Ebook: Vendel Period Bracteates on Gotland: On the Significance of Germanic Art

This thesis investigates the Germanic art in W. and N.W. Europe during the period c. 400-800 AD on the methodical basis of the contextual iconography, developed by the German historian Karl Hauck. Centred on an analysis of the so-called E-bracteates from Gotland it is shown that a systematic iconographic approach is relevant not only to our knowledge of pre-Christian Germanic religion, but also for the establishing of chronologies and for our understanding of early medieval society in S. Scandinavia. Founded on the recognition of motifs and underlying mythological themes as central in early medieval art, iconography is not conducive to linear explanations. As a method, therefore, it represents a systematic and critical alternative to the aesthetic and fundamentally evolutionist perception of style associated with Germanic art since Bernard Salin's seminal work "Die altgermanische Thierornamentik" in 1904.