THE ANGLO-SAXON SCHOOL OF MANUSCRIPTS[85].
_Danish invasions._
The ninth century in England was one of great turmoil and misery, on
account of the fearful havoc wrought by the Danish Northmen throughout the
whole length and breadth of the land. In Northumbria the thriving literary
and artistic school which had been raised to such preeminence by Baeda was
utterly blotted out from existence by the invading Danes; and when at last
King Alfred, who reigned from 871 to 901, secured an interval of peace he
was obliged to seek instructors in the art of manuscript illumination from
the Frankish kings.
_Time of King Alfred._
In this way the wave of influence flowed back again from France to England.
In Charles the Great's time the Carolingian school of manuscripts had been
largely influenced by the Celtic style, which Alcuin of York introduced
from Northumbria, and now the later art of Anglo-Saxon England received
back from France the forms of ornament and the technical skill which in
Northumbria itself had become extinct.
Alfred was an enthusiastic patron of literature and art, especially the art
of manuscript illumination, and before long a new school of manuscript art
was created in many of the Benedictine monasteries of England and
especially among the monks of the royal city of Winchester, which in the
tenth century produced works of extraordinary beauty and decorative force.
_Benedictional of Aethelwold._
As an example of this we may mention the famous _Benedictional_ of
Aethelwold, who was Bishop of Winchester from 963 to 984[86]. The writer of
this sumptuously decorated manuscript was Bishop Aethelwold's chaplain, a
monk named Godemann, who afterwards, about the year 970, became Abbot of
Thorney. Unlike the manuscripts of earlier date in which the illuminated
pictures are usually few in number, this _Benedictional_ contains no less
than thirty full page miniatures, mostly consisting of scenes from the life
of Christ. Each picture is framed by an elaborate border, richly decorated
in gold and brilliant colours, with conventional leaf-work of classical
style. The drawing of the figures is dignified, and the drapery is usually
well conceived and treated in a bold, decorative way, showing much artistic
skill on the part of the illuminator.
Fig. 21 shows one of the miniatures, representing the Ascension; the
colouring is extremely beautiful and harmonious, enhanced by a skilful use
of burnished gold.
_Foreign influence._
Though the figures and especially the delicately modelled faces have a
character of their own, peculiarly English in feeling, yet in the general
style of the miniatures, and in their elaborate borders there are very
distinct signs of a strong Carolingian influence, owing, no doubt, to the
introduction of Frankish illuminators and the purchase of Carolingian
manuscripts during the reign of Alfred the Great, more than half a century
before the date of this manuscript.
[Illustration: Fig. 21. Miniature from the _Benedictional_ of Aethelwold;
written and illuminated by a monastic scribe at Winchester.]
There is, for example, much similarity of style in the miniatures of this
_Benedictional_ and those in a Carolingian manuscript of _the Gospels_
written for King Lothaire in the monastery of St Martin at Metz soon after
843[87]; see above fig. 14, p. 71.
_Winchester Charter._
Another very fine example of the Winchester school of illumination is the
manuscript _Charter_ which King Edgar granted to the new minster at
Winchester in 966. The first page consists of a large miniature, painted in
gold and brilliant colours on a purple-stained leaf of vellum[88], with
Christ in Majesty supported by four angels in the upper part of the
picture, and, below, standing figures of the B. V. Mary and Saint Peter,
with King Edgar in the middle offering his charter to Christ. The whole
picture is very skilfully designed so as to fill the whole page in the most
decorative way, and it is framed in a border with richly devised
conventional leaf-forms.
In artistic power this tenth century Winchester school of illuminators
appears, for a while at least, to have been foremost in the world. Both in
delicacy of touch and in richness of decorative effect the productions of
this school are superior to those of any contemporary Continental country.
_St Dunstan as an artist._
Saint Dunstan, the great ecclesiastical statesman of the ninth century,
created another school of illumination in the Benedictine Abbey of
Glastonbury. Dunstan himself was no mean artist, as may be seen from a fine
drawing of Christ, which he executed[89]; the Saint has represented himself
as a small monkish figure prostrate at the feet of Christ. At the top of
the page is inscribed in a twelfth century hand, "Pictura et scriptura
hujus pagine subtus visa est de propria manu sancti Dunstani."
_Coloured ink drawings._
During the tenth century a large number of illuminated manuscripts were
executed in the southern parts of England, the miniatures in which are very
unlike and, as decoration, very inferior to the manuscripts of the
Anglo-Carolingian style, as represented by the magnificent _Benedictional_
of Aethelwold. This class of illumination consists of drawings, often with
a large number of small figures, executed with a pen in red, blue and brown
outline. The drawing of these figures is very mannered, the heads are
small, the attitudes awkward, and the draperies are represented in numerous
small, fluttering folds, drawn with an apparently shaky line, as if the
artist had lacked firmness of hand. This, however, is a mere mannerism, as
wherever he wished for a steady line, as, for example, in the drawing of
the faces, the artist has drawn with the utmost decision and firmness of
touch. The costumes of these curious outline drawings, the architectural
accessories and other details, all show clearly the influence of the very
debased forms of classical Roman art, which still survived among the
manuscript illuminations of Italy[90]. This degraded form of classical art
was far from being a good model for the Anglo-Saxon illuminator to imitate,
and the blue and red outline miniatures are very inferior to the sumptuous
Anglo-Carolingian manuscripts which were being produced at Winchester by
contemporary illuminators.
_MSS. of the XIIth century._
_Roll of St Guthlac._
_Beauty of line._
In the eleventh century Anglo-Saxon miniatures in coloured outline improved
greatly in beauty of form and in gracefulness of pose; till at the
beginning of the twelfth century extremely fine miniatures of this class
were produced. A very beautiful example of this is a long vellum roll
illuminated with eighteen circular miniatures, mostly drawn with a pen in
dark brown ink. These outline miniatures represent scenes from the life of
Saint Guthlac, the Hermit of Crowland. The series begins with a drawing of
the youthful Guthlac receiving the tonsure from Hedda, Bishop of Winchester
(676 to 705), in the presence of the Abbess Ebba and two nuns. The whole
composition is very skilfully arranged to fill the circular medallion, and
there is great dignity and even delicate beauty in the separate figures.
The precision of touch shown in the drawing is most admirable, recalling
the perfect purity of line seen in the finest vase-paintings of the Greeks,
in which, as in these miniatures, the greatest amount of effect is produced
with the fewest possible touches. A few flat washes are introduced into the
backgrounds, but all the principal part of the miniatures is executed with
this pure outline.
There are no grounds for the suggestion that these medallion drawings were
intended as designs for stained glass. There is much similarity of style in
stained glass paintings and manuscript illuminations during the twelfth to
the fourteenth century in England, just as in the early Byzantine
manuscripts the same design serves for a miniature painting and a colossal
wall-mosaic. The same simplicity of drawing and flatness of composition
were preserved in both classes of art, and there is nothing exceptional in
the fact that these miniatures of Saint Guthlac might have served as
excellent motives for a glass-painter[91].
_Pontifical of St Dunstan._
The _Pontifical_ of Saint Dunstan (Brit. Mus. _Cott. Claud._ A. 3),
executed in the early part of the eleventh century, is a magnificent
example of decorative art, both in its noble designs and richness of
colour. Though no gold is used, the greatest splendour of effect is
produced, especially in a large miniature representing Saint Gregory
enthroned under an elaborate architectural canopy, with prostrate figures
at his feet of Archbishop Dunstan and the Benedictine scribe of this
beautiful manuscript; see Westwood, _Irish Manuscripts_, Pl. 50.
_Byzantine decadence._
The beauty of the best English manuscripts of the twelfth century is a
remarkable contrast to the once splendid Byzantine school of illumination,
which by this time had sadly degenerated from its former vigorous
splendour, and had become weak in drawing, clumsy in pose and inharmonious
in colour. The English school on the other hand, all through the twelfth
century, was making rapid advances towards a perfection both of design and
technique which culminated in the Anglo-Norman style of the latter part of
the thirteenth century, which for beauty of all kinds remained for a long
time quite without rival in any European country.
_Canute a patron of art._
_Feeble colouring._
To return to the Anglo-Saxon school of manuscripts in the eleventh century,
it should be observed that the Danish King Canute, unlike his destructive
predecessors, did all that he could to encourage literature and art in
England. With a view to fostering the production of fine illuminated
manuscripts he introduced into this country, and especially into the royal
and monastic libraries of Winchester, a large number of Roman manuscripts
with the usual illuminations of the debased classic type. This, no doubt,
helped to encourage the production of miniatures in outline such as those
in the _Utrecht Psalter_[92]. Another variety of Anglo-Saxon manuscript
illumination, executed during the first half of the eleventh century,
consists first of all of a pen drawing in brown outline; to which
subsequently the artist added with a brush narrow bands of blue or red laid
on in a thin wash as a sort of edging to the brown outlines, apparently
with the object of giving roundness to the drawing[93].
This class of illumination is, however, very inferior in beauty and
decorative splendour to the finest works of the monks of Winchester and
Glastonbury, in which solid colour in great variety of tint is used, as,
for example in the above-mentioned _Benedictional_ of Aethelwold and the
_Pontifical_ of Saint Dunstan.
_The Anglo-Norman school._
The Norman conquest of England in 1066 soon put an end to the Anglo-Saxon
school of illumination, with its weak imitations of the debased classical
style of Italy. In place of this the magnificent Anglo-Norman schools of
miniature painting were developed on both sides of the British Channel.
England and Normandy became one country, and as long as this union lasted
manuscripts of precisely similar character were produced both in Normandy
and in England, as is described in the following Chapter.