Austin Smith
E. Schwartz
ARTH 101
12/05/15
Viking Art
There was once a Germanic seafaring people, one that created widespread terror, raided and traded from their Scandinavian homeland along vast areas of both Northern and Central Europe, as well as European Russia, during the late 8th to late 11th centuries. These people, better known by the name of Vikings, were a people who dabbled in just about everything. From farming, to piracy, to even several different styles of art, the Vikings were a group that had a surprising amount of culture for a people who were almost solely known for crafting ships, and sacking towns. According to the work The Anglo-Saxon Chronical the first, recorded, year the Vikings actually started attacking settlements, …show more content…
The impact of wood as an artistic medium is highlighted by chance preservations of wood artistry throughout the whole of the Viking period, most notably, the discovery of the Oseberg ship-burial carvings from the early 9th century and the carved decoration of the Urnes Stave Church from what is thought to come from the late 11th century. As told by Graham-Campbell (Emeritus Professor of Medieval Archaeology at University College, London): "These remarkable survivals allow us to form at least an impression of what we are missing from original corpus of Viking art, although wooden fragments and small-scale carvings in other materials (such as antler, amber and walrus ivory) provide further hints. The same is inevitably true of the textile arts, although weaving and embroidery were clearly well-developed
E. Schwartz
ARTH 101
12/05/15
Viking Art
There was once a Germanic seafaring people, one that created widespread terror, raided and traded from their Scandinavian homeland along vast areas of both Northern and Central Europe, as well as European Russia, during the late 8th to late 11th centuries. These people, better known by the name of Vikings, were a people who dabbled in just about everything. From farming, to piracy, to even several different styles of art, the Vikings were a group that had a surprising amount of culture for a people who were almost solely known for crafting ships, and sacking towns. According to the work The Anglo-Saxon Chronical the first, recorded, year the Vikings actually started attacking settlements, …show more content…
The impact of wood as an artistic medium is highlighted by chance preservations of wood artistry throughout the whole of the Viking period, most notably, the discovery of the Oseberg ship-burial carvings from the early 9th century and the carved decoration of the Urnes Stave Church from what is thought to come from the late 11th century. As told by Graham-Campbell (Emeritus Professor of Medieval Archaeology at University College, London): "These remarkable survivals allow us to form at least an impression of what we are missing from original corpus of Viking art, although wooden fragments and small-scale carvings in other materials (such as antler, amber and walrus ivory) provide further hints. The same is inevitably true of the textile arts, although weaving and embroidery were clearly well-developed