Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 01.djvu/656

ANGLO-SAXON ART. elaborate examples the surface is decorated with a series of vertical lines of pilaster strips occasionally joined by arched or gabled connecting strips," and the few windows are sometimes arched, sometimes topped with two slanting straight pieces forming gables; while their jambs, or divisions (in two-light windows), are either pilasters or the peculiar baluster colonnettes not found except in this style. There are very few mohlings and verv little sculpture — none of it being figured. In fact, the style is so rude as hardly to rise to the dignity of art.

The Saxons were entirely without monumen- tal sculpture or painting of native growth, and it is only in their industrial arts that their character' emerges at all clearly. Even here they are inferior to "the Goths in their jewelry, enam- eling, and goldsmith work, and to the Irish in their illuminating of manuscripts. Comparison with the Book of Kells, the Gospels of Mac- Kegol, and other Irish illuminations will prove this. It is true that the Gospels of Lindisfarne (British JIuseum) are equal to these works, but they were executed by Saxon pupils of the Irish monks. Another remarkably fine work is the Bencdictional of St. Athelwold. In one particu- lar the Saxon works are superior — in the treat- ment of the human figure, which in Irish works is a mere piece of decorative scroll-work with- out a trace of resemblance to the human form or real drapery. The influence of the pictures and illuminated' WSS. brought to England from Rome, and of the Byzantine MSS., gave the Sax- ons the advantage of good models for subjects of religious art, as is shown in such works as the Cuthbert Gospels (British Jluseum). There are three stvles in Anglo-Saxon illuminations : ( 1 ) stage of' Roman influence, seventh century, when the missionaries from Rome and Benedict Biscop gave Roman models (illustrated by the Golden Stockholm Gospels and the Psalter of St. Augus- tine, British Museum) : (2) stage of Irish influ- ence, with predominance of the geometric orna- ment of beautiful elaborate designs taken from textile fabrics, metal work, and conventionalized animal forms, seventh and eighth centuries (Durham Gospels, Gospels of St. Cuthbert, Brit- ish Museum, Athel wold's Book of Prayers at Cam- bridge) ; (.3) stage of reactive influence of Carlo- ving'ian (Frankish) and Byzantine art, with re- introduction of figured composition and the placing of ornament in the backgiound. This late development was rapid under the direction of SS. Athelwold and Dunstan. in the ninth and tenth centuries (Psalters of King Athelstan, British Museum; Missal of Leofric, Oxford: Gos- pels and Psalter of Boulogne; Gospels called "Bib. Greg." in British Museum: Ca^dmon, Ox- ford: Cotton Psalter, etc.). Certainly the pecu- liar interest of all the Saxon illumination lies in its immense initial letters and full-page geometric ornamentation, in which the artists rivaled the Irish in a field where neither Italian nor Byzantine illuminations had preceded them. They "blazed a way which was followed by all subsequent illuminators in varying degrees: and for delicacy and precision of touch, judicious treatment of surface, and balance of composition, their geometric work has never been surpassed. In their good thouch simple color scheme, one point is remarkal)le— that they never used gold leaf. In this they influenced Carlovingian illumi- nators in direct opposition to the Byzantine style of profuse gold grounds and ornaments. In so far as similarities have been noticed in Scandina- vian works, it is probable that they are due to influences from Great Britain rather than rirc versa. When Charlemagne encouraged art, he found the British monasteries a great resource. The great Bible of St. Denis (British Museum) and the Leipzig Psalter are examples of this Brit- ish influence on illumination among the "Franks. Durins the last stage, when the geometric style was abandoned, extensive composition in pen-and- ink outline became a favorite method of illustra- tion Consult: Rickman, An Attempt to Dis- criminate the Styles of Architecture in England (London, IS48) ; De Baye, The Industrial Arts of the Anglo-Saxons (London, 1893) ; Akerman, Remains of Saxon Saxondom (London, 1853) ; Kemble, Borw Fcralcs (London, 1863) ; Parker, Introdnetion to the Study of Gothic Arehiteeture (London, 1847) ; Westwood, Facsimiles of the Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish Manuscripts (London, 1868) ; also volumes oi the Archo'ologia (London, 1770 /o»). ANGLO-SAXON LAN'GUAGE AND LITERATURE. The term Anglo-Saxon is employed, in popular speech and to some extent among scholars, to designate the language of the Germanic peoples in England before the coming of the Normans (1066). Such, however, was not the usage of those who wrote in the lau.guage. Alfred, .Elfric. and others repeatedly called it Eualise, i.e., English. True, the expressions Angli Saxones aiid Saxoncs Angli, i.e., English Saxons, occur in mediaeval Latin literature, but they were used to distinguish the Saxons in Eng- land from those on the Continent. It was not until the revival of interest in England's earliest history and literature, which dates from Camden's Britannia (1586), that the compound ". Anglo-Saxon" made its appearance, to denote, without any reference to their Continental kinsmen, the entire English people and their language. This designation was generally followed by historians and'^philologists "down t'o 1875. Since then an increasing number of them have adopted the usage of King Alfred. To the earliest period in the history of the English language they have given the name Old English. The term Anglo- t^axon, it is argued, is misleading; for it seems to imply that our language before the Norman conquest was not English. It is, of course, ad- mitted that the English language underwent gieat phonetic and inflectional changes in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries; and yet Eng- lish has always remained English. On this con- tinuity in the development of our speech, the proper emphasis is laid by the term Old English. For this and other reasons, it has seemed best to treat the so-called Anglo-Saxon language and lit- erature under, and . AN'GLO-SAX'ON LAW. The body of law of the Anfflo-Saxons. It was not until the close of the nineteenth century that historical investigation enabled one to form even a tolerably clear conception of the legal system that prevailed in England prior to the Norman conquest. The earliest written records of that system are the Anglo-Saxon "dooms," or judgments, which o-o back to the sixth century of our era. From the time of Ethelbert of Kent to that of Edward the Confessor these records, though fragmentary, appear in an almost unbroken series, supplemented by land charters and wills, collect-