Migration Period 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
(or Insular art) of the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic
fusion in the British
Isles
. It covers many different styles 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.
Migration art
Polychrome style
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 fourth century Pietroasele
treasure (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 fourth-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.
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.
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 Norwegian
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.
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).
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.
Hiberno-Saxon art
Hiberno-Saxon art (often also known as
Insular art, especially in relation to
illuminated manuscripts) 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).
History
Fibula.
Germanic, 2nd half of 4th century C.E.
Ireland was converted to Christianity by missions from Britain and
the continent, beginning in the mid-fifth century, while
simultaneously pagan
Angles,
Saxons and
Jutes were settling
in England. The extreme political fragmentation of Ireland and its
total lack of urban development prevented the emergence of a strong
episcopal structure. Monasticism consequently emerged as the
dominant force in Irish Christianity, and thus in Irish Christian
art.
Irish Christianity also developed a strong emphasis on missionary
activity.
Around 563 Saint
Columba founded a base on the Scottish island of Iona
, from which
to convert Pictish pagans in Scotland
; this
monastic settlement became long remained a key centre of Christian
culture in northern Britain. Columban monks then went to Northumbria
in 635 and founded a monastery on the island of
Lindisfarne
, from which to convert the north of England.
However
Rome had already begun the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons from the south with a mission to
Kent
in 597. Conflict arose between the Irish
monks and Rome on the date to celebrate Easter, leading to
withdrawal of the Irish mission from Lindisfarne to Iona. However,
the widespread use of Irish decorative forms in art produced in
England, and vice versa, attests to the continuing importance of
interaction between the two cultures. England would come under
increasing Mediterranean influence, but not before Irish Celtic and
Anglo-Saxon art had profitably fused.
The first major work that can be called purely Hiberno-Saxon is the
Book of Durrow in the late 7th
century. There followed a golden age in metalworking, manuscripts
and stone sculpture. In the 9th century the heyday of the
Hiberno-Saxon style neared its end, with the disruptions of Viking
raids and the increasing dominance of Mediterranean forms (see
Anglo-Saxon art).
Illuminated manuscripts
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 may have been
influences from
Coptic Egypt or elsewhere in
the Byzantine Middle East. 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.
Metalworking
In the 7th 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 Insular examples, whilst the 7th century royal
jewellery from the Sutton
Hoo ship burial shows a Pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon
style. They brought together all of the available skills of
the
goldsmith in one piece: ornamentation
applied to a variety of materials, chip carving, filigree,
cloisonne and
rock
crystal.
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 called
high crosses and covered with the same
intricate patterns used by goldsmiths, and often figure
sculptures.
See also
Notes
References
Further reading
- Boltin, Lee, ed.: Treasures of Early
Irish Art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D.: From the Collections of the
National Museum of Ireland, Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College,
Dublin, Metropolitan Museum of Art
, 1977, ISBN 0-8709-9164-7.
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