Migration Period art Animal style When did the Animal Style art develop? animal art of the period roughly from 400 to 900 into three phases: Styles I, II and III. What distinguished the three styles of animal art from each other? Style I. First appears in northwest Europe, it became a noticeable new style with the introduction of the chip carving technique applied to bronze and silver in the 5th century. What was unique about Style II? Style II's animals are whole beasts, but their bodies are elongated into "ribbons" which intertwined into symmetrical shapes with no pretence of naturalism, and rarely any legs, What was Style III art like? Salin Style III is found mainly in Scandinavia, and may also be called Viking art.
Did a lot of the Animal Style art survive?
Did a lot of the Animal Style art survive?
The study of Northern European, or "Germanic", zoomorphic decoration was pioneered by Bernhard Salin in a work published in 1904. He classified animal art of the period roughly from 400 to 900 into three phases: Styles I, II and III. The origins of these different phases are still the subject of considerable debate; the development of trends in late-Roman popular art in the provinces is one element, and the older traditions of nomadic Asiatic steppe peoples another. The first two styles are found very widely across Europe in the art of the "barbarian" peoples of the Migration Period.  Style I. First appears in northwest Europe, it became a noticeable new style with the introduction of the chip carving technique applied to bronze and silver in the 5th century. It is characterized by animals whose bodies are divided into sections, and typically appear at the fringes of designs whose main emphasis is on abstract patterns.  Style II. After about 560-570 Style I was in decline and Salin's Style II began to replace it. Style II's animals are whole beasts, but their bodies are elongated into "ribbons" which intertwined into symmetrical shapes with no pretence of naturalism, and rarely any legs, so that they tend to be described as serpents, although the heads often have characteristics of other types of animal. The animal becomes subsumed into ornamental patterns, typically using interlace. Thus two bears are facing each other in perfect symmetry ("confronted"), forming the shape of a heart. Examples of Style II can be found on the gold purse lid.  After about 700 localised styles develop, and it is no longer very useful to talk of a general Germanic style. Salin Style III is found mainly in Scandinavia, and may also be called Viking art. CANNOTANSWER
CANNOTANSWER
Migration Period art denotes the artwork of the Germanic peoples during the Migration period (c. 300 – 900). It includes the Migration art of the Germanic tribes on the continent, as well the start of the Insular art or Hiberno-Saxon art of the Anglo-Saxon and Celtic fusion in Britain and Ireland. It covers many different styles of art including the polychrome style and the animal style. After Christianization, Migration Period art developed into various schools of Early Medieval art in Western Europe which are normally classified by region, such as Anglo-Saxon art and Carolingian art, before the continent-wide styles of Romanesque art and finally Gothic art developed.

Background

In the 3rd century, the Roman Empire almost collapsed and its army was becoming increasingly Germanic in make-up, so that in the 4th century when Huns pushed German tribes westward, they spilled across the Empire's borders and began to settle there. The Visigoths settled in Italy and then Spain, in the north the Franks settled into Gaul and western Germany, and in the 5th century the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain. By the close of the 6th century the Western Roman Empire was almost completely replaced with smaller less politically organized, but vigorous, Germanic kingdoms.

Although these kingdoms were never homogeneous, they shared certain common cultural features. They settled in their new lands and became farmers and fishermen. Archaeological evidence shows no tradition of monumental artwork, such as architecture or large sculpture in permanent materials, but a preference instead for "mobile" art for personal display, usually also with a practical function, such as weapons, horse harness, tools, and jewelry which fastened clothes.  The surviving art of the Germanic peoples is almost entirely personal adornment, portable, and before conversion to Christianity was buried with its owner.  Much art in organic materials has no doubt not survived.

Three styles dominate Germanic art. The polychrome style originated with the Goths who had settled in the Black Sea area. The animal style was found in Scandinavia, north Germany and England. Finally there was Insular art or the Hiberno-Saxon style, a brief but prosperous period after Christianization that saw the fusion of animal style, Celtic, Mediterranean and other motifs and techniques.

Migration art

Polychrome style

During the 2nd century the Goths of southern Russia discovered a newfound taste for gold figurines and objects inlaid with precious stones. This style was borrowed from Scythians and the Sarmatians, had some Greco-Roman influences, and was also popular with the Huns. Perhaps the most famous examples are found in the fourth-century Pietroasele treasure (Romania), which includes a great gold eagle brooch (picture). The eagle motif derives from East Asia and results from the participation of the forebears of the Goths in the Hunnic Empire, as in the fourth-century Gothic polychrome eagle-head belt buckle (picture) from South Russia.

The Goths carried this style to Italy, southern France and Spain. One well known example is the Ostrogothic eagle (fibula) from Cesena, Italy, now at the museum in Nuremberg. Another is the Visigothic polychrome votive crown (picture) of Recceswinth, King of Toledo, found in a votive crown hoard of c. 670 at Fuente de Guarrazar, near Toledo. The popularity of the style can be attested to by the discovery of a polychrome sword (picture) in the tomb of Frankish king Childeric I (died ca 481), well north of the Alps.

Animal style

The study of Northern European, or "Germanic", zoomorphic decoration was pioneered by Bernhard Salin in a work published in 1904. He classified animal art of the period roughly from 400 to 900 into three phases: Styles I, II and III. The origins of these different phases are still the subject of considerable debate; the development of trends in late-Roman popular art in the provinces is one element, and the older traditions of nomadic Asiatic steppe peoples another.  The first two styles are found very widely across Europe in the art of the "barbarian" peoples of the Migration Period.

Style I. First appears in northwest Europe, it became a noticeable new style with the introduction of the chip carving technique applied to bronze and silver in the 5th century. It is characterized by animals whose bodies are divided into sections, and typically appear at the fringes of designs whose main emphasis is on abstract patterns.

Style II. After about 560-570 Style I was in decline and Salin's Style II began to replace it.  Style II's animals are whole beasts, but their bodies are elongated into "ribbons" which intertwined into symmetrical shapes with no pretense of naturalism, and rarely any legs, so that they tend to be described as serpents, although the heads often have characteristics of other types of animal. The animal becomes subsumed into ornamental patterns, typically using interlace. Thus two bears are facing each other in perfect symmetry ("confronted"), forming the shape of a heart. Examples of Style II can be found on the gold purse lid.

After about 700 localized styles develop, and it is no longer very useful to talk of a general Germanic style.  Salin Style III is found mainly in Scandinavia, and may also be called Viking art.

Christian influence
Byzantine enameling highly influenced Migration period metalwork. The Church in the early Migration period emerged as the only supranational force in Europe after the collapse of the Roman Empire. It provided a unifying element and was the only institution left that could preserve selected rudiments of classical civilization. As the conversion of Germanic peoples by the end of the 7th centuries in western Europe neared completion, the church became the prime patron for art, commissioning illuminated manuscripts and other liturgical objects. The record shows a steady decline in Germanic forms and increasing Mediterranean influence. This process occurred quickly with the Goths of Italy and Spain and more slowly the further north one looked. This change can be observed in the 8th century Merovingian codex Gelasian Sacramentary, it contained no Style II elements, instead showing Mediterranean examples of fish used to construct large letters at the start of chapters.

Insular art

Insular art, often also known as Hiberno-Saxon art, especially in relation to illuminated manuscripts) was confined to Great Britain and Ireland and was the fusion of Germanic traditions (via the Anglo-Saxons) with Celtic traditions (via Irish monks). It can first be seen in the late 7th century and the style would continue in Britain for about 150 years until the Viking invasions of the 9th century (after which we see the emergence of Anglo-Saxon art), and in Ireland up until the 12th century (after which see Romanesque art).

History

Ireland was converted to Christianity by missions from Britain and the continent, beginning in the mid-fifth century, while simultaneously pagan Angles, Saxons and Jutes were settling in England. The extreme political fragmentation of Ireland and its total lack of urban development prevented the emergence of a strong episcopal structure. Monasticism consequently emerged as the dominant force in Irish Christianity, and thus in Irish Christian art.

Celtic Christianity also developed a strong emphasis on missionary activity. Around 563 Saint Columba founded a base on the Scottish island of Iona, from which to convert Pictish pagans in Scotland; this monastic settlement became long remained a key center of Christian culture in northern Britain. Columban monks then went to Northumbria in 635 and founded a monastery on the island of Lindisfarne, from which to convert the north of England. However Rome had already begun the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons from the south with a mission to Kent in 597. Conflict arose between the Irish monks and Rome on the date to celebrate Easter, leading to withdrawal of the Irish mission from Lindisfarne to Iona. However, the widespread use of Irish decorative forms in art produced in England, and vice versa, attests to the continuing importance of interaction between the two cultures. England would come under increasing Mediterranean influence, but not before Irish Celtic and Anglo-Saxon art had profitably fused.

The first major work that can be called purely Hiberno-Saxon is the Book of Durrow in the late 7th century. There followed a golden age in metalworking, manuscripts and stone sculpture. In the 9th century the heyday of the Hiberno-Saxon style neared its end, with the disruptions of Viking raids and the increasing dominance of Mediterranean forms (see Anglo-Saxon art).

Illuminated manuscripts

The surviving evidence of Irish Celtic art from the Iron Age period is dominated by metalwork in a La Tène style.  Hanging bowls such as those found at Sutton Hoo are among some of the most important of these crafts. As Irish missionaries began to spread the word of the Gospels they needed books, and almost from the start, they began to embellish their texts with artwork drawing from the designs of these metalworking traditions. The spirals and scrolls in the enlarged opening letters—found in the earliest manuscripts such as the 7th century Cathach of St. Columba manuscript—borrows in style directly from Celtic enamels and La Tène metalworking motifs.

After the Cathach of St. Columba, book decoration became increasingly more complex and new styles from other cultures were introduced. Carpet pages—entire pages of ornamentation with no text—were inserted, usually at the start of each Gospel. The geometric motifs and interlaced patterns may have been influences from Coptic Egypt or elsewhere in the Byzantine Middle East.  The increasing use of animal ornamentation was an Anglo-Saxon contribution of its animal style. All of these influences and traditions combined into what could be called a new Hiberno-Saxon style, with the Book of Durrow in the later 7th century being the first of its type. The Lindisfarne Gospels is another famous example.

The Book of Kells was probably created in Iona in the 8th century. When the monks fled to Ireland in the face of Viking raids in 807, they probably brought it with them to Kells in Ireland. It is the most richly decorated of the Hiberno-Saxon manuscripts and represents a large array of techniques and motifs created during the 8th century.

Metalworking
In the 7th century there emerged a resurgence of metalworking with new techniques such as gold filigree that allowed ever smaller and more detailed ornamentations, especially on the penannular and pseudo-penannular Celtic brooches that were important symbols of status for the elite, and also worn by clergy as part of their vestments. The Tara Brooch and Ardagh Hoard are among the most magnificent Insular examples, whilst the 7th century royal jewelry from the Sutton Hoo ship burial shows a Pre-Christian Anglo-Saxon style. They brought together all of the available skills of the goldsmith in one piece: ornamentation applied to a variety of techniques and materials, chip carving, filigree, cloisonné and rock crystal.

Stone sculpture

The skills displayed in metalworking can be seen in stone sculptures. For many centuries it had been Irish custom to display a large wooden cross inside the monastic building enclosure. These were then translated into stone crosses called high crosses and covered with the same intricate patterns used by goldsmiths, and often figure sculptures.

See also
Viking art
Hercules' Club (amulet)
Confronted-animals
Anglo-Saxon art

Notes

References
Martin Werner, "Migration and Hiberno-Saxon Art", Dictionary of the Middle Ages, vol-8, 
"Hiberno-Saxon style". In Encyclopædia Britannica Online.

Further reading
Boltin, Lee, ed.: Treasures of Early Irish Art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D.: From the Collections of the National Museum of Ireland, Royal Irish Academy, Trinity College, Dublin, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977, .

Malcolm, Todd, The Early Germans

External links
Images from History, see "Iron Age Europe".
Eagle Fibula at the Walters Art Museum

Art
Medieval art
Early Germanic art
5th century in art
6th century in art
7th century in art
8th century in art
9th century in art
10th century in art
Art by period of creation
Animal style art is an approach to decoration found from China to Northern Europe in the early Iron Age, and the barbarian art of the Migration Period, characterized by its emphasis on animal motifs. The zoomorphic style of decoration was used to decorate small objects by warrior-herdsmen, whose economy was based on breeding and herding animals, supplemented by trade and plunder. Animal art is a more general term for all art depicting animals.

Eastern styles

Scythian art makes great use of animal motifs, one component of the "Scythian triad" of weapons, horse-harness, and Scythian-style wild animal art. The cultures referred to as Scythian-style included the Cimmerian and Sarmatian cultures in European Sarmatia and stretched across the Eurasian steppe north of the Near East to the Ordos culture of China. These cultures were extremely influential in spreading many local versions of the style.

Steppe jewellery features various animals including stags, cats, birds, horses, bears, wolves and mythical beasts. The gold figures of stags in a crouching position with legs tucked beneath its body, head upright and muscles bunched tight to give the impression of speed, are particularly impressive. The "looped" antlers of most figures are a distinctive feature, not found in Chinese images of deer. The species represented has seemed to many scholars to be the reindeer, which was not found in the regions inhabited by the steppes peoples at this period.  The largest of these were the central ornaments for shields, while others were smaller plaques probably attached to clothing.  The stag appears to have had a special significance for the steppes peoples, perhaps as a clan totem. The most notable of these figures include the examples from:
the Arzhan kurgan, Tuva, Siberia, with animal style artifacts (8-7th century BC).
the burial site of Kostromskaya in the Kuban dating from the 6th century BC (Hermitage)
Tápiószentmárton in Hungary dating from the 5th century BC, now National Museum of Hungary, Budapest
Kul Oba in the Crimea dating from the 4th century BC (Hermitage).

Another characteristic form is the openwork plaque including a stylized tree over the scene at one side, of which two examples are illustrated here. Later large Greek-made pieces often include a zone showing Scythian men apparently going about their daily business, in scenes more typical of Greek art than nomad-made pieces. Some scholars have attempted to attach narrative meanings to such scenes, but this remains speculative.

Although gold was widely used by the ruling elite of the various Scythian tribes, the predominant material for the various animal forms was bronze. The bulk of these items were used to decorate horse harness, leather belts & personal clothing. In some cases these bronze animal figures when sewn onto stiff leather jerkins & belts, helped to act as armour.

The use of the animal form went further than just ornament, these seemingly imbuing the owner of the item with similar prowess and powers of the animal which was depicted. Thus the use of these forms extended onto the accoutrements of warfare, be they swords, daggers, scabbards, or axes.

A distinct Permian style of bronze or copper alloy objects from around the 5th–10th centuries AD are found near the Ural mountains and the Volga and Kama rivers in Russia.

Germanic animal style
The study of Germanic zoomorphic decoration was pioneered by Bernhard Salin in a work published in 1904. Salin classified animal art from roughly 400 to 900 AD into three phases. The origins of these different phases remain the subject of debate; developing trends in late-Roman popular provincial art was an element, as were earlier traditions of the nomadic Asiatic steppe peoples. Styles I and II are found widely across Europe in the art of the "barbarian" peoples during the Migration Period.

Style I. First appearing in northwest Europe, first expressed with the introduction of the chip carving technique applied to bronze and silver in the 5th century. It is characterized by animals whose bodies are divided into sections, and typically appear at the fringes of designs whose main emphasis is on abstract patterns.

Style II. After about 560–570 Style I, declining, began to be supplanted. The animals of Style II are whole beasts, their bodies elongated into "ribbons" which intertwined into symmetrical shapes with no pretense of naturalism—rarely with legs—tending to be described as serpents, though heads often have characteristics of other animals. The animals become subsumed into ornamental patterns, typically interlace. Examples of Style II can be found on the gold purse lid (picture) from Sutton Hoo (c. 625).

Eventually about 700 localised styles develop, and it is no longer very useful to talk of a general Germanic style. Salin Style III is found mainly in Scandinavia, and may also be called Viking art.  Interlace, where it occurs, becomes less regular and more complex, and if not three-dimensional animals are usually seen in profile but twisted, exaggerated, surreal, with fragmented body parts filling every available space, creating an intense detailed energetic feel. Animals' bodies become hard for the unpractised viewer to read, and there is a very common motif of the "gripping beast" where an animal's mouth grips onto another element of the composition to connect two parts. Animal style was one component, along with Celtic art and late classical elements, in the formation of style of Insular art and Anglo-Saxon art in the British Isles, and through these routes and others on the Continent, left a considerable legacy in later Medieval art.

Other names are sometimes used: in Anglo-Saxon art Kendrick preferred "Helmet" and "Ribbon" for Styles I and II.

See also
 Migration Period art
 Thracian art
 Persian-Sassanid art patterns
 Confronted-animals

Notes

External links
 Perm Animal Style: Photo gallery (Virtual museum)
 Perm Animal Style
Nomadic Art of the Eastern Eurasian Steppes, an exhibition catalog from The Metropolitan Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on and examples of animal style
Andreeva, Petya, "Fantastic Beasts of the Eurasian Steppes: Toward a Revisionist Approach to Animal-Style Art", University of Pennsylvania, 2018: https://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2963/
Salin Styles in The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology

Visual arts genres
Archaeology of Central Asia
Archaeology of Siberia
Medieval art
Iron Age art of Europe
Indo-European art
Early Germanic art
Animals in art Trewhiddle  style is a distinctive style in Anglo-Saxon art that takes its name from the Trewhiddle Hoard, discovered in Trewhiddle, Cornwall in 1770. Trewhiddle ornamentation includes the use of silver, niello inlay, and zoomorphic, plant and geometric designs, often interlaced and intricately carved into small panels. Famous examples include the Pentney Hoard, the Abingdon sword, the Fuller brooch, and the Strickland brooch.

History 

Trewhiddle style is named after the Trewhiddle Hoard found in 1774 near Trewhiddle, Cornwall. The treasure contained a number of objects, including Anglo-Saxon coins, a silver chalice, and other gold and silver pieces. The artefacts can be dated to the ninth century. The animal ornamentation of some of the Trewhiddle Hoard items became a focus of study by Anglo-Saxon art historians and archaeologists in the early twentieth century. Sir Thomas Kendrick was the first historian to illustrate the  uninterrupted use of Anglo-Saxon animal ornament, from the last days of Roman Britain to the early Anglo-Saxon period. Danish archaeologist, Johannes Brøndsted, acknowledged the historical importance of the lively decorative elements of the hoard by naming the ninth century style, the "Trewhiddle style".

Trewhiddle style is most likely the outcome of evolving Anglo-Saxon art forms. The Animal style decoration and complex patterns that were found in early England, continued to develop over time. According to David M. Wilson, "If we look at the animal ornament on the metalwork of any period between 450 and 950, we can see the same traditions at work. The animal on the Faversham brooch, the animal on the Sutton Hoo clasps, and the animal on the horse trappings of Källby are in a sequence that leads up to Trewhiddle and beyond."

Art historians have recognized important similarities between Trewhiddle art and Irish art, yet no historian has proposed that Trewhiddle art was influenced by Irish art. It is most likely that the animal art of the Trewhiddle objects originated in England and to a small degree was influenced by Continental art from the Mediterranean, Francia, or Celtic world.

Earlier scholars have theorized that the Trewhiddle style was confined to the ninth century. The style has been difficult to date given the lack of independent dating evidence associated with Trewhiddle finds. It has been suggested, as more Trewhiddle artefacts continue to be found, that the birth of the Trehiddle style may have occurred in the eighth century. It has also been suggested, given more recent excavation of  Trewhiddle style artefacts, including those found at Anglo-Saxon sites in Yorkshire in the 1980s and the late 1990s, that the Trewhiddle style continued to be produced in Northern England into the tenth century. Until more information becomes available to Trewhiddle scholars, the style continues to be dated to the ninth century.

Style features 
The Trewhiddle style is recognized for its intricately carved decoration, including animal, plant, interlace and geometric patterns; niello inlays, densely decorated surfaces, and dome-headed rivets. A defining feature is the dividing of the main area of decoration into small panels, typically separated by beaded borders. Panels usually contain a single motif, typically a crouching, backward-looking or biting animal. Speckling of individual motifs was a technique frequently used to create surface texture or movement.

The animal forms are many, including variations of mythical birds, snakes and beasts, usually depicted in profile. Plant motifs vary from intricately carved individual leaves to complete plants, often combined with animal forms and interlace. Interlace is more commonly seen combined with zoomorphic and plant motifs, rather than on its own. When used singly, the interlace pattern is typically simple and closed. When used with plant or animal forms, the decoration is generally a more complex design.

Metalwork 
Trewhiddle style was primarily used to decorate metalwork. During the late Anglo-Saxon era, silver was the precious metal most commonly used to create Trewhiddle style jewellery and to decorate weapons. Viking trade and expansion  during the ninth and tenth centuries brought new supplies of silver from the Near East to England and Scandinavia. The rapid change from the use of gold to silver in metalwork manufacturing, was due to abundant new supplies of silver that were made available to craftsmen during this time period. Subsequently, gold became the preferred metal to manufacture finger-rings or for gilding and inlay.

Weapons 
 
Trewhiddle was a commonly used decoration style for late Anglo-Saxon swords. The Abingdon sword, found near the village of  Abingdon and now in the Ashmolean Museum, is decorated with silver mounts inlaid with niello. The River Witham sword, has a silver Trewhiddle style hilt is decorated with animal motifs, inlaid with niello.  

The sword pommel from the Bedale Hoard, is engraved with panels of gold foil inlay, and decorated with carved, intertwined animals and an intricate gold leaf pattern. The Anglo-Saxon weapon can be dated to the late ninth or early tenth century.

Three sword hilts, all from the Norwegian areas of Høven, Dolven and Gronneberg, were manufactured in the Trewhiddle style, all composed of niello inlays. The Dolven and Gronnenberg hilts are decorated in a similar manner to the River Witham sword. The Høven hilt is decorated with intertwined bird and animal forms, similar in style to the Fuller Brooch.

Jewellery 
 

Anglo-Saxon jewellery during the ninth and early tenth century is renowned for its superb craftsmanship and animated, intricately carved designs. Typically cast in silver, open-work disc brooches decorated in the Trewhiddle style are the most recognized examples of late Anglo-Saxon jewellery style.

The Pentney Hoard is probably the best known example of Trewhiddle style. The Anglo-Saxon treasure was discovered in a Pentney, Norfolk churchyard in 1978. The six silver open-work disc brooches, date to the early 9th century, and include two non-identical brooch pairs and two singleton brooches.

The Æthelwulf
and Æthelswith finger-rings are important examples of Trewhiddle style gold metalwork. The rings belonged to  Æthelwulf, King of Wessex and his daughter, Æthelswith (838-888 AD). Æthelwulf was the father of Alfred the Great. His rule spanned the years between 836 and 858 AD. Ethelswith reigned as Queen of Mercia from 853 to 874, when her husband King Burgred of Mercia died. The rings are significant in that they both contain unusual images of Christian iconography: the Lamb of God is featured on Æthelswith's ring and two peacocks drinking at the Fountain of Life are the central image on Æthelwulf's ring.

The Fuller Brooch, an intricately carved silver and niello inlay brooch, is dated to the late 9th century. The circular brooch illustrates the embodiment of the Five Senses. Belonging to the late Trewhiddle style, and featuring Trewhiddle style animals, birds, plants and humans, the Anglo-Saxon brooch is rare for its use of anthropomorphic motifs. It is considered one of the most famous examples of Anglo-Saxon art.

The Strickland Brooch, a mid-ninth century silver and niello inlay disc brooch is similar in design to the Fuller Brooch. Both pieces of jewellery are made from sheet silver and inlaid with niello and gold. The Strickland Brooch's lively open-work design is elaborately carved with collared dog-like beasts and animal heads.

Strap-ends
Late Anglo-Saxon era strap-ends, accessories used to fasten to the end of a strap or belt to keep it from unraveling, were often decorated in the Trewhiddle style. The eight strap-ends of the Poppleton hoard, discovered near Upper Poppleton, Yorkshire, and dating from the late 9th to early 10th century, are excellent examples of Trewhiddle style metalwork.

See also

 Insular art
 Migration period art
 Celtic art
 Viking art

Notes

References

 

Anglo-Saxon art
English art
Medieval art
9th century in England