II.—The Jutish Style A. A Study of Germanic Animal Art in Southern England in the Fifth Century A.D

Abstract

In 1915 Professor Baldwin Brown drew attention to a class of metalwork, found in Anglo-Saxon graves in the south of England, and decorated with examples of a distinctive animal style, more naturalistic than Anglo-Saxon style I. This style he considered to be a direct descendant of late Roman art forms, although produced, not in the years immediately following the Anglo-Saxon settlement, but after a considerable time lapse, towards the middle of the sixth century. A similar view was expressed in 1923 by Reginald Smith. Nils Åberg, writing in 1926, was noncommittal about dates, but saw the inspiration for the style in a blend of late Roman and Eastern Mediterranean tradition. It was not until 1936, however, that a more detailed critical estimate of the objects was published, this time by E. T. Leeds in his Early Anglo-Saxon Art and Archaeology. Leeds compared their decoration with that of examples of Gallo-Roman art in the late fourth and early fifth centuries and concluded that they came from the same style milieu. He wrote:All the pieces here noticed clearly belong to a cultural phase, presenting indeed many affinities to the Germanic style of the settlement period; but, in reality, they represent a continental style antecedent to that development in southern England. … There is every reason to believe that they are objects ante-dating the invasion, and, if it is desired to know what native women were wearing before or at the time of Hengist’s landing, this group supplies the information.