Anglo-Saxon Art after Alfred

Abstract

The study of Anglo-Saxon painting usually focuses upon its two greatest periods: the late seventh and eighth centuries when monastic culture first took root and blossomed in England, and the late tenth and eleventh centuries when the so-called Winchester style flourished in a climate of renewed political stability and monastic reform. Much less attention has been devoted to the intervening period. No doubt this is partially due to the scarcity of extant illuminated manuscripts made during the ninth century. This lack of surviving material probably reflects the impoverishment of artistic production in the difficult times of the Scandinavian attacks. But illuminated manuscripts do begin to appear from the end of the century when King Alfred (871–899) re-established a measure of security, and a steady trickle of manuscript production continued until the great renewal of the second half of the tenth century. The position of these late ninth- and early tenth-century works,1 falling between two major periods of Anglo-Saxon art, raises a number of interesting questions concerning their iconographic and stylistic sources, their patronage, and their place in the broader English development. These questions are the subject of this paper.