BENEDICTINE ART. The earliest establishments of the founder of the Order of Saint Benedict at Subiaco and Monte Cassino have left no traces to show that they had any special ar tistic significance. Most of the Western mon asteries of the seventh century were of wood, and the life was still largely anchoretic. It was in the eighth century. as the Carlovingian era approaches, that Benedictine life became more highly organized. types of monastic buildings were created for all time, and monasteries of great wealth and power arose, taking a leading part in art. Centula. Lorsch, Fontanella, and Fulda were followed by Nanantula, Monte Cas sino, Cava, Saint Gall, Tours, Reichenau, and many other great artistic centres. The cloister, a new architectural torn] adapted from the atri um of the early Christian basilica, became the centre around which the monastic buildings were grouped. For the general plan and organization of the monastery and its early artistic activity, consult the article BENEDICTINES.
In the tenth century the great Benedictine re form took place at Cluny, which henceforth was the leading monastery of the Order, using the establishments of Hirsau and Farfa to further her artistic and other reforms. in Germany and Italy. The plans used in rebuilding and reor ganizing these two monasteries were borrowed from Cluny. The revival which ensued led to au immense increase in the number of establish ments. In Italy alone art became partly enfran chised, with a notable increase of lay artists, due to the great prosperity of the free communal The style of architecture practiced by the Benedictines during these centuries did not show much originality. It retained in the churches
the old basilical type, with columns and wooden roof, though piers were occasionally used. The lack of close, organized union between the dif ferent monasteries of the Order prevented the creation of a special Benedictine style. The work had local characteristics. In newly con verted and civilized regions the monks were al ways the pioneers of art, and in this way, even without special style. became a paramount in fluence. But in fresco painting and in the minor and industrial arts, the ease was different. (See BENEDICTINES.) The monks partly introduced Byzantine methods and ideas, as in the school founded in the eleventh century by Desiderius at Monte Cassino. for nearly all branches of art, partly evolved a special style and iconography, as in Germany and France. The lay guilds of the late Romanesque and Gothic periods were merely offshoots from these monastic schools. The in tellectual attainments of the monks peculiarly qualified them in developing systematically the themes of religious art, whieh they handed on to their lay successors, who had but to accept and vary them.