Ottonian art (ŏtō`nēən), art produced (c.900–1050) in the East Frankish kingdom of Germany known, after the emperors Otto (936–1002), as the Ottonian kingdom. Influenced by Byzantine and Carolingian forms, Ottonian basilicas, such as St. Michael at Hildesheim (1001–36), are simple, blocklike, symmetrical structures with wide aisles and vast expanses of bare wall. Ottonian religious sculpture is monumental in scale and executed with clear, round forms and highly expressive facial features. The wooden Gero Crucifix (969–76; Cologne Cathedral) reflects a humanitarian concern for the sufferings of Jesus. Sophisticated relief bronzes were cast for the cathedral doors at Hildesheim (1015). Ottonian manuscript illumination was superbly developed; produced at several flourishing artistic centers, including Regensburg and Fulda, it combined Carolingian and Byzantine influences. Manuscripts such as the Gospel Book of Otto II are two-dimensional, figural, and linear, incorporating much gold leaf.

Bibliography

See J. Beckwith, Early Medieval Art (1985); K. N. Ciggaar, Byzantium and the Low Countries in the Tenth Century: Aspects of Art and History in the Ottonian Era (1985).

Ottonian art

Painting, sculpture, and other visual arts produced during the reigns of the German Ottonian emperors and their first successors from the Salic house (950–1050). Though it drew on the heritage of Carolingian art, it developed a style of its own, particularly in painting and sculpture. Manuscript illuminators of the period were less concerned with naturalism than with expression through sober, dramatic gesture and a heightened use of colour. Ottonian large-scale wooden crucifixes and wooden reliquaries covered with gold leaf marked a return to sculpture in the round. Bronze casting, an antique art practiced by the Carolingians, flourished as well. Ottonian architecture was more regulated than Carolingian, with simple interior spaces and a more systematic layout. Ottonian architects provided impetus for the monumentality of Romanesque architecture.