Ottonian book illumination

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Gero Codex (Reichenau, around 970, dedication picture: The scribe Anno hands the work to Gero).

The Ottonian book painting is a style of book illumination , which at the time of the Ottoman emperor in the Holy Roman Empire was training. Since an epoch designation after a ruling dynasty means not only a temporal but also a spatial limitation, art studies outside the empire speak of pre- or early Romanesque art. The Ottonian book illumination follows the Carolingian and goes over to the Romanesque book illumination .

development

Gospel Book of Otto III. (Reichenau, around 1000, Luke the Evangelist).
Hitda Gospels (Cologne, around 1020, Jesus and the disciples during a storm on the Sea of ​​Galilee).
The Aachen Liuthar Gospels are special: for the first time in the history of Occidental book art, all depictions were provided with a gold background .
Bamberg Apocalypse (Reichenau, around 1020, Maiestas Domini).
Speyer Gospels (Echternach, 1043-1046, Heinrich III. And Agnes before the enthroned Mary).

With the transfer of the royal or imperial dignity to the Ottonians in 919, the cultural focus of the empire shifted more strongly to the Saxon area. With the settlement in the east and the founding of the Magdeburg diocese, the need for magnificent liturgical books grew, especially in the northeast. Stylistically, the era extends well beyond the reign of the last Ottonian emperor, Henry II, until the end of the 11th century. In addition to the emperors, the high clergy in particular commissioned magnificent manuscripts, whose position was strengthened by the imperial church system .

The early Ottonian manuscripts are still clearly in the Carolingian tradition. Like these, the magnificent Ottonian manuscripts are based on a programmatic reference to the ancient tradition, so that this epoch is referred to as the Ottonian Renaissance based on the Carolingian Renaissance . Nonetheless, ancient naturalism and illusionism, which had been adapted in some manuscripts in Carolingian times, were now completely sacrificed to a stylized formal language. The most important links between Carolingian and Ottonian book illumination were St. Gallen, the Fulda Abbey and the Corvey Abbey on the Weser , which was founded in 815/822 as a Carolingian foundation on Saxon territory and continued the Franco-Saxon school. A court school like in Carolingian times no longer seems to have existed. The most important art centers at the time of Otto I were Cologne , where an unmistakable painterly style with Byzantine influence developed, Trier , Regensburg and above all the Reichenau monastery . In addition, scriptoria were active in Mainz , Prüm , Echternach and elsewhere. In the 11th century Tegernsee , Niederalteich , Freising and Salzburg were added in the Bavarian-Austrian region .

An important pioneer of Ottonian book illumination was an anonymous artist who, partly on behalf of King Otto II , worked in Lorsch , Reichenau, Fulda and Trier. On the Reichenau he created the Gero Codex and the Petershausen Sacramentary around 970 . In the last years of the 10th century he was involved in a Trier manuscript group, which is named after its central manuscript, the Egbert Psalter and was commissioned by Archbishop Egbert von Trier . The second large manuscript of this group, the Codex Egberti (980–993) shows parallels in ornamentation with the Reichenau School, but in its cycle of images and iconography it shows ancient and Byzantine models.

A school of painting developed in Fulda, which preserved the Carolingian style of the Ada group particularly strongly. The main works around 970–980 were the Codex Wittekindeus and the Göttingen Sacramentary . At the end of the 10th century, Hildesheim, flourishing under Bishop Bernward, emerged as an art center. A Cologne manuscript group around the main work of the Hitda Gospel (around 1020) is in the tradition of the Carolingian coronation gospel group . These illustrations, made in the early 11th century, also show Byzantine influence.

Between 990 and 1020 Ottonian book illumination reached its peak with the works of the Liuthar group, which were probably created on the Reichenau, including the Aachen Liuthar Gospels (around 990) and the Munich Gospels of Otto III. (around 1000), the pericope book of Heinrich II. (1007-1012) and the Bamberg Apocalypse (around 1020) belong. In 2003, ten works from the Reichenau School were included in the UNESCO list of world heritage documents . Equally important works by the Liuthar group are the Wolfenbüttel Pericope Book and the Hildesheim Orational .

During the entire Ottonian period, the image of the evangelist was a central motif, alongside the image of the ruler - often in the form of a dedication image - and the majestas domini , which serve to portray the client . Dominant style elements are symmetrical, flat representations with a monumental character. Many of the Ottonian illustrations are full-page, sometimes divided into two fields. Large, overly long and expressive figures with ecstatic, suggestive sign language and the courage to use empty, single-colored surfaces - mostly gold backgrounds - characterize the characteristic style of these manuscripts, which strongly influenced Expressionism in the 20th century . Spatial depth is completely lacking in the illustrations, overall the formal apparatus of Ottonian painting is greatly reduced.

The early Salic period is still in the continuity of the Ottonian epoch. Under Emperor Heinrich III. the Echternach school of painting rises to become the leading scriptorium. A pericopic book was created in Echternach in 1039-1043 by the imperial commission, a Speyer gospel book between 1043 and 1046 intended for the cathedral there , and another gospel book between 1050 and 1056 .

See also

literature

  • Kunibert Bering: Art of the Early Middle Ages. (= Art Epochs , Volume 2). Reclam, Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-15-018169-0 .
  • Klaus Gereon Beuckers (Ed.): Abbess Hitda and the Hitda Codex (University and State Library Darmstadt, Hs. 1640) Research on a major work of the Ottonian Cologne illumination . WBG, Darmstadt 2013, ISBN 978-3-534-25379-1 .
  • Peter Bloch , Hermann Schnitzler : The Ottonian Cologne School of Painting . 2 volumes, L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1967–1970.
  • Anton von Euw (conception): Before the year 1000. Occidental book art at the time of Empress Theophanu. (Exhibition cat. Cologne, Schnütgen Museum 1991). City of Cologne, Cologne 1991, ISBN 3-9864752-1-4 .
  • Hermann Fillitz : Propylaea art history. Volume 5: The Middle Ages 1 . Propylaea Publishing House, Berlin 1969.
  • Ernst Günther Grimme : The History of Occidental Illumination. 3. Edition. DuMont, Cologne 1988, ISBN 3-7701-1076-5 .
  • Claudia Höhl: Ottonian book painting in Prüm. (= European university publications. Series 28: Art history, vol. 252). Dissertation Berlin 1993. Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. a. 1996, ISBN 3-631-49281-2 .
  • Christine Jakobi-Mirwald: The medieval book. Function and equipment . Reclam, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-15-018315-4 .
  • Hans Jantzen : Ottonian art . 2nd expanded and commented edition. Reimer, Berlin 2002, ISBN 3-496-01069-X .
    • Renate Maas, Hans Jantzens Analysis of Ottonian Art: The Image Space as a Symbol of Historical Beginning and Ontological Origin . In: Ingrid Baumgärtner et al. (Ed.), Spatial concepts. Göttingen: V&R unipress, 2009, pp. 95–123.
  • Thomas Labusiak : The Ruodprecht group of the Ottonian Reichenauer book painting. Image sources - ornamentation - stylistic prerequisites. ( Monuments of German Art ). Deutscher Verlag für Kunstwissenschaft, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-87157-222-7 .
  • Book illumination . In: Lexikon des Mittelalters Volume 2, 1983, Col. 837-893. [Contributions by K. Bierbrauer, Ø. Hjort, O. Mazal, D. Thoss, G. Dogaer, J. Backhouse, G. Dalli Regoli, H. Künzl]
  • Henry Mayr-Harting : Ottonian book illumination. Liturgical art in the realm of emperors, bishops and abbots. Belser, Stuttgart 1991, ISBN 3-7630-1216-8 .
  • Carl Nordenfalk (comm.): Codex Caesareus Upsaliensis. A facsimile edition of an Echternach Gospel-Book of the Eleventh Century. Stockholm 1971.
  • Carl Nordenfalk: Illumination in the Middle Ages. Paperback edition (1st edition: 1957), Skira, Geneva 1988, ISBN 3-8030-3107-9 .
  • Otto Pächt : Illumination of the Middle Ages. An introduction. Prestel-Verlag, Munich 1985, ISBN 3-7913-0668-5 .
  • Georg Swarzenski : The Regensburg book painting of the X. and XI. Century. Studies on the history of German painting in the early Middle Ages. (Monuments of South German Painting of the Early Middle Ages 1). Leipzig 1901.
  • Georg Swarzenski: Salzburg painting from the first beginnings to the heyday of the Romanesque style. (Monuments of South German Painting of the Early Middle Ages 2). Textd. u. Blackboard folder, Leipzig 1913, DNB 56095977X .
  • Wilhelm Vöge : A German painting school at the turn of the first millennium. Critical studies on the history of painting in Germany in the 10th and 11th centuries. (= West German magazine for history and art. Supplement 7). Trier 1891.
  • Ingo F. Walther, Norbert Wolf: Masterpieces of book illumination. Taschen, Cologne et al. 2005, ISBN 3-8228-4747-X .
  • Gerhard Weilandt: clergy and art. A contribution to the culture of the Ottonian-Salian imperial church and to the change in artistic traditions in the late 11th century. (= Supplements to the Archive for Cultural History 35). Böhlau, Cologne / Weimar / Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-412-08892-7 .
  • Christoph Winterer: The Fulda sacramentary in Göttingen. Benedictine observance and Roman liturgy. (= Studies on international architecture and art history 70). Imhof Verlag, Petersberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-86568-190-4 .
  • Norbert Wolf : Germany's great heritage. The Ottonian Illuminated Manuscripts . Edited by Ingo F. Walther. 2nd Edition. Facsimile Verlag, Lucerne 2007, DNB 980169151 .

Web links

Commons : Ottonian book illumination  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Annotations and Signatures

  1. ^ Darmstadt, Hessian State and University Library, Cod. 1948.
  2. ^ Heidelberg, University Library, Salem IX.
  3. ↑ Cividale, Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Ms. CXXXVI.
  4. ↑ Trier, City Library, Cod. 24.
  5. ^ Berlin, State Library, Ms. theol. lat. fol. 1.
  6. ↑ Göttingen, State and University Library , Bibl. Cod. Theol. fol. 231.
  7. ^ Darmstadt, University and State Library, Hs. 1640.
  8. ^ Aachen, Cathedral Treasury .
  9. ^ Munich, Bavarian State Library, Clm. 4453.
  10. ^ Munich, Bavarian State Library, Clm. 4452.
  11. ↑ Bamberg, State Library , Msc Bibl. 140.
  12. ↑ Bremen, State and University Library , msb 0021
  13. ↑ Madrid, Escorial , Cod. Vitr. 17th
  14. ^ Uppsala, Universitets Bibl., Cod. C 93.