MANUSCRIPTS OF THE CAROLINGIAN PERIOD.
_The Age of Charles the Great._
_The age of Charles the Great and his successors._ Charles the Great, who
was elected King of the Franks in 768, and in the year 800 became Emperor
of the West, did much to foster all branches of art--architecture,
bronze-founding, goldsmith's work, and more especially the art of writing
and illuminating manuscripts. The Imperial Capital, Aix-la-Chapelle
(Aachen), became a busy centre for arts and crafts of all kinds, and
various monasteries throughout the Frankish kingdom became schools of
manuscript illumination of a very high order of excellence.
[Illustration: Fig. 10. An initial P. of the Celtic-Carolingian type, of
the school of Alcuin of York.]
_Alcuin of York._
_The Gospels of Alcuin._
_Northumbrian influence._
It was specially with the aid of a famous English scholar and manuscript
writer, Alcuin of York[47], that Charles the Great brought about so
remarkable a revival both of letters and of the illuminator's art, and
created what may be called the Anglo-Carolingian school of manuscripts.
From 796 till his death in 804 Alcuin was Abbot of the Benedictine
monastery of St Martin at Tours; and there he carried out various literary
works for Charles the Great, and superintended the production of a large
number of richly illuminated manuscripts. Alcuin's most important literary
work was the revision of the Latin text of the Bible, the _Vulgate_, which
since Saint Jerome's time had become seriously corrupted. The British
Museum possesses (_Add. Manuscripts_, No. 10546) a magnificently
illuminated copy of the _Vulgate_ as revised by Alcuin, which, there is
every reason to believe, is the actual manuscript which was prepared for
Charles the Great either by Alcuin himself or under his immediate
supervision. This splendid manuscript is a large folio in delicate and
beautifully formed _minuscule_ characters, with the beginnings of chapters
in fine _uncials_; it is written in two columns on the purest vellum. The
miniature paintings in this manuscript show the united influence of various
schools of manuscript art. The figure subjects are mainly classical in
style, with fine architectural backgrounds of Roman style, drawn with
unusual elaboration and accuracy, and even with fairly correct perspective.
The initial letters and all the conventional ornaments show the Northern
artistic strain which Alcuin himself introduced from York. Delicate and
complicated interlaced patterns, such as were first used in the wonderful
sixth and seventh century manuscripts of the Celtic monks, are freely
introduced into the borders and large capitals.
[Illustration: Fig. 11. An initial B. of the Celtic-Carolingian type.]
_Celtic influence._
In Alcuin's time Northumbria and especially York was one of the chief
centres in the world, for the production of manuscripts, and the Dean of
York naturally introduced into France the style and influence of his native
school, which had grown out of a combination of two very different styles,
that of Rome, as introduced by St Augustine, and the Celtic style which the
monks of Ireland and Lindisfarne had brought to such marvellous perfection
in the seventh century.
Fig. 10 shows an initial of the Celtic-Carolingian type, with a goldsmith's
pattern on the shaft of the _P_, and a bird of Oriental type forming the
loop; and fig. 11 gives a large initial _B_ in which the Oriental element
is very strong, cf. fig. 13, page 68.
_Henry VIII's Gospels._
The Carolingian class of manuscripts in this way combined many different
strains of influence--native Frankish, Classical, Oriental and English, all
modified by the Byzantine love for gorgeous colours, shining gold and
silver, and purple-dyed vellum. A considerable number of manuscripts were
written in the reign of Charles the Great in letters of gold on purple
vellum like those prepared in earlier times for the Byzantine Emperors. A
manuscript _Book of the Gospels_ of this magnificent class was given by
Pope Leo X. to Henry VIII. of England in return for the presentation copy
of his work against Luther, entitled _Assertio Septem Sacramentorum_, which
the king had sent in 1521 to the Pope as a proof of his allegiance to the
Catholic Faith and the Holy See. This magnificent _Textus_ afterwards came
into the Hamilton collection through Mr Beckford of Fonthill, and was
subsequently bought by Mr Quaritch[48].
[Illustration: Fig. 12. Miniature of Christ in Majesty from a manuscript of
the school of Alcuin, written for Charles the Great.]
_Carolingian Gospels._
_Gospels of Godesscalc._
As was the case with the earlier Byzantine manuscripts, the most
magnificent books produced in the Carolingian period were this kind of
_Evangeliaria_ or _Books of the Gospels_. Though differing in the details
of their ornamentation, these later _Gospels_ are decorated with the same
set of miniature subjects that occur in the Byzantine Gospels. The library
of Paris possesses a fine typical example of this (_Bibl. Nat. Nouv. Acq.
Lat. 1993_), a richly decorated and signed _Evangeliarium_, which was
written for Charles the Great in 781 by the scribe and illuminator
Godesscalc. Every page is sumptuously ornamented with large initials and a
border in brilliant burnished gold, and silver, and bright colours; and
there are also six full-page miniatures, the first four representing the
four Evangelists enthroned in the usual way. The fifth has a painting of
_Christ in Majesty_ with one hand holding a book, the other raised in
blessing; see fig. 12. The sixth miniature represents the Fountain of Life.
In all these paintings the backgrounds are very rich and decorative, with a
greater variety and more fancifully designed ornament than is to be found
in Byzantine manuscripts of a similar class, owing, of course, to the
introduction of the many different elements of design which were combined
with great taste and skill by the Carolingian illuminators.
_Oriental influence._
In this and many other manuscripts of the same class a very distinct
Semitic or Persian strain of influence can be traced in much of the rich
conventional ornament. Very beautiful and highly decorative forms and
patterns were derived from Oriental sources[49], owing to the active import
into France and Germany of fine Persian carpets and textile stuffs from
Moslem looms in Syria, Sicily (especially Palermo) and from other parts of
the Arab world; all these textiles were designed with consummate taste and
skill both in colour and drawing.
_Sicilian silk cope._
Fig. 13 shows a fine specimen of woven silk from the Arab looms of Syria.
It was used as an Imperial cope or mantle by various German Emperors; in
the centre is a palm-tree, and on each side a lion devouring a camel,
treated in a very decorative and masterly manner. The form of the
conventional foliage on the lions' bodies is imitated in many manuscript
illuminations, as, for example, in the ornaments of the initial _B_ shown
in fig. 11, page 64.
[Illustration: Fig. 13. A cope made of silk from the loom of an Oriental
weaver.]
_Splendour of MSS._
One important characteristic of the Carolingian manuscripts is their
extreme splendour. The freely used burnished gold is often made more
magnificent by the contrast of no less brilliant silver. Purple-stained
vellum was largely used, and all the pigments are of the most gorgeous hues
that great technical skill could produce. And yet in spite of all this
magnificence of shining metals and bright colours the effect is never harsh
or gaudy, owing to the taste and judgment shown by the illuminators in the
way they broke up their colours, avoiding large unrelieved masses, and in
the arrangement of the colours so as to give a general effect of harmony in
spite of the great chromatic force of the separate parts.
_Technical methods._
The somewhat realistic way of representing the Evangelists as aged
white-haired men, which occurs in Byzantine manuscripts, in the Carolingian
_Gospels_ is replaced by a more conventional treatment, and thus they are
as a rule represented as youthful, beardless men of an idealized type. The
general treatment of the figure is flat, with little or no light and shade
or modelling of any kind. The drapery is represented by strong, dark lines
applied over a flatly laid wash of pigment. The painter first drew in his
outlines with a fine brush dipped in red, and then filled in the
intermediate spaces with a wash of colour mixed with a large proportion of
gummy medium, so that a very glossy, lustrous surface was produced. The
folds of the drapery and the rest of the internal drawing of the figures
were put in after the application of the flat ground colour. This method
very much resembles the process of the early Greek vase-painters. In order
to give richness of effect by the use of a thick body of colour the
illuminator commonly applied his flat tints in two or even three distinct
washes, a method which is recommended by Theophilus[50] and other early
writers on the technique of illumination.
_Gospels at Vienna._
Another _Book of the Gospels_ which belonged to Charles the Great, now
preserved in the Imperial Treasury at Vienna, is decidedly inferior as a
work of art to the Paris manuscript mentioned above. In it the influence of
the enfeebled Roman style is much stronger; the detail is far less refined
and decorative, in spite of a copious use of burnished gold. This
inferiority is due mainly to the absence of that Northumbrian influence, to
which the best Carolingian manuscripts owe so much of their beauty.
_Successors of Charles._
_Manuscripts of the later Carolingian school._ Under Charles the Great's
successors the art of illuminating manuscripts continued to flourish, and,
in the ninth century, under his grandsons Lothair and Charles the Bald,
reached the climax of its development. During this century decorative
splendour of a very high order was reached, in spite of there being very
little advance in the power of rendering the human form. Gold, silver,
ultramarine and brilliant pigments of all kinds were skilfully used; the
subjects for miniatures became more varied, and detail was more delicate
and highly finished[51].
_Portrait figures._
Portraits of the kings are often introduced at the beginning of books of
this period, a fashion which in later times was extended to other than
royal patrons of art and learning. A great number of places, chiefly
Benedictine monasteries in France, became active centres for the production
of fine illuminated manuscripts. Among them some of the principal places
were Paris, St Denis, Rheims, Verdun, Fontanelle, and the two Abbeys of St
Martin at Tours and Metz.
Fig. 14 shows a miniature from a manuscript of the _Gospels_ in the Paris
library representing King Lothair enthroned between two guards. This
manuscript was written about the year 845 in the monastery of St Martin at
Metz. In this picture a strong classical influence is apparent; the
illuminator must have been familiar with manuscripts written in Rome or
elsewhere in Italy.
_Celtic influence._
Some of the finest manuscripts of this period show a strongly marked
Northern influence, imitated from the old Celtic illuminations of Ireland
and Lindisfarne. Less gold is used in this class of manuscripts; and the
intricate interlaced patterns of the Celtic monks are used with much skill
and great beauty of effect. The figures of Christ and the Evangelists are
sometimes hardly human in form, but are worked up into a kind of
conventional scroll-pattern, just as they are in the older Celtic
illuminations. The Paris library possesses two manuscripts of the
_Gospels_, which are good examples of this revived Celtic style (_Bibl.
Nat. Lat._ Nos. 257 and 8849). The borders and initial letters in these
manuscripts are remarkable for their intricate delicacy of design, and for
their rich colour, tastefully arranged; while the figure drawing is of the
purely ornamental scroll type.
[Illustration: Fig. 14. King Lothair enthroned; a miniature from a
manuscript of about the year 845 A.D.]
_Classical school of St Gall._
In the ninth century the Benedictine monastery of St Gallen in Switzerland,
which had formerly produced manuscripts of a purely Celtic type, now
developed a very strange school of miniature art[52]. The pictures in these
St Gallen manuscripts have figure subjects drawn in outline and then
faintly coloured with transparent washes, very like the Anglo-Saxon
(classical) style of illumination during the ninth and tenth centuries.
These rather weak drawings, which have but little decorative value, show
the influence of the Roman school of illuminators, who still mainly adhered
to the old debased form of classical art, modified by some observation and
even careful study of the actual life and movement which the painters saw
around them. In this curious class of manuscripts, though the figure
subjects are devoid of much vigour and artistic force, yet the decorative
details of the initials and borders are extremely fine, full of invention
and delicacy of detail. Fig. 15 shows a pen drawing from a St Gallen
manuscript of the ninth century, the magnificent _Psalterium aureum_[53];
it represents David going forth to battle.
_Studies from life._
With regard to studies from the life, either of men or animals, it should
be remembered that an artist is always biased by tradition and association
to a degree which is now very difficult to realise. Even when looking at
the same object two painters of different race and education might receive
very different impressions on their retina. Thus in the very interesting
sketch-book of Villard de Honecourt, a French sculptor and architect of the
thirteenth century, there are studies of men, lions and other animals,
which he has noted as being from the life; and yet these drawings look to
us like the purely imaginative conceptions of a heraldic draughtsman, in
spite of the fact that Villard certainly represented them as faithfully as
he was able, putting down on his vellum the subjective visual and mental
impression that he had received[54].
[Illustration: Fig. 15. Illumination in pen outline, from a manuscript
written in the ninth century at St Gallen. It represents David riding out
against his enemies.]
[Illustration: Figs. 16 and 17. Subject countries doing homage to the
Emperor Otho II; from a manuscript of the _Gospels_.]
[Illustration]
In the same way a modern Japanese artist evidently sees the nobler animals,
such as men and horses, in a very subjective and distorted manner, whereas
when he is dealing with fishes, reptiles, plants and the like he is able to
depict them with the most wonderful grace, accuracy and realistic spirit.
_Personal equation._
For this reason in examining an illuminated manuscript, or other early work
of art, to discover what use the artist has made of actual study from
nature, one should always take into account the influences which made him
see each natural object in a special, personal way, and we must not argue
that because the drawing now looks very unreal that it may not possibly
have been as careful and accurate a study from life as the painter's eye
and hand could produce.
_Byzantine influence._
During the later Carolingian period there was a marked revival of Byzantine
influence, which did not tend to delay the advancing decadence[55]. Figs.
16 and 17 show a very striking example of this, a two-page miniature from a
magnificent purple and gold manuscript of _the Gospels_, which was executed
for the Emperor Otho II., and is now in the Munich library. On the
right-hand page is the Emperor enthroned holding the long sceptre and the
orb, with an archbishop and some armed courtiers beside him. On the
opposite page, personifications of _Rome_, _Gaul_, _Germany_ and _Slavonia_
are doing homage and offering gifts. The whole motive and design is
borrowed from a much earlier Byzantine work, such as the mosaics of
Justinian's time (c. 530 A.D.) in the churches of Ravenna.
_Classical influence._
Fig. 18 from another fine manuscript of _the Gospels_ is far nobler in
style; here the influence is rather classical than Byzantine. The figure
illustrates one of the usual four miniatures of the Evangelists, Saint Mark
dipping his pen into the ink. The Saint is robed in the _alb_, _dalmatic_
with two stripes, _chasuble_ and _pall_ as being Archbishop of Alexandria.
The figure is very dignified, and is evidently copied from a much earlier
Italian _Textus_, such as that which Saint Augustine received from Pope
Gregory or brought from Italy to Canterbury.
[Illustration: Fig. 18. Miniature of the Evangelist St Mark; from a
manuscript of the _Gospels_.]
_Later Emperors._
Throughout the tenth century, and especially under the patronage of the
three Emperor Othos and Henry the Fowler, fine and richly decorative
manuscripts continued to be produced, with little change in the style of
ornament employed. After a long period of great artistic brilliance and
wonderful fertility of production the Carolingian style of illumination
came to an end when Charles the Great's Empire was (in France) divided
among various Feudal Lords. Then a serious decadence of art set in, and
lasted till the beginning of a most magnificent artistic revival in the
twelfth century.
[Illustration: Fig. 19. Miniature of the Crucifixion from a German
manuscript of the eleventh century; showing extreme artistic decadence.]
To a large extent the illuminations of French manuscripts during the latter
part of the eleventh century consisted of rude pen drawings with no washes
of colour. The subsequent history of the illuminator's art in France is
discussed below, see page 126.
_Extreme decadence._
Fig. 19 gives an example of the extreme artistic decadence that in many
places followed the brilliant Carolingian period. This miniature of the
Crucifixion is copied from a German early eleventh century manuscript, now
at Berlin. The ludicrous ugliness of the drawing is not atoned for by any
decorative beauty of colour; the whole miniature is dark and heavy in tone,
with yellow and green flesh-tints of the most cadaverous hues.