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Carolingian architecture
and art, art forms and structures created by the Carolingians. Toward
the beginning of the Carolingian Period, in the 8th cent., a gradual change
appeared in Western culture and art, a change that later reached its apex
under Charlemagne.
Carolingian Architecture
The new architecture, inspired by the forms of antiquity, abandoned the
small boxlike shapes of the Merovingian period and used instead spacious
basilicas often intersected by vast transepts. In some churches, such
as Fulda and Cologne, the central nave ended in semicircular apses. An
innovation of Carolingian builders, which was to be of incalculable importance
for the later Middle Ages, was the emphasis given to the western extremity
of the church. The facade, flanked symmetrically by towers, or simply
the exterior of a massive complex (westwork), became the focal point of
the structure. The function of the westwork is still debated. It had an
elevation of several stories, the lowest a vaulted vestibule to the church
proper, and above, a room reached by spiral staircases, which may have
served as a chapel reserved for high dignitaries.
The outstanding structure of the Carolingian period still in existence
is the palatine chapel at Aachen, dedicated by Pop Leo III in the year
805. It is centralized in plan and surmounted by an octagonal dome. The
design of the palatine chapel appears to have been based in part on the
6th-century Church of San Vitale in Ravenna. Other important structures
still partly preserved, or known through documentary evidence, include
the churches of Corbie, Centula (Saint-Riquier), and Reichenau.
Carolingian Art
The best-preserved artistic achievements of the age are works of small
dimensions—manuscript illumination, ivory carving, and metalwork.
Besides the imperial court, at Aachen, the leading centers of art were
the monasteries in Tours, Metz, Saint-Denis, and near Reims.
The earliest liturgical manuscripts of the Carolingian period, such as
the Gospel book signed by the scribe Godescalc (written between 781 and
783), are characterized by a tentative and not always successful fusion
of ornamental motifs of chiefly Anglo-Saxon and Irish origin and by figures
derived from antiquity. Full-page portraits of the four evangelists were
often designed. Later Carolingian miniatures show an increasing familiarity
with the heritage of late antiquity and in some instances are perhaps
influenced by Byzantine art. The manuscripts owe much of their beauty
to the new minuscule form of writing, remarkable for its clarity and form.
The most influential work was the Utrecht Psalter, illustrated in a mode
of nervous and flickering intensity quite unparalleled in earlier Western
art.
Closely allied in style to the miniatures were the ivory carvings, many
of them originally part of book covers. Metalwork objects are rarer, although
literary evidence shows that goldsmiths and enamel workers were active.
The large golden altar of SantÍ Ambrogio in Milan (executed in
835), the portable altar of Arnulf (now in Munich), several splendid book
covers, and other sumptuously decorated objects provide insight into the
artistic accomplishments of the period, which ended in the late 9th cent.
Bibliography
See A. K. Porter, Medieval Architecture: Its Origin and Development (2
vol., 1909, 1912, repr. 1969); A. Goldschmidt, German Illumination (Vol.
I: Carolingian Period, 1928, repr. 1969); R. Hinks, Carolingian Art (1935,
repr. 1962); H. Saalman, Medieval Architecture (1962); K. Conant, Carolingian
and Romanesque Architecture (2d ed. 1966).
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. Copyright © 2000 Columbia
University Press.
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