Antiquities

Western and Northern European

Later, in the Neolithic period, the peoples of southern and western Europe produced coiled pottery and made personal ornaments of incised clay, amber beads and pendants, and of jet, which they discovered. From Spain came many pendant slabs of stone and bone with incised designs, some of them accentuating eyes as a kind of magical symbol.

Towards the end of the Neolithic phase, about 2000 B.C., people in the west were erecting great stone monuments which are often associated with the first appearance of bronze tools, and exquisitely delicate gold work, mostly used for pendants and box covers. The surface of the latter was decorated with incised linear geometric designs, whose meaning is no longer known.

The use of gold continued into the Bronze Age [c. 1700-700 B.C.], and work became more widely spread. The golden lunulae of Ireland, for example, were very beautiful and their designs are also found incised on ornaments made of Whitby jet. There seems to have been an international trade on a small scale in gold from Ireland, amber from the Baltic, tin from Spain and Czechoslovakia, and salt from Austria. Amber in particular was traded to the Mediterranean. Bronze Age pottery appears to be heavy and often coarse, but the decorated beakers of Western Europe and many larger burial urns are technical masterpieces with well chosen decoration, though always of a geometric rather than naturalistic style of design.

In the Bronze Age metal was not common and its use for weapons and ornaments seems to have centered around the courts of chiefs. It came into more general use later with the introduction of iron. The European Iron Age developed very gradually, starting about 750 B.C., but the distribution of ore was wide and eventually iron weapons became common over the whole area. In general pottery is less well made in the early Iron Age, but bronze work reaches new heights and there are some very beautiful and complex ornaments cast from wax models.

The apogee of the arts in the Iron Age was achieved by the Celtic-speaking peoples. Their origins are not clear, but it has been suggested that they at first moved through the urn-field cultures of the Rhineland and thence to the Alpine area. Their first clear identification is as the people of the Hallstatt culture in Austria [c. 750 B.C.]. They made attractive bronze figurines, iron swords and spears, and ceramics, including pots with the characteristic spiral designs of Celtic art. Later the center of Celtic arts was at La Tène in Switzerland. However, by about 500 B .C. Celtic peoples extended from northern Spain to the Rhine delta, and from Ireland to Galatia [central Asia Minor]. Their small carvings and bronze, some of which was set with enamel, were widespread, as were their pottery, iron weapons, glass beads and pendants. The accoutrements of their warriors, swords and helmets, were magnificent. Horns and cymbals abound, and a number of stone heads are known to represent their headhunting traditions. Horse-trappings show some of their best design work, and from Britain come remarkable bronze mirrors with engraved backs.

To the north, the Germanic-speaking peoples bordering the Celts had some customs in common with them, but, unlike the Celts, they never came under Roman domination. Their arts descended from the Scandinavian Bronze Age and later included the bracteates and helmets whose form ultimately derived from late Roman originals. They were very fond of large decorated brooches which held cloaks in position on the shoulder. These brooches became an index of the dispersal of the European tribes caused by the raids of the Huns. The Franks entered France, the Angli and Saxons went with their allies, the Jutes, to Britain, and the Goths to Greece, Italy and Spain. One group, the Visigoths, made a kingdom in North Africa. Everywhere their splendid jewelry and metalwork has been found, as well as carvings in ivory and bone. The African and Spanish kingdoms were overthrown by the Islamic advance and, in Spain, after the invasion in 711 A.D., Islamic arts reached high levels of beauty, especially in ceramics, including the world famous reduced copper wares. [p. 41]

The later history of the Germanic tribes is one of the development of Christian arts in western Europe. Most of them evolved a style derived from Roman antecedents but with a lively sculptural tradition of its own both in stone and ivory. A high point was the work centered upon the palace style of Charlemagne [742-814] at Aachen. The strongest echoes of the older traditions came from Ireland, where Celtic traditions mixed with Viking art to produce a special style of great charm, exemplified in ecclesiastical ornaments and manuscripts such as The Book of Kells.

The Vikings, who came from all parts of Scandinavia during the eighth to the tenth centuries A.D. carried Nordic art traditions as far as Iceland and raided throughout the Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. The influence of their wood carving styles is apparent in Romanesque sculpture in Normandy and Britain.

A common inspiration showed in the minor arts and the Romanesque architecture of Europe. It was expressed in enamel and bronze reliquaries, pectoral crosses, rings and a remarkable series of illuminated manuscripts which made their mark in the so-called Dark Ages as an inspiration to artists and princes. Metalwork was highly finished, and gold and silver was used for church vessels and ornaments.

The unity of western Christendom combined with the basic Germanic traditions of western Europe to produce the 'Gothic' art in the twelfth century. These included almost every known skill, among them pottery, especially the elongated jugs with green glazes, enamels and precious metals, wood carvings, paintings in encaustic, frescoes and illuminated manuscripts. There was great unity, though in Italy the classical tradition was still very strong. During the whole of this period of unity there was a steady development towards realism. The influence of the Renaissance in Italy spread through Europe quite slowly, but the spirit of realistic presentation in art was already widespread. The main innovation was the use of perspective in painting. Arms and armour developed into definite styles and in textiles, including tapestries and embroidery, splendid examples remain, mainly of ecclesiastical vestments, some embroidered in brilliant colours and gold.

In eastern Europe a similar development of the arts took place, but this was in the Byzantine tradition deriving originally from the eastern Roman empire. The symbolic image of the religious icon was the dominant note, but the sacred paintings were embellished [p. 42] with ornaments of gold and precious stones. Carvings and painted panels from the iconostases of orthodox churches express the same brilliant but austere traditions. Continuity with the classical past is to be found in the long series of manuscripts in which the illustrations show the gradual transition from the early freedom of Byzantine painting through to the vertical formalism of the derived traditions, which still flourish in eastern Europe. The older works of art, dating from the tenth and eleventh centuries, include fine enamel work and reliquaries made in the form of churches. Vestments differ from those of the west, usually having less brilliance of colour, but are equally rich and are splendidly adorned.

The Scandinavian traditions, although politically important in the formation of Russia, are not clearly defined in early Russian art. The basic Slavonic culture became linked with Byzantine tradition. There were contacts with the Far East through trade and various Mongol and Tartar invasions, but it is the general tendency to perpetuate Byzantine traditional arts that is apparent everywhere. [pp. 41-43]