Saint Joan of Arc

Saint Joan of Arc

The Lindau Gospel Book Cover is a signatory representative of the early and mid 9th century due to its quality to compel and garner admiration from the common masses. The cover exemplifies the attributes of many other works from its period. It is a safe assumption that the majority of the citizens that lived during the time these works were created couldn’t read, and that works of art such as the book cover could function as a metaphor for the story contained within. Stories like the Passion could be depicted on a slab of stone or pressed into a sheet of gold to show levels of importance on particular moments.

One example of a multi-level drawing is that of the Utrecht Psalter. The Psalter, created around 820 in Reims, is a preliminary source for the style of metaphor overlaid in visual representation1. The Psalter provided an interpretation to all of the Biblical allusions, sometimes very cleverly. Though the type of visual representation found in the Psalter are thought to be modeled after earlier forms2 there is a certain simplicity in style that seems to compel not the courtesans, but the common citizen3 . The images are highly stylized, a far cry from the art of the aristocracy; even more telling, it was rendered in the very local artistic style of the workshops of Reims4. The drawings are impressionistic5 and worked as a puzzle for the viewer6. There was a definite link reaching out from the work to the viewer, the Psalter served as a prototypical way of engaging the audience in a visual tale while communicating the literal story behind it7. The viewer was able to take a mental picture of a liturgical event8.

This style progressed and found its way to other visual forms9. The ivory book covers illustrating Psalms 50 and 51 had drawn influence and may have been in fact directly modeled after the Utrecht Psalter10. The ivories depict the same scenes from the Psalms drawn into the Utrecht Psalter, however, the ivory panels are more of an abridged version11. The progression from drawing to book covers represents a certain leap in audience and visual structure even if just momentarily or inadvertently, since ivory was a luxury few could afford, and the meticulous undercutting even fewer12. The scenes did however grow in leaps and bounds in the method of figural representation, realistic drapery, and depth that is monumentally achieved in such a minimal space13.