Merovingian art and architecture

Art of the Franks under the Merovingian dynasty

Baptistery of the cathedral Saint-Léonce in Fréjus. Baptistery Saint-Sauveur of Aix-en-Provence A gold chalice from the Treasure of Gourdon. Baptistery Saint-Jean of Poitiers

Merovingian art is the art of the Merovingian dynasty of the Franks, which lasted from the 5th century to the 8th century in present-day France, Benelux and a part of Germany. The advent of the Merovingian dynasty in Gaul in the 5th century led to important changes in the field of arts. Sculptural arts consisted of the ornamentation of sarcophagi, altars and ecclesiastical furniture. Gold work and the new medium of manuscript illumination integrated "barbarian" animal-style decoration, with Late Antique motifs, and other contributions from as far as Syria or Ireland to constitute Merovingian art.

## Architecture

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The unification of the Frankish kingdom under Clovis I (465–511) and his successors, corresponded with the need for the building of churches, and especially monastery churches, as these were now the power-houses of the Merovingian church. Plans often continued the Roman basilica tradition, but also took influences from as far away as Syria and Armenia. In the East, most structures were in timber, but stone was more common for significant buildings in the West and in the southern areas that later fell under Merovingian rule. Most major churches have been rebuilt, usually more than once, but many Merovingian plans have been reconstructed from archaeology.

The description in Bishop Gregory of Tours' History of the Franks of the basilica of Saint-Martin, built at Tours by Saint Perpetuus (bishop 460–490) at the beginning of the period and at the time on the edge of Frankish territory, gives cause to regret the disappearance of this building, one of the most beautiful Merovingian churches, which he says had 120 marble columns, towers at the East end, and several mosaics: "Saint-Martin displayed the vertical emphasis, and the combination of block-units forming a complex internal space and the correspondingly rich external silhouette, which were to be the hallmarks of the Romanesque".[1] A feature of the basilica of Saint-Martin that became a hallmark of Frankish church architecture was the sarcophagus or reliquary of the saint raised to be visible and sited axially behind the altar, sometimes in the apse. There are no Roman precedents for this Frankish innovation.[2] The Saint Peter's church in Vienne is the only surviving one. A number of other buildings, now lost, including the Merovingian foundations of Saint-Denis, St. Gereon in Cologne, and the Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris, are described as similarly ornate.

Some small buildings remain, especially baptisteries, which fell out of fashion and were spared rebuilding. In Aix-en-Provence, Riez and Fréjus, three octagonal baptistries, each covered with a cupola on pillars, are testimony to the influence of oriental architecture (the baptistry of Riez, in the Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, recalls that of St. George, Ezra', Syria). Very different from these Provençal baptistries, except for the quatrefoil one of Venasque, that of St. Jean at Poitiers (6th century) has the form of a rectangle flanked by three apses. The original building has probably undergone a number of alterations but preserves in its decoration (marble capitals) a Merovingian character.

Among the very many crypts, numerous due to the importance of the cult of saints at the time, only those of St. Seurin, Bordeaux, St. Laurent, Grenoble, the crypt of the Abbey of Saint Médard in Soissons, and the abbey of Jouarre (7th century) survive.

## Other arts

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Sacramentarium Gelasianum. Frontispice and Incipit from the Vatican manuscript

By the 7th century, the abilities of Merovingian craftsmen must have been well regarded, as they were brought to England to re-introduce glass making skills, and Merovingian stonemasons were used to build English churches.[3] Merovingian masons also employed the opus gallicum extensively and are responsible for bringing it to England and bequeathing it to the Normans, who brought it to Italy.

Very few Merovingian illuminated manuscripts survive, of which the most richly decorated is the 8th century Gelasian Sacramentary in the Vatican Library, which has geometric and animal decoration, less complex than that of the Insular art of the British Isles, but like it derived from metalwork motifs, with some influence from Late Antiquity and the Near-East. The principal centres were the Abbey of Luxeuil, an Irish foundation, and later its daughter house at Corbie Abbey.

A large Merovingian art collection in Berlin was taken by Soviet troops to Russia, where it remains to this day.[4][5][6]

## Gallery

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* Crypt of saint Seurin de Bordeaux december 2024Baptistery of Riez

* Baptistery of cathedral Saint-Léonce de Fréjus

* Baptistery Saint-Jean de Venasque

* Crypt of Saint-Laurent

* Crypt of Notre-Dame de Jouarre and sarcophagi

* Crypt of Notre-Dame de Jouarre

* Capital in the crypt of Notre-Dame de Jouarre

## See also

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* Migration Period art
* List of Merovingian monasteries
* Merovingian script

## Notes

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1. ^ V.I. Atroshenko and Judith Collins, The Origins of the Romanesque (Lund Humphries, London) 1985, p. 48. ISBN 0-85331-487-X
2. ^ Werner Jacobsen, "Saints' Tombs in Frankish Church Architecture" Speculum 72.4 (October 1997:1107–1143).
3. ^ Bede. The Lives of the Holy Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow.
4. ^ Effros, Bonnie (14 June 2012). Uncovering the Germanic Past: Merovingian Archaeology in France, 1830–1914. Oxford University Press. p. 298\. ISBN 9780199696710.
5. ^ (www.dw.com), Deutsche Welle (16 August 2007). "Germany Worried About Losing Out in Looted Art Row | Culture | DW.COM | 16.08.2007". DW.COM. DW. Retrieved 19 August 2016.
6. ^ Harding, Luke (13 March 2007). "Russia displays looted German treasure". The Guardian. Retrieved 19 August 2016.

## References

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* European Commission: Raphaël Programme. The Normans, a European people: The Norman heritage, 10th - 12th century. Architectural Heritage: Italy -- the Molise §8 Fortifications and castles: Fortifications -- The opus gallicum in the fortifications. 2004.
* Gilbert, Edward. "Brixworth and the English Basilica." The Art Bulletin, Vol. 47, No. 1. (Mar., 1965), pp 1-20.
* Bede. Lives of the Holy Abbots of Wearmouth and Jarrow.

## External links

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* Age of spirituality : late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century from The Metropolitan Museum of Art
* A large collection of Merovingian art was taken from Berlin by the Soviet military forces in 1945.

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Premodern, Modern and Contemporary art movements

List of art movements/periods

Premodern
(Western)|

| Ancient|

* Thracian
* Dacian
* Nuragic
* Aegean
* Cycladic
* Minoan
* Minyan ware
* Mycenaean
* Greek
* Sub-Mycenaean
* Protogeometric
* Geometric
* Orientalizing
* Archaic
* Black-figure
* Red-figure
* Severe style
* Classical
* Kerch style
* Hellenistic
* "Baroque"
* Indo-Greek
* Greco-Buddhist
* Neo-Attic
* Etruscan
* Scythian
* Iberian
* Gaulish
* Roman
* Republican
* Gallo-Roman
* Julio-Claudian
* Pompeian Styles
* Trajanic
* Severan

|

Medieval|

* Late antique
* Early Christian
* Coptic
* Ethiopian
* Migration Period
* Anglo-Saxon
* Hunnic
* Insular
* Lombard
* Visigothic
* Donor portrait
* Pictish
* Mozarabic
* Repoblación
* Viking
* Byzantine
* Iconoclast
* Macedonian
* Palaeologan
* Italo-Byzantine
* Frankish
* Merovingian
* Carolingian
* Pre-Romanesque
* Ottonian
* Romanesque
* Mosan
* Spanish
* Norman
* Norman-Sicilian
* Opus Anglicanum
* Gothic
* Gothic art in Milan
* International Gothic
* International Gothic art in Italy
* Lucchese school
* Crusades
* Moscow school
* Novgorod school
* Vladimir-Suzdal school
* Duecento
* Sienese school
* Mudéjar
* Medieval cartography
* Italian school
* Majorcan school
* Mappa mundi

Renaissance|

* Italian Renaissance
* Trecento
* Proto-Renaissance
* Florentine school
* Pittura infamante
* Quattrocento
* Ferrarese school
* Forlivese school
* Venetian school
* Cinquecento
* High Renaissance
* Bolognese school
* Mannerism
* Counter-Maniera
* Northern Renaissance
* Early Netherlandish
* World landscape
* Ghent–Bruges school
* Northern Mannerism
* German Renaissance
* Cologne school
* Danube school
* Dutch and Flemish Renaissance
* Antwerp Mannerism
* Romanism
* Still life
* English Renaissance
* Tudor court
* Cretan school
* Turquerie
* Fontainebleau school
* Art of the late 16th century in Milan

17th century|

* Baroque
* Baroque in Milan
* Flemish Baroque
* Caravaggisti
* in Utrecht
* Tenebrism
* Louis XIII style
* Lutheran Baroque
* Stroganov school
* Animal painting
* Guild of Romanists
* Dutch Golden Age
* Delft school
* Capriccio
* Heptanese school
* Classicism
* Louis XIV style
* Poussinists and Rubenists

18th century|

* Rococo
* Rocaille
* Louis XV style
* Frederician
* Chinoiserie
* Fête galante
* Neoclassicism
* Goût grec
* Louis XVI style
* Adam style
* Directoire style
* Neoclassical architecture in Milan
* Picturesque

Colonial art|

* Art of the African diaspora
* African-American
* Caribbean
* Haitian
* Colonial Asian art
* Arts in the Philippines
* Letras y figuras
* Tipos del País
* Colonial Asian Baroque
* Company style
* Latin American art
* Casta painting
* Indochristian art
* Chilote school
* Cuzco school
* Quito school
* Latin American Baroque

Art borrowing
Western elements|

* Islamic
* Moorish
* Manichaean
* Mughal
* Qajar
* Qing handicrafts
* Western influence in Japan
* Akita ranga
* Uki-e

Transition
to modern
(c. 1770 – 1862)|

* Romanticism
* Fairy painting
* Danish Golden Age
* Troubadour style
* Nazarene movement
* Purismo
* Shoreham Ancients
* Düsseldorf school
* Pre-Raphaelites
* Hudson River School
* American luminism
* Orientalism
* Norwich school
* Empire style
* Historicism
* Revivalism
* Biedermeier
* Realism
* Barbizon school
* Costumbrismo
* Verismo
* Macchiaioli
* Academic art
* Munich school
* in Greece
* Neo-Grec
* Etching revival

Modern
(1863–1944)|

| 1863–1899|

* Neo-romanticism
* National romanticism
* Yōga
* Nihonga
* Japonisme
* Anglo-Japanese style
* Beuron school
* Hague school
* Peredvizhniki
* Impressionism
* American
* Hoosier Group
* Boston school
* Amsterdam
* Canadian
* Heidelberg school
* Aestheticism
* Arts and Crafts
* Art pottery
* Tonalism
* Decadent movement
* Symbolism
* Romanian
* Russian
* Volcano school
* Incoherents
* Post-Impressionism
* Neo-Impressionism
* Luminism
* Divisionism
* Pointillism
* Pont-Aven School
* Cloisonnism
* Synthetism
* Les Nabis
* American Barbizon school
* California tonalism
* Costumbrismo

|

1900–1914|

* Art Nouveau
* Art Nouveau in Milan
* Primitivism
* California Impressionism
* Secessionism
* School of Paris
* Munich Secession
* Vienna Secession
* Berlin Secession
* Sonderbund
* Pennsylvania Impressionism
* Mir iskusstva
* Ten American Painters
* Fauvism
* Expressionism
* Die Brücke
* Der Blaue Reiter
* Noucentisme
* Deutscher Werkbund
* American Realism
* Ashcan school
* Cubism
* Proto-Cubism
* Orphism
* A Nyolcak
* Neue Künstlervereinigung München
* Futurism
* Cubo-Futurism
* Art Deco
* Metaphysical
* Rayonism
* Productivism
* Synchromism
* Vorticism

1915–1944|

* Sosaku-hanga
* Suprematism
* School of Paris
* Crystal Cubism
* Constructivism
* Latin American
* Universal Constructivism
* Dada
* Shin-hanga
* Neoplasticism
* De Stijl
* Purism
* Return to order
* Novecento Italiano
* Figurative Constructivism
* Stupid
* Cologne Progressives
* Arbeitsrat für Kunst
* November Group
* Australian tonalism
* Dresden Secession
* Social realism
* Functionalism
* Bauhaus
* Kinetic art
* Anthropophagy
* Mingei
* Group of Seven
* New Objectivity
* Grosvenor school
* Neues Sehen
* Surrealism
* Iranian
* Latin American
* Mexican muralism
* Neo-Fauvism
* Precisionism
* Aeropittura
* Asso
* Scuola Romana
* Cercle et Carré
* The Group
* Harlem Renaissance
* Kapists
* Regionalism
* California Scene Painting
* Heroic realism
* Socialist realism
* Nazi art
* Streamline Moderne
* Concrete art
* Abstraction-Création
* Tiki
* The Ten
* Dimensionism
* Boston Expressionism
* Leningrad school

Contemporary
and Postmodern
(1945–present)|

| 1945–1959|

* International Typographic Style
* Abstract expressionism
* Washington Color School
* Visionary art
* Vienna School of Fantastic Realism
* Spatialism
* Color field
* Lyrical abstraction
* Tachisme
* Arte Informale
* COBRA
* Nuagisme
* Generación de la Ruptura
* Jikken Kōbō
* Metcalf Chateau
* Mono-ha
* Nanyang Style
* Action painting
* American Figurative Expressionism
* in New York
* New media art
* New York school
* Hard-edge painting
* Bay Area Figurative Movement
* Les Plasticiens
* Gutai Art Association
* Gendai Bijutsu Kondankai
* Pop art
* Situationist International
* Soviet Nonconformist
* Ukrainian underground
* Lettrism
* Letterist International
* Ultra-Lettrist
* Florida Highwaymen
* Cybernetic art
* Antipodeans

|

1960–1969|

* Otra Figuración
* Afrofuturism
* Nueva Presencia
* ZERO
* Happening
* Neo-Dada
* Neo-Dada Organizers
* Op art
* Nouveau réalisme
* Nouvelle tendance
* Capitalist realism
* Art & Language
* Arte Povera
* Black Arts Movement
* The Caribbean Artists Movement
* Chicano art movement
* Conceptual art
* Land art
* Systems art
* Video art
* Minimalism
* Fluxus
* Generative art
* Post-painterly abstraction
* Intermedia
* Psychedelic art
* Nut Art
* Photorealism
* Environmental art
* Performance art
* Process art
* Institutional critique
* Light and Space
* Street art
* Feminist art movement
* in the US
* Saqqakhaneh movement
* The Stars Art Group
* Tropicália
* Yoru no Kai
* Artificial intelligence visual art

1970–1999|

* Post-conceptual art
* Installation art
* Artscene
* Postminimalism
* Endurance art
* Sots Art
* Moscow Conceptualists
* Pattern and Decoration
* Pliontanism
* Punk art
* Neo-expressionism
* Transavantgarde
* Saint Soleil school
* Guerrilla art
* Lowbrow art
* Telematic art
* Appropriation art
* Neo-conceptual art
* New European Painting
* Tunisian collaborative painting
* Memphis Group
* Cyberdelic
* Neue Slowenische Kunst
* Scratch video
* Transgressive
* Retrofuturism
* Young British Artists
* Superfiction
* Taring Padi
* Superflat
* New Leipzig school
* Artist-run initiative
* Artivism
* The Designers Republic
* Grunge design
* Verdadism
* Chinese Apartment Art

2000–
present|

* Amazonian pop art
* Altermodern
* Art for art
* Art game
* Art intervention
* Brandalism
* Classical Realism
* Contemporary African art
* Africanfuturism
* Contemporary Indigenous Australian art
* Crypto art
* Cyborg art
* Excessivism
* Fictive art
* Flat design
* Corporate Memphis
* Hypermodernism
* Hyperrealism
* Idea art
* Internet art
* Post-Internet
* iPhone art
* Kitsch movement
* Lightpainting
* Massurrealism
* Modern European ink painting
* Neo-futurism
* Neomodern
* Neosymbolism
* Passionism
* Post-YBAs
* Relational art
* Skeuomorphism
* Software art
* Sound art
* Stuckism
* Superflat
* SoFlo Superflat
* Superstroke
* Toyism
* Unilalianism
* Vaporwave
* Walking Artists Network

Related topics|

* History of art
* Abstract art
* Asemic writing
* Anti-art
* Avant-garde
* Ballets Russes
* Christian art
* Art in the Protestant Reformation and Counter-Reformation
* Catholic art
* Icon
* Lutheran art
* Digital art
* Fantastic art
* Folk art
* Hierarchy of genres
* Genre painting
* History painting
* Illuminated manuscript
* Illustration
* Interactive art
* Jewish art
* Kitsch
* Landscape painting
* Modernism
* Modern sculpture
* Late modernism
* Naïve art
* Outsider art
* Portrait
* Prehistoric European art
* Queer art
* Realism
* Shock art
* Trompe-l'œil
* Western painting

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