Ottonian metalwork and jewelry

The Ottonian style characterizes a cross between German and Byzantine, superior in both technicality and delicacy. Objects for decorating churches such as crosses, reliquaries, altar frontals and treasure bindings for books were all made of or covered by gold, embellished with gems, enamels, crystals, and cameos. This was a much older style, but the Ottonian version has distinctive features, with very busy decoration of surfaces, often gems raised up from the main surface on little gold towers, accompanied by "beehive" projections in gold wire, and figurative reliefs in repoussé gold decorating areas between the bars of enamel and gem decoration. Relics were assuming increasing importance, sometimes political, in this period, and so increasingly rich reliquaries were made to hold them. In such works the gems do not merely create an impression of richness, but served both to offer a foretaste of the bejewelled nature of the Celestial city, and particular types of gem were believed to have actual powerful properties in various "scientific", medical and magical respects, as set out in the popular lapidary books. The few surviving pieces of secular jewellery are in similar styles, including the crown worn by Otto III as a child, which he presented to the Golden Madonna of Essen after he outgrew it.

Examples of crux gemmata or processional crosses include an outstanding group in the Essen Cathedral Treasury; several abbesses of Essen Abbey were Ottonian princesses. The Cross of Otto and Mathilde, Cross of Mathilde and the Essen cross with large enamels were probably all given by Mathilde, Abbess of Essen (died 1011), and a fourth cross, the Theophanu Cross came some fifty years later. The Cross of Lothair (Aachen) and Imperial Cross (Vienna) were imperial possessions; Vienna also has the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire. The book cover of the Codex Aureus of Echternach (Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg) is in a very comparable style. Other major objects include a reliquary of St Andrew surmounted by a foot in Trier, and gold altar frontals for the Palace Chapel, Aachen and Basel Cathedral (now in Paris). The Palace Chapel also has the pulpit or Ambon of Henry II. The late Carolingian upper cover of the Lindau Gospels (Morgan Library, New York) and the Arnulf Ciborium in Munich were important forerunners of the style, from a few decades before and probably from the same workshop.

Large objects in non-precious metals were also made, with the earliest surviving wheel chandeliers from the end of the period, a huge candelabra in Essen, and in particular a spectacular collection of ambitious large bronze works, and smaller silver ones, at Hildesheim Cathedral from the period of Bishop Bernward (died 1022), who was himself an artist, although his biographer was unusually honest in saying that he did not reach "the peaks of perfection". The most famous of these is the pair of church doors, the Bernward Doors, with biblical figure scenes in bronze relief, each cast in a single piece, where the powerfully simple compositions convey their meanings by emphatic gestures, in a way comparable to the Reichenau miniatures of the same period. There is also a bronze column, the Bernward Column, 3.79 metres (12.4 ft) high, originally the base for a crucifix, cast in a single hollow piece. This unusual form is decorated with twenty-four scenes from the ministry of Jesus in a continuous strip winding round the column in the manner of Trajan's Column and other Roman examples.

Around 980, Archbishop Egbert of Trier seems to have established the major Ottonian workshop producing cloisonné enamel in Germany, which is thought to have fulfilled orders for other centres, and after his death in 993 possibly moved to Essen. During this period the workshop followed Byzantine developments (of many decades earlier) by using the senkschmelz or "sunk enamel" technique in addition to the vollschmelz one already used. Small plaques with decorative motifs derived from plant forms continued to use vollschmelz, with enamel all over the plaque, while figures were now usually in senkschmelz, surrounded by a plain gold surface into which the outline of the figure had been recessed. The Essen cross with large enamels illustrated above shows both these techniques.

Goldsmithing

Ottonian goldwork is divided into two broad categories: secular works and sacred works. On the one hand, there are insignia of imperial power (regalia), notably crowns. To these symbols of power can be added certain ornaments such as bridal jewelry. On the other hand, there is a large quantity of liturgical objects (ornamenta): codex covers, antependiums, various statuettes and crucifixes.

The goldsmithing follows Carolingian models, although enamels are more prominent. Two workshops are notable: the one in Trier, sponsored by Bishop Egbert, and the one in Essen, founded by Matilda, the granddaughter of Otto I, who was abbess there from 973 to 1001. Among the pieces preserved from this period are:

The Golden Altar of Basel, now in the Cluny Museum (Paris), dating from the early 11th century, a gift from Emperor Henry II; made of oak with gold.

The Cross of Abbess Matilda in Essen Cathedral

Lothair Cross, in Aachen Cathedral.

The mantle of Henry II, in Bamberg, embroidered in gold and silk on a blue background, with the Zodiac and religious themes.

Gold cover of the Codex Aureus of Echternach (German National Museum, Nuremberg)

The Great Imperial Crown, one of the most important objects associated with Otto I, is kept in the Imperial Treasury chamber in the Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna. It is made up of eight large sheets, some with set stones and others with cloisonné enamels, depicting figures such as King Solomon. Only in Italy could there have been artisans trained in the Byzantine tradition who mastered the technique to make such a work. It was most likely made for the coronation of Otto I in Rome (962), and underwent two later additions: a small cross mounted on the front, which was probably made for Otto II after his succession in 973; and an arch that passes over the crown, on which there is an inscription with the name of the Emperor Conrad II, crowned in 1027, which is why it is sometimes also called the "crown of Conrad II".

Regalia

As for the regalia, we can notably mention the crown of the Holy Roman Empire, an octagonal crown probably made in northern Italy and composed of eight plates, perhaps for the coronation of Otto I, to which an arch and a cross were added at the time of Henry II. The crown of the Virgin of Essen is a fleur-de-lis crown, perhaps designed around 980 for the coronation of Otto III (at the age of three), and used for the Golden Virgin of Essen from the time of Abbess Matilda, niece of Otto I.

Liturgical objects

Many Ottonian liturgical objects have been preserved. Among the luxurious codex covers, we note that of the Book of Pericopes of Henry II, that of the Gospel of Otto III, that of the Codex Aureus of Echternach, but also two remarkable Lombard covers: the Peace of Aribert, whose embossed gold crucifixion in the round is surrounded by a network of enamels, and the Peace of Chiavenna, presenting an aniconic cross surrounded by embossed gold blades presenting the symbols of the four evangelists, and various figurative or decorative enamel plaques.

Among the larger pieces, one of the best known is the golden antependium of Basel Cathedral, and to these we can add the monumental elements designed for St. Michael of Hildesheim by Bernward: the doors cast from a single block and presenting eight scenes from each testament, and the column depicting the life of Christ. We must also mention the reliquary known as the foot of St. Andrew, produced in Trier for relics collected by Egbert. Finally, from Lombardy comes the crucifix of Aribert, in gilded copper.

There are more works of smaller dimensions, notably statuettes: the Golden Virgin of Essen in particular, or the Virgin and Child of Hildesheim, in gilded wood. Crucifixes are especially numerous: the cross of the Holy Roman Empire (around 1030), a strictly aniconic crux gemmata; the cross of Lothair, aniconic but incorporating an antique cameo of Augustus and, lower down, a seal representing Lothair II, constitute the most beautiful examples. We can also cite the crucifix of Matilda, made in Cologne, the base of which is decorated with an enamel representing Matilda and her brother Otto ; the cross of Gisela of Hungary, made in Regensburg at the initiative of Gisela, sister of Henry II, in memory of their mother Gisela of Burgundy. We must also mention the silver crucifix of Bernward, whose finesse (which we also notice on the candelabra of Bernward) prefigures Romanesque realism.

Sourced from Wikipedia