Early Medieval Art and Architecture

Between roughly 500 and 1000 CE, the visual arts of Europe underwent one of the most profound transformations in the history of Western culture. Classical Greco-Roman naturalism, which had shaped Mediterranean art for nearly a thousand years, gave way to a family of new visual languages that were at once more abstract, more symbolic, and more insistently Christian. In the eastern Mediterranean, the Byzantine Empire preserved the technical inheritance of late antiquity and developed a sacred art of gold-ground mosaics, jeweled icons, and domed churches that would shape Orthodox Christianity for a millennium. In the Latin West, in the British Isles, and in the great missionary churches of the Germanic kingdoms, related but distinct traditions emerged: the early Christian art of the Roman catacombs and basilicas, the elaborate ornament of the Insular and Anglo-Saxon art, the classicizing program of the Carolingian Renaissance, the hieratic grandeur of Ottonian book painting, and the heavy stone masses of pre-Romanesque architecture. For deeper coverage of the individual traditions, see early Christian and Byzantine art, Illuminated manuscripts of the early Middle Ages, and early medieval architecture.

The period was not a dark age of art, despite the inherited stereotype. The monks who produced the Book of Kells and the Lindisfarne Gospels, the masons who raised the basilicas of Rome and Ravenna, the goldsmiths of the Treasury of Saint Mark’s, and the mosaicists of Hagia Sophia were heirs to centuries of accumulated skill. What changed in the fifth and sixth centuries was not the disappearance of artistic ability but the social context of art: the great patron shifted from the imperial court and the pagan aristocracy to the Christian Church, and the new buildings, books, and objects were made for liturgy, monastic prayer, royal gift-giving, and the cult of the saints.

The Classical Inheritance and Its Transformation

Late Roman art, the immediate ancestor of early medieval art, was a sophisticated and cosmopolitan tradition. Sculptors carved narrative reliefs on triumphal arches and sarcophagi; mosaicists covered the floors and walls of villas and bath complexes with images drawn from mythology, hunting scenes, and portraiture; painters decorated the walls of private houses with the airy frescoes of Pompeii and the more sober schemes of the late empire; and goldsmiths produced cameos, jewelry, and liturgical objects of great refinement. The arch of Constantine, the sarcophagi of the Vatican grottoes, the mosaics of Roman villas, and the silver hoard of Mildenhall exemplify the late Roman visual world.

The Christian Church inherited this technical and stylistic tradition. From the third century onward, Christian artists adapted the visual vocabulary of late antiquity to new subjects and new purposes. The catacomb paintings at the Santa Priscilla and Santi Pietro e Marcellino, the carved sarcophagi of the Junius Bassus and the Vatican workshops, and the mosaics of the Roman basilicas all show Christian artists working within the inherited Roman visual language but gradually shifting its center of gravity from mythological narrative and imperial portraiture to biblical typology, the sacraments, and the saints. By the time of Constantine, the Christian Church had become the single most important patron of art in the Roman world.

The collapse of the western Roman Empire did not end this tradition, but it fragmented it. The western provinces lost much of the urban infrastructure that had supported large-scale sculpture, fresco, and mosaic. The patronage of art shifted almost entirely to the Christian Church. And the technical skills of monumental art — the carving of marble columns, the casting of large bronzes, the building of concrete vaults — declined over the course of the fifth and sixth centuries. The visual languages of the new Germanic kingdoms, of the British Isles, and of the eastern Roman Empire all developed in dialogue with the late Roman inheritance, but each tradition simplified, abstracted, and transformed the classical tradition in its own way.

Early Christian Art

Early Christian art, the art of the Christian Roman world from the third to the sixth centuries, is the first major stream of early medieval art. Its characteristic monuments are the Roman catacombs, the great basilicas built under Constantine and his successors, and the sarcophagi and liturgical objects produced in Rome, Milan, Ravenna, and the major Christian centers of the late empire. The Christian basilica, a longitudinal hall with an apse and a nave, was a Roman civic building type adapted for Christian worship. Constantine’s Old St. Peter’s in Rome, the Lateran basilica, and the great churches of the Holy Land established the architectural template that would shape Western church building for centuries. The development of the basilica as a building type is treated in detail elsewhere.

In the visual arts, Early Christian art developed a symbolic vocabulary drawn from the Bible, the sacraments, and the lives of the saints. The Good Shepherd, the orant figure, the fish, the peacock, the chi-rho, and the cross became standard motifs. The image of Christ shifted over the centuries from a youthful, beardless teacher to the bearded, long-haired savior familiar from later Byzantine art. The Virgin Mary, the apostles, and the saints entered the visual vocabulary in this period, and by the time of the Council of Ephesus in 431, which formally endorsed the title Theotokos or “God-bearer” for Mary, the Marian image was a standard feature of Christian art.

The greatest concentration of surviving Early Christian art is in Rome and in Ravenna, the western capital of the later empire. The mosaics of the Santa Maria Maggiore, the reliefs of the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, the frescoes of the catacombs, the carved ivory throne of Maximian at Ravenna, and the famous Galla Placidia mosaic all date from this period. The art is still recognizably Roman in its mastery of figure, drapery, and architectural space, but it is also unmistakably Christian in its iconography and its purpose.

Byzantine Art

Byzantine art, the art of the eastern Roman Empire, is the most consistent and long-lasting of the early medieval traditions. It is the heir of late Roman art, of the great Constantinian and Justinianic building program, of the iconophile theology codified after the iconoclast controversy, and of the Macedonian and Comnenian renaissances. Its characteristic monuments are the great domed churches of Constantinople, Thessalonica, and the provincial capitals; the gold-ground mosaics and frescoes that covered their walls; the icons painted on wood and venerated in churches, monasteries, and private homes; the ivory carvings, enamels, and metalwork of the imperial and ecclesiastical workshops; and the illustrated manuscripts produced in the imperial and monastic scriptoria.

The Hagia Sophia, rebuilt under Justinian between 532 and 537 and dedicated to Holy Wisdom, set the architectural standard for the Orthodox Christian church. The surviving mosaics of the cathedral, including the famous Deësis panel and the apse mosaic of the Virgin and Child, document the evolution of Byzantine art from the iconoclast period through the Palaiologan renaissance. The icons that emerged from the iconoclasm controversy in 843 shaped Orthodox Christian devotional practice in a way that is treated in the icon long-tail.

Byzantine art was deliberately non-naturalistic. The human figure was flattened, the colors were saturated, the gold ground suggested the light of the uncreated divine energies, and the perspective was reversed: sacred figures were larger than earthly figures, and sacred space was hierarchical rather than naturalistic. The result was a visual language that communicated theological truth rather than visual appearance, and that would influence Christian art from Kiev to Ethiopia, from Sicily to the Balkans, long after the empire itself had fallen.

Insular and Anglo-Saxon Art

Insular art, the art of the British Isles and Ireland in the seventh and eighth centuries, is one of the most original and distinctive traditions in European art. Its characteristic monuments are the great gospel books produced in the scriptoria of Iona, Lindisfarne, Durrow, and Kells; the high crosses of Ireland and Northumbria; the metalwork of the Irish and Anglo-Saxon workshops; and the carved stone and bone objects produced for the church and the aristocracy. The style is a complex mixture of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Mediterranean, and Coptic motifs, abstracted into an ornamental language of interlace, spirals, key patterns, zoomorphic forms, and inscribed lettering.

The Lindisfarne Gospels, produced at the monastery of Lindisfarne around 700, and the Book of Kells, produced at Iona or Kells around 800, are the most famous surviving examples of the tradition. The metalwork tradition is represented by the Tara Brooch, the Ardagh Chalice, the Sutton Hoo treasure, and the Ruthwell Cross. Insular art was deeply Christian in its subject matter — almost all surviving works are gospel books, liturgical objects, or church monuments — but the visual language is so original that its origin has been the subject of scholarly debate for over a century. The greatest achievements of the Insular and Anglo-Saxon art are treated in detail below.

The Anglo-Saxon contribution is closely related. After the mission of the Augustine of Canterbury in 597, the Anglo-Saxon church absorbed the Roman Christian tradition and developed its own distinctive visual language. The Anglo-Saxon gospel books, the carved stone crosses of Northumbria, and the metalwork of the southern kingdoms were produced in dialogue with the older Insular tradition of Ireland and the Iona community, but they also drew on Mediterranean and Frankish models. The Sutton Hoo treasure, deposited in the seventh century, shows that the Anglo-Saxon visual world was already rich and technically sophisticated before the Roman mission.

Carolingian and Ottonian Art

The Carolingian and Ottonian dynasties presided over the two great revivals of classical and Christian art in the Latin West between 750 and 1050. The Carolingian Renaissance, a deliberate program of cultural renewal under Charlemagne and his successors, produced a body of manuscript painting, sculpture, metalwork, and architecture that consciously imitated late Roman and Early Christian models while developing its own distinctive forms. The court school, the palace chapel at Aachen, the great monastery scriptoria of Tours, Reims, and Corbie, and the imperial workshops at Aachen produced a flood of new liturgical books, palace buildings, and gifts of state.

Carolingian manuscript painting is the best-documented product of the renaissance. The Ada School, the Court School of Charlemagne, the Reims School, the Tours School, and the Corbie School are the major named groups. Their products — the Godescalc Evangelistary, the Ebbo Gospels, the Utrecht Psalter, the Vivian Bible, and many others — defined the visual standard for biblical and liturgical books in the Latin West for centuries. The development of the Carolingian minuscule, a clear and legible book hand, was as important for the history of Western literacy as the renaissance’s textual and artistic achievements.

The Ottonian dynasty continued and transformed the Carolingian tradition after 950. The Ottonian court, the great imperial cathedrals of Mainz, Trier, and Bamberg, and the great monasteries of Reichenau, Hildesheim, and Essen produced a body of manuscript painting, metalwork, and architecture that is at once more hieratic, more Byzantine in its influence, and more strictly liturgical than its Carolingian predecessors. The gospel books of Otto III, the Pericopes of Henry II, the bronze doors of the Hildesheim Cathedral cast under Bishop Bernward, and the great the Bernward Cross are the best-known surviving examples.

Illuminated Manuscripts

The illuminated manuscript is the dominant art form of the early Middle Ages. In an age of widespread illiteracy, high cost of writing materials, and limited patronage for monumental art, the book — and especially the gospel book, the psalter, the sacramentary, and the bible — was the most prestigious object the culture could produce. The scriptoria of Iona, Lindisfarne, Wearmouth-Jarrow, Tours, Reims, Corbie, Reichenau, and St. Gall trained generations of scribes, illuminators, and binders. Their products were used in liturgy, distributed as diplomatic gifts, and preserved in monastic libraries for centuries.

The survival rate of early medieval manuscripts is remarkably high. The libraries of Bobbio, St. Gall, Reichenau, and a handful of other monasteries preserved many of the finest examples through the centuries. The Irish, Anglo-Saxon, Carolingian, and Ottonian manuscript traditions each developed distinctive visual languages, and the great gospel books, psalters, and bibles of the period are among the most studied objects in the history of Western art. The technique of illumination, the materials, the pigments, and the major surviving examples are treated in detail below.

The transmission of classical and patristic texts was itself a major artistic achievement. The Carolingian Renaissance in particular made a deliberate effort to produce corrected editions of the Bible, the works of the Church Fathers, and the major Latin classics. The productions of the Tours scriptorium under Alcuin and his successors, the bibles of Theodulf and his circle, and the corrected texts of the major monastic scriptoria shaped the textual tradition of Western Christianity in a way that is comparable to the achievements of the Alexandrian librarians of the Hellenistic period.

Early Medieval Architecture

Early medieval architecture is dominated by two building types: the Christian basilica in the Latin West, and the domed central-plan church in the Byzantine East. The basilica, a longitudinal hall with a nave, side aisles, and an apse, was a Roman civic building type that Constantine and his successors adapted for Christian worship. The Old St. Peter’s in Rome, the Lateran basilica, the church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, and the great basilicas of Rome and the Christian capitals established the architectural template for Western church building. After 600, the basilica was slowly replaced in much of western Europe by the pre-Romanesque and eventually Romanesque styles, with their heavier walls, smaller windows, and centralizing plans.

In the Byzantine East, the central-plan domed church was the dominant type. The Hagia Sophia, the cathedral of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople, the churches of Ravenna, and the great monastic churches of Mount Athos and the Greek world were all centrally planned and domed. The Hagia Sophia in particular, with its vast central dome supported on pendentives, defined the architectural standard for the Orthodox world.

Between the basilica and the centralized plan, a number of hybrid forms developed: the Western baptistery, the Byzantine cross-in-square, the Carolingian westwork, the Insular tower, and the Ottonian double-choir church. The development of the apse, the triconch, the ambulatory, and the narthex shaped the liturgical and architectural evolution of Christian sacred space. The materials ranged from the brick and concrete of Constantinople, to the marble of Rome and Ravenna, to the timber and stone of the Anglo-Saxon and Insular churches, to the rubble and ashlar of the Carolingian and Ottonian cathedral building.

Metalwork, Ivories, and the Decorative Arts

Early medieval metalwork, ivory carving, and textile production are among the most accomplished art forms of the period. The goldsmiths of Constantinople, Rome, and the great imperial and ecclesiastical workshops produced chalices, patens, reliquaries, book covers, altar frontals, and votive crowns of gold, silver, and gems that were used in liturgy, given as diplomatic gifts, and hoarded in times of crisis. The Pala d’Oro of St. Mark’s, Venice, the Limburg Staurotheke, the Vienna Dioscurides, and the Tara Brooch are among the most famous surviving examples.

The technique of cloisonné enamel, in which thin gold or silver strips are soldered to a metal base to form cells that are then filled with colored glass paste, was developed in the eastern Mediterranean and reached a high point in the workshops of Constantinople, Cologne, and Limoges. The famous Transfiguration tondo, the Lothar Cross, and the Altar of Ratchis exemplify the technique. The technique spread to the West in the Carolingian period and became a staple of Ottonian, Mosan, and Romanesque metalwork.

Ivory carving flourished in Constantinople, Rome, and the Frankish and Anglo-Saxon workshops. The archangel ivory of the British Museum, the Barberini Ivory, the chair of Maximian, the Godescalc Evangelistary cover, the Uta Codex, and the covers of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram are among the most famous surviving examples. The technique was expensive, the material was precious, and the carved objects were the most prestigious gifts of the early medieval courts and cathedrals.

The Patrons of Art

The patrons of early medieval art were the Christian Church, the imperial and royal courts, the great aristocratic families, and the monastic communities. The Christian Church was by far the largest patron, and the great majority of surviving works were made for liturgy or for monastic prayer. The emperors of Constantinople and the Carolingian and Ottonian emperors commissioned works of art for their palaces, their chapel, and their diplomatic gift-giving. The Anglo-Saxon and Merovingian kings, the Lombard dukes, and the great aristocratic families of the Latin West also patronized the arts, although on a smaller scale.

The monastic communities were both producers and patrons. The scriptoria of Wearmouth-Jarrow, Iona, Lindisfarne, Tours, Reichenau, and St. Gall produced books for their own use, for the use of the wider Church, and for gift-giving to the secular and ecclesiastical aristocracy. The great abbots of Cluny, Reichenau, and Corvey commissioned works of art, built great new churches, and reorganized liturgical practice around the use of decorated books and precious objects.

The economics of early medieval art are not well understood, but a few points are clear. The materials were expensive: gold, silver, gems, ivory, silk, and fine pigments all had to be acquired through long-distance trade or by plunder. The labor was highly skilled and long-trained. The works were made to last: many of the surviving examples have endured for more than a thousand years, a testament to the technical skill of the craftsmen and the care of the patrons. The status of the artist varied: in the late Roman and Byzantine worlds, artists were often slaves or anonymous craftsmen, while in the Carolingian and Ottonian courts the leading craftsmen could be highly rewarded and even ennobled.

The Afterlife of Early Medieval Art

The art of the early Middle Ages did not disappear with the coming of the Romanesque and Gothic styles. The tradition was preserved, transformed, and passed on. The Byzantine icon painters of the eleventh, twelfth, and thirteenth centuries continued the techniques and the theological vision of the early medieval workshops. The Romanesque sculptors of the eleventh and twelfth centuries drew on Insular, Carolingian, and Ottonian models. The Gothic builders of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries used technical innovations from the early medieval architects. The illustrated manuscripts of the Romanesque, Gothic, and early Renaissance periods all show the influence of the great Insular, Carolingian, and Ottonian scripts and illuminations.

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, early medieval art was rediscovered and revalued. The Celtic Revival, the Arts and Crafts movement, the Gothic Revival, the Arts Décoratifs, and the modern search for non-naturalistic, non-Western visual languages all drew on the early medieval inheritance. The Insular, Carolingian, and Byzantine traditions are now studied as major artistic achievements in their own right, not as precursors to the Renaissance or as byproducts of religious devotion. The study of early medieval art is one of the most active and intellectually exciting areas of modern art history.

Sculpture: From Late Roman Relief to Romanesque Stone

Early medieval sculpture is the area of the visual arts in which the contrast between the late Roman inheritance and the medieval transformation is most visible. Late Roman sarcophagi, carved in marble throughout the empire, were the major sculptural product of the Christian aristocracy. The Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus (c. 359), with its two registers of biblical scenes carved in the style of the columns of the Roman triumphal arches, exemplifies the late Roman technique of stratified, well-proportioned relief. The Christian sarcophagi of the fourth and fifth centuries from Rome, Milan, Arles, and Ravenna all show high technical skill in figure carving, drapery, and architectural framing, and many were carved in workshops that had long experience of imperial commissions.

After the fifth century, the production of large-scale stone sculpture declined sharply in the Latin West. Marble was harder to obtain in the post-imperial economy, and the patronage that had supported the sarcophagus workshops dried up. The great Roman triumphal arch of Constantine, the column of Theodosius at Constantinople, and the late Roman columns of St. Mark’s in Venice were spoliated and reused; the great late Roman bronzes of Rome were destroyed or carried off; and the practice of monumental public sculpture was largely suspended for several centuries. Smaller-scale sculpture, especially the carving of ivory and precious metalwork for liturgical use, continued throughout the early Middle Ages and is treated in the section on metalwork and ivory below.

The revival of monumental stone sculpture began in the late tenth and eleventh centuries, in the Ottonian workshops and in the great Romanesque building sites of the Latin West. The bronze doors of the Hildesheim Cathedral, commissioned by Bishop Bernward in 1015 and cast in a single campaign, show Old and New Testament scenes in a series of eight relief panels that consciously imitate the technique of late Roman relief. The Bernward Column, a hollow bronze casting of great sophistication, imitates the famous Trajan’s Column at Rome. The Ottonian and early Romanesque workshops thus consciously recovered the late Roman sculptural tradition, a recovery that prepared the way for the great sculptural programs of the Romanesque and Gothic periods.

In the Insular and Anglo-Saxon world, monumental stone sculpture had a different history. The high crosses of Ireland, Northumbria, and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, of which the Muiredach’s Cross at Monasterboice, the Ruthwell Cross, and the Bewcastle Cross are the most famous examples, were carved in stone in the eighth and ninth centuries and covered with biblical scenes, interlace, and inscriptions. The technique is far removed from the late Roman sarcophagus workshops, and the visual language is rooted in the Insular taste for abstract ornament, interlace, and the close integration of figural and decorative elements. The high crosses were outdoor liturgical monuments, not indoor funerary or commemorative objects, and their function may explain the distinctive visual program of biblical narrative and prayer set in elaborate ornamental framing.

In the Byzantine East, monumental stone sculpture was less prominent than mosaic, fresco, and ivory. The most famous surviving examples of Byzantine architectural sculpture are the carved capitals, cornices, and friezes of the great churches of Constantinople, Ravenna, and the provincial capitals, of which the carved capitals of Hagia Sophia, the frieze of the Basilica of San Vitale at Ravenna, and the carved reliefs of the Hagia Eirene are the most striking surviving examples. After the iconoclast period, monumental sculpture was largely confined to liturgical objects, book covers, and icons, and the great tradition of late Roman public sculpture was not revived.

Mosaic and Fresco

Mosaic is the great art of the early medieval Christian interior. Late Roman mosaics, both the floor mosaics of villas and bath complexes and the wall and vault mosaics of basilicas, were the most durable and the most impressive of the inherited Roman visual arts, and the Christian Church inherited the technique intact. The floor mosaics of the Roman villa at Piazza Armerina, the Villa Romana del Casale, and the wall and vault mosaics of the Santa Costanza in Rome and of the great basilicas of Rome and Ravenna show the technical mastery of late Roman mosaicists. The technique of using small cubes of colored stone and glass set in mortar, often in a complicated curved composition that followed the shape of the wall or vault, was perfectly suited to the large interior spaces of Christian churches and was soon adopted as the standard technique for church decoration.

The greatest surviving concentration of early Christian and early Byzantine mosaic is in Rome and Ravenna. The mosaics of the Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome, of which the Old Testament scenes of the nave and the apse mosaic of the Coronation of the Virgin are the most famous, were laid in the late fourth and early fifth centuries and are among the earliest surviving monumental Christian mosaic programs. The mosaics of the Sant’Apollinare Nuovo and Sant’Apollinare in Classe at Ravenna, of the Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, of the Arian Baptistery and the Neonian Baptistery, and of the great church of the San Vitale document the development of the Christian mosaic program from the late Roman to the fully Byzantine. The famous panels of Justinian and Theodora in San Vitale, flanking the apse and facing each other across the sanctuary, are among the most reproduced images in the history of Christian art and exemplify the mature Byzantine style in its Justinianic phase.

The iconoclast controversy of the eighth and ninth centuries had a major effect on the Christian mosaic tradition. Most of the surviving figurative mosaics of Constantinople date from after the end of iconoclasm in 843, and the few that survive from before 726 were either spoliated or covered with non-figurative decoration. The great Deësis panel in Hagia Sophia, the apse mosaic of the Virgin and Child in the same building, and the imperial panels of the Macedonian dynasty were all laid in the ninth to the thirteenth centuries and represent the post-iconoclast visual tradition. The technique, the materials, and the iconography of the post-iconoclast mosaics are treated in early Christian and Byzantine art.

Fresco, the other great wall-painting technique, was less durable than mosaic and survives in a more fragmentary state. The frescoes of the Roman catacombs, the frescoes of Castelseprio, the surviving wall paintings of the Carolingian and Ottonian churches, and the great painted programs of the Romanesque and Gothic periods all attest to the continuity of the tradition. In the Insular and Anglo-Saxon world, fresco painting of the interior of the church was practiced throughout the period, although few examples survive. The painted decoration of the Church of the Dormition at Ephesus, the surviving frescoes of the Carolingian palace chapel at Ingelheim, and the painted programs of the great Anglo-Saxon and Ottonian churches are the most important surviving examples.

The Icon: A Distinctive Byzantine Form

The icon, a devotional image painted on a wooden panel in egg tempera, is the most distinctive and most theologically important art form of the Byzantine tradition. The icon was a sacred object: it was venerated with a kiss, an act of bowing, the burning of candles and incense, and the use of holy water. The theological defense of icons, developed in the eighth and ninth centuries by the John of Damascus and Theodore the Studite and accepted at the Second Council of Nicaea in 787, held that the veneration of icons was not idolatry but a proper respect for the prototype — the person or the holy figure represented in the image. The icon was understood to be a window into the divine, and the act of veneration was understood to pass through the image to the prototype.

The icon survived the iconoclast controversy and became the central visual form of Orthodox Christian devotion. The post-iconoclast icons of the ninth and tenth centuries, of which the famous Virgin of Vladimir and the Christ Pantocrator of Sinai are the most famous surviving examples, set the technical and iconographic standard for Orthodox icon painting for the rest of the Byzantine period and beyond. The technique, the pigments, the wooden panel, the gold ground, the use of egg tempera, and the iconographic types were all developed in this period and became the standard practice of the Orthodox icon painter.

In the Latin West, the icon tradition had a different history. The veneration of icons was never as central to Western devotional practice as it was in the Orthodox East, and the iconoclast controversy had relatively little direct impact on Western art. The Western tradition of devotional panel painting developed in the late Middle Ages, in the Italian, Flemish, and German workshops of the Gothic and early Renaissance periods, and was heavily influenced by the Byzantine tradition. The Orthodox icon tradition also had a major influence on the Western tradition of the painted altarpiece, the devotional image of the Virgin and Child, the painted image of the Crucifixion, and the painted image of the saints.

Materials, Pigments, and Technique

The materials of early medieval art were largely inherited from the late Roman tradition. Stone, brick, concrete, marble, and mortar were the building materials. Gold, silver, copper, and bronze were the metals used for liturgical objects and book covers. Ivory, bone, and wood were the materials of small-scale sculpture. Glass and stone tesserae were the materials of mosaic. Fresco and egg tempera were the painting techniques. Silk, wool, and linen were the textiles; the late Roman and Byzantine silk traditions produced some of the most luxurious textiles of the early medieval world, of which the shroud of Charlemagne, the Sicilian royal mantle, and the silk vestments preserved in the Vatican treasury are famous surviving examples.

The pigments used in manuscript painting, panel painting, and mosaic were a limited and expensive palette. The most expensive pigment was ultramarine, made from the semi-precious stone lapis lazuli imported from Afghanistan. Vermilion was made from cinnabar. Malachite and azurite provided green and blue. White was made from lead white and black from vine black or bone black. Yellow was made from orpiment or yellow ochre. Red was made from red ochre or from kermes or cochineal. The palette of early medieval artists was small but extremely well chosen, and the saturated colors of the surviving works are due in part to the high quality of the pigments.

Gold was used in the gold-ground mosaic, the gilded mosaic, the gilded book, the gilded ivory, and the gilded metalwork. The Byzantine and Carolingian goldsmiths and mosaicists used gold leaf and gold tesserae to set off the saturated pigments and to suggest the divine light. The technical skill required to apply gold leaf, to fire gold glass tesserae, to gild carved ivory, and to set gold in cloisonné enamel was considerable, and the surviving examples show that the craftsmen of the period had mastered a wide range of difficult techniques.

Early Medieval Art and the Viking World

The Viking world, often treated as the great exception to the early medieval Christian artistic traditions, had its own elaborate visual culture. The Viking Age (c. 793–1066) produced a distinctive art of woodcarving, metalwork, and stone sculpture in the great trading towns of Birka, Hedeby, Dublin, York, and Kiev, and in the Scandinavian heartland. The visual language of Viking art — the gripping-beast, the ribbon animal, the Borre, Jellinge, Mammen, Ringerike, and Urnes styles — was a distinctive northern European tradition that interacted with the Insular, Carolingian, and Byzantine traditions through trade, raiding, and settlement.

The most famous surviving examples of Viking art are the Oseberg ship with its carved prow and grave goods, the Gokstad ship, the Jellinge stones raised by King Harald Bluetooth, the bronze Buddha figure found in Helgö, the metalwork of the Borre style, the woodcarving of the Urnes stave church in Norway, and the carved stone crosses of the Isle of Man and the Hebrides. The Viking ship burials, the Norse mythology of the Eddas, and the great trading networks of the North Sea and the Baltic brought Viking art into close contact with the Christian visual traditions of the Anglo-Saxon, Frankish, and Byzantine worlds, and the result was a complex web of mutual influence.

By the eleventh century, the Viking world was being slowly Christianized, and the new Viking art incorporated the iconography and visual conventions of Christian art. The carved crosses of the Isle of Man, the illuminated manuscripts produced in the Viking-founded monasteries of Iceland and Ireland, and the great the Bayeux Tapestry, produced in the decades after the Norman Conquest of 1066, document the transition from pagan Viking to Christian Anglo-Norman visual culture. The Viking artistic tradition, with its distinctive abstract ornamental language, its technical mastery of metalwork and woodcarving, and its close ties to the seafaring and trading life of the early medieval North, is one of the great achievements of the early medieval artistic inheritance.

The Major Traditions in Summary

The major traditions of early medieval art and architecture are summarized in the following list, which treats each tradition in detail:

Early Christian and Byzantine art covers the art of the late Roman Christian world and the eastern Roman Empire from the third to the fifteenth century, with particular attention to the development of the icon, the mosaic, the domed church, and the great imperial and monastic workshops of Constantinople and Ravenna.
Insular and Anglo-Saxon art covers the art of the British Isles and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms from the conversion of Ireland and Northumbria to the Viking Age, with particular attention to the great gospel books, high crosses, and metalwork of the period.
Carolingian and Ottonian art covers the visual arts of the Carolingian and Ottonian empires from 750 to 1050, with particular attention to the court school of Charlemagne, the great monastery scriptoria, the palace chapel at Aachen, and the Ottonian imperial workshops.
Illuminated manuscripts of the early Middle Ages covers the production of decorated books in the early Middle Ages, with particular attention to scriptoria, pigments, book production, and the great surviving examples from the Insular, Carolingian, and Ottonian workshops.
Early medieval architecture covers the development of Christian church architecture from Constantine to the coming of the Romanesque, with particular attention to the basilica, the domed central-plan church, and the major surviving examples of pre-Romanesque building.

For questions on specific topics, see the related long-tail articles on what an icon is, the Book of Kells, the Lindisfarne Gospels, pre-Romanesque architecture, the basilica, cloisonné enamel, and the Treasury of Saint Mark’s.

Early Christian and Byzantine art
Insular and Anglo-Saxon art
Carolingian and Ottonian art
Illuminated manuscripts of the early Middle Ages
Early medieval architecture
What Is an Icon?
What Is the Book of Kells?
What Are the Lindisfarne Gospels?