Looped Fibulae
6th century CE
Merovingian
Purse Cover from the Sutton Hoo Burial Ship
c. 625 CE
Hiberno-Saxon
Middle East, 12th cent. CE
Iran, 9th cent. CE
Roman, 1st cent. CE
Sweden, 11th-12th cent. CE
Spain, 1st cent. BCE
South Cross
Ahenny, Ireland
Late 8th century CE
Hiberno-Saxon
Ezra from the
Codex Amiantinus
c. 700 CE
Hiberno-Saxon
St. Matthew from the
Lindisfarne Gospels
c. 698-721 CE
Hiberno-Saxon, Northumbrian
Chi-rho-iota
from the Book of Kells
9th century CE
Hiberno-Saxon
Fine craftsmanship is all about you, but you might not notice it.
Look more keenly at it and you . . . will make out intricacies, so delicate and subtle, so exact and compact, so full of knots and links,
with colors so fresh and vivid, that you might say that all this was the work of an angel, and not of a man.
For my part, the oftener I see the book, the more carefully I study it,
the more I am lost in ever fresh amazement, and I see more and more wonders in the book.
- Giraldus Cambrensis, Topographia Hiberniae (1185 CE)
Plaque with Saint John the Evangelist
Early 9th cent. CE
Frankish, Carolingian
Example of possible original form
Byzantine, 10th-11th cent. CE
Codex Aureus of Lorsch
(aka Lorsch Gospels)
778-820 CE
Frankish, Carolingian
Jesus Depicted as a Warrior
(from the Stuttgart Psalter)
9th cent. CE | Frankish, Carolingian
Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram
9th cent. CE
Frankish, Carolingian
Equestrian Portrait of Charlemagne
9th cent. CE
Frankish, Carolingian
Palantine Chapel of Charlemagne
805 CE
Frankish, Carolingian
St. Matthew from the
Coronation Gospels
c. 800-810 CE
Frankish, Carolingian
A view into
c. 1440 CE
St. Michael's
Cisnadioara, Romania
11th cent. CE
São Martinho de Cedofeita
Porto, Portugal
c. 1087 CE
Lisbon Cathedral
Lisbon, Portugal
1150 CE
Interior of the Alcobaça Monastery
Cisnadioara, Portugal
1187 CE
St. Michael's
Hildesheim, Germany
1001-1031 CE
Saint-Sernin
Toulouse, France
1070-1120 CE
Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio
Milan, Italy
late 11th to early 12th century CE
Christ in Majesty
Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France
c. 1096 CE
Last Judgement
Saint-Lazare, Autun, France
c. 1120-1135 CE
Complex C (The Great Pyramid)
La Venta, Mexico
c. 350 BCE | Olmec
Jadeite Mask
c. 900-400 BCE
Olmec
Colossal Head
(Monument 1)
La Venta, Mexico
c. 900-400 BCE
Olmec
Olmec Rubber Ball
Ball Court
Copán, Honduras
738 CE | Mayan
Teotihuacán
Ciudad de México
c. 50-250 CE
Castillo
Chichén Itzá, Mexico
c. 800-900 CE | Maya
Tikal Temple 1 (aka Temple of the Giant Jaguar)
Tikal, Guatemala
c. 732 CE | Maya
The founding of Tenochtitlán,
(folio 2 recto of the Codex Mendoza)
1541–1542 CE
Aztec/Mexica
Ink and color on paper
Mictlantecuhtli and Quetzalcoatl (folio 56 of the Borgia Codex)
from Puebla or Tlaxcala, Mexico
ca. 1400–1500 CE | Aztec/Mexica | Mineral and vegetable pigments on deerskin
Templo Mayor
(Reconstruction view with cutaway)
Tenochtitlan, Mexico City, Mexico
Aztec/Mexica
ca. 1400-1500 CE
Coatlicue
from Tenochtitlán, Mexico City, Mexico
Aztec/Mexica
ca. 1487–1520 CE
Cliff Palace
Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado
c. 1150-1300 CE | Ancestral Puebloan
Pueblo Bonito
Chaco Canyon, New Mexico
mid-9th to mid-12th century CE | Ancestral Puebloan
Marvel not at the gold and at the expense but at the craftsmanship of the work. Bright is the noble work; but being nobly bright, the work should brighten the minds, so that they may travel, through the true lights, to the True Light where Christ is the true door
-Abbot Suger, Liber de rebus in administratione sua gestis
Basilica of Saint-Denis
Saint-Denis, France
12th century CE
Chartres Cathedral (West)
Chartres, France
1145-1155 CE
Royal Portal
Chartres Cathedral, Chartres, France
c. 1145-1155 CE, Gothic
Head of a Prophet
from St. Denis
1137-1140 CE
Columnar Statues, West Portal
Chartres Cathedral
1145-1150 CE
Adam
Pierre de Montreuil
c. 1260 CE
Statues of Charles V and
Joanna of Bourbon
Anonymous
mid-14th century CE
Notre Dame de Paris
Paris, France
1163-1345 CE
Notre-dame de Reims or Reims Cathedral
Reims, France
13th-14th century CE
Cologne Cathedral
Cologne, Germany
13th-14th century CE