FIFTH AND SIXTH CENTURIES. It was during the fifth and sixth centuries that illuminating became an important branch of Christian art. to remain so until the sixteenth century. Manu scripts of the Old Testament, either as a whole or in separate books, and Gospel manuscripts were systemativally searched for incidents of historic or religious importance. At tirst there ryas sten a superabundance of pictures, as in the roll of .loslitta at the Vatican, and, though less so. in the lift t•odiees of Genesis at Vienna and the British The mal type was given at this time Ity the Pos sum) a work of the school which was creating the new art. In the teaching Of the people by pictures it is difficult to decide which branch of art gave the suggestive types for the scenes—the miniature painters or the mos: deists and fresco-painters. Outside of the Bilk the chief work is the manuscript of ('osmas lialicoplenstes at the with its pictures of the sixth century. Until the seventh the illimiiiiations were square or oblong pictures interrupting the text, but at that time the calligraphie style of decoration began, with its initial letters and its interweaving of human, animal, and gemnetrie forms with the letter:. .:\lready in the famous Syriac manuscript at the Laurentian Lilwary (Floreneet this decorative sense had shown itself. It was developed by the Byzantine artists of the Iconoclastic age. who preferred ornamWentatmu to the human figure, and by the Irish and Anglo-Saxon sellools, which showed an originality and boldness in decorative work equal to their ineptitude in treating the fig ure. ,Nleanwhile in the \Vest the Itenedietine monks of the sixth and seventh centuries had continued the degenerate "Ionian style, as in the Pentateueli of Tours, or were copying Byzantine models, as in the Cambridge Gospels.
I insit The Irish and their miniaturists, broke away entirely not only from all classic traditions, but from all naturalism. Spirals, knots, bands, zigzags, and other geometric forms, derived la rge ly from metal work, were interwoven often with fantastic beasts and impossible men. The Book of ltrirs tint I/orbeer Life of Coln nib, I, the Linrli.s Gospels. the Book of K ells, the mint (led/ Gospeis, the Ppisl les, the l'xalter, arc among the finest works of this school.
l'.tifot.ixta.‘x. The prominence of Irish and Anglo-Saxon monks in the missionary and eduea Ilona] worlds in the eighllt century throughout Northern Europe made them the teachers of the Carolingian school of illuminators that sprang tip in France and Germany. This while ing initeli of the decorative scheme, including the immense and highly ornamental initial letter:.
added the use of sacred compositions with the human figure. largely from Latin or Byzantine models. Rich architectural details are used to frallle the and large single figures of t he Emperor. the Evangelist ete,,preva The baekgrounds :11•e not gill, Mit plain or broken up by aecessories. The I:niwi.hook of Charle magne from Soissons ( Ilibliotheque Nationale. Parisi is dated 7s1 and is title of the earliest and finest xvork, of the school. It had several branches. In Prance were: II) the b'raneo.Saxon branch. extending from Paris to the 'thine. of which over thirty remain. including the Cospels at .\rra:, the at Vienna. and the above Gospel. from soissams: C21 the branch of founded by Aleilin. illustrated by and t:ospels. in the Brill-Al :\Inseunt. belonging to lettin. Charles the Bold. and Lothair: 131 the branch of Orleans. »ith Bibles at the Iliblio• thetine Nationale and Le Puy. In Germany were: (1 1 the branch at Aletz. to which the tary of Drogo belongs: and that at saint Gall, which has specimens in the Alunich Library. In these Carolingian works the colored outline drawing was brilliant rather than solid. the figures flimsy and inclined to But the general etfeet was of and originality.
The true continuators of the style in the Romanesque period were the German illuminators of the time of the Mhos and the Henrys, who tempered the ear lier exaggerations of movement• and size through contact with Byzantine art. Both the Rhenish and the Saxon schools, especially the latter, have left many works excented for these emperors, now preserved at lamht•rg, Treves, Pori:. ete., especially Goltel-books, The architectural and borders are good and rich, includMg also the animals and birds so fre quent in Romanesque art. Body eolars, usually light in tone, replaced the Carolingian outline style; figure• were better drawn and dig nified. In the eleventh century the richness of initial. and backgrounds increased, often with tapestry effects as in the liegensburg Gospels; hitt there came a decadence, which lasted nearly tip to the Gothic period.
Meanwhile other countries were lagging far In Frailty the Carolingian methods be came crude and barbarous, as in the X oui Iles Bible. Italy had never even participated in the Carolingian revival and confined itself to clumsy figure painting, mostly in outline, withmit dis playing any decorative ability. The English school contained the older Irish and •\nglo-Sitznrt work with modifieations first due to Carolingian influence, as in Xi helleold's ielional. With the Conquest. however. the hody-eolor technique replaced the outlined as in Germany.