Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Crossbow Brooch (detail), made in Rome or Constantinople, c. 430. Gold, 11.9 x 5.5 x 4 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain)
Medieval jewelry
Fibulae (singular: fibula) are brooches that were made popular by Roman soldiers, who wore them to hold a cloak or cape in place. Bow fibulae all consist of a body, a pin, and a catch — like safety pins. As a historian of the medieval period writes,
A German archaeologist, Herbert Kuhn, first called the bow fibula an early medieval artifact par excellence. Textbooks and art history studies use it to illustrate sections dedicated to the Dark Ages. There are probably thousands and hundreds of thousands of bow fibulae in European museum collections. A still greater number of specimens come out of archaeological excavations and their incredible diversity defies any attempts to establish unequivocal typologies. [1]
Figure \(\PageIndex{2}\): Attendants wearing fibulae, Emperor Justinian Mosaic (detail), San Vitale, Ravenna, c. 546-56. (Photo: byzantologist, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Ornate fibulae (Figure \(\PageIndex{3}\)) became all the rage in the early middle ages (c. 500 – 800), and are one of the most commonly found objects in barbarian grave sites. The word “barbarian” comes from the Greek word barbaros, meaning “foreign,” so it is often used as a blanket term for the non-Roman groups who migrated into western Europe in the early middle ages (such as the Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, and Lombards). This was the time when Europe was becoming Christianized and the Roman Empire split apart. The Roman Empire ceased to exist in the west, but continued in the east as the Byzantine Empire, with its capital at Constantinople (modern-day Istanbul).
This period is also sometimes referred to as the Migration Period. Sparse written documentation of these people survives, so grave goods like fibulae provide the most concrete cultural information available.
Figure \(\PageIndex{4}\): Crossbow Brooch (detail with floral motif emerging from what may be an acanthus leaves), c. 430. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain)
This gold fibula was made in Rome or Constantinople in the 5th century and is called a crossbow fibula because of its resemblance to the weapon. Unscrewing the left knob at the end of this “crossbow” would release the pin.
This intricate object is typical of the Byzantine/Roman fibulae style. The detailed incising on the body is called pierced openwork. At the top we see a cross, and below that, on either side, floral scrolls that appear to grow out of acanthus leaves and may symbolize paradise and the promise of salvation. In addition, the circular form around the cross is a victory wreath, which, in the Christian tradition, symbolizes victory over death (resurrection). One art historian has remarked that the brooch “evokes one of the most interesting epochs in antiquity, a period marked by the subtle, often elusive transition from Late Roman to Early Byzantine art.” [2]
Lombardic Fibula
The Lombardic fibula (Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\)) found in Kranj (modern day Slovenia) provides a good comparison, because it is a stylized variation of the crossbow fibula. It features at one end a semi-circle from which radiate nine rectangular incised forms topped with spheres (this type of fibula is called “radiate-headed” or “digitated”). It is gilded and inlaid with niello, a black metal alloy. The incisions are hatched lines—a popular decoration technique in Lombardic fibulae.
Figure \(\PageIndex{5}\): Lombard silver bow fibula, found in Kranj, mid-6th century CE. Gilded silver, with inlaid niello and engraved decoration, length 11.3 cm. National Museum, Slovenia. (Photo: Internet archive, via Smarthistory)
The Lombards (or Langobards, from the Latin Langobardi) are thought to be of Germanic origin, although their background is still contested. They established their kingdom in Italy in 558 and were defeated by Charlemagne, king of the Franks, in 774.
Over the centuries the Lombards assimilated into Roman culture, adopting Christianity, and left their own administrative legal procedures behind. This piece shows the adoption of the crossbow fibula style, but with a small Lombardic “twist.” According to one historian, “everything points to the conclusion that ‘Slavic’ bow fibulae were not simply symbols of social status or gender, but badges of power. This was the power of those able to establish long-distance relations and thus to yield influence.” [3]
Frankish fibulae
Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\): Merovingian (Frankish) Looped Fibulae, mid-6th century. Silver gilt worked in filigree with inlaid garnet and other stones. Musée des Antiquities Nationales, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France. (Photo via Smarthistory)
This pair of Merovingian fibulae (Figure \(\PageIndex{6}\)) is a good example of cloisonné, a technique that was popular in barbarian art. This technique is characterized by inlaid semi-precious stones. The word cloisonné literally means “partitioned” in French. The artisan would solder wires onto a metal base and fill the areas created with polished stones (this is different from cloisonné enamel, which has colored enamel baked within these partitions).
This example also shows a popular motif in barbarian art of the middle ages—eagles. The eagle was a symbol of the Roman empire and was adopted at this time because it still carried connotations of status and power. The top end of these fibulae are in the shape of eagle heads and a series of similarly stylized eagle heads can be seen creating the loops on the opposite end of each pin and on the sides. A small fish decorates the main body of each of the brooches. Garnets were used for the eyes of the eagles, and a wide range of gems were used in the rest of the fibulae. These stunning objects demonstrate the remarkable skill of barbarian metal workers during the early middle ages.
Visigothic fibulae
Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\): Eagle Fibulae, found at Tierra de Barros (Badajoz, southwest Spain), 6th century. Sheet gold over bronze inlaid with garnets, amythysts, and colored glass, 14.2 x 7.1 x 3.2 cm. (Photo: The Walters Art Museum, CC0 1.0)
This pair of Visigothic fibulae (Figure \(\PageIndex{7}\)) in the form of eagles provide another good example of barbarian metalwork and cloisonné. They are decorated with garnets, amethyst, and colored glass and were found at a Visigothic grave site in Spain. They likely would have fastened a cloak at the shoulders and pendants may have hung from the loops at the bottom.
Notes
[1] Florin Curta, The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500–700 (Cambridge University Press, reissue edition, 2007), p. 247.
[3] Florin Curta, The Making of the Slavs: History and Archaeology of the Lower Danube Region, c. 500–700 (Cambridge University Press, reissue edition, 2007), p. 274.
One of the most enjoyable things about working with the British Museum’s Anglo-Saxon collection is having the opportunity to study the intricate designs of the many brooches, buckles, and other pieces of decorative metalwork. This is because in Anglo-Saxon art there is always more than meets the eye.
A love of riddles
The objects invite careful contemplation, and you can find yourself spending hours puzzling over their designs, finding new beasts and images. The dense animal patterns that cover many Anglo-Saxon objects are not just pretty decoration; they have multi-layered symbolic meanings and tell stories. Anglo-Saxons, who had a love of riddles and puzzles of all kinds, would have been able to ‘read’ the stories embedded in the decoration. But for us it is trickier as we are not fluent in the language of Anglo-Saxon art.
Style I
Anglo-Saxon art went through many changes between the 5th and 11th centuries, but puzzles and story-telling remained central. The early art style of the Anglo-Saxon period is known as Style I and was popular in the late 5th and 6th centuries. It is characterized by what seems to be a dizzying jumble of animal limbs and face masks, which has led some scholars to describe the style as an “animal salad.” Close scrutiny shows that Style I is not as abstract as first appears, and through carefully following the decoration in stages we can unpick the details and begin to get a sense for what the design might mean.
One of the most exquisite examples of Style I animal art is a silver-gilt square-headed brooch from a female grave on the Isle of Wight (Figure \(\PageIndex{8}\)). Its surface is covered with at least 24 different beasts: a mix of birds’ heads, human masks, animals and hybrids (Figure \(\PageIndex{9}\)). Some of them are quite clear, like the faces in the circular lobes projecting from the bottom of the brooch (Figure \(\PageIndex{10}\)). Others are harder to spot, such as the faces in profile that only emerge when the brooch is turned upside-down. Some of the images can be read in multiple ways, and this ambiguity is central to Style I art.
Once we have identified the creatures on the brooch, we can begin to decode its meaning. In the lozenge-shaped field at the foot of the brooch is a bearded face with a helmet underneath two birds that may represent the Germanic god Woden/Odin with his two companion ravens (Figure \(\PageIndex{11}\)). The image of a god alongside other powerful animals may have offered symbolic protection to the wearer like a talisman or amulet.
Style I was superseded by Style II in the late 6th century. This later style has more fluid and graceful animals, but these still writhe and interlace together and require patient untangling. The great gold buckle from Sutton Hoo is decorated in this style. From the thicket of interlace that fills the buckle’s surface 13 different animals emerge (Figure \(\PageIndex{12}\)). These animals are easier to spot: the ring-and-dot eyes, the birds’ hooked beaks, and the four-toed feet of the animals are good starting points. At the tip of the buckle, two animals grip a small dog-like creature in their jaws and on the circular plate, two snakes intertwine and bite their own bodies. Such designs reveal the importance of the natural world, and it is likely that different animals were thought to hold different properties and characteristics that could be transferred to the objects they decorated. The fearsome snakes, with their shape-shifting qualities, demand respect and confer authority, and were suitable symbols for a buckle that adorned a high-status man, or even an Anglo-Saxon king.
Rosie Weetch, curator and Craig Williams, illustrator, British Museum
The Sutton Hoo purse lid
by The British Museum
Figure \(\PageIndex{14}\): Purse lid from the Sutton Hoo ship burial, early 7th century. Gold, garnet and millefiori, 19 x 8.3 cm (excluding hinges). British Museum, London, England. (Photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
Purse lid from the Sutton Hoo ship burial
Wealth, and its public display, was probably used to establish status in early Anglo-Saxon society much as it is today. The purse lid from Sutton Hoo is the richest of its kind yet found.
Figure \(\PageIndex{15}\): Sutton Hoo shoulder-clasps (Early Anglo-Saxon), late 6th-early 7th century. Gold, millefiori, and garnet, 5.4 x 12.7 x .5 cm. The British Museum, London, England. (Photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The lid was made to cover a leather pouch containing gold coins. It hung by three hinged straps from the waist belt, and was fastened by a gold buckle. The lid had totally decayed but was probably made of whalebone—a precious material in early Anglo-Saxon England. Seven gold, garnet cloisonné and millefiori glass plaques were set into it. These are made with a combination of very large garnets and small ones, deliberately used to pick out details of the imagery. This combination could link the purse-lid and the fine shoulder clasps (Figure \(\PageIndex{15}\)), which were also found in the ship burial, to the workshop of a single master-craftsman. It is possible that he made the entire suite of gold and garnet fittings discovered in Mound 1 as a single commission.
Figure \(\PageIndex{16}\): Decorative plaques (detail), Purse lid from the Sutton Hoo ship burial, early 7th century. (Photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
The plaques include twinned images of a bird-of-prey swooping on a duck-like bird and a man standing heroically between two beasts. These images must have had deep significance for the Anglo-Saxons, but it is impossible for us to interpret them. The fierce creatures are perhaps a powerful evocation of strength and courage, qualities that a successful leader of men must possess. Strikingly similar images of a man between beasts are known from Scandinavia.
Global Connections: The Decorative Art of Cloissonné
Cloisonné is a technique in which artists use metal strips (often gold) to define a pattern or imagery on an object’s surface, creating areas (cloisons) that can then be filled—like the spaces in a coloring book—with glass, enamel (powdered glass paste that fuses when heated in a kiln), or even actual gems, as is the case in the Sutton Hoo purse cover. The shiny gold borders remain visible, separating the colors and giving the object a rich, sumptuous, appearance.
The opulent materials, labor-intensive process, and the intricate detail cloisonné can produce meant that it was often chosen during the Middle Ages to decorate especially precious metalwork, architecture, and even fabric. The Coronation Mantle, discussed in the next chapter, pairs Islamic and Christian visual forms and Arabic calligraphy, and is embellished not only with jewels, gold, gems, and filigree, but also cloisonné enamel. Although the robe is sometimes misidentified as being Charlemagne’s, the Kufic inscription on the robe itself gives a much later date, and it was most likely made for the Norman ruler Roger II. The Fieschi Morgan cross reliquary (early 9th century, Constantinople) is another intricate Byzantine example of enamel worked in cloisonné.
Figure \(\PageIndex{17}\): Pectoral and Necklace of Sithathoryunet with the Name of Senwosret II, c. 1887–1878 BCE. Cloisonné with gold, carnelian, lapis lazuli, turquoise, garnet, 1 ¾ x 1¼”. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. (Photo: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, public domain)
Cloisonné, however, was not new to the Early Medieval Period; the pectoral in Figure \(\PageIndex{17}\), from Middle Kingdom Egypt, was created around 1880 BCE and, like the purse cover, uses shaped, semi-precious stones (including garnet, as well as turquoise, carnelian, and lapis lazuli) rather than enamel. The cloisonné enamel process was first developed in the Near East and spread to Byzantine and Islamic art; to China via the Silk Road; and to Russia, Ukraine, Japan, Korea, and beyond. China is now famous for its fine cloisonné artwork, such as this Ming dynasty incense burner (15th-16th century). Later, Japanese artist Kaji Tsunekichi (1803-1883) is credited with championing a renaissance in Japanese cloisonné manufacturing throughout the Nagoya region in the 19th century.
The Vikings
By Boundless Art History (excerpted)
Editors' Note
The materials in this article date to the early ninth century, yet make a useful comparison to the Saxon ship burial at Sutton Hoo a century earlier. Like the Saxon art of Sutton Hoo, the Viking art of the Oseberg ship burial links to later Christian art in the same part of the world. Chapter 14 follows the Vikings into their Christian era.
Norse Ships in the Early European Middle Ages
Figure \(\PageIndex{18}\): Osberg Ship Head Post: Animal head post found in the Oseberg ship. Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway. The exact function of the head post is unknown. (Photo: public domain)
Of Scandinavian descent, Norsemen are often called Vikings after their trading locations on the Norwegian shoreline. Known as pre-Christian traders and pirates, Vikings used their great ships to invade European coasts, harbors, and river settlements on a seasonal basis. They created fast and seaworthy longships that served not only as warring and trading vessels, but also as media for artistic expression and individual design.
The great ships of the Vikings contain some of the major artworks left from this time. For instance, the Oseberg Bow demonstrates the Norse mastery of decorative wood carving and intricate inlay of metal. Likewise, the ship head post (Figure \(\PageIndex{18}\))—representing a roaring beast—is five inches high with complicated surface ornamentation in the form of interwoven animals that twist and turn.
Other examples of artistic design on Norse ships include the “King” or “Chieftain” vessels designated for the wealthier classes. Chieftain ships were distinguishable by the design of the bow of their vessel with designs such as bulls, dolphins, gold lions, drakes spewing fire out of their nose, human beings cast in gold and silver, and other unidentifiable animals cast in bronze metal. Typically, the sides of these vessels were decorated using bright colors and wood-carvings.
A Ship Burial
The Oseberg ship (Norwegian: Osebergskipet) is a well-preserved Viking ship discovered in a large burial mound at the Oseberg farm near Tønsberg in Vestfold County, Norway. This ship is widely celebrated as one of the finest artistic and archaeological finds to have survived the Viking Age.
Figure \(\PageIndex{19}\): The Oseberg Ship: The Oseberg ship. Viking Ship Museum, Oslo, Norway. (Photo: Arnejohs, public domain)
The Oseberg burial mound contained numerous grave goods and the remains of two female human skeletons. The ship’s interment into its burial mound dates from 834 CE, but parts of the ship date from around 800 CE, and scholars believe that ship itself is older. The bow and stern of the ship are elaborately decorated with complex woodcarvings in the characteristic “gripping beast” style, also known as the Oseberg style (Figure \(\PageIndex{20}\)). This style’s primary features are the paws that grip the borders around it, neighboring beasts, or parts of its own body. Although the Osberg style distinguishes early Viking art from previous trends, it is no longer generally accepted as an independent style. Although seaworthy, the ship is relatively frail. It is thought to have been used only for coastal voyages.
Figure \(\PageIndex{20}\): Oseberg Ship: This detail from the Oseberg ship demonstrates the elaborate woodcarving designs used as ornamentation on the bow and front of the ship. (Photo: Karamell, CC BY-SA 2.5)
The skeletons of two women were found in the Oseberg burial mound. One may have been sacrificed to accompany the other in death. Regardless, the opulence of the burial rite and the grave goods suggests that this was a burial of very high status. For instance, one woman wore a very fine red wool dress of fabric woven in a lozenge twill pattern (a luxury commodity) and a fine white linen veil in a gauze weave. The other wore a plainer blue wool dress with a wool veil, showing some stratification in their social status. Neither woman wore anything entirely made of silk, although small silk strips were appliqued onto a tunic worn under the red dress.
Figure \(\PageIndex{21}\): “Buddha Bucket”: The so-called “Buddha bucket” (Buddha-bøtte), brass and cloisonné enamel ornament of a bucket (pail) handle in the shape of a figure sitting with crossed legs. (Photo: Thorguds, CC BY-SA 3.0)
The grave had been disturbed in antiquity and many precious metals that were initially buried with Oseberg ship went missing. Nevertheless, many everyday items and artifacts were found during the early 20th-century excavations of the site. These included four elaborately decorated sleighs, a four-wheel wooden cart, bedposts, wooden chests, and other richly decorated items. For instance, the so-called “Buddha bucket” is a well-known object from the Oseberg site that features a brass and cloisonné enamel ornament of a bucket (pail) handle in the shape of a figure sitting with crossed legs. The bucket itself is made from yew wood held together with brass strips, and the handle is attached to two anthropomorphic figures often compared to depictions of the Buddha in lotus posture (although any connection to Buddhism is uncertain). Archaeologists also found more mundane items, such as agricultural and household tools, and a series of textiles that included woolen garments, imported silks, and narrow tapestries. The Oseberg burial is one of the few sources of Viking-age textiles, and the wooden cart is the only complete Viking-age cart found so far.
The Lindisfarne Gospels
by Dr. Kathleen Doyle at the British Library and Louisa Woodville
A medieval monk takes up a quill pen, fashioned from a goose feather, and dips it into a rich, black ink made from soot. Seated on a wooden chair in the scriptorium of Lindisfarne, an island off the coast of Northumberland in England, he stares hard at the words from a manuscript made in Italy. This book is his exemplar, the codex (a bound book, made from sheets of paper or parchment) from which he is to copy the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Figure \(\PageIndex{22}\): Lindisfarne Gospels, St. Matthew (detail), second initial Page, f.29, early 8th century. (Photo: British Library, via Smarthistory)
For about the next six years, he will copy this Latin. He will illuminate the gospel text with a weave of fantastic images—snakes that twist themselves into knots or birds, their curvaceous and overlapping forms creating the illusion of a third dimension into which a viewer can lose him or herself in meditative contemplation (Figure \(\PageIndex{22}\)).
Figure \(\PageIndex{23}\): Lindisfarne Gospels, John’s cross-carpet page, folio 210v. (Photo: British Library, via Smarthistory)
The book is a spectacular example of Insular or Hiberno-Saxon art—works produced in the British Isles between 500-900 CE, a time of devastating invasions and political upheavals. Monks read from it during rituals at their Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island, a Christian community that safeguarded the shrine of St Cuthbert, a bishop who died in 687 and whose relics were thought to have curative and miracle-working powers.
A Northumbrian monk, very likely the bishop Eadfrith, illuminated the codex in the early 8th century. Two-hundred and fifty-nine written and recorded leaves include full-page portraits of each evangelist; highly ornamental cross “carpet pages,” each of which features a large cross set against a background of ordered and yet teeming ornamentation (Figure \(\PageIndex{23}\)); and the Gospels themselves, each introduced by an historiated initial. The codex also includes sixteen pages of canon tables set in arcades. Here correlating passages from each evangelist are set side-by-side, enabling a reader to compare narrations.
In 635 C.E. Christian monks from the Scottish island of Iona built a priory in Lindisfarne. More than a hundred and fifty years later, in 793, Vikings from the north attacked and pillaged the monastery, but survivors managed to transport the Gospels safely to Durham, a town on the Northumbrian coast about 75 miles west of its original location.
We glean this information from the manuscript itself, thanks to Aldred, a 10th-century priest from a priory at Durham. Aldred’s colophon—an inscription that relays information about the book’s production—informs us that Eadfrith, a bishop of Lindisfarne in 698 who died in 721, created the manuscript to honor God and St. Cuthbert. Aldred also inscribed a vernacular translation between the lines of the Latin text, creating the earliest known Gospels written in a form of English.
Figure \(\PageIndex{24}\): Lindisfarne Gospels, St. Matthew, cross-carpet page, f.26v (detail showing the spiral motifs at the center of the cross and snake-like creatures). (Photo: British Library, via Smarthistory)
Matthew’s cross-carpet page exemplifies Eadfrith’s exuberance and genius. A mesmerizing series of repetitive knots and spirals is dominated by a centrally-located cross. One can imagine devout monks losing themselves in the swirls and eddies of color during meditative contemplation of its patterns.
Compositionally, Eadfrith stacked wine-glass shapes horizontally and vertically against his intricate weave of knots. On closer inspection many of these knots reveal themselves as snake-like creatures curling in and around tubular forms, mouths clamping down on their bodies. Chameleon-like, their bodies change colors: sapphire blue here, verdigris green there, and sandy gold in between. The sanctity of the cross, outlined in red with arms outstretched and pressing against the page edges, stabilizes the background’s gyrating activity and turns the repetitive energy into a meditative force.
Figure \(\PageIndex{25}\): Lindisfarne Gospels, St. Luke, incipit page, f.139, with detail showing creatures within the letter u. (Photo: British Library, via Smarthistory)
Likewise, Luke’s incipit (incipit: it begins) page (Figure \(\PageIndex{25}\)) teems with animal life, spiraled forms, and swirling vortexes. In many cases Eadfrith’s characteristic knots reveal themselves as snakes that move stealthily along the confines of a letter’s boundaries.
Blue pin-wheeled shapes rotate in repetitive circles, caught in the vortex of a large Q that forms Luke’s opening sentence—Quoniam quidem multi conati sunt ordinare narrationem. (Translation: As many have taken it in hand to set forth in order.)
Figure \(\PageIndex{26}\): Lindisfarne Gospels, St. Luke, incipit page, f.139, with detail showing birds and a cat. (Photo: British Library, via Smarthistory)
Birds also abound. One knot enclosed in a tall rectangle on the far right unravels into a blue heron’s chest shaped like a large comma. Eadfrith repeats this shape vertically down the column, cleverly twisting the comma into a cat’s forepaw at the bottom. The feline, who has just consumed the eight birds that stretch vertically up from its head, presses off this appendage acrobatically to turn its body 90 degrees; it ends up staring at the words RENARRATIONEM (part of the phrase -re narrationem).
Eadfrith also has added a host of tiny red dots that envelop words, except when they don’t—the letters “NIAM” of “quoniam” are composed of the vellum itself, the negative space now asserting itself as four letters.
Figure \(\PageIndex{27}\): Lindesfarne Gospels, St. Luke, portrait page, 137v. (Photo: British Library, via Smarthistory)
Luke’s incipit page is in marked contrast to his straightforward portrait page (Figure \(\PageIndex{27}\)). Here Eadfrith seats the curly-haired, bearded evangelist on a red-cushioned stool against an unornamented background. Luke holds a quill in his right hand, poised to write words on a scroll unfurling from his lap. His feet hover above a tray supported by red legs. He wears a purple robe streaked with red, one that we can easily imagine on a late fourth or fifth century Roman philosopher. The gold halo behind Luke’s head indicates his divinity. Above his halo flies a blue-winged calf, its two eyes turned toward the viewer with its body in profile. The bovine clasps a green parallelogram between two forelegs, a reference to the Gospel.
According to the historian Bede from the nearby monastery in Monkwearmouth (d. 735), this calf, or ox, symbolizes Christ’s sacrifice on the cross. Bede assigns symbols for the other three evangelists as well, which Eadfrith duly includes in their respective portraits: Matthew’s is a man, suggesting the human aspect of Christ; Mark’s the lion, symbolizing the triumphant and divine Christ of the Resurrection; and John’s the eagle, referring to Christ’s second coming.
Figure \(\PageIndex{28}\): Lindisfarne Gospels, John’s cross-carpet page, folio 210v, with a detail of a striped bird. (Photo: British Library, via Smarthistory)
A dense interplay of stacked birds teem underneath the crosses of the carpet page that opens John’s Gospel. One bird, situated in the upper left-hand quadrant, has blue-and-pink stripes in contrast to others that sport registers of feathers. Stripes had a negative association to the medieval mind, appearing chaotic and disordered. The insane wore stripes, as did prostitutes, criminals, jugglers, sorcerers, and hangmen. Might Eadfrith be warning his viewers that evil lurks hidden in the most unlikely of places? Or was Eadfrith himself practicing humility in avoiding perfection?
All in all, the variety and splendor of the Lindisfarne Gospels are such that even in reproduction, its images astound. Artistic expression and inspired execution make this codex a high point of early medieval art.
An illuminated manuscript is a book written and decorated completely by hand. Illuminated manuscripts were among the most precious objects produced in the Middle Ages and the early Renaissance, primarily in monasteries and courts. Society's rulers—emperors, kings, dukes, cardinals, and bishops—commissioned the most splendid manuscripts. This video outlines the process of making one, from preparing the animal skins that form the pages to binding it and producing a heavy cover.
Figure \(\PageIndex{29}\): Chi Rho carpet page, Folio 34r of the Book of Kells. Tempera on vellum, 1'1" x 9 1/2". Trinity College Library, Dublin. (Photo: public domain)
What is the Book of Kells?
The Book of Kells (Trinity College Dublin MS 58) contains the four Gospels in Latin based on the Vulgate text which St Jerome completed in 384AD, intermixed with readings from the earlier Old Latin translation. The Gospel texts are prefaced by other texts, including "canon tables", or concordances of Gospel passages common to two or more of the evangelists; summaries of the gospel narratives (Breves causae); and prefaces characterizing the evangelists (Argumenta).
The book is written on vellum (prepared calfskin) in a bold and expert version of the script known as "insular majuscule." It contains 340 folios, now measuring approximately 330 x 255 mm; they were severely trimmed, and their edges gilded, in the course of rebinding in the 19th century.
Where and when was the Book of Kells written?
The date and place of origin of the Book of Kells have attracted a great deal of scholarly controversy. The majority academic opinion now tends to attribute it to the scriptorium of Iona (Argyllshire), but conflicting claims have located it in Northumbria or in Pictland in eastern Scotland. A monastery founded around 561 by St Colum Cille on Iona, an island off Mull in western Scotland, became the principal house of a large monastic confederation. In 806, following a Viking raid on the island which left 68 of the community dead, the Columban monks took refuge in a new monastery at Kells, County Meath, and for many years the two monasteries were governed as a single community. It must have been close to the year 800 that the Book of Kells was written, although there is no way of knowing if the book was produced wholly at Iona or at Kells, or partially at each location.
Why is the Book of Kells famous?
The manuscript’s celebrity derives largely from the impact of its lavish decoration, the extent and artistry of which is incomparable. Abstract decoration and images of plant, animal and human ornament punctuate the text with the aim of glorifying Jesus’ life and message, and keeping his attributes and symbols constantly in the eye of the reader.
There are full pages of decoration for the canon tables; symbols of the evangelists Matthew (the Man), Mark (the Lion), Luke (the Calf) and John (the Eagle); the opening words of the Gospels; the Virgin and Child; a portrait of Christ; complex narrative scenes, the earliest to survive in gospel manuscripts, representing the arrest of Christ and his temptation by the Devil. The Chi Rho page (folio 34r), introducing Matthew’s account of the nativity, is the single most famous page in medieval art. There are portraits of Matthew and John, but no portrait of Mark or Luke survives. These were probably executed, like other major pages of the manuscript, on single leaves and they are presumed to have become detached over time and lost. In all, around 30 folios went missing in the medieval and early modern periods.
Figure \(\PageIndex{30}\): The four Evangelists (clockwise from top left, Matthew, Mark, John, Luke), Folio 27v of the Book of Kells. Tempera on vellum, 1'1" x 9 1/2". Trinity College Library, Dublin. (Photo: public domain)
How many artists produced the Book of Kells?
Three artists seem to have produced the major decorated pages. One of them, whose work can be seen on the Chi Rho page, was capable of ornament of such extraordinary fineness and delicacy that his skills have been likened to those of a goldsmith. Four major scribes copied the text. Each displayed characteristics and stylistic traits while working within a scriptorium style. One, for example, was responsible only for text, and was in the habit of leaving the decoration of letters at the beginning of verses to an artist; while another scribe, who may have been the last in date, tended to use bright colours—red, purple, yellow—for the text, and to fill blank spaces with the unnecessary repetition of certain passages. The extent to which there was an identity between scribe and artist is among the key unanswered questions about the manuscript.
What pigments did the Book of Kells artists use?
A range of pigments was employed, including blue made from indigo or woad, native to northern Europe. Recent research in the Library of Trinity College Dublin has indicated that blue from lapis lazuli was probably not used in the manuscript as had previously been thought. Orpiment (yellow arsenic sulphide) was used to produce a vibrant yellow pigment. Red came from red lead or from organic sources which are difficult at present to identify. A copper green, reacting with damp, was responsible for perforating the vellum on a number of folios. The artists employed a technique of adding as many as three pigments on top of a base layer.
How was the Book of Kells used in the Middle Ages?
The transcription of the text was remarkably careless, in many cases due to eye-skip, with letters and whole words omitted. Text already copied on one page (folio 218v) was repeated on folio 219r, with the words on 218v elegantly expunged by the addition of red crosses. Such carelessness, taken together with the sumptuousness of the book, have led to the conclusion that it was designed for ceremonial use on special liturgical occasions such as Easter rather than for daily services.
The history of the Book of Kells
The Book of Kells seldom comes to view in the historical record. The Annals of Ulster, describing it as "the chief treasure of the western world", record that it was stolen in 1006 for its ornamental cumdach (shrine). It remained at Kells throughout the Middle Ages, venerated as the great gospel book of St Colum Cille, a relic of the saint, as indicated by a poem added in the 15th century to folio 289v. In the late 11th and 12th centuries, blank pages and spaces on folios 5v-7v and 27r were used to record property transactions relating to the monastery at Kells. In 1090, it was reported by the Annals of Tigernach, that relics of Colum Cille were brought to Kells from Donegal. These relics included ‘the two gospels’, one of them probably the Book of Kells, the other perhaps the Book of Durrow. Following the rebellion of 1641, the church at Kells lay in ruins, and around 1653 the book was sent to Dublin by the governor of Kells, Charles Lambert, Earl of Cavan, in the interests of its safety. A few years later it reached Trinity College, the single constituent college of the University of Dublin, through the agency of Henry Jones, a former scoutmaster general to Cromwell’s army in Ireland and Vice-Chancellor of the University, when he became Bishop of Meath in 1661. It has been on display in the Old Library at Trinity College from the mid 19th century, and now attracts in excess of 500,000 visitors a year. Since 1953 it has been bound in four volumes. Two volumes can normally be seen, one opened to display a major decorated page, and one to show two pages of script.
