Ottonian Renaissance
The
Ottonian Renaissance was a limited
renaissance that accompanied the reigns of the first three
emperors of the
Saxon Dynasty, all named Otto:
Otto I (
936–
973),
Otto II (
973–
983), and
Otto III (
983–
1002), and which in large part depended upon their patronage. The Ottonian Renaissance began after Otto's marriage to
Adelaide (951) united the kingdoms of Italy and Germany and thus brought the West closer to Byzantium and furthered the cause of Christian (political) unity with his imperial coronation in 963. The period is sometimes extended to cover the reign of
Henry II as well, and, rarely, the
Salian dynasts. The term is generally confined to Imperial court culture conducted in Latin in
Germany[Kenneth Sidwell, Reading Medieval Latin (Cambridge University Press, 1995) takes the end of Otto III's reign as the close of the Ottonian Renaissance.].
The Ottonian Renaissance is recognized especially in the
arts and
architecture, invigorated by renewed contact with
Constantinople, in some revived cathedral schools, such as that of
Bruno of Cologne, in the production of
illuminated manuscripts from a handful of elite
scriptoria, such as
Quedlinburg, founded by Otto in 936, and in
political ideology, The Imperial court became the center of religious and spiritual life, led by the example of women of the royal family:
Matilda of Ringelheim the literate mother of Otto I, or his sister
Gerberga of Saxony, or his consort
Adelaide, or
Empress Theophano.
After Otto I's imperial coronation in
963, there emerged a renewed faith in the idea of Empire in Otto's immediate circle and a reformed church, creating a period of heightened cultural and artistic fervor. Ottonian art was a court art, created to confirm a direct Holy and Imperial lineage as a source of legitimized power linked from from Constantine and Justinian. In this atmosphere the masterpieces that were created fused the traditions which the new art was based on: paintings from
Late Antiquity, the
Carolingian period, and
Byzantium. In this way, the term is used as an analogue to the
Carolingian Renaissance which accompanied
Charlemagne's coronation in
800.
A small group of Ottonian monasteries received direct sponsorship from the Emperor and bishops and produced some magnificant medieval illuminated manuscripts, the premier art form of the time.
Corvey produced some of the first manuscripts, followed by the scriptorium at
Hildesheim after 1000. The most famous Ottonian scriptorium was at the island monastery of
Reichenau on Lake Constance: hardly any other works have formed the image of Ottonian art as much as the miniatures which originated there. One of the greatest Reichenau works was the
Codex Egberti, containing narrative miniatures of the life of Christ, the earliest such cycle, in a fusion of styles including Carolingian traditions as well as traces of insular and Byzantine influences. Other well known manuscripts included the Reichenau Evangeliary, the Liuther Codex, the Pericopes of Henry II, the Bamberg Apocalypse and the Hitda Codex.
Hroswitha of Gandersheim characterises the changes which took place during the time. She was a
nun who composed
verse and
drama, based on the
classical works of
Terence. The architecture of the period was also innovative and represents a
predecessor to the later
Romanesque.
Politically, theories of Christian unity and empire thrived, as well as revived classical notions of imperial grandeur in the West. Otto II had a
Greek wife,
Theophano, and Byzantine iconography entered the West. The
globus cruciger became a symbol of kingly power and the Holy Roman Emperors were represented as crowned by Christ in the Byzantine fashion. It was in trying to revive the "glory that was Rome" that Otto III made the
Eternal City his capital and increased in Greco-Roman fashion the ceremony of the court.
*
Hroswitha of Gandersheim*
Otto I,
Otto II,
Otto III, and
Henry II*
Hermannus Contractus*
Gerbert of Aurillac, pope as Sylvester II
*
Theophano*
Guido of Arezzo*
Liutprand of Cremona, author of
Historia Ottonis ("The Deeds of Otto")
*
Bruno I, Archbishop of Cologne*
Widukind of Corvey, author of
Res gestae Saxonicae ("The Deeds of the Saxons")
*
Adelaide, Abbess of Vilich*
Ottonian dynasty*
Ottonian art (
Pre-Romanesque art)
*
Ottonian architecture*
Harlie Kay Gallatin, "Western Europe in the High Middle Ages: An Overview From c. 900 to c. 1300": "Ottonian Renaissance"
*Hermann Aubin,
Otto der Grosse und die Erneuerung des abendländischen Kaisertums im Jahre 962 (1962)
