Pericopes of Henry II

Pericopes of Henry II

Unlike a normal Gospel book, a pericopes only features the specific Gospel passages to be read during a mass, and are arranged according to the liturgical year so as to simplify finding the correct passage. The Pericopes of Henry II is one of the last and most outstanding specimens of Ottonian illumination, which is named after the Ottonian dynasty (919–1024), a line of German kings and emperors from Saxony, of whom three were named Otto. It was created between 1007 and 1012 in the scriptorium of Reichenau Abbey, the largest and most influential of the 10th and 11th centuries, which is located on Lake Constance. Measuring 42.5 x 32 cm, this is a large-format luxury manuscript intended for public display in church and processions, as well as a representation of the wealth, sophistication, and piety of its patron, Emperor Henry II (973–1024). The clear and elegant Carolingian minuscule in which the text is written is adorned by 28 full-page miniatures, 10 decorative pages, and 184 large historiated initials, all of which is housed in a binding that likely originated in Bamberg or Regensburg and consists of gold and silver with iconographic enamels and a detailed ivory plate. This is a magnificent medieval manuscript in every sense of the word!

Opulent Ottonian Illumination

Before the emergence of Romanesque art during the 11th century – the first international European style – Ottonian art consists of the manuscripts, metalwork, wood and ivory carvings, wall paintings, and sculptures produced in the 10th and early 11th centuries in Germany, northern Italy, the Low Countries and eastern France. Ottonian art united the aesthetics of Late Antique, Carolingian, and Byzantine art while also incorporating some elements of Insular art. The style is grand and monumental, sometimes excessively so, and although it was not initially as sophisticated as the Carolingian art that preceded it, ca. 1000 Ottonian art developed its own striking intensity and expressiveness, "a solemn monumentality is combined with a vibrant inwardness, an unworldly, visionary quality with sharp attention to actuality, surface patterns of flowing lines and rich bright colors with passionate emotionalism". Artistic production was limited to a few centers like Echternach, Lorsch, Trier, Reichenau, and Regensburg, working in the employ of the imperial family, other high ranking nobles, and princes of the church. However, what Ottonian art lacks in quantity, it makes up for in quality, as the best talent and materials were concentrated in these places and benefited from lavish commissions. As a result, Ottonian scribes and illuminators were responsible for the majority of the most magnificent illuminated manuscripts to be produced during the Middle Ages.

The Last Ottonian Emperor

At only 21 years of age, Emperor Otto III (b. 980) caught a fever and died in 1002 while on campaign in Italy. He had lived long enough to have some magnificent works of art created at his behest, but not long enough to produce a son and heir, thus his death created a dynastic crisis for the empire. Otto’s second cousin, Duke Henry IV of Bavaria, was the great-grandson of Emperor Henry I (ca. 876–936) and outmaneuvered his rivals to become Henry II, King of Germany (1002), Italy (1004) and Holy Roman Emperor (1014). Having received a church education in his youth, Henry II was a learned and pious monarch who strengthened imperial ties with the church, employing large numbers of clerics as imperial officials to counter the nobles’ ambitions. This helped to consolidate and strengthen imperial rule, as did the incorporation of Bohemia into the empire. Henry II was also a great patron of the arts, commissioning numerous splendidly illuminated manuscripts that include, aside from the specimen at hand, the so-called Sacramentary of Henry II, noteworthy for its lavish coronation page and splendidly-detailed ivory cover depicting the Crucifixion. Although Henry II like Otto III died without an heir and the crown would pass to the Salian dynasty of Franconia, he is remembered as Germany’s only sainted monarch, canonized in 1146 by Pope Eugene (ca. 1080–1153).

Reichenau‘s Famous Liuthar Group

This group of manuscripts from Reichenau includes historic treasures produced between 990 and 1015 such as the Bamberg Apocalypse, the Gospels of Otto III, and the Liuthar Gospels, so named after the lead monk responsible and now more broadly applied to the whole. Unlike other schools of Ottonian art that attempted to adhere more strictly to classical forms, the group of manuscripts known as the “Liuthar Group” broke from this tradition in favor of an extremely transcendental style with "marked schematization of the forms and colors", e.g. monochromatic, symbolic backgrounds rather than naturalistic ones. Forms were flattened draperies were stylized, and with regard to figures, the "emphasis is not so much on movement as in gesture and glance" and their importance is indicated by their size. Furthermore, the Liuthar group introduced Byzantine-style backgrounds of burnished gold into western illumination, which are featured prominently in the Pericopes of Henry II, considered to be the most extreme expression of the group, where "the figure-style has become more monumental, more rarified and sublime, at the same time thin in density, insubstantial, mere silhouettes of color against a shimmering void". All of this results in an aesthetic that is as unique as it is beautiful.