Book Cover For The Lindau Gospels

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Beginning with the reign of Charlemagne, the Carolingians focused their money on small, highly decorated pieces. The Book Cover for the Lindau Gospels is just one of many ornate, religious, and portable works of art that the Carolingians created. The cover was created circa 870 for the Lindau Gospels, with the main focus of the cover being the crucifixion of Christ. The cover is made of gold with additions of precious jewels and pearls. This book cover represents the typical Carolingian style during this time period.
The Book Cover for the Lindau Gospels is rectangular in shape, it features a cross in the center with a depiction of Christ being crucified on it. This is the area of the work that your eyes are immediately drawn to. This work uses hierarchy of scale, the act of making important figures much larger than other figures, when depicting Christ to show that he is important. Implementing this technique also draws all of your attention to the largest figure, Christ. The body of Christ is depicted realistically and youthfully. His body fills the majority of empty space in the lower part of the cross but, the cross is slightly bigger than Christ. However, Christ’s face lacks a great amount of detail and he is shown with a solemn facial expression with his eyes shut. Around his head is a halo made of metalwork and jewels. In the upper part of the cross, the portion that the body of Christ does not fill, there is a short inscription and two small figures that are conformed into a circular shape. The small figures are depictions of the sun and the moon.
The cross in the middle of the book cover creates four quadrants that are adjacent to the cross. The entire book cover is laid out very symmetrically, it can also be said that th...

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...n creating the mosaics of San Vitale. The jewelry that is worn by figures in the mosaics are made of real precious stones and metals which, just like the book cover, were costly. Mosaics are made of tesserae, which are small pieces of stone or glass cut to create a picture. The mosaic in San Vitale was likely very time consuming to create just like the book cover. Religion was, and still is, very important to people so it was common to devote time and money to creating religious art.
In conclusion, the Book Cover for the Lindau Gospels is a prime representation of Carolingian art in early medieval times. The book cover is just one of many ornate, religious, and portable works they created. The book cover shares multiple themes and characteristics with the Mosaics of San Vitale. Both works were very important to the Christian community which influenced their creation.

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