BARBARIC ART. — Under the name of barbaric art are included the artistic manifestations of the northern peoples, and in particular of the Germanic race, who between the 4th and 9th centuries invaded the territory of the Roman Empire. Moreover, under this definition are also included the art of peoples who remained outside the Roman orbit, such as the Scandinavians or the Irish, and of some nomadic peoples, e.g., the Avars or Scythians, who came from Asia.
Most scholars have taken the year 375 as the beginning of the migration and therefore of the manifestations, which are of greater interest to us, of barbaric art. But the movement of the northern peoples and the development of their art had already begun much earlier, with the struggle of the Germans against the Roman Empire (around 166) and with the advance of the Marcomanni and the Goths, who moved from the Baltic to the Black Sea, bringing in their works traces of the contacts they had had with the Mediterranean peoples: important works of Roman art (goldsmithing, ceramics, glassware and examples of glyptic art) had in fact penetrated as early as the first centuries (treasure of Hildesheim) even into Scandinavian countries; without, however, removing from the art of Germany of this period the preponderance of Celtic influence. But in the making of some categories of objects, on the other hand, technical peculiarities are found, such as, for example, filigree, which demonstrate contacts with the culture of Hellenistic southern Russia and the Danubian countries. In the 3rd century, in the new kingdoms of the Goths, in southern Russia, and of the Vandals, in Slovakia, an already characteristic art developed: for the first time, for example, a type of wide fibula (derived from Roman prototypes) appears, which later becomes common to the art of all Germanic peoples (examples in the tombs of Sacra near Breslau, dated around the year 300). Soon after, the adoption of glass pastes and stones is also noted. It is clearly seen how in the first period, i.e., until the middle of the 6th century, geometric ornamentation and color predominate, and how later, until the middle of the 8th century, ornamentation with animal forms develops, stylized and deformed in an abstract manner; the human form is almost completely absent.
The various artistic products of the different ethnic groups gradually differentiate themselves more distinctly from one another, even if contacts exist between them. Thus the art of the Black Sea Goths is distinguished from that of the same Goths occupying Italy, and the art of the western peoples who formed the Merovingian kingdom (Franks, Thuringians, Alemanni and Bavarians), of the Lombards (after the year 568) in Italy, of the Angles, Saxons and Jutes in England (from the middle of the 5th century) and of the Nordic peoples in Denmark and the Scandinavian peninsula is more clearly defined.
Among the objects of barbaric art preserved today, very few are religious works, such as the gold crosses from Lombard tombs in Italy and southern Germany; of sculpture, the decoration of Lombard monuments in northern Italy and of Visigothic churches in Spain is especially known. In architecture, as shown by the churches of Ravenna or Capua, old forms of Italian art predominate; only the Visigoths create an autonomous style.
Of great importance for the development of barbaric art is the work of the Goths. In the great kingdom they created during the 3rd century in southern Russia, they underwent various influences: of the old Hellenistic culture of the country, of provincial Roman art, Sarmatian, Persian and of the peoples of Central Asia. From this mixture of different styles dominated by the Gothic taste, a new style of well-defined character emerges around the beginning of the 4th century, of which the liveliness of color is typical. Goldsmithing, as seen in the treasure of Petrossa before 376 (now lost), shows a very rich use of precious stones, destined to develop even more during the 5th century. For the most part, goldsmithing is worked in cloisons (cloisonné); this technique of inserting stones, especially red almandines, into cells comes from Persian and Indian art; the stones themselves used by the Goths were mostly supplied, already cut, from India.
New and characteristic of this phase of barbaric art is also the type of eagle-shaped fibula, of gold and almandines, which becomes increasingly stylized in the form of the animal, as shown by the fibula of Cesena from 500 B.C. Objects of this type were also produced by the Visigoths during their kingdom in southern France (412-507); their art, however, becomes coarser during their occupation of Spain (507-711). The most famous treasure of that period is that of Guarrazar with the votive crowns of Swinthila (621-631) and of Recceswinth (649-672), preserved in the museum of Madrid. Even Spanish architecture draws on the Visigothic style. The most beautiful churches are found at S. Juan de Baños (661), at S. Pedro de Nava, at S. Miguel de Lino near Oviedo, to which, for formal characteristics, the great royal hall of Naranco (c. 750) is joined. The ornamental decoration of this monument recalls that of the church of S. Pedro de Nave and still shows the influence of wood ornamentation, typical of Germanic art.
Technically different, although often with almandine decoration, are the works of the Ostrogoths in Italy (443-555), as seen in the fragments of the cuirass of Theodoric, once in the museum of Ravenna. The cloisonné arrangement, composed of triangles surmounted by disks, recalls the frieze that recurs on the exterior of the king's tomb in Ravenna.
The Lombards left few traces during their wanderings. They produced genuine works of art especially after their arrival in Italy (568-774), learning from the Goths the technique of cloisons (Zellenverglasung), and filigree from the East. As ornamentation they prefer interlacings, as seen not only in goldsmithing (e.g., the crosses from tombs) but also in sculpture. Animal ornamentation reached the Lombards from the north and developed in their art later, after 630. But in time Lombard culture adapted more and more to Italian taste, also undergoing Byzantine influence; thus among the objects found in the tombs of Nocera Umbra and Castel Trosino (Rome, National Museum and Palazzo Venezia Museum) or of Civezzano (Cividale, Museum) there are purely Byzantine ornaments.
Among the most important works are some pieces belonging to Queen Theodolinda, such as the binding of an evangelary, given to her by Pope Gregory the Great in 603, the fragment of a helmet with the portrait of King Agilulf (591-615), of more properly barbaric workmanship (Florence, Bargello Museum). The sculptural ornaments, with the same motifs of interlacings or animal figures (Rome and Ravenna), are more strongly influenced by the Italian style. Certainly worked by Lombards was the altar that Duke Ratchis (744-749) erected in S. Martino in Cividale in memory of his father Pemmo; to which is similar the baldachin of Patriarch Callistus (c. 740). More refined is the style of the sarcophagus of Theodore (d. 720) in Pavia, and that of S. Cumiano in Bobbio, where, alongside Byzantine forms, Irish motifs are found, such as those also found in the miniatures of northern Italy (scriptoria of Verona, Bobbio or Novara).
The art of the peoples of the Merovingian kingdom underwent until the end of the 6th century the strong influence of provincial Roman art, as seen also in ceramics and glassware, and together with that of Gothic art, to which is owed the love of color. In a second period (600-750) an autonomous style
Barbaric, art - Gold crown decorated with gems from the Guarrazar treasure (7th century) - Madrid, Museo del Prado, formerly in the Cluny Museum.
Art which is expressed especially in goldsmithing, although works with oblique engravings still reveal derivations from Roman art. In Italy, arising from contact with the Lombards, interest in alveoli is noted; there are, probably coming from the Anglo-Saxons (mid-6th century), the first influences of the so-called animal style. German art also produced liturgical vessels, such as the chalice of Duke Tassilo at Kremsmünster (777), or reliquaries, like the fine example from Chur, and was often sensitive to Irish influences, especially in miniature painting (e.g., the scriptorium of St. Gall, the works of Corbie, Luxeuil, Fleury, Laon, in which, however, Eastern traces remain). Greater relations with the old Roman culture are noted in the western areas (Trevi, Mainz, Cologne), where some ivories are certainly still worked by foreigners, perhaps Orientals.
The Germanic peoples—Saxons, Angles, and Jutes—who invaded England between 441 and 449 brought with them the art of their old countries. But by the end of the 6th century they had become independent and developed an autonomous style, which divided into a group around Kent of Jutes, who maintained contacts with Merovingian art, and a group of Anglo-Saxons in the north. In the various pieces of the Sutton Hoo treasure from the beginning of the 7th century (British Museum), decorated in different techniques with filigree, glass, and stones such as almandine, contacts with Frankish, Lombard, Scandinavian, and important pieces from Byzantium are recognized.
With Christianity, around the mid-7th century, new currents entered. From Kent also came Irish influences in goldsmithing and painting, with the animal style (Book of Durrow, late 7th century). In sculpture, characteristic are the stone crosses, of which the oldest example is that of Collingham (Yorkshire) of 651, with interlacements and the symbols of the Evangelists; in the more important crosses (Ruthwell and Bewcastle) Eastern Christian influences are evident, which also persist in the very important miniatures.
The art of the Scandinavian countries developed in a much more homogeneous and indigenous manner, although here too foreign contributions were not lacking, so that this art more clearly represents the characteristics of northern barbaric art. The colorism, which in the 6th century came from Pontic culture, did not last long, since the invasion of the Huns (375) cut off relations with those populations; more important were the influences of provincial Roman art and western Germany, which provided geometric and vegetable motifs, while animal motifs, which by the second half of the 5th century had already entered Scandinavian art as an inheritance from provincial Roman art transmitted by the Anglo-Saxons, in the 6th century almost completely invaded every decoration; around 600 the ornaments lost their original stylization due to Lombard and Aleman influences (tombs of Vendel in Sweden). In another phase, around the beginning of the 8th century, animal motifs became more organic in ornamental distribution but even more abstract in form; they then seem to provoke, at the beginning of the 9th century, the reaction toward the plasticism proper to Viking art (800–1100), which is not without Anglo-Saxon and even Carolingian contributions; in the 9th and 10th centuries some vegetable motifs show contacts with the East (in the 11th and 12th centuries acanthus also appears, used on the continent), and the first Christian motifs emerge that recall Irish miniatures, as shown by the Jelling stone (c. 980) with the image of the crucifix and the reverse occupied by a large beast, similar to what occurs in wooden works (door of the Urnes church, 11th century, in Norway, and reliquaries in the cathedral of Cammin, c. 1000). Even textile art still recalls, in the Skog tapestries (12th century), the stylized art of the rune stones, while in that of Baldishol (Oslo, museum) it follows French prototypes. - V. Tavv. LIII-LIV.