Book contents
- Image and Ornament in the Early Medieval West
- Image and Ornament in the Early Medieval West
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Plates
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- I Moving beyond Dichotomies
- II New Perspectives
- Three Art, Archaeology, and Agency
- Four The Bewilderment Principle
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Four - The Bewilderment Principle
Ornament and Surface
from II - New Perspectives
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 January 2023
- Image and Ornament in the Early Medieval West
- Image and Ornament in the Early Medieval West
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Plates
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- I Moving beyond Dichotomies
- II New Perspectives
- Three Art, Archaeology, and Agency
- Four The Bewilderment Principle
- Conclusion
- References
- Index
- Plate Section (PDF Only)
Summary
Ornamentation is a well-established area of research in early medieval art and archaeology with many formalist studies focussing on questions related to style and motif. Only rarely discussed, however, are the material and aesthetic properties of early medieval ‘ornament’ and ‘surface’. In terms of the ‘Germanic’ early Middle Ages, it is most often animal art or animal style that is considered in scholarship. The initial aim of this chapter was similarly to address such art, but the work has developed into an analysis of agency and aesthetics informing ornament and surface beyond specific stylistic boundaries. The chapter argues that variety (varietas) was an influential and important aesthetic principle in the early Middle Ages.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Image and Ornament in the Early Medieval WestNew Perspectives on Post-Roman Art, pp. 132 - 170Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023