Polychrome style
Gothic gold eagle fibula with garnet and cloisonne inlays.
Ca. 500 A.D. (Nurnberg: Germ. Nat. Mus.)
Typical Gothic polychrome applied to an East Asian (Hunnic) theme of the eagle.
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. Migration Period art is one of the major periods of Medieval art.
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 Empire's 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.
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 appeasement to dead spirits to protect the living.
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.
Polychrome style
Gothic gold eagle fibula with garnet and cloisonne inlays.
Ca. 500 A.D. (Nurnberg: 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.
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.
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 Tène 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.
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.
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.
In the 8th century there emerged a resurgence 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 magnificent 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.
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 (high cross) and covered with the same intricate patterns used by goldsmiths.
ALPHABETICAL INDEX OF ALL FILES
