![\"saxon-carving-3441008\"](\"https:\/\/englishhistory.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/saxon-carving-3441008.jpeg\")
<\/a>Therefore the key elements which typify English art are: Yet our knowledge of our earliest English art is sadly somewhat fragmentary. Intentional or accidental destruction and the rebuilding of later centuries mean that few Anglo-Saxon buildings survive in anything like their original state. The interiors of churches would once have glowed with colour, but now almost nothing remains of the wall paintings or of the costly fabrics (sometimes made of silk interwoven with gold) that adorned the altars. Articles made of gold and silver were prime targets for plunder during the Viking invasions<\/a>, and almost all of the fine Anglo-Saxon metalwork that we now possess has been dug up after being buried for safekeeping. We know from literary accounts that the early English attached great importance to beautiful and costly objects such as church plate and royal regalia, but the destruction of these has been so wholesale that C. R. Dodwell begins his book \u201cAnglo-Saxon Art: A New Perspective\u201d (1982) with the words \u201cThe Anglo-Saxon arts which attract most attention today would have had little interest for the Anglo-Saxon writers\u201d. That is to say, early English Anglo-Saxon art was stupendous in its quality and design. So much for the \u2018dark ages\u2019…!<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is another way in which our knowledge of early English art is fragmentary, for we often know little or nothing about the precise circumstances in which surviving objects were made. Anglo-Saxon artists occasionally signed their work, and we know the identity of others from documents, but they are usually nothing but names. By the same token, most early English art can be dated only approximately. Sometimes there are inscriptions to help us, and objects that are found in the tomb of a known person can usually be associated with the time of that person, but Anglo-Saxon sculpture, for example, generally has to be dated solely on the grounds of style (by comparison with manuscript illustrations of known date). Historians of architecture sometimes differ by centuries in the date they assign to old English buildings or parts of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nevertheless, in spite of all these difficulties, the broad outlines of the development of Anglo-Saxon art can be discerned reasonably clearly. There were two main periods of achievement, with between them a bleak time when the country was overrun by marauders from Scandinavia. Remains dating from before the 7th century are at present extremely scanty and belong more to the realm of archaeology than to art. The first great achievements are the magnificent jewelled objects found in a ship burial at\u00a0Sutton Hoo<\/a>\u00a0in Suffolk, dating from about 625 AD. These are heathen, but thereafter the finest works were predominantly produced for the Christian Church. At this time England was divided into a number of small kingdoms and initially the artistic lead was taken in Northumbria, in the north of England, where monks from Ireland (rather than Rome) were the major missionaries (St Aidan came to England from Ireland in 635 AD and founded a monastery on Lindisfarne, or Holy Island, under the auspices of St Oswald, the Christian king of Northumbria). Towards the end of the 8th century, Danish Vikings began to raid England and later to settle. They caused great destruction, and the kingdom of Wessex, in the south of the country, was the only one to survive. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Alfred the Great, who reigned from 871 to 899 AD, led the revival against these Viking invaders, and in the 10th century his successors as kings of Wessex gained control over the rest of the country. From this time until the Norman Conquest, the south dominated the country artistically as well as politically, Winchester being the main cultural centre. This period, and particularly the century before the Norman Conquest, is sometimes referred to as the \u201cgolden age\u201d of early English art and certainly the finest English art of this time was a match for anything produced on the Continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2022 Its linear style
\u2022 Its narrative subject matter- much of it being pure fantasy.
\u2022 A fusion of the abstract with the naturalistic, much of the detail being subtly ambiguous.
\u2022 It\u2019s visionary quality.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a>625 AD: Sutton Hoo helmet – Anglian metalworking at its finest<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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The wealth of the find, including many objects of gold and works of unsurpassed craftsmanship, indicate that it was probably the grave of a royal personage from the early English era. Likely candidates include King R\u00e6dwald (pro. Rad) of East Anglia, who died c. 627, or \u00c6thelhere, who died in battle in Northumbria in c. 654-655. The ship itself, originally over 27 m (90 ft) long and with 38 oars, was preserved as an impression in the sand with the iron bolts still in position.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n625 AD: Anglo Saxon jewellery from the Sutton Hoo hoard<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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