British Isles , an
illuminated manuscript Prior to King Alfred the dominant art style in England was the
Hiberno-Saxon culture, producing in
Insular art the fusion of Anglo-Saxon and Celtic techniques and motifs, which had largely ceased in Ireland and Northern England with the
Viking invasions. The period from the time of
King Alfred (885) is known as the Anglo-Saxon period proper, with the revival of English culture after the end of the Viking raids, to the early 12th century, when
Romanesque art became the new movement. Anglo-Saxon art is mainly known today through
illuminated manuscripts and metalwork.
Croatia in
Zadar, Croatia, 9th century. In the 7th century the
Croats, with other
Slavs and
Avars, came from Eastern Europe to the region where they live today. The first Croatian churches were built as royal sanctuaries, and the influence of Roman art was strongest in Dalmatia where urbanization was thickest. Gradually that influence was neglected and certain simplifications and alterations of inherited forms, and even creation of original buildings, appeared. All of them (a dozen large ones and hundreds of small ones) were built in various type forms, with roughly cut stone bounded with a thick layer of mortar on the outside. Large churches are longitudinal with one or three
naves like
Church of Holy Salvation () at the spring of the river
Cetina, built in the 9th century, along with the
Church of the Holy Cross, Nin in
Nin. The largest and most complicated central based church from the 9th century is dedicated to
Saint Donatus in
Zadar.
Altar rails and windows of those churches were highly decorated with transparent shallow string-like
ornament that is called
pleter (meaning to weed) because the strings were threaded and rethreaded through itself. Motifs of those reliefs were taken from Roman art; sometimes figures from the Bible appeared alongside this decoration, like pluteus
relief in Holy Nedjeljica in Zadar, and then they were subdued by their pattern. This also happened to engravings in early Croatian script –
Glagolitic. Soon, the Glagolitic writings were replaced with
Latin on altar rails and
architraves of old-Croatian churches. From the
Crown Church of King Zvonimir (so called
Hollow Church in
Solin) comes the altar board with
figure of Croatian King on the throne with
Carolingian crown, servant by his side and subject bowed to the king. By joining the
Hungarian crown in the twelfth century, Croatia lost its full independence, but it did not lose its ties with the south and the west, and instead this ensured the beginning of a new era of
Central European cultural influence.
France After the demise of the Carolingian Empire, France split into a number of feuding provinces, so that lacking any organized Imperial patronage, French art of the 10th and 11th centuries became localised around the large monasteries, and lacked the sophistication of a court-directed style. Multiple regional styles developed based on the chance availability of Carolingian manuscripts (as models to draw from), and the availability of itinerant artists. The
monastery of Saint Bertin became an important centre under its abbot
Odbert (986–1007) who created a new style based on Anglo-Saxon and Carolingian forms. The nearby abbey of
Saint Vaast created a number of works. In southwestern France at the
monastery of Saint Martial in
Limoges a number of manuscripts were produced around year 1000, as were produced in
Albi,
Figeac and
Saint-Sever-de-Rustan in
Gascony. In Paris there developed a style at the abbey of
Saint Germain-des-Prés. In
Normandy a new style developed from 975 onward.
Italy Southern Italy benefited from the presence and cross-fertilization of the Byzantines, the Arabs, and the Normans, while the north was mostly controlled first by the Carolingians. The
Normans in Sicily chose to commission Byzantine workshops to decorate their churches such as
Monreale and
Cefalù Cathedrals where full iconographic programmes of
mosaics have survived. Important frescos and illuminated manuscripts were produced.
Spain and Portugal , an example of
mozarabic iberian art The first form of Pre-Romanesque in
Spain and
Portugal was the
Visigothic art, that brought the horse-shoe arches to the latter
Moorish architecture and developed jewellery. After the Moorish occupation, Pre-Romanesque art was first reduced to the
Kingdom of Asturias, the only Christian realm in the area at the time which reached high levels of artistic depuration. (See
Asturian art). The Christians who lived in Moorish territory, the
Mozarabs, created their own architectural and illumination style,
Mozarabic art. The best preserved Visigothic monument in
Portugal is the
Saint Frutuoso Chapel in
Braga. ==See also==