Editing Medieval art (section)

==Migration Period through Christianisation==
{{Main|Migration Period art}}
[[File:Sutton.Hoo.ShoulderClasp2.RobRoy.jpg|thumb|left|Shoulder-clasp from [[Sutton Hoo]], Anglo-Saxon, c. 620. Interlaced biting snakes and confronted [[boar]]s (end sections) are depicted entirely schematically.]]

Migration Period art describes the art of the "[[barbarian]]" Germanic and Eastern-European peoples who were on the move, and then settling within the former Roman Empire, during the [[Völkerwanderung|Migration Period]] from about 300-700; the blanket term covers a wide range of ethnic or regional styles including early [[Anglo-Saxon art]], [[Visigothic art]], [[Viking art]], and [[Merovingian art]], all of which made use of the [[animal style]] as well as geometric motifs derived from classical art.  By this period the animal style had reached a much more abstracted form than in earlier [[Scythian art]] or [[La Tène style]].  Most artworks were small and portable and those surviving are mostly jewellery and metalwork, with the art expressed in geometric or schematic designs, often beautifully conceived and made, with few human figures and no attempt at realism.  The early Anglo-Saxon [[grave good]]s from [[Sutton Hoo]] are among the best examples.

As the "barbarian" peoples were [[Christianised]], these influences interacted with the post-classical Mediterranean Christian artistic tradition, and new forms like the [[illuminated manuscript]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Henderson|1977|loc=ch. 2}}; {{Harvnb|Calkins|1979|loc=chs 8 & 9}}; {{Harvnb|Wilson|1984|pp=16–27}} on early Anglo-Saxon art.</ref> and indeed [[coin]]s, which attempted to emulate [[Roman provincial coins]] and [[Byzantine coinage|Byzantine]] types.  Early coinage like the [[sceat]] shows designers completely unused to depicting a head in profile grappling with the problem in a variety of different ways.

As for larger works, there are references to Anglo-Saxon wooden pagan statues, all now lost, and in Norse art the tradition of carved [[runestone]]s was maintained after their conversion to Christianity. The Celtic [[Picts]] of Scotland also [[Pictish stones|carved stones]] before and after conversion, and the distinctive Anglo-Saxon and Irish tradition of [[High cross|large outdoor carved crosses]] may reflect earlier pagan works. [[Viking art]] from later centuries in [[Scandinavia]] and parts of the British Isles includes work from both pagan and Christian backgrounds, and was one of the last flowerings of this broad group of styles.

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px" perrow="4">
File:Paar Prunkfibeln.jpg|Germanic ''[[Fibula_(brooch)|fibulae]]'', early 5th century
File:Sceat K32a 75001420.jpg|Anglo-Saxon silver [[sceat]], [[Kent]], c. 720. [[Diadem]]ed head, holding cross; reverse, wolf-headed snake.
File:Hammars (I).JPG|[[Image-stone]] from [[Sweden]]
</gallery>