Art 101 – Carolingian Art

The Medieval Period – Carolingian Art

Welcome back to the Art 101 series, where we will be talking about Carolingian Art..

This week we will talk about the first of our three topics for the Medieval period, and the years thereafter. Over the next while we will also be talking about Gothic and Romanesque Art.

Background

Carolingian art is art produced around the years 780 – 900 AD during the reign of the emperor Charlemagne and his heirs. The art produced at this time tended to be linked closely with both the court and a small group of prolific monasteries that came together to make artistic innovations that would come to be known as the Carolingian Renaissance in later years.

Carolingian Art is often referred to as “pre-romanesque” art, and it mixed together Mediterranean, Northern and mildly Eastern artistic styles and traditions.

It comes after a time of Byzantine iconoclasm wherein idolatry – or the worship of images rather than God himself – was a huge issue. Charlemagne revelled in being once more free to produce and promote art in the West with a figurative subject, and set up the Ada School (The Court School of Charlemagne) to bring together styles of insular, Western and Byzantine art to create a new decorative tradition.

Illuminated Manuscripts

The Carolingian period was also one when many beautiful illuminated manuscripts were created. These illuminations were indicative of the hybrid Carolingian style, with works like the Ebbo Gospels showing a much more emphatic and expressive approach to decoration, with bold brushstrokes creating a sense of movement and liveliness.

St Matthew, Ebbo Gospels

Metalwork

The Carolingian period also saw the creation of incredibly skillful and intricate metalworking, particulary in relation to religious objects. Many book covers, such as the cover of the Lindau Gospels, pictured below, displayed a high level of opulence and luxury. Following a long standing tradition of emulating the glory of God in material expense, the cover displays precious gems and intricately carved and molded gold backing, with a central image of the crucifix denoting its place as a devotional object.

Decorative cover of the Lindau Gospels

Ivory Carving

Decorative book covers during the Carolingian period were not limited to metalwork and gemstones, and there are several highly intricate examples of ivory carved frontispieces for these religious texts, such as the example below which hails from the Lorsch Gospels and depicts scenes of antiquity which tell tales of Christian doctrine.

Front cover of the Lorsch Gospels

Mosaics and Frescoes

Another popular form of art in the Carolingian empire was mosaics, alongside fresco painting. Only fragmentary original examples of these survive, such as the Mosaic of the Ark of the Covenant, Germigny-des-Prés, but even this has been restored at a later date. Similar to the manuscripts and metalwork at the time, bold expressive figures were favoured, with heavy gilding to denote the Glory and abundance of the Kingdom of Heaven.

Mosaic of the Ark of the Covenant, Germigny-des-Prés

The main aim of works of Carolingian art was to celebrate and display the abundance of the Kingdom of Heaven, and to please their God (and the eye!) by using luxurious and expensive materials showing high levels of surface decoration. This is a convention that continued throughout the years to come, but the melding together of works of Christian devotion with a significant Eastern influence would set the precedent for the Romanesque and especially the Gothic eras, when the same high levels of surface decoration would be adopted after the “Dark Ages” with the arrival of the Visigoths.

While the above is not an exhaustive list of the art of the Carolingian empire, it forms the basis of the main forms of art in the period as we move towards our next two topics which deal with Romanesque and Gothic Art.

We look forward to seeing you then!

For more information on Carolingian Art, see Britannica.com.