Romanesque book illumination

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Moralia in Iob (Cîteaux, 1109/11, R-initial depicting a fight with a dragon).

The Romanesque Illumination is a European style of Illumination , of the late 11th century from the Ottoman Illumination evident and in the 13th century in the Gothic book illumination passes.

Starting around the late 11th century, based on the architecture, the European art styles, which were also regionally different, were summarized as Romanesque . On the one hand, the number of manuscripts produced increased considerably; at the same time, the differences in landscape blurred in favor of a relatively uniform vocabulary of forms, even if this was designed to a large extent by the artist's individual personality. The characteristic type of book of the Romanesque was the large illustrated Bible. Especially north of the Alps, it was predominantly decorated with historicized, i.e. figurative, initials that were populated with mythical creatures , chimeras , zoomorphic figures or even everyday scenes that had no place in representative art , regardless of the illustrated text . Characteristic stylistic elements of the Romanesque are fixed outlines, a clear weight distribution of the figures and ornamental symmetry. Most of the Romanesque miniatures - with the exception of the typical ornamental letters - are probably based on the monumental wall painting . These relationships of dependency can hardly be traced today, as only very few Romanesque frescoes have survived.

Heinrich the Lion Gospel Book ( Helmarshausen Monastery , around 1170/80).

The most important clients were bishops, abbots and other high clerics, while kings and princes were hardly active as donors in the Romanesque epoch. As an exception, Heinrich the Lion has to be mentioned, on whose initiative a famous gospel book named after him was created in Helmarshausen in 1170/80 . The rapid increase in book production can also be traced back to the numerous foundations of monasteries by the Reform Orders in the 11th and especially in the 12th century. Cistercian book illumination became particularly influential until the anti-image attitude of Bernhard von Clairvaux largely suppressed illustrations and historicized initials in the second half of the 12th century. The reform monasteries of Cluny and Cîteaux also provided important impulses for illumination . Examples of this monastic illumination are the Bible by Stephan Harding and the Moralia in Iob , both of which were made in Cîteaux around 1109/11. The tight organization between mother and daughter monasteries was beneficial for the exchange of books .

The Italian centers of illumination were Rome and Monte Cassino , where Byzantine style elements were received and from where significant influence on Romanesque illumination, including those north of the Alps, was to be exerted. Abbot Desiderius, later Pope Viktor III. brought Byzantine painters to the scriptorium of the monastery of Monte Cassino, who developed a style here that was soon to spread across Europe. Around 1100 a Byzantine influence could be felt throughout the West, such as in Cologne, where Italian artists were active. The northern Italian scriptoria were closer to the central European ones: Ivrea , Vercelli , Milan , Piacenza , Modena , San Benedetto in Polirone and Bobbio .

While French book illumination had lost its charisma since the Carolingian period, it gained a hegemonic position in Europe in the Romanesque period, which essentially came from the monasteries of Cluny and Cîteaux. While the style development of the scriptorium can be traced for Cîteaux, this is not possible for Cluny, since the monastery library was destroyed during the French Revolution . In the south, the monasteries, which have been productive since Carolingian times, remained dominant: besides Limoges, especially Albi and Saint-Gilles (Gard) . The focus of French art moved more and more to the Île de France , to Chartres , Laon and Paris , where the University of Paris was a determining factor in book production.

Welf Chronicle (Weingarten, around 1190, Friedrich Barbarossa with his sons).
Depiction of the church ("Regina Ecclesia") with the believers from the Hortus Deliciarum of Herrad von Landsberg , Odilienberg women's monastery , around 1175

The Maasland with the Liège Cathedral St. Lambertus and various monasteries in the surrounding area was a particularly influential center of Romanesque book illumination, which also had a strong influence on the painting schools of the Rhineland : Cologne , Siegburg , Prüm , Mainz , Maria Laach , Trier and Arnstein . The Rhenish-Thuringian school was also under strong Byzantine influence, as was that of Salzburg, which primarily influenced Sankt Florian , Admont and Mondsee . In southern Germany, especially in Swabia , book illumination flourished in the Cluniac reform monastery Hirsau , in the Guelph house monastery Weingarten , the Alsatian women's monastery Odilienberg and in the monasteries of Murbach , Zwiefalten , Regensburg , Würzburg and Bamberg . The Saxon-Westphalian illumination was coined in Corvey , Hildesheim , Halberstadt , Helmarshausen and Goslar .

The best-known manuscripts from Germany include the Gospels of Heinrich the Lion, the Hortus Deliciarum by Herrad von Landsberg (Odilienberg, around 1176–1196), the Liber Scivias by Hildegard von Bingen ( Rupertsberg , third quarter of the 12th century) and the Zwiefaltener Passionale (Zwiefalten, second quarter of the 12th century). The zigzag style , named after the angularly broken folds , as found in the Landgrave psaltery (Lower Saxony, 1208–1213), leads in Germany from the Romanesque to the Gothic, which prevailed here between 1260 and 1300 in different regions.

In England the style of drawing continued to dominate, which had shaped Anglo-Saxon book illumination under the influence of the Utrecht Psalter in pre-Romanesque. Winchester and Canterbury remained the defining scriptories to which St. Albans , Rochester , Malmesbury , Hereford , Sherborne , Winchcombe and London joined. In the second half of the 12th century, however, a sophisticated opaque color painting developed here as well. The penetration of Romanesque style elements was favored by the connections to France since the conquest of England by the Normans in 1066. Famous English manuscripts are the Albani Psalter (around 1125) and the richly illustrated Winchester Bible (around 1155–1185).

See also

literature

supporting documents

  1. ↑ Grimme, p. 108.
  2. ↑ Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Cod. Guelf. 105 Noviss. fol. and Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 30055
  3. ^ Dijon, Bibliothèque publique, Mss. 12-15.
  4. ↑ Dijon, Bibliothèque publique, Cod. 168-173
  5. ↑ Fulda, State Library, Ms. D 11.
  6. ↑ Former Strasbourg, City Library, burned during the siege of Strasbourg in 1870 .
  7. ↑ Former Wiesbaden, Hessian State Library , Ms. I (missing).
  8. ↑ Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek , Cod. Bibl. Fol. 56-58.
  9. ^ Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Ms. HB II 24.