AN'GLO-SAX'ON ART. A term used to describe whatever works of art were produced in England during the period of about six cen turies between the time of the conquest by the Angles, Saxons, and other Germanic tribes and the time of the Norman conquest in the eleventh century. They found a combination of distinct Roman and Celtic art traditions, ami were influ enced by them, and subsequently by Christian art from Rome and Byzantium. Their originality was shown principally in their jewelry (especi ally the efoisonmq and anus, in which, however, they had borrowed what they knew from the Goths, whose works of the same kind were far more artistic. In architecture, the Anglo-Saxons used principally wood. and relied entirely on foreign workmen for their rare blindings in stone, which were extremely plain, and this, which can hardly be called a "style." was influenced and partly superseded by the Norman style even before the Conquest. The Anglo-Saxons excelled in the illuminating of MSS., and in this they bor rowed from the Irish Celts, and in their turn as sisted the Irish monks in teaching the Carlovin gian artists; for the great Anglo-Saxon monas teries sent masters to those in Gaul before and after the time of Alcuin.
Of the stone churches, hardly a single one sur vives intact, all those of any importance having been reconstructed when the Norman or the Gothic style was favored. The stone-masons, who were brought from Gaul and Rome in the seventh century to build the first stone churches, erected for Benedict Biscop the fa mous monasteries of Wea•month and Yarrow: small parts of them remain. The little hall church at Bradford, entirely without columns, is almost the only complete structure remaining (705 A.D.). To about the same time belong the crypts at Ripon and Hexham. After these early works, which retain of a Con tinental and Roman style, the later mem: me:its of the ninth, tenth and early eleventh centuries, show an increase of Celtic peculiar ities. The church towers have sometimes sur vived where the churches themselves have been renovated, and they form the most interest ing group of Anglo-Saxon monuments. from such simple ones as that of Barton-on-Humber, through the more architectural examples at Barnaek and Sompting. to the richer towers of Earl's Barton and Deerhurst. They are built of crude, irregular few large blocks set in the midst of a mass of small stones. The corners are formed of long-and-short work, the high and narrow stones alternating with the flat, long ones bonded into the wall. In the more elaborate examples the surface is decorated with a series of vertical lines of pilaster strips occa sionally joined by arched or gabled connecting strips, and the few windows are sometimes arched, sometimes topped with two slanting straight pieces forming gables; while their jambs, or divisions (in two-light windows), are either pilasters or the peculiar baluster colonnettes not found except in this style. There are very few moldings and very little sculpture—none of it being figured. In fact, the style is so rude as hardly to rise to the dignity of art.
The Saxons were entirely without monumen tal sculpture or painting of native growth, and it is only in their industrial arts that their character emerges at all clearly. Even here they are inferior to the Goths in their jewelry, enam eling, and goldsmith work, and to the Irish in their illuminating of manuscripts. Comparison with the Book of ]"sells, the Gospels of Mac Kegol. and other Irish illuminations will prove this. It is true that the Gospels of Lindisfarne
(British Museum) are equal to these works, but they were executed by Saxon pupils of the Irish monks. Another remarkably fine work is the Benedi•tional of St. Athelwold. In one particu lar the Saxon works are superior—in the treat ment of the human figure, which in Irish works is a mere piece of decorative scroll-work with out a trace of resemblance to the human form or real drapery. The influence of the pictures and illuminated MSS. brought to England from Rome. and of the Byzantine MSS., gave the Sax ons the advantage of good models for subjects of religious art, as is shown in such works as the Cuthbert Gospels (British Museum). There are three styles in Anglo-Saxon illuminations; (1) stage of Roman influence, seventh century. when the missionaries from Rome and Benedict Biseop gave Boman models (illustrated by the Golden Stockholm Gospels and the Psalter of St. Augus tine, British Museum) ; (2) stake of Irish influ ence. with predominance of the geometric orna ment of beautiful elaborate designs taken from textile fabrics, metal work, and conventionalized animal forms, seventh and eighth centuries (Durham Gospels. Gospels of St. Cuthbert, Brit ish Museum,Athelwold's Book of Prayers at Cam bridge) ; (3) stage of reactive influence of Carlo vingian (Frankish) and Byzantine art, with re-introduction of figured composition and the placing of ornament in the background. This late development was rapid under the direction of SS. Athelwold and Dunstan, in the ninth and tenth centuries (Psalters of King Athelstan, British Museum; Missal of Leofrie. Oxford; Gos pels and Psalter of Boulogne; Gospels called "Bib. Greg." in British Museum: Cirdmon. Ox ford: Cotton Psalter. ete.). Certainly the pecu liar interest of all the Saxon lies in its immense initial letters and full-page geometric ornamentation, in which the artists rivaled the Irish in a field where neither Italian nor Byzantine illuminations had preceded them. They blazed a way which was followed by all subsequent illuminators in varying degrees; and for delicacy and precision of touch, judicious treatment of surface, and balance of composition, their geometric work has never been surpassed. In their good (hough simple color scheme, one point is remarkable—that they never used gold leaf. fn this they influenced Carlovingian illumi nators in direct opposition to the Byzantine style of profuse gold grounds and ornaments. In so far as similarities have been notieerl in Scandina vian works, it is probable that they are due to influences from Great Britain rather than tire r CrRa . When Charlemagne encouraged art. he found the British monasteries a great resource. The great Bible of St. Denis (British Museum) and the Leipzig rsaller are examples of this Brit ish influence on illumination among the Franks. During the last stage. when the geometric style was abandoned. extensive composition in pen-and ink outline became a favorite method of illustra tion. Consult: Rickman. An Attempt to Dis criminate the Styles of Architecture in England (London. 18-181; Dc Baye. The Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons (London, 1893) : Akerman, Remains of Saxon, Saxondom (London, 1853) ; Kemble, Horst Ferules (London, 1863) ; Parker, Introduetion to the Study of Gothic Architecture (London, 1847) ; 'Westwood, Facsimiles of the Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish Manuscripts (London, 1SOS); also volumes of the A rciurologia (London, 1770 foll).