The emperors' Middle Ages – Carolingian, Ottonian and Romanesque art
From Charlemagne’s chapel in Aachen to the mighty cathedrals on the Rhine – German art was born in the service of emperors and bishops.
When Charlemagne was crowned emperor in Rome in 800, he wanted to revive the Roman Empire north of the Alps. In Aachen he had a palace chapel built with columns brought from Italy. At his court splendid Gospel books were written and painted. Art was meant to show that the Frankish king was the heir of the ancient emperors and the protector of the Church. The realm was still a land of forests, fields and small settlements. Stone buildings were rare, and that is precisely why the emperor’s chapel made such a strong impression on his contemporaries.
Under the Ottonian emperors, from the mid-10th century, bishops and monasteries became the great patrons of art. The Gero Cross in Cologne is the oldest surviving large crucifix sculpture north of the Alps. On Reichenau in Lake Constance, manuscripts were illuminated with gold backgrounds and large, solemn figures. In Hildesheim Bishop Bernward had bronze doors cast with scenes from the Bible. The images were often commissioned by the emperors themselves as gifts to the Church. In this way art became a means of binding together faith, power and memory.
After the year 1000 the Romanesque cathedrals rose along the Rhine, in Speyer, Mainz and Worms. Thick walls, round arches and mighty towers gave them the character of fortresses of God. At the same time the goldsmith’s art reached a high point. Nicholas of Verdun created the enamel altar at Klosterneuburg outside Vienna and began work on the Shrine of the Three Kings in Cologne. Towards the end of the period the first Gothic forms began to find their way in from France. But in Germany the heavy Romanesque style was retained for a long time.