Pre-Romanesque art and architecture
art style of Europe between the fall of Rome and the 11th century
In European art history, the pre-Romanesque period extends from either the rise of the Merovingian dynasty (c. 500) or the Carolingian Renaissance of the late 8th century to the onset of the Romanesque style in the 11th century. It often refers specifically to architecture and monumental sculpture, but this article covers all the arts of the period.
History
The primary development during this period is the introduction and absorption of classical Mediterranean and Early Christian forms with Germanic ones, which gave rise to innovative new forms. This in turn led to the rise of Romanesque art in the 11th century. The pre-Romanesque was preceded by the Migration Period art of the barbarian peoples: Hiberno-Saxon in the British Isles and predominantly Merovingian in Continental Europe.
In most of Western Europe, Roman architectural tradition survived the collapse of the Roman empire. The Franks of the Merovingian polity continued to build large stone buildings like monastery churches and palaces.
The unification of the Frankish kingdom under Clovis I (r. 481–511) and his successors corresponds with a period of building churches, and especially monastery churches, as these were now the power-houses of the Merovingian church. Two hundred monasteries existed south of the Loire when St.
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