Early Medieval
The Christianized Visigoths ruled Iberia after the collapse of the Empire, and the rich 7th century Treasure of Guarrazar, probably deposited to avoid looting in the Muslim Conquest of Spain, is now a unique survival of Christian votive crowns in gold; though Spanish in style, the form was probably then used by elites across Europe. Other Visigothic art in the form of metalwork, mostly jewellery and buckles, and stone reliefs, survives to give an idea of the culture of this originally barbarian Germanic people, who kept themselves very largely separate from their Iberian subjects, and whose rule crumbled when the Muslims arrived in 711.
The jewelled crux gemmata Victory Cross, La Cava Bible and the Agate Casket of Oviedo are survivals from the 9-10th century of the rich Pre-Romanesque culture of the Asturias region in north-western Spain, which remained under Christian rule; the Santa María del Naranco banqueting house overlooking Oviedo, completed in 848 and later surviving as a church, is a unique survival in Europe. The Codex Vigilanus, completed in 976 in the region of Rioja, shows a complex mixture of several styles.
Read more about this topic: Spanish Art
Famous quotes containing the words early and/or medieval:
“Long before I wrote stories, I listened for stories. Listening for them is something more acute than listening to them. I suppose it’s an early form of participation in what goes on. Listening children know stories are there. When their elders sit and begin, children are just waiting and hoping for one to come out, like a mouse from its hole.”
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“Nothing in medieval dress distinguished the child from the adult. In the seventeenth century, however, the child, or at least the child of quality, whether noble or middle-class, ceased to be dressed like the grown-up. This is the essential point: henceforth he had an outfit reserved for his age group, which set him apart from the adults. These can be seen from the first glance at any of the numerous child portraits painted at the beginning of the seventeenth century.”
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