Ars Sacra 800-1200

For an understanding of the art of the Early Middle Ages it is essential to consider reliquaries and shrines, book bindings and ivory carvings, goldsmith's work and bronze casting, as much as major sculpture and painting.

This volume covers these Ars Sacra from 800 to 1200. The objects discussed in this volume are "sacred", for the most part made to contain the most precious mortal remains of saints or for the celebration of the mass and other Sacraments, or the decoration of the altar.

Even imperial or royal regalia, which might be thought to be secular, were regarded as divine gifts, symbolic of the sacred power of the ruler: rex et sacerdos, God's vicar on earth.

Such regalia were necessary to the anointing and the dedication of kings, part of the ritual of the Church.