construct large letters at the start of chapters. An illuminated manuscript is a manuscript, often of a religious nature, in which the text is supplemented by the addition of colourful ornamentation, such as decorated initials, borders and the like. ...
For other uses of the term Merovingian, see Merovingian (disambiguation). ...
In the Catholic tradition, the so-called Gelasian Sacramentary is a book of liturgy, containing the priests part in celebrating the Eucharist. ...
Hiberno-Saxon art See also: Celtic art Muiredacha Cross. ...
Hiberno-Saxon art was confined to Great Britain and Ireland and was the fusion of Germanic traditions (via the Anglo-Saxons) with Celtic traditions (via Irish monks). It can first be seen in the late 7th century and the style would continue in Britain for about 150 years until the Viking invasions of the 9th century (after which we see the emergence of Anglo-Saxon art), and in Ireland up until the 12th century (after which see Romanesque art). A map showing the general locations of the major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms The Anglo-Saxons were a group of Germanic tribes from Angeln, a peninsula in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, protruding into the Baltic Sea, and what is now Lower Saxony in Northern Germany, who achieved dominance in southern Britain from...
History The Celts of Britain and Ireland had allready converted to Christianity when the pagan Angles, Saxons, Jutes and Frisians invaded in the 5th century. The Celts in Ireland were never invaded and continued to develop a Christian culture in safety, centering on monasticism, which the tribal Celts found more suitable to their traditional way of life than the heirarchal system of bishops and dioceses. Thus by the 6th century the Irish Celtic monastaries became the dominate form of Christianity, and because evangilizing was the primary goal of monasticism, they were ready to sponser the spread Latin learning to Britain, and elsewhere. Pagan may refer to: A believer in Paganism or Neopaganism. ...
Angles (German: Angeln, Old English: Englas, Latin: singular Anguls, plural Anglii) were Germanic people, from Angeln in Schleswig, who settled in East Anglia in the 5th century. ...
This article is about the Saxons, a Germanic people. ...
The Jutes were a Germanic people who are believed to have originated in Jylland (Jutland) in modern Denmark and part of the Frisian coast. ...
The Roman historian Tacitus, in his Germania, mentioned the Frisians among people he grouped together as the Ingvaeones. ...
Monasticism in Christianity is a family of similar traditions that began to develop early in the history of the Christian Church, modeled upon scriptural examples and ideals, but not mandated as an institution by the Scriptures. ...
A bishop is an ordained member of the Christian clergy who, in certain Christian churches, holds a position of authority. ...
In some Christian churches, the diocese is an administrative territorial unit governed by a bishop, sometimes also referred to as a bishopric or episcopal see, though more often the term episcopal see means the office held by the bishop. ...
Saint Columba was a leading Irish missionary who around 563 founded a base on the Scottish island of Iona, from which to convert Pictish pagans in Scotland. Columban monks then went to Northumbria in 635 and founded a monastary on the island of Lindisfarne, from which to convert the north of England. However Rome had allready begun the conversion of Anglo-Saxons from the south with a mission to Kent in 577. There arose a conflict between the Irish monks and Rome on the date to celebrate Easter, so the Irish mission withdrew from Lindisfarne back to Iona. Thus Anglo-Saxon England would come under increasingly Mediteranean influence, but not before a golden age of Irish Celtic and Anglo-Saxon art would profitably fuse. A separate article is titled Columba (constellation). ...
Events Saint Columba, the Irish missionary, founds his mission to the Picts and his monastery on Iona. ...
Iona, population 175, is a small island (1 mile wide, 3. ...
PICT is a graphics file format introduced on the original Apple Macintosh computer as its standard metafile format. ...
Scotland (Alba in Scottish Gaelic) is a country in northwest Europe and a constituent nation of the United Kingdom. ...
Section from Shepherds map of the British Isles about 802 AD showing the kingdom of Northumbria Northumbria is primarily the name of an Anglian kingdom which was formed in Great Britain at the beginning of the 7th century, and of the much smaller earldom which succeeded the kingdom. ...
Events Saint Aidan founds Lindisfarne in Northumbria, England Nestorian China Births Pippin of Herstal, Mayor of the Palace of Austrasia (approximate date) 23 May - Chan Bahlum II, king of Palenque Deaths Categories: 635 ...
This article is about Lindisfarne, England. ...
A map showing the general locations of the major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms The Anglo-Saxons were a group of Germanic tribes from Angeln—a peninsula in the southern part of Schleswig, protruding into the Baltic Sea, and what is now Lower Saxony, in the north-west coast of Germany—who...
Kent is a county in England, south-east of London. ...
Events The Anglo-Saxons under Ceawlin of Wessex defeat the British (Welsh) at the Battle of Deorham. ...
The first piece that can be called purely Hiberno-Saxon is the Book of Durrow in the late 7th century. Then followed a golden age in metalworking, manuscripts and stone sculpture. In the 9th century Hiberno-Saxon nears its end with the disruptions of Viking raids (ca. 807) and an increasing dominance of Mediteranean forms (see Anglo-Saxon art). The beginning of the Gospel of Mark from the Book of Durrow. ...
A map showing the general locations of the major Anglo-Saxon kingdoms The Anglo-Saxons were a group of Germanic tribes from Angeln, a peninsula in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, protruding into the Baltic Sea, and what is now Lower Saxony in Northern Germany, who achieved dominance in southern Britain from...
Illuminated manuscripts
 Book of Durrow, 7th century. One of the earliest pieces of Hiberno-Saxon art. Irish Celtic art had from the Iron Age period always been characterized by La Tene culture metalworking. Celtic hanging bowls such as those found at Sutton Hoo are among some of the most important of these crafts. As Irish missionaries began to spread the word of the Gospels they needed books, and almost from the start, they began to embellish their texts with artwork drawing from the designs of these metalworking traditions. The spirals and scrolls in the enlarged opening letters—found in the earliest manuscripts such as the 7th century Cathach of St. Columba manuscript—borrows in style directly from Celtic enamels and La Tene metalworking motifs. Image of page from the Book of Durrow. ...
Image of page from the Book of Durrow. ...
La Tène is a village near the Neuenburger See, also called Lac du Neuchâtel, a lake in Switzerland. ...
Sutton Hoo parade helmet (British Museum, restored). ...
Text from the Cathach of St. ...
After the Cathach of St. Columba, book decoration became increasingly more complex and new styles from other cultures were introduced. Carpet pages—entire pages of ornamentation with no text—were inserted usually at the start of each Gospel. The geometric motifs and interlaced patterns were influences from Coptic Egypt. The increasing use of animal ornamentation was an Anglo-Saxon contribution of its animal style. All of these influences and traditions combined into what could be called a new Hiberno-Saxon style, with the Book of Durrow in the later 7th century being the first of its type. The Lindisfarne Gospels is another famous example. Coptic is an adjective referring to the original inhabitants of Egypt, the Copts. ...
The beginning of the Gospel of Mark from the Book of Durrow. ...
Folio 27r from the Lindisfarne Gospels contains the incipit from the Gospel of Matthew. ...
The Book of Kells was probably created in Iona in the 8th century. When the monks fled to Ireland in the face of Viking raids in 807, they probably brought it with them to Kells in Ireland. It is the most richly decorated of the Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts and represents a large array of techniques and motifs created during the 8th century. This page (folio 292r) contains the lavishly decorated text that opens the Gospel of John. ...
Metalworking In the 8th century there emerged a resurgance of metalworking with new techniques such as gold filigree that allowed ever smaller and more detailed ornamentations. The Tara Brooch and Ardagh Chalice are the most magnificant examples. They brought together all of the available skills of an 8th century metalworker in one piece: ornamentation applied to a variety of materials, chip carving, filigree, cloisonne and rock crystal. Filigree (formerly written filigrann or filigrane) is a jewel work of a delicate kind made with twisted threads usually of gold and silver. ...
The Tara Brooch The Tara Brooch is considered one of the most important extant artifacts of early Christian-era Irish art, and is housed and displayed in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. ...
The Ardagh Chalice, which ranks with the Book of Kells as one of the finest known works of Celtic art, is thought to have been made in the 9th century AD. A large, two-handled silver cup, decorated with gold, gilt bronze, brass, lead pewter and enamel, assembled from 354...
Cloisonn is a multi-step enamel process used to produce jewelry, vases, and other decorative items. ...
For other uses of this word, see Quartz (disambiguation). ...
Stone sculpture The skills displayed in metalworking can be seen in stone sculptures. For many centuries it had been Irish custom to display a large wooden cross inside the monastic building enclosure. These were then translated in to stone crosses (see high cross) and covered with the same intricate patterns used by goldsmiths. High Cross in Ireland A High Cross is a standing cross with a circle, made of stone and often richly ornamented. ...
References Dictionary of the Middle Ages: Supplement 1 (2003) The Dictionary of the Middle Ages is a 13-volume encyclopedia of the Middle Ages published by the American Council of Learned Societies between 1982 and 1989, with a supplemental volume added in 2003. ...
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