Editing Anglo-Saxons (section)

=== Art ===
{{Main|Anglo-Saxon art}}
Early Anglo-Saxon art is seen mostly in decorated jewellery, like brooches, buckles, beads and wrist-clasps, some of outstanding quality. Characteristic of the 5th century is the [[Quoit (brooch)|quoit brooch]] with motifs based on crouching animals, as seen on the silver quoit brooch from [[Sarre, Kent]]. While the origins of this style are disputed, it is either an offshoot of provincial Roman, Frankish, or [[Jutes|Jutish]] art. One style flourished from the late 5th century and continued throughout the 6th and is on many square-headed brooches, it is characterised by [[chip carving|chip-carved]] patterns based on animals and masks. A different style, which gradually superseded it, is dominated by serpentine beasts with interlacing bodies.<ref>Suzuki, Seiichi. The Quoit Brooch Style and Anglo-Saxon Settlement: A Casting and Recasting of Cultural Identity Symbols. Boydell & Brewer, 2000.</ref>
[[File:Sutton.Hoo.ShoulderClasp2.RobRoy.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|right|Shoulder clasp (closed) from the [[Sutton Hoo]] ship-burial 1, England. [[British Museum]].]]

By the later 6th century, the best works from the south-east are distinguished by greater use of expensive materials, above all gold and garnets, reflecting the growing prosperity of a more organised society which had greater access to imported precious materials, as seen in the buckle from the [[Taplow burial]] and the jewellery from [[Sutton Hoo]],<ref name="Adams, Noël 2010">Adams, Noël. "Rethinking the Sutton Hoo Shoulder Clasps and Armour." Intelligible Beauty: Recent Research on Byzantine ewellery. London: British Museum Research Publications 178 (2010): 87–116.</ref> {{Circa|600}} and {{Circa|625}} respectively. The possible symbolism of the decorative elements like [[interlace (art)|interlace]] and beast forms that were used in these early works remains unclear. These objects were the products of a society that invested its modest surpluses in personal display, that fostered craftsmen and jewellers of a high standard, and in which the possession of a fine brooch or buckle was a valuable status symbol.<ref name="Richards, Julian D 1992">[[Julian D. Richards|Richards, Julian D.]] "Anglo-Saxon symbolism." The Age of Sutton Hoo: The Seventh Century in North-West Europe (1992): 139.</ref>

The [[Staffordshire Hoard]] is the largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold and silver metalwork {{as of|2011|10|alt=yet found}}. Discovered in a field near the village of [[Hammerwich]], it consists of over 3,500 items<ref name=natgeo1111>{{cite journal|last=Alexander|first=Caroline|title=Magical Mystery Treasure|journal=National Geographic|date=November 2011|volume=220|issue=5|pages=44|url=http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/11/gold-hoard/alexander-text|access-date=2014-02-20|archive-date=2016-12-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161225052705/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2011/11/gold-hoard/alexander-text|url-status=dead}}</ref> that are nearly all martial in character and contains no objects specific to female uses.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Find|url=http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/about|publisher=Staffordshire Hoard|access-date=14 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110703040411/http://www.staffordshirehoard.org.uk/about|archive-date=2011-07-03|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{sfn|Leahy|Bland|2009|p=9}} It demonstrates that considerable quantities of high-grade goldsmiths' work were in circulation among the elite during the 7th century. It also shows that the value of such items as currency and their potential roles as tribute or the spoils of war could, in a warrior society, outweigh appreciation of their integrity and artistry.<ref name="Sawyer, Peter 2013" />

The Christianization of the society revolutionised the visual arts, as well as other aspects of society. Art had to fulfil new functions, and whereas pagan art was abstract, Christianity required images clearly representing subjects. The transition between the Christian and pagan traditions is occasionally apparent in 7th century works; examples include the Crundale buckle<ref name="Adams, Noël 2010" /> and the Canterbury pendant.<ref>Mills, Allan A. "The Canterbury Pendant: A Saxon Seasonal-Hour Altitude Dial." PI Drinkwater:'Comments upon the Canterbury Pendant', and AJ Turner:'The Canterbury Dial', Bull BSS 95.2 (1995): 95.</ref> In addition to fostering metalworking skills, Christianity stimulated stone sculpture and [[illuminated manuscript|manuscript illumination]]. In these Germanic motifs, such as interlace and animal ornament along with Celtic spiral patterns, are juxtaposed with Christian imagery and Mediterranean decoration, notably vine-scroll. The [[Ruthwell Cross]], [[Bewcastle Cross]] and [[Easby Cross]] are leading Northumbrian examples of the Anglo-Saxon version of the Celtic [[high cross]], generally with a slimmer shaft.

The jamb of the doorway at [[Monkwearmouth]], carved with a pair of [[lacertine]] beasts, probably dates from the 680s; the golden, garnet-adorned pectoral cross of St [[Cuthbert]] was presumably made before 687; while [[St Cuthbert's coffin|his wooden inner coffin]] (incised with Christ and the [[Evangelists' symbols]], the Virgin and Child, archangels and apostles), the [[Lindisfarne Gospels]], and the [[Codex Amiatinus]] all date from {{Circa|700}}. The fact that these works are all from Northumbria might be held to reflect the particular strength of the church in that kingdom.<ref>[[Leslie Webster (art historian)|Leslie Webster]], [[Janet Backhouse]], and Marion Archibald. The Making of England: Anglo-Saxon Art and Culture, AD 600–900. Univ of Toronto Pr, 1991.</ref> Works from the south were more restrained in their ornamentation than are those from Northumbria.

Lindisfarne was an important centre of book production, along with [[Ripon]] and Monkwearmouth-Jarrow. The [[Lindisfarne Gospels]] might be the single most beautiful book produced in the Middle Ages, and the [[Echternach Gospels]] and (probably) the [[Book of Durrow]] are other products of Lindisfarne. A Latin [[gospel book]], the Lindisfarne Gospels are richly illuminated and decorated in an [[Insular art|Insular]] style that blends Irish and Western Mediterranean elements and incorporates imagery from the Eastern Mediterranean, including [[Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria|Coptic Christianity]].<ref>Brown, Katherine L., and Robin JH Clark. "The Lindisfarne Gospels and two other 8th century Anglo-Saxon/Insular manuscripts: pigment identification by Raman microscopy." Journal of Raman Spectroscopy 35.1 (2004): 4–12.</ref> The [[Codex Amiatinus]] was produced in the north of England at the same time and has been called the finest book in the world.<ref>[[Rupert Bruce-Mitford|Bruce-Mitford, Rupert Leo Scott]]. The art of the Codex Amiatinus. Parish of Jarrow, 1967.</ref> It is certainly one of the largest, weighing 34 kilograms.<ref>Gameson, Richard. "THE COST OF THE CODEX-AMIATINUS." Notes and Queries 39.1 (1992): 2–9.</ref> It is a pandect, which was rare in the Middle Ages, and included all the books of the Bible in one volume. The Codex Amiatinus was produced at Monkwearmouth-Jarrow in 692 under the direction of Abbot [[Ceolfrith]]. Bede probably had something to do with it. The production of the Codex shows the riches of the north of England at this time. We have records of the monastery needing a new grant of land to raise 2,000 more cattle to get the calf skins to make the [[vellum]] for the manuscript.<ref>Meyvaert, Paul. "Bede, Cassiodorus, and the Codex Amiatinus." Speculum 71.04 (1996): 827–883.</ref> The Codex Amiatinus was meant to be a gift to the pope, and Ceolfrith was taking it to Rome when he died on the way. The copy ended up in Florence, where it still is today – a ninth-century copy of this book is in the possession of the pope.<ref>Chazelle, Celia. "Ceolfrid's gift to St Peter: the first quire of the Codex Amiatinus and the evidence of its Roman destination." Early Medieval Europe 12.2 (2003): 129–157.</ref>

[[File:BookCerneEvangalist.jpeg|thumb|upright=1.1|[[Book of Cerne]], [[evangelist portrait]] of [[Saint Mark]]]]
In the 8th century, Anglo-Saxon Christian art flourished with grand decorated manuscripts and sculptures, along with secular works which bear comparable ornament, like the Witham pins and the [[Coppergate helmet]].<ref>THOMAS, GABOR. "OVERVIEW: CRAFT PRODUCTION AND TECHNOLOGY." The Oxford Handbook of Anglo-Saxon Archaeology (2011): 405.</ref> The flourishing of sculpture in Mercia occurred slightly later than in Northumbria and is dated to the second half of the 8th century. The [[Book of Cerne]] is an early 9th century Insular or Anglo-Saxon Latin personal prayer book with Old English components. This manuscript was decorated and embellished with four painted full-page miniatures, major and minor letters, and continuing panels.<ref>Brown 1996, pp. 70, 73.</ref> Further decorated motifs used in these manuscripts, such as hunched, triangular beasts, also appear on objects from the [[Trewhiddle]] hoard (buried in the 870s) and on the rings which bear the names of King [[Æthelwulf of Wessex|Æthelwulf]] and Queen [[Æthelswith]], which are the centre of a small corpus of fine ninth-century metalwork.

There was demonstrable continuity in the south, even though the Danish settlement represented a watershed in England's artistic tradition. Wars and pillaging removed or destroyed much Anglo-Saxon art, while the settlement introduced new Scandinavian craftsmen and patrons. The result was to accentuate the pre-existing distinction between the art of the north and that of the south.<ref>Reynolds, Andrew, and [[Leslie Webster (art historian)|Webster, Leslie]]. "Early Medieval Art and Archaeology in the Northern World." (2013).</ref> In the 10th and 11th centuries, the Viking dominated areas were characterised by stone sculpture in which the Anglo-Saxon tradition of cross shafts took on new forms, and a distinctive Anglo-Scandinavian monument, the 'hogback' tomb, was produced.<ref>O'Sullivan, Deirdre. "Normanising the North: The Evidence of Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Scandinavian Sculpture." Medieval Archaeology 55.1 (2011): 163–191.</ref> The decorative motifs used on these northern carvings (as on items of personal adornment or everyday use) echo Scandinavian styles. The Wessexan hegemony and the monastic reform movement appear to have been the catalysts for the rebirth of art in southern England from the end of the 9th century. Here artists responded primarily to continental art; foliage supplanting interlace as the preferred decorative motif. Key early works are the [[Alfred Jewel]], which has fleshy leaves engraved on the back plate; and the stole and maniples of Bishop [[Frithestan]] of Winchester, which are ornamented with [[acanthus (ornament)|acanthus]] leaves, alongside figures that bear the stamp of [[Byzantine art]]. The surviving evidence points to Winchester and Canterbury as the leading centres of manuscript art in the second half of the 10th century: they developed colourful paintings with lavish foliate borders, and coloured line drawings.

By the early 11th century, these two traditions had fused and had spread to other centres. Although manuscripts dominate the corpus, sufficient architectural sculpture, [[ivory carving]] and metalwork survives to show that the same styles were current in secular art and became widespread in the south at parochial level. The wealth of England in the later tenth and eleventh century is clearly reflected in the lavish use of gold in manuscript art as well as for vessels, textiles and statues (now known only from descriptions). Widely admired, southern English art was highly influential in Normandy, France and [[Flanders]] from {{circa|1000}}.<ref>[[Janet Backhouse]], Derek Howard Turner, and [[Leslie Webster (art historian)|Leslie Webster]], eds. The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art, 966–1066. British Museum Publications Limited, 1984.</ref> Indeed, keen to possess it or recover its materials, the Normans appropriated it in large quantities in the wake of the Conquest. The [[Bayeux Tapestry]], probably designed by a Canterbury artist for Bishop [[Odo of Bayeux]], is arguably the apex of Anglo-Saxon art. Surveying nearly 600 years of continuous change, three common strands stand out: lavish colour and rich materials; an interplay between abstract ornament and representational subject matter; and a fusion of art styles reflecting English links to other parts of Europe.<ref>Grape, Wolfgang. The Bayeux tapestry: monument to a Norman triumph. Prestel Pub, 1994.</ref>

<gallery class="center" heights="120px" widths="170px">
File:Sutton.Hoo.PurseLid.RobRoy.jpg|[[Sutton Hoo purse-lid]] {{circa|lk=no|620}}
File:CodexAureusCanterburyFolios9v10r.jpg|[[Codex Aureus of Canterbury]] {{circa|lk=no|750}}
File:Ruthwell Cross Christ on south side.jpg|[[Ruthwell Cross]] {{circa|lk=no|750}}
File:BLW Silver Anglo-Saxon ring.jpg|[[Trewhiddle style]] on silver ring {{circa|lk=no|775|850}}
File:St Oswald's Priory Anglo-Saxon cross.jpg|St Oswald's Priory Cross {{circa|lk=no|890}}
</gallery>