FIRST ENGLISH STYLES
Transition from Iona to Lindisfarne--Influence of Frankish art--The
"Opus Anglicum"--The Winchester school and its characteristics--Whence
obtained--Method of painting--Examples--Where found and described.
The succession of the school of Iona shows us in the first examples of
English illumination the type exemplified in the Book of Kells,
modified, but not very much, by its transference to Lindisfarne.
Whatever doubt may be felt as to the influence of Byzantine or
Romanesque models on pure Irish work, such as the Book of Kells, there
can be none as regards the Lindisfarne Gospels. In the first place we
have gold both in the lettering and ornament. This MS., known also as
the Durham Book (Brit. Mus., Nero D. iv.), was the work of Abbat
Eadfrith, of Lindisfarne. It has been often described, as it is really a
most precious example of eighth-century art in this country. No other
MS. of its time is to be found in any continental scriptorium to be
compared with it. It is not a collection of clumsy inartistic attempts
at ornamental writing, but high-class, effective work, which should be
seen and studied by every student of illumination.
From its style of execution, its details of portraiture, and other
features, it may be looked on as one of the earliest links between the
two extremes of Oriental and Occidental Art.
Another MS. in the British Museum (Vesp. A. 1), which combines the Roman
method of painting as in the Vergils with the penwork of these
Anglo-Celtic Gospel-books, may also repay careful examination.
It is very possible that the celebrated _scriptoria_ of York and Jarrow
may have been furnished with both MSS. and copyists from Rome, yet there
can be little doubt that the intercourse with Durham would be quite as
active. Nor is it less probable that similar intercourse would keep them
_en rapport_ with Oxford, St. Alban's, Westminster, Glastonbury, and
other _scriptoria_, so that in the eighth century England stood with
respect to art second to no other country in the Christian world.
During the ninth century active intercourse with the Frankish Empire
enriched English churches and religious houses, especially Winchester,
with examples of Byzantine and Roman models, which Charlemagne had
introduced into his own palatine schools. From such secondary models as
the Sacramentaries and Evangeliaries executed at Tours, Soissons, Metz,
and other busy centres of production, English illuminators succeeded in
forming a distinctive style of their own. In the French or, rather,
Frankish MSS., while the richness of the gold and the beauty and
delicacy of the colouring are in themselves most charming, and while
certain features may in general be recognised as no doubt suggestive
there is nothing which quite predicts the remarkable treatment which
characterises the English work. "Opus Anglicum" was its distinctive
title. The term, indeed, was applied to all English artistic productions
more or less--embroidery among the rest. The women of England, says
William of Poitiers, were famous for their needlework, the men excelled
in metal-work and jewellery. But it was the illuminated Service Books
that have perpetuated the term.
From the Lindisfarne Gospels to the Winchester Benedictionals is a far
cry--but Art is long and time is fleeting, hence many pages of
intervening description must be omitted. We may, however, refer the
reader to Westwood's _Palæographia Sacra Pictoria_, the Palæographical
Society's publications, and other works, for enlightenment on this
period. On the Rouen and Devonshire Benedictionals much interesting
information may be found in vol. 24 of the _Archæologia_ and in the
recent volume of the Bradshaw Society concerning them.
The work is peculiar; and if we consider the treatment of foliage apart
from the colour, we cannot but notice its similarity to the ivory
carving observable in the consular diptychs. Ivory carving was then a
popular artistic occupation. The foliage is graceful, the composition
well-balanced, and the colour mostly bright body colour applied in the
Greek manner. The fault of the heads is that they are too small for the
figure, and of the draperies that the folds are overdone too much
fluttering detail. The gilding differs from the Byzantine in not being
laid on the vellum in the form of burnished leaf, but painted on like
the colours, not only in the figures but in the framework and ornaments.
The British Museum contains several characteristic examples, but, as has
been said, the very finest are those at Rouen and in the library of the
Duke of Devonshire.
Perhaps no genuine example exists earlier than the Golden Charter of
King Edgar of true Winchester illumination, executed forty years after
the accession of Athelstan, whose Coronation Book (Brit. Mus., Tib. A.
2) is most probably not English at all, but Carolingian of the finest
type. Many other _scriptoria_ in England in the tenth century were
equally busy with Winchester, but none could vie with the royal city in
the production of illuminated books.