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148-667: The Alfred Jewel is a piece of Anglo-Saxon goldsmithing work made of enamel and quartz enclosed in gold. It was discovered in 1693, in North Petherton , Somerset , England and is now one of the most popular exhibits at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford . It has been dated to the late 9th century, in the reign of Alfred the Great , and is inscribed "AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN" , meaning "Alfred ordered me made". The jewel

296-527: A "typical" imagery preserved in ancient iconography is that of two symmetrical figures facing each other, with a tree standing in the middle. The two characters may variously represent rulers, gods, and even a deity and a human follower. The Assyrian tree of life was represented by a series of nodes and crisscrossing lines. It was apparently an important religious symbol, often attended to in Assyrian palace reliefs by human or eagle-headed winged genies , or

444-610: A "water-monster," symbolic of the underworld. The central world tree has also been interpreted as a representation of the band of the Milky Way . In a myth passed down among the Iroquois , The World on the Turtle's Back , explains the origin of the land in which a tree of life is described. According to the myth, it is found in the heavens, where the first humans lived, until a pregnant woman fell and landed in an endless sea. Saved by

592-515: A church in Maaseik in Belgium. A further style of textile is a vestment illustrated in a miniature portrait of Saint Aethelwold in his Benedictional (see above), which shows the edge of what appears to be a huge acanthus "flower" (a term used in several documentary records) covering the wearer's back and shoulders. Other written sources mention other large-scale compositions. Anglo-Saxon glass

740-527: A considerable number of other finds, the discovery of the ship-burial at Sutton Hoo , probably interred in the 620s, transformed the history of Anglo-Saxon art, showing a level of sophistication and quality that was wholly unexpected at this date. The most famous finds are the helmet and matching suite of purse-lid , belt and other fittings of the king buried there, which made clear the source in Anglo-Saxon art, previously much disputed, of many elements of

888-418: A crown, or as a pendant , though this would display the figure upside down. The Alfred Jewel is about 2 + 1 ⁄ 2 inches (6.4 cm) long and is made of filigreed gold , enclosing a highly polished tear-shaped piece of clear quartz "rock crystal", beneath which is set a cloisonné enamel plaque, with an image of a man, perhaps Christ , with ecclesiastical symbols. The figure "closely resembles

1036-637: A curved surface, evidently of high quality, though uncertain date (perhaps early 10th century). A Sacrifice of Isaac and an Ascension can be identified, and parts of standing groups of saints, prophets or apostles. Standing equally apart from other survivals is a late slab from the Old Minster, Winchester which appears to show a section of a large frieze with the story from Germanic mythology of Sigmund , which it has been suggested may have been as long as eighty feet wide, and over four feet high. There are literary references to secular narrative tapestries,

1184-458: A dignified classical decorum that are displayed in both Insular and Winchester school art had already influenced continental style, as discussed above, where it provided an alternative to the heavy monumentality that Ottonian art displays even in small objects. This habit of mind was an essential component of both the Romanesque and Gothic styles, where forms of Anglo-Saxon invention such as

1332-405: A dying tree that has never bloomed he is transported to the other world (spirit world) where he meets wise elders, 12 men and 12 women. The elders tell Black Elk that they will bring him to meet "Our Father, the two-legged chief" and bring him to the center of a hoop where he sees the tree in full leaf and bloom and the "chief" standing against the tree. Coming out of his trance he hopes to see that

1480-558: A far more illusionistic treatment, and an "attempt to introduce a pure Mediterranean style into Anglo-Saxon England", which failed, as "perhaps too advanced", leaving these images apparently as the only evidence. A different mixture is seen in the opening from the Stockholm Codex Aureus (mid-8th century, above left) where the evangelist portrait to the left is in a consistent adaptation of Italian style, probably closely following some lost model, though adding interlace to

1628-573: A few contemporary continental examples have survived. The references to specific works by the 11th-century monastic artist Spearhafoc , none of which have identifiably survived, are about works in precious metal, and he is one of a small number of metalwork artists from the period whose name we know and whose work is described in any way. According to several sources, including the Norman chronicler Goscelin , who knew him personally, Spearhafoc "was outstanding in painting, gold-engraving and goldsmithery",

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1776-458: A figurative image is an innovation in Anglo-Saxon art, following Byzantine or Carolingian examples, as is the use of rock crystal as a "see-through" cover. The rock crystal piece may be recycled from a Roman object. The jewel was ploughed up in 1693 at Petherton Park , North Petherton in the English county of Somerset , on land owned by Sir Thomas Wroth ( circa 1675–1721). North Petherton

1924-424: A general history of the world, and inscriptions in runes in both Latin and Old English . We have few Anglo-Saxon panels from book-covers compared to those from Carolingian and Ottonian art but a number of figures of very high quality in high relief or fully in the round. In the last phase of Anglo-Saxon art two styles are apparent: one a heavier and formal one drawing from Carolingian and Ottonian sources, and

2072-529: A giant turtle from drowning, she formed the world on its back by planting bark taken from the tree. The tree of life motif is present in the traditional Ojibway cosmology and traditions. It is sometimes described as Grandmother Cedar, or Nookomis Giizhig in Anishinaabemowin . In the book Black Elk Speaks , Black Elk , an Oglala Lakota (Sioux) wičháša wakȟáŋ ( medicine man and holy man), describes his vision in which after dancing around

2220-587: A gilded sword did not make a man a ceorle , the lowest rank of free men. Apart from Anglo-Saxon architecture , which survives entirely in churches, with only a handful of largely unaltered examples, monumental stone sculpture survives in large stone crosses, an equivalent to the high crosses of the Celtic areas of Britain. Most sculpture was probably once painted, clarifying the designs, which are mostly in relatively low relief and not finished with great precision, and now almost all badly worn and weathered. Dating

2368-488: A goldsmith was then regarded as the most prestigious branch. One 11th-century lay goldsmith was even a thegn . Many monastic artists reached senior positions; Spearhafoc's career in metalwork was paralleled in less sensational fashion by his contemporary Mannig, Abbot of Evesham (Abbot 1044–58, d. 1066), and at the end of the previous century Saint Dunstan had been a very successful Archbishop of Canterbury. Like Spearhafoc, Mannig's biography, with some precise details,

2516-623: A great influence in Northern France throughout the 11th century, in the so-called "Channel school", and Insular decorative elements such as interlace remained popular into the 12th century in the Franco-Saxon style. Pagan Anglo-Saxon metalwork initially uses the Germanic Animal Style I and II decoration that would be expected from recent immigrants, but gradually develops a distinctive Anglo-Saxon character, as in

2664-468: A group of finely worked liturgical jewels, and there are a number of high quality disk brooches. The most ornate of earlier ones are colourful and complicated with inlays and filigrees, but the 9th century Pentney Hoard , discovered in 1978, contained six splendid brooches in flat silver openwork in the " Trewhiddle style ". In these small but fully formed animals, of no recognisable species, contort themselves in foliage and tendrils that interlace, but without

2812-446: A lantern like flower towards the top of the niche above which is a small roundel. The curvature of the niche accentuates the undulating movement which despite its complexity is symmetrical along its vertical axis. The representations of varying palm leaves hints to spiritual growth attained through prayer while the upwards and side wards movement of the leaves speaks to the different motions of the worshiper while in salah . According to

2960-574: A manuscript counterpart in the " Cutbercht Gospels " in Vienna. By the 10th century Insular elements were relegated to decorative embellishments in England, as the first phase of the " Winchester style" developed. The first plant ornament, with leaves and grapes, was already seen in an initial in the Leningrad Bede , which can probably be dated to 746. The other large initial in the manuscript

3108-488: A much lower level, from the Romano-British industry, but Bede records that Benedict Biscop brought glass-makers from Gaul for window glass at his monasteries. It is not clear how much Anglo-Saxon glass was imported, but canes of millefiori coloured glass almost certainly were; one of these was in the purse at Sutton Hoo. Otherwise recycling of Roman glass may have avoided the need to import raw glass; evidence for

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3256-614: A nervous agitated style of drapery, sometimes matched by figures, especially in line drawings, which are the only images in many manuscripts, and were to remain especially prominent in medieval English art. Early Anglo-Saxon manuscript illumination forms part of Insular art , a combination of influences from Mediterranean, Celtic and Germanic styles that arose when the Anglo-Saxons encountered Irish missionary activity in Northumbria , at Lindisfarne and Iona in particular. At

3404-491: A new style appears in a manuscript of the biographies by Bede of St Cuthbert given by Æthelstan to the monastery in Chester-le-Street about 937. There is a dedication portrait of the king presenting his book to the saint, the two of them standing outside a large church. This is the first real portrait of an English king, and heavily influenced by Carolingian style, with an elegant inhabited acanthus border. However,

3552-465: A note of caution as to the connection with Alfred, noting that "in a period when royal titles meant something, there is no royal title in the inscription". However the commissioning by Alfred and the function as a pointer handle are taken as firmly established by Leslie Webster in her survey Anglo-Saxon Art of 2012, as well as by the Ashmolean. Other functions suggested have been as an ornament for

3700-500: A number of these survive in Scandinavian museums. While larger works are all lost, several small objects and fragments have survived, nearly all having been buried; in recent decades professional archaeology as well as metal-detecting and deep ploughing have greatly increased the number of objects known. Among the few unburied exceptions are the secular Fuller Brooch , and two works made in Anglo-Saxon style carried to Austria by

3848-534: A number of very fine ivory carvings, and some works in metal and other materials. Opus Anglicanum ("English work") was already recognised as the finest embroidery in Europe, although only a few pieces from the Anglo-Saxon period remain – the Bayeux Tapestry is a rather different sort of embroidery, on a far larger scale. As in most of Europe at the time, metalwork was the most highly regarded form of art by

3996-563: A painted face on a reused stone at Winchester , dating to before 903, and so an important early example of the Winchester figure style. A metaphor in a letter of Alcuin speaks of "stars, like the painted ceiling of a great man's house". However, no paintings that are at all complete have survived on either wall or panel. As in the rest of the Christian world, while monumental sculpture was slowly re-emerging from its virtual absence in

4144-717: A plant element at the other. All these changes were not restricted to manuscripts, and may not have been driven by manuscript style, but we have a greater number of manuscripts surviving than works in other media, even if in most cases illuminations are restricted to initials and perhaps a few miniatures. Several ambitious projects of illumination are unfinished, such as the Old English Hexateuch , which has some 550 scenes in various stages of completion, giving insight into working methods. The illustrations give Old Testament scenes an entirely contemporary setting and are valuable images of Anglo-Saxon life. Manuscripts from

4292-544: A tradition of Anglo-Saxon pagan monumental sculpture, probably in wood, of which no examples remain (as opposed to later Anglo-Scandinavian pagan imagery), and with which the crosses initially competed. The Anglo-Saxon crosses have survived less well than those in Ireland, being more subject to iconoclasm after the English Reformation . Some featured large figurative sculpture of considerable quality, as on

4440-475: A tradition of which the Bayeux Tapestry is the only survival, and this may have been a stone equivalent, celebrating Sigmund, who was believed to be an ancestor of the intermarried royal houses of both England and Denmark , many of whom were buried in what was then the largest church in England. It is also clear from literary sources that wall paintings were not uncommon, although not a prestigious form, and fragments of painted plaster have been found, as well as

4588-399: A tree that its vivacity would certify continuance of life in the universe; the bas tokhmak, a tree with remedial attribute, retentive of all herbal seeds, and destroyer of sorrow; Mashya and Mashyana , the parents of the human race; barsom , copped offshoots of pomegranate , gaz ( Tamarix gallica ), or haoma that Zoroastrians use in their rituals; and haoma, a plant, unknown today, that was

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4736-467: Is Christ: All these things stood for something other than what they were, but all the same they were themselves bodily realities. And when the narrator mentioned them he was not employing figurative language, but giving an explicit account of things which had a forward reference that was figurative. So then the tree of life also was Christ... and indeed God did not wish the man to live in Paradise without

4884-598: Is a copy of it. The Ramsey Psalter (c. 990) contains pages in both the painted and tinted drawing styles, including the first Beatus initial with a "lion mask", while the Tiberius Psalter , from the last years before the Conquest, uses mainly the tinted. Anglo-Saxon culture was coming into increasing contact with, and exchanging influences with, a wider Latin Mediaeval Europe. Anglo-Saxon drawing had

5032-609: Is a masterpiece of the later Winchester style, which drew on Insular, Carolingian, and Byzantine art to make a heavier and more grandiose style, where the broad classicising acanthus foliage sometimes seems over-luxuriant. Anglo-Saxon illustration included many lively pen drawings, on which the Carolingian Utrecht Psalter , in Canterbury from about 1000, was highly influential; the Harley Psalter

5180-543: Is a shining white tree that grows on a paradisiacal mountain . Sprigs of this white haoma were brought to earth by divine birds. The tree is considerably diverse. Haoma is the Avestan form of the Sanskrit soma . The identity of the two in ritual significance is considered by scholars to point to a salient feature of an Indo-Iranian religion antedating Zoroastrianism. Another related issue in ancient mythology of Iran

5328-714: Is a tree of life; but perverseness therein is a wound to the spirit." In the Ashkenazic liturgy, the Eitz Chayim is a piyyut commonly sung as the Sefer Torah is returned to the Torah ark . The Book of Enoch , generally considered non-canonical , states that in the time of the great judgment, God will give all those whose names are in the Book of Life fruit to eat from the tree of life. Jewish mysticism depicts

5476-413: Is a type of biomorphic pattern found in many artistic traditions. It is considered to be any vegetal pattern with a clear origin or growth. The pattern in al-Azhar Mosque , Cairo 's mihrab , a unique Fatimid architectural variation , is a series of two or three leave palmettes with a central palmette of five leaves from which the pattern originates. The growth is upwards and outwards and culminates in

5624-672: Is a vine that grows on both sides of the river, as John 15:1 would hint at. Pope Benedict XVI has said that "the Cross is the true tree of life." Saint Bonaventure taught that the medicinal fruit of the tree of life is Christ himself. Saint Albert the Great taught that the Eucharist , the Body and Blood of Christ, is the Fruit of the Tree of Life. Augustine of Hippo said that the tree of life

5772-812: Is about 8 miles (13 km) away from Athelney , where King Alfred founded a monastery. A description of the Alfred Jewel was first published in 1698, in the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society . It was bequeathed to Oxford University by Colonel Nathaniel Palmer (c. 1661–1718), and today is in the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. There is a replica of the jewel in the Church of St Mary, North Petherton and also one in

5920-462: Is also used to describe each of the wooden poles to which the parchment of a Sefer Torah is attached. The tree of life is mentioned in the Book of Genesis ; it is distinct from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil . After Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating fruit from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they were driven out of the Garden of Eden . Remaining in the garden, however,

6068-506: Is another tree of life. The ceramic base is guarded by a horned beast with wings. The leaves of the tree represent coins and people. At the apex is a bird with coins and the Sun . The tree of life first appears in Genesis 2:9 and 3:22–24 as the source of eternal life in the Garden of Eden , from which access is revoked when man is driven from the garden. It then reappears in the last book of

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6216-596: Is closely related to the concept of the sacred tree . The tree of knowledge connecting to heaven and the underworld such as Yggdrasil and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in Genesis, and the tree of life, connecting all forms of creation, are forms of the world tree or cosmic tree, and are portrayed in various religions and philosophies as the same tree. Various trees of life are recounted in folklore , culture and fiction , often relating to immortality or fertility . They had their origin in religious symbolism. According to professor Elvyra Usačiovaitė,

6364-570: Is from a former abbey at Breedon-on-the-Hill in Mercia, with a number of elements of different dates, including lively narrow decorative strip friezes, many including human figures, and panels with saints and the Virgin. The most intriguing fragments are firstly a group, now at Canterbury Cathedral , from St Mary's Church, Reculver , in Kent, from a large composition with many figure scenes and groups on

6512-430: Is given in the chronicle maintained by his abbey. His work also had a miracle associated with it – the lay goldsmith Godric stabbed his hand with an awl during the work on the large shrine at Evesham, which was miraculously healed overnight. Spearhafoc and Mannig are the "only two goldsmiths of whom we have extended accounts", and the additional information given about Godric, the leader of a team brought in by Mannig for

6660-779: Is given in the preface, but in the context of books, the Old English word "aestel" can mean a "guide", "index", and also a "handle"; so, it is concluded that it meant a small pointer. Other jewelled objects with a similar form have survived, all with empty sockets, such as a 9th-century example in gold and glass in the British Museum , found in Bowleaze Cove in Dorset (see below), and the yad or " Torah pointer" remains in use in Jewish practice. David M. Wilson sounded

6808-598: Is known as the Winchester School or style, though it was produced in many centres in the south of England, and perhaps the Midlands also. Elements of this begin to be seen from around 900, but the first major manuscripts only appear around the 930s. The style combined influences from the continental art of the Holy Roman Empire with elements of older English art, and some particular elements including

6956-451: Is mentioned by many foreign sources, and the few remaining engraved figures closely parallel the far more numerous pen-drawn figures in manuscripts, also an Anglo-Saxon speciality. Wall-paintings, which seem to have sometimes contained gold, were also apparently often made by manuscript illuminators, and Goscelin's description of his talents therefore suggests an artist skilled in all the main Anglo-Saxon media for figurative art – of which being

7104-513: Is not specified in ancient myth, many assume that Aphrodite gathered those apples from Hera's tree(s). Eris stole one of these apples and carved the words ΤΗΙ ΚΑΛΛΙΣΤΗΙ, "to the fairest", upon it to create the Apple of Discord . Heracles retrieved three of the apples as the eleventh of his Twelve Labors . The Garden of the Hesperides is often compared to Eden , the golden apples are compared to

7252-453: Is pleased, it grants every wish. Hindu tradition holds that there are five separate kalpavrikshas and each of them grant different types of wishes. These trees also appear in the beliefs of Jainism . In Chinese mythology , a carving of a tree of life depicts a phoenix and a dragon ; the dragon often represents immortality. A Taoist story tells of a tree that produces a peach of immortality every three thousand years, and anyone who eats

7400-405: Is promised as a reward to those who overcome. Revelation 22 begins with a reference to the "pure river of water of life" which proceeds "out of the throne of God". The river seems to feed two trees of life, one "on either side of the river" which "bear twelve manner of fruits" "and the leaves of the tree were for healing of the nations" (v. 1–2). Alternatively, this may indicate that the tree of life

7548-406: Is responsible for all good (including life). Haoma is another sacred plant due to the drink made from it. The preparation of the drink from the plant by pounding and the drinking of it are central features of Zoroastrian ritual. Haoma is also personified as a divinity. It bestows essential vital qualities—health, fertility, husbands for maidens, even immortality. The source of the earthly haoma plant

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7696-497: Is the hogback , low grave-marker shaped like a long house with a pitched roof, and sometimes muzzled bears clutching on to each end. Ornament is sometimes a crude pattern of scoring, or scale-like elements presumably representing roofing shingles, but may include interlace and images. Many fragments, parts of friezes and panels with figure and ornamental carving, have been recovered by archaeology, usually after being reused in rebuilt churches. The largest group of Anglo-Saxon sculpture

7844-523: Is the first historiated initial (one containing a portrait or scene, here Christ or a saint) in the whole of Europe. The classically derived vine or plant scroll was to largely oust interlace as the dominant filler of ornamental spaces in Anglo-Saxon art, just as it did in much of Europe beginning with Carolingian art , though in England animals within the scrolls remained much more common than abroad. For some long time scrolls, especially in metal, bone or ivory, are prone to have an animal head at one end and

7992-526: Is the myth of Mashya and Mashyana, two trees that were the ancestors of all living beings. This myth can be considered as a prototype for the creation myth where living beings are created by Gods. A genre of the sacred books of Hinduism , the Puranas , mention a divine tree called the Kalpavriksha . This divine tree is guarded by gandharvas in the garden of the mythological city of Amaravati under

8140-483: Is used as an example of a concept, idea, way of life or code of life. A good concept/idea is represented as a good tree and a bad idea/concept is represented as a bad tree Muslims believe that when God created Adam and Eve, he told them that they could enjoy everything in the Garden except this tree (idea, concept, way of life). Satan appeared to them and told them that the only reason God forbade them to eat from that tree

8288-534: Is usually difficult. Sculpture in wood was very likely more common, but almost the only significant large survival is St Cuthbert's coffin in Durham Cathedral , probably made in 698, with numerous linear images carved or incised in a technique that is a sort of large-scale engraving. The material of the earliest recorded crosses is unknown, but may well have been wood. From various references (to its destruction by Christians) there would seem to have been

8436-717: Is why that find transformed thinking about early Anglo-Saxon art. Objects from the Royal Anglo-Saxon tomb in Prittlewell in Essex, dating from the late 6th century and discovered in 2003, were put on display in Southend Central Museum in 2019. The earliest Anglo-Saxon coin type, the silver sceat , forced craftsmen, no doubt asked to copy Roman and contemporary continental styles, to work outside their traditional forms and conventions in respect of

8584-652: The Anglo-Saxon mission , the Tassilo Chalice (late 8th century) and the Rupertus Cross . Especially in the 9th century, Anglo-Saxon styles, sometimes derived from manuscripts rather than metal examples, are found in a great number of smaller pieces of jewellery and other small fittings from across northern Europe. From England itself, the Alfred Jewel , with an enamel face, is the best known of

8732-584: The Canterbury Bible of before 850, perhaps well before, "no major illuminated manuscript is known until well on into the tenth century". King Alfred (r. 871–899) held the Vikings back to a line running diagonally across the middle of England, above which they settled in the Danelaw , and were gradually integrated into what was now a unified Anglo-Saxon kingdom. The final phase of Anglo-Saxon art

8880-562: The Fuller brooch ), glass and enamel , many examples of which have been recovered through archaeological excavation and some of which have simply been preserved over the centuries, especially in churches on the Continent, as the Vikings , Normans and Reformation iconoclasm between them left virtually nothing in England except for books and archaeological finds. Metalwork is almost

9028-735: The Gnostic religion Manichaeism , the Tree of Life helped Adam obtain the knowledge ( gnosis ) necessary for salvation and is identified as an image of Jesus. In Greek mythology, Hera is gifted a branch growing golden apples by her grandmother Gaia , which are then planted in Hera's Garden of the Hesperides . The dragon Ladon guards the tree(s) from all who would take the apples. The three golden apples that Aphrodite gave to Hippomenes to distract Atalanta three times during their footrace allowed him to win Atalanta's hand in marriage. Though it

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9176-667: The Hiberno-Saxon style, or Insular art , which is also seen in illuminated manuscripts and some carved stone and ivory, probably mostly drawing from decorative metalwork motifs, and with further influences from the British Celts of the west and the Franks . The Kingdom of Northumbria in the far north of England was the crucible of Insular style in Britain, at centres such as Lindisfarne , founded c. 635 as an offshoot of

9324-427: The Irish monastery on Iona , and Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey (674) which looked to the continent. At about the same time as the Insular Lindisfarne Gospels was being made in the early 8th century, the Vespasian Psalter from Canterbury in the far south, which the missionaries from Rome had made their headquarters, shows a wholly different, classically based art. These two styles mixed and developed together and by

9472-404: The King of Kish , searched for a 'plant of birth' to provide him with a son. This has a solid provenance of antiquity, being found in cylinder seals from the Akkadian Empire (2390–2249 BCE ). In Urartu in the Armenian highlands , the tree of life was a religious symbol and was drawn on walls of fortresses and carved on the armor of warriors. The branches of the tree were equally divided on

9620-403: The Maya , Aztec , Izapan , Mixtec , Olmec , and others, dating to at least the Mid/Late Formative periods of the Mesoamerican chronology . The tomb of Kʼinich Janaabʼ Pakal of the Maya city-state of Palenque , who became its ajaw or leader when he was twelve years old, has tree of life inscriptions within the walls of his burial place, showing just how important it was. Among the Maya,

9768-551: The Quoit Brooch Style of the 5th century. Anglo-Saxon brooches are the most common survivals of fine metalwork from the earlier period, when they were buried as grave goods . Round disk brooches were preferred for the grandest pieces, over continental styles of fibulae and Romano-British penannular brooches , a consistent Anglo-Saxon taste throughout the period; the Kingston Brooch and Harford Farm Brooch are 7th-century examples. Decoration included cloisonné ("cellwork"), in gold and garnet for high-status pieces. Despite

9916-434: The Renaissance onwards, Kabbalah became incorporated as tradition in Christian Western esotericism as Hermetic Qabalah . Mandaean scrolls often include abstract illustrations of trees of life that represent the living, interconnected nature of the cosmos. One of these trees is given the name of Shatrin . The concept of world trees is a prevalent motif in the Mesoamerican cosmovision and iconography , appearing in

10064-467: The Ruthwell Cross and Bewcastle Cross (both probably around 800). Vine-scroll decoration and interlace are seen in alternating panels on the early Northumbrian Ruthwell, Bewcastle and Easby Crosses , though the vine-scroll is already more prominent, and has faces to itself. Later Southumbrian crosses often only use vine-scrolls. There may be inscriptions, in the runic or Roman scripts, and Latin or Old English , most famously at Ruthwell, where some of

10212-411: The evangelist portraits , clearly following Italian models, greatly simplify them, misunderstand some details of the setting, and give them a border with interlace corners. The portrait of St Matthew is based on the same Italian model, or one extremely similar, used for the figure of Ezra that is one of the two large miniatures in the Codex Amiatinus (before 716), but the style there is very different;

10360-403: The pre-Columbian era . World trees embody the four cardinal directions , which represented also the fourfold nature of a central world tree, a symbolic axis mundi connecting the planes of the Underworld and the sky with that of the terrestrial world. Depictions of world trees, both in their directional and central aspects, are found in the art and mythological traditions of cultures such as

10508-442: The "Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art" and the "English Romanesque art: 1066–1200" exhibition catalogues, despite both being published in 1984. These include the ivory triangle mount with angels and the "Sigurd" stone relief fragment (discussed above), both from Winchester, and the ivory "pen-case" and Baptism (illustrated above), both in the British Museum. The energy, love of complicated twining ornament, and refusal to wholly respect

10656-477: The 5th century, and ending in 1066 with the Norman Conquest of England , whose sophisticated art was influential in much of northern Europe . The two periods of outstanding achievement were the 7th and 8th centuries, with the metalwork and jewellery from Sutton Hoo and a series of magnificent illuminated manuscripts, and the final period after about 950, when there was a revival of English culture after

10804-404: The Alfred Jewel, a number of similar objects have been found. All are smaller and less elaborate, but are traceable to the same period and have a socket like that on the Alfred Jewel, suggesting that they were made for the same purpose. Simon Keynes comments that "it is perhaps only a matter of time before another is found in a context that reveals its function". The above six objects, along with

10952-559: The Alfred Jewel, were exhibited together in Winchester Discovery Centre in 2008, as the centrepiece of an exhibition of relics of Alfred the Great. In a paper published in 2014, Sir John Boardman endorsed the earlier suggestion by David Talbot Rice that the figure on the jewel was intended to represent Alexander the Great . A medieval legend in the Alexander Romance had Alexander, wishing to see

11100-565: The Anglo-Saxon Fuller Brooch . The Early English Text Society , a text publication society founded in 1864 to publish Anglo-Saxon and medieval English texts, uses a representation of the enamel plaque of the Jewel (omitting the gold frame) as its emblem. The Society for Medieval Archaeology , established in 1957, uses a representation of the Jewel as a logo. It was drawn by Eva Sjoegren (wife of David M. Wilson , one of

11248-458: The Anglo-Saxons, but hardly any survives – there was enormous plundering of Anglo-Saxon churches, monasteries and the possessions of the dispossessed nobility by the new Norman rulers in their first decades, as well as the Norsemen before them, and the English Reformation after them, and most survivals were once on the continent. Anglo-Saxon taste favoured brightness and colour, and an effort of

11396-584: The Bible, the Book of Revelation , and most predominantly in the last chapter of that book (Chapter 22) as a part of the new garden of paradise. Access is then no longer forbidden, for those who "wash their robes" (or as the textual variant in the King James Version has it, "they that do his commandments") "have right to the tree of life" (v. 14). A similar statement appears in Rev 2:7, where the tree of life

11544-476: The Conquest was both made in England and firmly in an Anglo-Saxon tradition, points now accepted by French art-historians. Such tapestries adorned both churches and wealthy houses in England, though at 0.5 by 68.38 metres (1.6 by 224.3 ft, and apparently incomplete) the Bayeux Tapestry must be exceptionally large. Only the figures and decoration are embroidered, on a background left plain, which shows

11692-548: The Early Christian period, small-scale sculpture in metalwork, ivory carving and also bone carving was more important than in later periods, and by no means a "minor art". Most Anglo-Saxon ivory was from marine animals, especially the walrus , imported from further north. The extraordinary early Franks Casket is carved from whalebone , which a riddle on it alludes to. It contains a unique mixture of pagan, historical and Christian scenes, evidently attempting to cover

11840-669: The Evangelist on either side. Patronage by the great figures of the land, and the largest monasteries, became extravagant in this period, and the greatest late Anglo-Saxon churches must have presented a dazzling spectacle, somewhat in the style of Eastern Orthodox churches. Anglo-Saxon taste revelled in expensive materials and the effects of light on precious metals, which were also embroidered into fabrics and used on wall-paintings. Sections of decorated elements from some large looted works such as reliquaries were sawn up by Viking raiders and taken home to their wives to wear as jewellery, and

11988-597: The Indian Ahmadiyya movement founded in 1889, Quranic reference to the tree is symbolic; eating of the forbidden tree signifies that Adam disobeyed God. Etz Chaim ( Hebrew : עץ חיים ), Hebrew for "tree of life," is a common term used in Judaism. The expression, found in the Book of Proverbs , is figuratively applied to the Torah itself. Etz Chaim is also a common name for yeshivas and synagogues as well as for works of Rabbinic literature . It

12136-632: The Jewel is given as a birthday present in chapter six of Nancy Mitford 's comic novel, The Pursuit of Love (1945). In Susan Cooper 's The Dark is Rising (1973), one of the six Signs of the Light, the Sign of Fire, is based on the Jewel. It also is made with gold and bears the inscription "LIHT MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN" , or "The Light ordered me made". The Jewel is referred to in Roy Harper 's 19-minute song "One of Those Days in England (Parts 2–10)" from

12284-529: The King, and blessed or fertilized with bucket and cone . Assyriologists have not reached consensus as to the meaning of this symbol. The name "Tree of Life" has been attributed to it by modern scholarship; it is not used in the Assyrian sources. In fact, no textual evidence pertaining to the symbol is known to exist. The Epic of Gilgamesh is a similar quest for immortality. In Babylonian religion , Etana ,

12432-483: The Norse myth of Yggdrasil took root. The Celtic god Lugus was associated with the Celtic version of the tree of life. The Borjgali ( Georgian : ბორჯღალი ) is an ancient Georgian tree of life symbol. In Germanic paganism , trees played (and, in the form of reconstructive Heathenry and Germanic Neopaganism , continue to play) a prominent role, appearing in various aspects of surviving texts and possibly in

12580-544: The Winchester School or style only survive from about the 930s onwards; this coincided with a wave of revival and reform within English monasticism, encouraged by King Æthelstan (r. 924/5-939) and his successors. Æthelstan promoted Dunstan (909–988), a practising illuminator, eventually to Archbishop of Canterbury , and also Æthelwold and the French-trained Norseman Oswald . Illumination in

12728-558: The album Bullinamingvase (1977). The Inspector Morse episode "The Wolvercote Tongue" (1987) centres on the theft of a fictional Saxon artefact based on the Jewel. A near identical aestel (with the Christ-like figure wearing a red tunic instead of a green one) appeared in BBC Four 's Detectorists in 2015, first appearing in series two, and playing a more pivotal role in the following Christmas Special. In an episode of

12876-590: The apples from Iðunn 's ash box provide immortality for the gods. The "Tree of Immortality" ( Arabic : شجرة الخلود ) is the tree of life motif as it appears in the Quran . It is also alluded to in hadiths and tafsir. Unlike the biblical account , the Quran mentions only one tree in Eden, also called " the tree of immortality and power that never decays", which God specifically forbade to Adam and Eve. The tree in Quran

13024-589: The archives at Tamworth Castle. Another replica is on display in the Blake Museum , Bridgwater. In February 2015 the jewel returned to Somerset for the first time in 297 years when it was displayed for a month in the Museum of Somerset , Taunton Castle . In 2018–2019, it was displayed in the British Library , London as part of the "Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War" exhibition. Since the discovery of

13172-411: The base has as its snout a hollow socket, like those found in the other examples, showing that it was intended to hold a thin rod or stick. The back is a flat gold plate engraved with an acanthus -like plant motif, or Tree of Life according to Webster. Like the back of other examples, it is "suitable for sliding smoothly across the surface of a page". The use of relatively large cells of enamel to create

13320-471: The beasts are not shown, just the king holding two sticks with flower-like blobs at their ends. The scene is shown in the famous 12th-century floor mosaic in Otranto Cathedral in southern Italy, with a titulus of "ALEXANDER REX". The scene refers to knowledge coming through sight, and so would be appropriate for an aestel. Boardman detects the same meaning in the figure representing sight on

13468-534: The book, nor the book from the church. " Mancus " was a term used in early medieval Europe to denote either a gold coin , with a weight of gold of 4.25 grams (2.73 dwt ; equivalent to the Islamic dinar , and thus lighter than the Byzantine solidus ), or a unit of account of thirty silver pence . This made it worth about a month's wages for a skilled worker, such as a craftsman or a soldier. No other context

13616-469: The central world tree was conceived as or represented by a Ceiba pentandra and is known variously as a wacah chan or yax imix che in different Mayan languages . The trunk of the tree could also be represented by an upright caiman , whose skin evokes the tree's spiny trunk. Directional world trees are also associated with the four Year Bearers in Mesoamerican calendars and associated with

13764-506: The chair frame, while the text page to the right is mainly in Insular style, especially in the first line, with its vigorous Celtic spirals and interlace. The following lines revert to a quieter style more typical of Frankish manuscripts of the period. Yet the same artist almost certainly produced both pages, and is very confident in both styles; the evangelist portrait of John includes roundels with Celtic spiral decoration probably drawn from

13912-529: The complex animals of the Jelling style are mostly rather incompetently depicted in England, but traces of the next Mammen style are hard to detect; they are much clearer on the Isle of Man . They are "perhaps, dimly" evident in the cross shaft from St Oswald's Priory, Gloucester (illustrated above right). In general the traces of these styles in other media are even fainter. A uniquely Anglo-Scandinavian form

14060-486: The control of Indra , the king of the devas . In one story, for a very long time, the devas and the asuras decided to churn the milky ocean to obtain amrita , the nectar of immortality, and share it equally. During the churning, along with many other mythical items, emerged the Kalpavriksha. It is described to be gold in colour and bear a mesmerising aura. It is said to be pleased with chanting and offers: when it

14208-522: The directional colors and deities. Mesoamerican codices which have this association outlined include the Dresden , Borgia and Fejérváry-Mayer codices. It is supposed that Mesoamerican sites and ceremonial centers frequently had actual trees planted at each of the four cardinal directions, representing the quadripartite concept. World trees are frequently depicted with birds in their branches, and their roots extending into earth or water, sometimes atop

14356-651: The earliest known image of the Fall of the Rebel Angels . Several images in the Old English Hexateuch are believed to be the earliest surviving visual representations of the Horns of Moses , an iconographic convention which grew over the rest of the Middle Ages. Tree of Life The tree of life is a fundamental archetype in many of the world's mythological , religious , and philosophical traditions. It

14504-504: The emphatic geometry of the earlier "ribbon" style. Ædwen's brooch , an 11th-century Anglo-Scandinavian silver disk brooch, shows influence from Viking art , and a fall-off from the highest earlier standards of workmanship. In 2009 the Staffordshire hoard , a major hoard of over 1,500 fragments of 7th and ?8th century metalwork pieces, mostly gold and military in nature, many with gold and garnet cloisonné inlays of high quality,

14652-537: The enamelled escutcheons of hanging bowls . This is one of the so-called "Tiberius group" of manuscripts, which leant towards the Italian style, and appear to be associated with Kent , or perhaps the kingdom of Mercia in the heyday of the Mercian Supremacy . It is, in the usual chronology, the last English manuscript in which "developed trumpet spiral patterns" are found. The 9th century, especially

14800-535: The end of the Viking invasions. By the time of the Conquest the move to the Romanesque style is nearly complete. The important artistic centres, in so far as these can be established, were concentrated in the extremities of England, in Northumbria , especially in the early period, and Wessex and Kent near the south coast. Anglo-Saxon art survives mostly in illuminated manuscripts , Anglo-Saxon architecture ,

14948-743: The figure of Sight in the Fuller Brooch , but it is most commonly thought to represent Christ as Wisdom or Christ in Majesty ", according to Wilson, although Webster considers a personification of "Sight" a likely identification, also comparing it to the Fuller Brooch. Around the sides of the crystal there is a rim at the top that holds the rock crystal in place, above an openwork inscription: "AELFRED MEC HEHT GEWYRCAN" ( Ælfred mec heht ġewyrċan , [ˈælv.red mek hext jeˈwyrˠ.t͡ʃɑn] ), meaning "Alfred ordered me made". An animal head at

15096-426: The following century the resulting Anglo-Saxon style had reached maturity. However Anglo-Saxon society was massively disrupted in the 9th century, especially the later half, by the Viking invasions, and the number of significant objects surviving falls considerably, and their dating becomes even vaguer than of those from a century before. Most monasteries in the north were closed for decades, if not forever, and after

15244-590: The foot of the cross and writing, and God the Father creating the world with a pair of compasses . All of these were later used across Europe. The earliest developed depiction of the Last Judgement in the West is also found on an Anglo-Saxon ivory, and a late Anglo-Saxon Gospel book may show the earliest example of Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross in a Crucifixion . The Junius manuscript opens with

15392-523: The forbidden fruit of the tree in Genesis , and Ladon is often compared to the snake in Eden , all of which is part of why the forbidden fruit of Eden is usually represented as an apple in European art, even though Genesis does not specifically name nor describe any characteristics of the fruit. In Dictionnaire Mytho-Hermetique (Paris, 1737), Antoine-Joseph Pernety , a famous alchemist , identified

15540-675: The founders), appeared prominently on the front cover of Medieval Archaeology , the society's journal, from 1957 to 2010, and continues to appear on the title page. In the epic poem The Ballad of the White Horse by G. K. Chesterton (1911), King Alfred offers the Jewel to the Virgin Mary on the island of Athelney . One dim ancestral jewel hung On his ruined armour grey, He rent and cast it at her feet: Where, after centuries, with slow feet, Men came from hall and school and street And found it where it lay. A replica of

15688-534: The fruit receives immortality. An archaeological discovery in the 1990s was of a sacrificial pit at Sanxingdui in Sichuan , China . Dating from about 1200 BCE , it contained three bronze trees, one of them 4 meters high. At the base was a dragon, and fruit hanging from the lower branches. At the top is a bird-like (Phoenix) creature with claws. Also found in Sichuan, from the late Han dynasty (c. 25–220 CE),

15836-459: The gods, a theme detected in other Christian monuments in Britain and Scandinavia, and which could be turned to Christian advantage. Anglo-Scandinavians took up Anglo-Saxon sculptural forms with great enthusiasm, and in Yorkshire alone there are fragments from more than 500 monumental sculptures of the 10th and 11th centuries. However quantity was not matched by quality, and even the products of

15984-525: The heads on the obverse , with results that are varied and often compelling. Later silver pennies , with largely linear relief heads of kings in profile on the obverse, are more uniform, as representatives of what was a stable and respected currency by contemporary European standards. A number of complete seax knives have survived with inscriptions and some decoration, and sword fittings and other military pieces are an important form of jewellery. A treatise on social status needed to say that mere ownership of

16132-468: The historical fiction series The Last Kingdom , Alfred sends out his nephew Aethelwold as his envoy and hands him the Jewel to use as a sign of Alfred's royal authority. Anglo-Saxon art#Metalwork Anglo-Saxon art covers art produced within the Anglo-Saxon period of English history, beginning with the Migration period style that the Anglo-Saxons brought with them from the continent in

16280-406: The homes of the elite. Only a few pieces have survived, including three pieces at Durham placed in the coffin of St Cuthbert, probably in the 930s, after being given by King Athelstan ; they were made in Winchester between 909 and 916. These are works "of breathtaking brilliance and quality", according to Wilson, including figures of saints, and important early examples of the Winchester style, though

16428-482: The imagination is often needed to see the excavated and worn remains that survive as they once were. Perhaps the best known piece of Anglo-Saxon art is the Bayeux Tapestry which was commissioned by a Norman patron from English artists working in the traditional Anglo-Saxon style. Anglo-Saxon artists also worked in fresco , stone , ivory and whalebone (notably the Franks Casket ), metalwork (for example

16576-499: The inhabited and historiated initials became more important than they ever had in Anglo-Saxon art itself, and works like the Gloucester Candlestick (c. 1110) show the process in other media. Anglo-Saxon iconographical innovations include the animal Hellmouth , the ascending Christ shown only as a pair of legs and feet disappearing at the top of the image, the horned Moses , St John the Evangelist standing at

16724-446: The initials in the text combine Carolingian elements with animal forms in inventive fashion. Miniatures added in England to the continental Aethelstan Psalter begin to show Anglo-Saxon liveliness in figure drawing in compositions derived from Carolingian and Byzantine models, and over the following decades the distinctive Winchester style with agitated draperies and elaborate acanthus borders develops. The Benedictional of St. Æthelwold

16872-519: The latter half, has very few major survivals made in England, but was a period when Insular and Anglo-Saxon influence on Carolingian manuscripts was at its height, from scriptoria such as those at the Anglo-Saxon mission 's foundation at Echternach Abbey (though the important Echternach Gospels were created in Northumbria), and the major monastery at Tours , where Alcuin of York was followed by another Anglo-Saxon abbot, between them covering

17020-595: The least common survivals, and the Easby Cross was repaired with lead in a way described in early documents. Like many monuments from the area of the Danelaw , the Gosforth Cross combines Christian images with those from pagan mythology; apart from a Crucifixion scene, and perhaps scenes of the Last Judgement , all the other images appear to belong to the Norse myth of Ragnarök , the destruction of

17168-469: The like, which contemporaries did not bother to mention and which represents a gap in our knowledge for the Early Medieval period throughout Europe. Relatively little art survives from the rest of the century after 1066, or at least is confidently dated to that period. The art of Normandy was already under heavy Anglo-Saxon influence, but the period was one of massive despoliation of the churches by

17316-533: The main city, York, are described by David M. Wilson as "generally miserable and slipshod". In the early stages the successive styles of Norse art appear in England, but gradually as political and cultural ties weakened the Anglo-Scandinavians fail to keep up with trends in the homeland. So elements of the Borre style are seen, for example in the "ring-chain" interlace on the Gosforth Cross, and then

17464-403: The massive Sandbach Crosses from Mercia, with oblong sections mostly covered by figures on the wider faces, like some Irish crosses. The Gosforth Cross , of 930–950, is a rare example to survive complete; most survivals are only a section of the shaft, and iconoclasts were more concerned to destroy imagery than ornament. Many crosses must have just fallen over after some centuries; headpieces are

17612-462: The mysteries of spiritual things being presented to him in bodily form. So then in the other trees he was provided with nourishment, in this one with a sacrament... He is rightly called whatever came before him in order to signify him. In Eastern Christianity the tree of life is the love of God. The tree of life vision is described and discussed in the Book of Mormon . According to the Book of Mormon,

17760-552: The name of gods. The tree of life appears in Norse religion as Yggdrasil , the world tree, a massive tree (sometimes considered a yew or ash tree ) with extensive lore surrounding it. Perhaps related to Yggdrasil, accounts have survived of Germanic Tribes honouring sacred trees within their societies. Examples include Thor's Oak , sacred groves , the Sacred tree at Uppsala , and the wooden Irminsul pillar. In Norse Mythology ,

17908-561: The only form in which the earliest Anglo-Saxon art has survived, mostly in Germanic-style jewellery (including fittings for clothes and weapons) which was, before the Christianisation of Anglo-Saxon England , commonly placed in burials. After the conversion, which took most of the 7th century, the fusion of Germanic Anglo-Saxon, Celtic and Late Antique techniques and motifs, together with the requirement for books, created

18056-438: The origin of their style is a puzzle; they are closest to the wall-painting fragment from Winchester mentioned above, and an early example of acanthus decoration. The earliest group of survivals, now re-arranged and with the precious metal thread mostly picked out, are bands or borders from vestments, incorporating pearls and glass beads, with various types of scroll and animal decoration. These are probably 9th century and now in

18204-753: The other the Winchester style, drawing from the Utrecht Psalter and an alternative Carolingian tradition. A very late boxwood casket, now in Cleveland, Ohio , is carved all over with scenes from the Life of Christ in a provincial but accomplished version of the Winchester style, possibly originating in the West Midlands , and is a unique survival of late Anglo-Saxon fine wood carving. The textile arts of embroidery and "tapestry", Opus anglicanum , were apparently those for which Anglo-Saxon England

18352-409: The painting very likely mainly in illuminated manuscripts . It was probably his artistic work which brought him into contact with the royal family, and launched his rapid promotion in the church. Even the imprecise details given, mostly by Goscelin, are therefore valuable evidence of what Anglo-Saxon metalwork was like. Anglo-Saxon skill in gold-engraving, designs and figures engraved on gold objects,

18500-469: The period from 796 to 834. Although Tours' own library was destroyed by Norsemen, over 60 9th century illuminated manuscripts from the scriptorium survive, in a style showing many borrowings from English models, especially in initial pages, where Insular influence remained visible in northern France until even the 12th century. The Anglo-Saxon metalwork produced in the Salzburg area of modern Austria has

18648-518: The poem the Dream of the Rood is inscribed together with Latin texts; more often donors are commemorated. It has also been suggested that as well as paint, they may have been embellished with metalwork and gems. Typically, Anglo-Saxon crosses are tall and slender compared to Irish examples, many with a nearly square section, and more space given to ornament than figures. However, there are exceptions, like

18796-456: The precious "aestels" or staffs that Alfred the Great is recorded as having sent to each bishopric along with a copy of his translation of Pope Gregory the Great 's book Pastoral Care . He wrote in his preface to the book: And I will send a copy to every bishop's see in my kingdom, and in each book there is an aestel of 50 mancusses and I command, in God's name, that no man take the staff from

18944-784: The production of this is slender. Glass is sometimes used as a substitute for garnet in jewellery, as in some pieces from Sutton Hoo. Enamel was used, most famously in the Alfred Jewel , where the image sits under carved rock crystal , both materials are extremely rare in surviving Anglo-Saxon work. The unique decorated leather cover of the small Northumbrian St Cuthbert Gospel , the oldest Western bookbinding to survive unaltered, can be dated to 698 or shortly before. It uses incised lines, some colours, and relief decoration built up over cord and gesso or leather pieces. Larger prestige manuscripts had metalwork treasure bindings , several of which are mentioned, but there may well have been much decorated leatherwork for secular satchels, purses, belts and

19092-530: The right and left sides of the stem, with each branch having one leaf, and one leaf on the apex of the tree. Servants stood on each side of the tree with one of their hands up as if they are taking care of the tree. In the Avestan literature and Iranian mythology , there are several sacred vegetal icons related to life, eternality and cure, such as Amesha Spenta ; Ameretat , the guardian of plants and goddess of trees and immortality; Gaokerena or white haoma ,

19240-588: The same time the Gregorian mission from Rome and its successors imported continental manuscripts like the Italian St. Augustine Gospels , and for a considerable period the two styles appear mixed in a variety of proportions in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. In the Lindisfarne Gospels , of around 700–715, there are carpet pages and Insular initials of unprecedented complexity and sophistication, but

19388-708: The shrine, is also unique among the surviving evidence. Some twenty years after the miracle, he joined the Abbey of Evesham, presumably in retirement, and his son later became Prior there. In the final century of the period some large figures in precious metal are recorded; presumably these were made of thin sheets over a wooden core like the Golden Madonna of Essen , the largest example of this type of Early Medieval figure to survive from anywhere in Europe. These appear to have been life-size, or nearly so, and were mostly crucifixes , sometimes with figures of Mary and John

19536-541: The small new ruling class, who had almost entirely dispossessed the old Anglo-Saxon elite. Under these circumstances little significant art was produced, but when it was, the style often showed a slow development of Anglo-Saxon styles into a fully Romanesque version. The attribution of many individual objects has jumped around across the boundary of the Norman Conquest, especially for sculpture, including ivories. A number of objects are claimed for their period by both

19684-441: The source of sacred potable . The Gaokerena is a large, sacred haoma planted by Ahura Mazda . Ahriman created a frog to invade the tree and destroy it, aiming to prevent all trees from growing on the earth. As a reaction, Ahura Mazda created two kar-fish staring at the frog to guard the tree. The two fish are always staring at the frog and stay ready to react to it. Ahriman is responsible for all evil including death; Ahura Mazda

19832-568: The standard works [scriptures]." Different views on the Tree of life can be found in the Nag Hammadi library codices, writings belonging to Gnosticism . In On the Origin of the World , the Tree of Life is said to be located to the north of paradise , providing life to the innocent saints who will come out of their material bodies during what is called the consummation of the age. The color of

19980-420: The style of Insular manuscripts. By the 10th century Anglo-Saxon metalwork had a famous reputation as far afield as Italy, where English goldsmiths worked on plate for the altar of St Peter's itself, but hardly any pieces have survived the depredations of the Norman Conquest in 1066, and the English Reformation , and none of the large-scale ones, shrines, doors and statues, that we know existed, and of which

20128-867: The subject very clearly and was necessary to cover very large areas. All kinds of textile arts were produced by women, both nuns and laywomen, but many were probably designed by artists in other media. Byzantine silks were available, though certainly expensive, in Anglo-Saxon England, and a number of pieces have been found used in burials and reliquaries. Probably, as in later vestments, these were often married with locally embroidered borders and panels. If we had more Anglo-Saxon survivals, Byzantine influences would no doubt be apparent. The most highly valued embroideries were very different, fully worked in silk and gold of silver thread, and sometimes with gems of various sorts sewn in. These were used for vestments, altar-cloths and other church uses, and similar roles in

20276-525: The tree is described as resembling the Sun, its branches are beautiful, its leaves are similar to that of cypress , and its fruit is like clusters of white grapes. However, in the Secret Book of John , the Tree of Life is portrayed negatively. Its roots are described as bitter, its branches are death, its shadow is hatred, a trap is found in its leaves, its seed is desire, and it blossoms in the darkness. In

20424-529: The tree of life in the form of ten interconnected nodes, as the central symbol of the Kabbalah . It comprises the ten Sefirot powers in the divine realm. The panentheistic and anthropomorphic emphasis of this emanationist theology interpreted the Torah, Jewish observance, and the purpose of Creation as the symbolic esoteric drama of unification in the sefirot , restoring harmony to Creation . From

20572-815: The tree of life with the Elixir of life and the Philosopher's Stone . In Eden in the East (1998), Stephen Oppenheimer suggests that a tree-worshipping culture arose in Indonesia and was diffused by the so-called "Younger Dryas" event of c. 10,900 BCE or 12,900 BP, after which the sea level rose. This culture reached China ( Sichuan ), then India and the Middle East . Finally the Finno-Ugric strand of this diffusion spread through Russia to Finland where

20720-423: The vision was received in a dream by the prophet Lehi , and later in a vision by his son Nephi , who wrote about it in the First Book of Nephi . The vision includes a path leading to a tree, the fruit of the tree symbolizing the love of God, with an iron rod, symbolizing the word of God, along the path whereby followers of Jesus may hold to the rod and avoid wandering off the path into pits or waters symbolizing

20868-445: The ways of sin. The vision also includes a large building wherein the wicked look down at the righteous and mock them. The vision is said to symbolize love of Christ and the way to eternal life and is a well known and cited story with members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. A member of the church reflected that the vision is "one of the richest, most flexible, and far-reaching pieces of symbolic prophecy contained in

21016-493: The whole world, first descending into the depths of the ocean in a sort of diving bell , then wanting to see the view from above. To do this he harnessed two large birds, or griffins in other versions, with a seat for him between them. To entice them to keep flying higher he placed meat on two skewers which he held above their heads. This was quite commonly depicted in several medieval cultures, from Europe to Persia, where it may reflect earlier legends or iconographies. Sometimes

21164-407: Was famous throughout Europe by the end of the period, but there are only a handful of survivals, probably partly because of the Anglo-Saxon love of using threads in precious metal, making the work valuable for scrap. The Bayeux Tapestry is embroidered in wool on linen and shows the story of the Norman conquest of England ; it is surely the best known Anglo-Saxon work of art, and though made after

21312-414: Was found by a metal-detectorist in Staffordshire , then in Mercia. Jewellery is far more often found from burials of the early pagan period, as Christianity discouraged grave-goods, even the personal possessions of the deceased. Early Anglo-Saxon jewellery includes various types of fibulae that are close to their Continental Germanic equivalents, but until Sutton Hoo rarely of outstanding quality, which

21460-471: Was mostly made in simple forms, with vessels always in a single colour, either clear, green or brown, but some fancy claw beakers decorated with large "claw" forms have survived, mostly broken; these forms are also found in northern continental Europe. Beads, common in early female burials, and some ecclesiastical window glass was more brightly coloured, and several monastic sites have evidence of glass production. Vessel and bead production probably continued, at

21608-429: Was once attached to a rod, probably of wood, at its base. After decades of scholarly discussion, it is now "generally accepted" that the jewel's function was to be the handle for a pointer stick for following words when reading a book. It is an exceptional and unusual example of Anglo-Saxon jewellery. Although the function of the Jewel is not absolutely certain, it is believed to have been the handle or terminal for one of

21756-438: Was that they would become angels or they start using the idea/concept of Ownership in conjunction with inheritance generations after generations which Iblis convinced Adam to accept When Adam and Eve ate from this tree their nakedness appeared to them and they began to sew together, for their covering, leaves from the Garden. The hadiths also speak about other trees in heaven. The tree of life in Islamic architecture

21904-410: Was the tree of life. To prevent their access to this tree in the future, Cherubim with a flaming sword were placed at the east of the garden. In the Book of Proverbs, the tree of life is associated with wisdom : "[Wisdom] is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her, and happy [is every one] that retaineth her." In Proverbs 15:4, the tree of life is associated with calmness: "A soothing tongue

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