Viking art

Sculpture and design of the Vikings, dating from the 8th to 11th century. Viking artists are known for woodcarving and finely wrought personal ornaments in gold and silver, and for an intricate interlacing decorative style similar to that found in Celtic art. A dragonlike creature, known as the ‘Great Beast’, is a recurring motif.

In England Viking art did not in any sense replace that of the Celts and Saxons (see Anglo-Saxon art), and it is not until the latter part of the 10th century that its influence becomes at all marked. In many parts of Europe Viking art was gradually absorbed into the Romanesque style.

There are three styles of Viking art:

Jellinge style
Named from a Danish royal grave in Jutland, this is based on heavy animal designs, of which the Great Beast, to be seen on the famous Jellinge rune-stone itself, is one variety. The style also has affinities with the patterns of Irish manuscript illumination. In Britain it is well represented on the 2-m/6.5-ft-high standing cross in a churchyard in Gosforth, Cumberland.

Ringerike style
Characterized by elaborate foliage ornament and interlacing, this style is named after the district in Norway where it is represented in local sandstone. However, one origin of the style can be found in the Winchester school of illuminated manuscripts. A particularly interesting example of it is an early 11th-century sculpture of a Great Beast and serpent, originally coloured and rune-inscribed, which is part of a tomb found in the churchyard of St Paul's Cathedral, London, in 1852 and now in the Guildhall (City of London) Museum. Another noteworthy relic of the same style and date is a bronze plate, part of a weather vane, found in Winchester and now in the Cathedral Library. The influence of the Ringerike style is well represented in English manuscripts, and there are also a few exceedingly competent carvings in ivory.

Urnes style
The carving on the wooden doors of Urnes Church on the Sognefjord, Norway, gives its name to the third style, though the distribution in Scandinavia is wider than this name might suggest. It found brilliant exposition in Irish metalwork, for example the 12th-century Cross of Cong, and it had an equally important place in English Christian art.