Carolingian art

Carolingian art,  classic style produced during the reign of Charlemagne (768–814) and thereafter until the late 9th century.

Charlemagne’s dream of a revival of the Roman Empire in the West determined both his political aims and his artistic program. His strong patronage of the arts gave impetus to a remarkable return to Roman classicism in the copying of Early Christian models and the influence of contemporary Byzantine and Greco-Roman styles, although the classicism was modified by local traditions favouring linearity and patterning and by Carolingian innovations (see also Anglo-Saxon art; Merovingian art). Thus the Carolingian Renaissance was really a renovation rather than a true rebirth of classicism. It was, nevertheless, important for having revived the antique heritage in the West and for transmitting that interest to subsequent art. By the death of Charlemagne, the style was well defined, and even though local schools became more independent as ... (150 of 421 words)