File:History of mediæval art (1893) (14777192431).jpg

Identifier: historyofmedival00rebe (find matches)
Title: History of mediæval art
Year: 1893 (1890s)
Authors: Reber, Franz von, 1834-1919 Clarke, Joseph Thacher, d. 1920
Subjects: Art, Medieval
Publisher: New York : Harper & Bros.
Contributing Library: Boston Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: Boston Public Library

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of an earlier date. The later one-aisled structures or ba-silicas, with the clerestory walls supported upon piers, such as thoseof Sigtuna on the lake of Maelar, and Alfuaster in East Gothland,are too rude and wanting in ornamentation to be treated as worksof art. The first important edifice of Sweden, the Church of Warn-heim, was built towards the end of the twelfth century by Cister-cian immigrants, and is consequently without interest in this con-nection. It may be assumed, however, that as this structure displaysthe forms of the German Romanic style, Sweden was in generalmore influenced by the artistic culture of Germany than by thatof Normandy. The commerce of the country had been chieflydirected towards the coasts of the Baltic Ocean, and it is naturalthat the elements of civilization should have been introduced fromthis direction. Thus Sweden was brought into closer relations withDenmark than was Norway, notwithstanding the political union ofthe two latter countries. lip j\Ai~v
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Fig. 245.—Fragment of a Mosaic Pavement in the Crypt of St. Gereon in Cologne. PAINTING OF THE ROMANIC EPOCH. THROUGHOUT the Middle Ages architecture was of greaterimportance than the other arts, and this was especially thecase during the Romanic epoch. New constructive ideas, new dec-orative forms, and all the elements of a new architectural style, ofgreat variety and capability of development, had sprung from thecombination of the early Christian and Byzantine methods of build-ing. Paintings and sculptures, on the other hand, remained ofsubordinate importance. They were seldom employed otherwisethan as adjuncts to the works of architecture, and did not attainto an independent position until a later period. While the art ofbuilding in almost all Christian countries was, more than any otherphase of intellectual activity, distinctly representative of nationalpeculiarities, painting and sculpture remained in the trammels ofa monotonous international tradition. Methods of building and

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