| The Eleventh Century |
The eleventh century, Ottonian artists in northern Europe, drawing on Roman, Byzantine, and Carolingian models, created a new tradition of large sculpture in wood and bronze that would have a significant influence on later medieval art. An important patron of these sculptural works was Bishop Bernward of Hildesheim. A pair of bronze doors (slide) made under his direction for (his Abbey Church) Saint Michael represented the most ambitious and complex bronze-casting project since antiquity. They stand more than 16 feet tall and are decorated with Old Testament scenes on the left and New Testament scenes on the right, The doors’ rectangular panels recall the framed Miniatures in Carolingian gospel books. Small, extremely active figures populate nearly empty backgrounds. Architectural elements and features of the landscape are depicted in very low relief, forming little more than a shadowy stage for the actors in each scene. The figures stand out prominently, sculpted in varying degrees of relief, with their heads fully modeled in three dimensions, The result is lively and visually stimulating. |
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