Editing Miniature (illuminated manuscript) (section)

====8th&ndash;12th centuries====
[[File:KellsFol292rIncipJohn.jpg|thumb|220px|This lavishly decorated text that opens the [[Gospel of John]] in the [[Book of Kells]], early 9th century, shows the [[Insular art|Insular]] style of illumination: decorative and not illustrative.]]

In the native schools of illumination of Western Europe, decoration only was the leading motive. In the manuscripts of the [[Merovingian]] period, in the school which connected [[Francia|Frankland]] and northern Italy, and which is known as [[Lombards|Lombardic]] or Franco-Lombardic, in the manuscripts of [[Spain]], in the productions of the [[Insular art]] of the [[British Isles]], figure-drawing was scarcely known, serving rather as a feature of decoration than as a representation of the human form.<ref name=EB1911/>

The [[Anglo-Saxon art|Anglo-Saxon]] school, developed especially at [[Canterbury]] and [[Winchester]], which probably derived its characteristic free-hand drawing from classical Roman models, scarcely influenced by the Byzantine element. The highest qualities of the miniatures of the 10th and 11th century of this school lie in fine outline drawing, which had a lasting influence on the English miniature of the later centuries. But the southern Anglo-Saxon school rather stands apart from the general line of development of the western medieval miniature.<ref name=EB1911/>

Under the [[Carolingian]] monarchs there developed a school of painting derived from classical models, chiefly of the Byzantine type. In this school, which owed its origin to the encouragement of [[Charlemagne]], it is seen that the miniature appears in two forms. First, there is the truly conventional miniature following the Byzantine model, the subjects being generally the portraits of the [[Four Evangelists]], or portraits of the emperors themselves: the figures formal; the pages brilliantly colored and gilded, generally set in architectural surroundings of a fixed type, and devoid of landscape in the real sense of the word. Accompanied as it was with profuse decoration in border and initial, it set the pattern for the later Continental schools of the West. On the other hand, there is also the miniature in which there is an attempt at illustration, as, for example, the depicting of scenes from the [[Bible]]. Here there is more freedom; and we trace the classical style which copies Roman, as distinguished from Byzantine, models.<ref name=EB1911/> 

[[File:Meister der Reichenauer Schule 003.jpg|thumb|[[Gospels of Otto III]], Reichenau Abbey (around 1000), Luke the Evangelist]]
Under the subsequent [[Ottonian dynasty|Ottonian monarchs]] in [[East Francia]], the early Ottonian manuscripts are still clearly in the Carolingian tradition. Like these, they are based on a programmatic reference to the ancient tradition, so that this era is referred to as the ''[[Ottonian Renaissance]]'', based on the ''[[Carolingian Renaissance]]''. Nevertheless, ancient naturalism and illusionism, which had been adapted in some manuscripts during the Carolingian period, were now completely sacrificed to a stylized formal language. The most important links between Carolingian and Ottonian illumination were the [[Abbey of St. Gall]], the [[Princely Abbey of Fulda|Abbey of Fulda]] ([[Codex Wittekindeus]]) and the [[Princely Abbey of Corvey|Abbey of Corvey]]. There no longer seems to have been a court school like in Carolingian times. The most important art centers at the time of [[Otto the Great]] were [[History of Cologne|Cologne]], where a distinctive painterly style with Byzantine influence developed<ref>Peter Bloch, Hermann Schnitzler: ''Die ottonische Kölner Malschule'' (The Ottonian Cologne painting school), 2 volumes. L. Schwann, Düsseldorf 1967–1970.</ref> (for example with [[Hitda Codex]]), [[History of Trier|Trier]], [[History of Regensburg|Regensburg]] and, above all, [[Reichenau Abbey]] (for example with [[Gero Codex]], [[Petershausen Sacramentary]], [[Codex Egberti]] or [[Egbert Psalter]]). In addition, scriptoria were active in [[History of Mainz|Mainz]], [[Prüm Abbey]], the [[Abbey of Echternach]] (with the [[Golden Gospels of Henry III]]) and elsewhere. In the 11th century, the scriptoria of [[Tegernsee Abbey]], [[Niederaltaich Abbey]], [[Weihenstephan Abbey|Freising]] and [[History of Salzburg|Salzburg]] emerged in the Bavarian-Austrian region. From around 990 to 1020, Ottonian illumination reached its peak with the works of the Liuthar group, which were probably created in the Reichenau Island monasteries, including the [[Liuthar Gospels]], the [[Gospels of Otto III]], the [[Pericopes of Henry II]] and the [[Bamberg Apocalypse]]. Throughout the Ottonian period, the image of the evangelist was a central motif; the image of the ruler, which served to represent the clients' self-portrayal - often in the form of a dedication image - and the [[Majestas Domini]] stand out. The dominant stylistic elements are symmetrical, flat representations with a monumental character. Many of the Ottonian illustrations are full-page, sometimes divided into two panels. Large, overly long and expressive figures with ecstatic, suggestive sign language and the courage to use empty, monochrome surfaces - mostly gold backgrounds - characterize the style of these manuscripts, which strongly influenced [[Expressionism]] in the 20th century. The illustrations completely lack spatial depth.<ref>Kunibert Bering: ''Kunst des frühen Mittelalters'' (Art of the Early Middle Ages), Volume 2, Reclam, Stuttgart 2002; Hermann Fillitz: ''Propyläen-Kunstgeschichte'' (Propylaea art history), Volume 5: ''The Middle Ages 1''. Propyläen-Verlag, Berlin 1969; Hans Jantzen: ''Ottonische Kunst'' (Ottonian art), 2nd expanded and commented edition. Reimer, Berlin 2002; Henry Mayr-Harting: ''Ottonische Buchmalerei. Liturgische Kunst im Reich der Kaiser, Bischöfe und Äbte'' (Ottonian illumination. Liturgical art in the realm of emperors, bishops and abbots''. Belser, Stuttgart 1991</ref>

[[File:Meister des Benedictionale des Heiligen Aethelwold 001.jpg|thumb|200px|Miniature of the [[baptism]] of [[Christ]] from the [[Benedictional of St. Æthelwold]], 10th century, is an example of the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]] school.]]

The influence which the Carolingian school exercised on the miniatures of the southern Anglo-Saxon artists shows itself in the extended use of body-color and in the more elaborate employment of gold in the decoration. Such a manuscript as the [[Benedictional of St. Æthelwold]], [[bishop of Winchester]], 963 to 984, with its series of miniatures drawn in the native style but painted in opaque pigments, exhibits the influence of the foreign art. But the actual drawing remained essentially national, marked by its own treatment of the human figure and by the disposition of the drapery with fluttering folds. The style was refined, tending to exaggeration and disproportion of the limbs. With the [[Norman Conquest]] this remarkable native school died.<ref name=EB1911/>

With the awakening of art in the 12th century the decoration of manuscripts received a powerful impulse. The artists of the time excelled in the border and the initial, but in the miniature also there was vigorous drawing, with bold sweeping lines and careful study of the draperies. The artists grew more practiced in figure-drawing, and while there was still the tendency to repeat the same subjects in the same conventional manner, individual effort produced in this century many miniatures of a very noble character.<ref name=EB1911/>

The Norman Conquest had brought England directly within the fold of Continental art; and now began that grouping of the French and the English and the [[Flanders|Flemish]] schools, which, fostered by growing intercourse and moved by common impulses, resulted in the magnificent productions of the illuminators of north-western Europe from the latter part of the 12th century onwards.<ref name=EB1911/>

But of natural landscape there is nothing, unless rocks and trees of a stereotyped character can be so regarded. Hence the background of the miniature of the 12th and immediately succeeding centuries became the field for decoration to throw into stronger relief the figures in the scene. And thus arose the practice of filling in the entire space with a sheet of gold, often burnished: a brilliant method of ornament which we have already seen practiced in the Byzantine school. We have also to notice the conventional treatment of the sacred figures, which continue henceforward, from a sense of veneration, to be clad in the traditional robes of the early centuries, while the other figures of the scene wear the ordinary dress of the period.<ref name=EB1911/>