Description

The art of Anglo-Saxon England allows a vivid insight into the radical changes, economic, political and social, that marked the area in the early medieval period. It is a period that saw a process of continual migration and settlement of Germanic peoples into the region, a movement that initially impacted on a Roman territory inhabited by Celtic peoples, and which saw the emergence of a complex society with an economically powerful ruling elite that embraced both ‘Church’ and ‘State’. It is a period that saw the continual activity of Christian missions, both into Anglo-Saxon England from Ireland and the Continental mainland, and into Europe from England. It is thus a period that saw a meeting of cultures that were pagan and Christian, secular and religious, oral and literate, Northern European and Mediterranean.

By studying the art used to decorate the metalwork, manuscripts and stone monuments produced in the region during this period we will explore the complexities of a visual culture that could be shaped by such interactions and, at the same time, could be consciously employed in attempts to shape them.

Objectives

 By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

• A familiarity with the many different artistic media employed in the period.
• An understanding of some of the issues involved in the cultural transmission of the visual languages current in the region.
• An understanding of some of the complexities of imagery and meaning in early medieval religious art.
• A knowledge of some of the major monuments of the period and their historical context.
• An awareness of the various scholarly approaches to the material and the factors informing them.

Preliminary Reading

• Bede, The Ecclesiastical History of the English People (any edition, but Oxford World’s Classics, ed. J. McClure and R. Collins, Oxford, 1994 passim is perhaps the best translation available at the moment)
• J. Campbell (ed.), The Anglo-Saxons (London, 1982 passim)
• Leslie Webster, Anglo-Saxon Art: a New History (London, British Museum: 2012)