Architecture of the Anglosaxon Church, 735 to 870
From Archbishop Ecgberht to Achbishop Ceolnoth
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 19342015 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Richard Gem (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1993 |
| Volume | 146 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 29-66 |
| Publication date | 1993-01-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of the British Archaeological Association (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0068-1288 • E-ISSN: 1747-6704 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1179/jba.1993.146.1.29 |
| OpenAlex | W2006119389 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
There has for too long been an assumption, sometimes tacit and sometimes explicit, that the period from the middle of the eighth century to the latter part of the ninth formed something of an hiatus in Anglo-Saxon architecture. This view has arisen to some extent, no doubt, because of the difficulty of establishing firm dates in this period for any large number of surviving buildings. But it has arisen also, I believe, because there has been no conceptual model that could provide a key to understanding the architectural history of the period — or if there has been a model it has been the wrong one: a picture of Viking destruction starting in 793 inhibiting the construction of new buildings for a century. Yet this view ought to have been challenged if only because it accords so badly with other facts from the cultural history of the period: first, with the fact that on the Continent this very period is that which sees the flowering of the Carolingian renascence; secondly, with the fact that many of the most important surviving works of Anglo-Saxon sculpture, manuscript painting and metalwork are dated between the mid eighth and mid ninth centuries.The method of this paper has been to marshal certain facts about the history of the Anglo-Saxon church (facts well known in themselves to ecclesiastical historians) and to suggest that they indicate a context within which we should expect to find requirements for church buildings of various types. Against this expectation the evidence for actual buildings has been surveyed, and it has been established that a number of important churches can reasonably be dated to this context. Once recognised, it becomes easier to see that these buildings not only provide evidence of a flourishing tradition of Anglo-Saxon architecture through the second half of the eighth century and the first half of the ninth, but also that in some cases they display a knowledge of contemporary trends in the construction and decoration of Continental buildings of the Carolingian period. Future research will no doubt change our detailed perception of some of the buildings presented here, but I believe that despite this the general picture will hold, so that in future we may be able to see this period as one of considerable significance in Anglo-Saxon architectural history
Aesthetics · Ancient history · Archaeology · Archbishop · Art · Art history · Context (archaeology) · Early modern period · History of architecture · Literature · Middle Ages · Ninth · Painting · Period (music) · Sculpture · Architecture · Classics · Historical and Archaeological Studies · History · Medieval Architecture and Archaeology · Medieval Literature and History
The Ninth-Century Polychrome Decoration at St Mary's Church, Deerhurst
The Evidence for a Pre-Viking Church Adjacent to the Anglo-Saxon Barrow at Taplow, Buckinghamshire
St Helen's Church, Skipwith, North Yorkshire
The Symbolic Lives of Late Anglo-Saxon Settlements
Palaces or minsters? Northampton and Cheddar reconsidered
The Discovery of an Anglo-Saxon Painted Figure at St Mary's Church, Deerhurst, Gloucestershire
The Eastern Parts of the Anglo-Saxon Church of St Wystan at Repton
| Citations per year | 0.23 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1995 - 2018 (24) |
| Highly cited | No |