Utrecht Psalter

Utrecht Psalter (University Lib., Utrecht). The most famous of Carolingian illuminated manuscripts and one of the most influential works of art of the early Middle Ages. It was probably made in the abbey of Hautvillers in the diocese of Reims (see Reims School) during the time of Archbishop Ebbo (816–35). Each Psalm is illustrated with a drawing in brown ink that translates the poetical texts into concrete images. ‘The small figures are drawn with great rapidity and with only a few strokes, and they are set in hilly landscapes indicated with a line or two. Everything is movement, gesture, and expression. The crowds swarm like ants, agitated, tense, in constant motion, their robes swirling as if blown by the wind. The dynamic, expressive style obviously depends on late antique models but, at the same time, it is very personal and the work of a great artist. No wonder this style caught the imagination of many later artists’ ( George Zarnecki, Art of the Medieval World, 1975). By about 1000 the book had found its way to Canterbury, and there are three surviving free copies of it made there over the next two centuries (BL, London; Trinity College, Cambridge; Bib. Nat., Paris). After the Dissolution of the Monasteries it passed into private ownership (it was for a time in the library of Sir Robert Cotton; see Lindisfarne Gospels), and it was acquired by the University of Utrecht in 1716. See also psalter.