Anglo-Saxon Styles

by Catherine E. Karkov (editor), George Hardin Brown (Editor)

In the introduction to this study the editors argue that the Anglo-Saxon visual and literary arts can not be defined by a single style, but that Anglo-Saxon styles are characterised by ambiguity and a love of complex pattern and surface ornament and, through social and political messages, are meant to stimulate furtehr enquiry from their audience. Using style as a critical tool for investigating the period, the fourteen essays presented here discuss minor arts, monuments, stone scultpure, ivory carvings, manuscripts, poetry and other literary forms. In doing so they seek ways of defining and classifying style, draw attention to how styles can conflict, how it can transmit ideas, symbolise affiliation, they discuss why styles were copied and imitated in art and literature and also look at personal rather than collective or group style.

328 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2003

About the author

Catherine Karkov is professor of History of Art and head of the School of Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies at the University of Leeds. Her research centres on early medieval art, especially Anglo-Saxon art, and she has published two monographs, one on Anglo-Saxon art, and one on the relation between text and image in Anglo-Saxon literature. In the latter, whose focus is on MS Junius 11, she argues that a complete edition of the manuscript leaves out the many illustrations at its own peril; these illustrations occur at dramatic moments in the four poems and help elucidate the allegorical import of many passages.