The Utrecht Psalter In Medieval Art

The Utrecht Psalter, one of the great survivals of the Carolingian Renaissance, was made about 820-835 at the Benedictine monastery of Hautvilliers and decorated with 166 dynamic, almost impressionistic pen drawings which are masterly interpretation of the Psalter text. In 1996 it was exhibited in Utrecht, alongside related manuscripts such as the Aachen and Ebbo Gospels, the Byzantine Khludov Psalter and the later English Harly and Eadwine Psalters, copied in Canterbury when the Utrecht Psalter was for some centuries in England. Five scholarly essays, designed for a wide-ranging readership, include a discussion of Carolingian cultural achievements; an analysis of the Psalter itself and its place in the history of book production; an overview of medieval Psalter illustration in both Byzantium and the West; and an exa- mination of the English copies of the Utrect Psalter in the later Middle Ages.

With authorative contributions on the historical, stylistic, and iconographic context of this masterpiece of Carolingian Renaissance by R. McKitterick, K. van der Horst, K. Corrigan, F. Mütherich, and W. Noel, and including the catalogue of the 1996 exhibition on the Utrecht Psalter at the Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.

Across the nine thematic chapters of Experiencing Medieval Art, renowned art historian Herbert L. Kessler considers functional objects as well as paintings and sculptures; the circumstances, processes, and materials of production; the conflictual relationship between art objects and notions of an ineffable deity; the context surrounding medieval art; and questions of apprehension, aesthetics, and modern presentation. He also introduces the exciting discoveries and revelations that have revolutionized contemporary understanding of medieval art and identifies the vexing challenges that still remain. With 16 color plates and 81 images in all—including the stained glass of Chartres Cathedral, the mosaics of San Marco, and the Utrecht Psalter, as well as newly discovered works such as the frescoes in Rome’s aula gotica and a twelfth-century aquamanile in Hildesheim—Experiencing Medieval Art makes the complex history of medieval art accessible for students of art history and scholars of medieval history, theology, and literature.

This is a fascinating study of the making of the Harley Psalter, an illustrated manuscript which was produced at Christ Church, Canterbury, over a period of about 100 years, from c. 1020 to c. 1130. The Harley Psalter was closely based on the Utrecht Psalter, the most celebrated of all Carolingian illuminated manuscripts. Through meticulous observation of the Harley Psalter, William Noel analyses how the artists and scribes worked with each other and with their manuscript exemplars in making their illustrated text. The author demonstrates that this work is best understood not as a copy of the Utrecht Psalter, but rather as one of a series of Anglo-Saxon manuscript experiments that incorporated its imagery. This is a crucial work for understanding the development of art, script and book making during what has been termed the 'golden age' of Anglo-Saxon art.

Psalters were editions of the Book of Psalms from the Old Testament which were important both as a prayer book and as a means of learning letters. Due to the latter, and the vivid imagery that the texts created, the initial letter became elaborate and additional miniature illustrations were added to mark important places in the text. These six papers, plus an introduction, are taken from a symposium held at St Andrews in 1997 and present discussions of the historical evolution of psalter illustrations and problems of interpretation. They deal with examples of various date and provenance, although largely focusing on Britain, including the Utrecht Psalter, the Book of Kells and the Corbie Psalter.