The Drogo Sacramentary Analysis

During the Middle Ages, France experienced various changes after the fall of the Roman Empire. New “barbarian” settlers began to settle across the country, which allowed new aspects of French society to appear as cultures clashed and combined (Neal 41). One aspect of France that changed almost entirely was its religious beliefs; specifically, Christianity became widely accepted among the French. One piece of artwork that illustrates the new religious changes is illuminated manuscripts. Illuminated manuscripts are written pages with painted illustrations first created by monasteries (“Illuminated Manuscripts NGA”). Despite the fact that the artwork in an illuminated manuscript is small in size, illuminated manuscript artwork illustrates the religious beliefs of French society at the time it was created as well as demonstrates and
A sacramentary “was a liturgical book used for prayer during the High Middle Ages, containing prayers, prefaces and canons for mass” (“The Drogo Sacramentary”); this sacramentary was created between 845-855 CE for Drogo, the Bishop of Metz (“The Drogo Sacramentary”). This artwork is interesting to me because it illustrates the religious beliefs of French society in a beautiful and articulate manner. An artistic pattern found in illuminated manuscripts is a painted scene within an individual letter. For instance, in this illuminated manuscript a scene from the Lord’s ascension into heaven is painted inside the letter “C” (“Carolingian Art”, see Figure 1). It is amazing to consider how small the area is for the artist to paint; still the artist is able to illustrate a mountain, 12 disciples, two angels, and Jesus in a limited space. The artist uses colors of gold, red, yellow, green, blue, and black; these colors are simple, yet the combination of them is bold and grabs the viewer’s