Goths
Visigoths, Ostrogoths
The Dark Ages: Age of Light
Theodoric usurped by Justinian
When the Roman emperor Justinian reconquered Ravenna for the Byzantines, he set about tampering with what Theodoric had done, removing what he could
of the Aryans.
So see this portrait here? That’s actually Theodoric, but Justinian has taken over his identity and he is pretending to be him.
This, they say, is what is left of Theodoric’s Ravenna Palace. You can see it inside San Apollinaire as well. A great golden palace filled once
with magnificent Ostrogoth treasures.
There is a museum in Romania, in Bucharest, that is bursting with this Ostrogoth bling. And personally, I’d be happy to put on some shades and
just stare at it for the next few days. But we can’t.
Because back in Ravenna, the story of the Ostrogoths has darkened and grown eerie. When Justinian conquered Ravenna, he had all signs of
Theodoric and the Ostrogoths removed. And the great mosaic Palace is now a ghost town with no-one in it.
Though if you look very carefully, you can still make out a few of the bodiless Ostrogoth hands that remain.
Theodoric left his mark on many art forms. But the one that surprises me most is this totally unexpected piece of Dark Age literature.
Lars Munkhammar
Lars Munkhammar “The Silver Bible is a Gothic gospel book written in Gothic with the Gothic alphabet. It was written in northern Italy,
probably in Ravenna. And probably for the Gothic, the Ostrogothic king, Theodoric the Great, in the beginning of the sixth century.”
Most people imagine that what used to be called the barbarian tribes, such as the Goths, didn’t have a literature. But this, of course, is written
in the Gothic language.
Lars Munkhammar “Yes. And that’s very remarkable, because we don’t know anything about the other Germanic languages. But Gothic language is preserved
in this manuscript.”
It’s very beautiful to look at. It’s got to these lovely purple pages with the Silver writing on it.
Lars Munkhammar “Yes. It’s the imperial colour, the purple colour. And Theodoric the Great, he got permission from the East Roman emperor to use
this purple colour. And he behaved and acted like a Roman emperor.”
Theodoric’s Mausoleum
Theodoric, who lived to be over 70, deserves to be remembered as one of the great achievers of the Dark Ages. This is where he was buried, his
mausoleum, in Ravenna. And I can’t think of another building anywhere that looks anything like this. What eerie and inventive architecture.
I love this thing. It’s so stocky and unusual. A unique example of Ostrogoth building which seems to have popped out of nowhere, and that’s just the
outside. Wait until you see the inside.
Theodoric died in 526 A.D., and was buried here in this huge sarcophagus, shaped like a Roman Bath. I find this such a spooky space. And it’s
absolutely unique. That roof is made from a single piece of Istrian stone. It’s a metre thick, 33 metres wide, and weighs 300 tonnes. To get it
here from Istria, which is roughly where modern Croatia is, they had to load it onto an enormous raft and sail it across the Adriatic.
Can you imagine?
So that’s the end of the Ostrogoths, but what about the Visigoths, or Western Goths? The Goths in Spain. What happened to them, you might be
thinking? And what did they achieve?
Well, rather a lot, as it happens.
Palencia
This is Palencia, in Spain, and what you’re looking at is the oldest surviving Spanish church, built in the seventh century by the Visigoths.
The Visigoths ruled Spain from around 500 A.D. to around 700 A.D. that’s 200 years, but you hardly ever hear about them. You hear about the Romans
in Spain, you heard about the Muslims in Spain, but you don’t hear about the Visigoths.
One cruel wag has christened them the Invisi-Goths, which is very unfair.
If you hunt around in Spain, you’ll find plenty of evidence of Visigoth achievement, like this rustic enunciation, carved into an emerald. And
sometimes, you don’t have to look hard at all to see the Visigoths showing off their Dark Age skills.
Visigoth Crownh
Like these superb Visigoth crowns, with the name of the King who commissioned them spelled-out helpfully for the hard of remembering.
Aren’t they magnificent?
Those Visigoth crowns are not for the wearing on your head. They’re what’s called votive crowns, and they are for hanging above an altar in
a church.
Like the Ostrogoths, the Visigoths were originally Aryans, but here in Spain, they were surrounded by Roman Catholics, and quickly adopted the
Romanic version of Christianity. And that’s when they built these exciting and inventive Visigoth churches.
Church of St John the Baptist
This is the church of St John the Baptist in Palencia. It’s been remodelled here and there, but most of what you see is Visigoth. The story goes
that the Visigoth king Recesvinto built this church to thank God for accusing him of liver disease. He washed himself just out here, in the holy
waters of Palencia. He was suddenly cured.
Recesvinto was on his way north to fight the Basques, so he was particularly grateful for his miraculous cure, and even put up a plaque with
the date the church was finished. January 3, 661 A.D. Recesvinto’s plaque is surrounded by typically vigorous bits of Visigoth decoration. So
energetic and busy. Completely unlike anything the Romans came up with.
I really like this Visigoth church decoration. When I look at it, I feel as if I am hear a sculptor whistling. There’s something so boisterous
about it, something real and untutored. It’s as if, for the first time in art, we’re hearing from the common man.
Horseshoe Arches
This wasn’t made by an artiste, this was made by a bloke. Someone with big hands, who is speaking to us across the ages. The sheer inventiveness
of these Visigoths so invigorating. I mean, look at these arches. They are special, right? Why are they special? Because they look like one of
these – a horse shoe. I don’t know how much you know about arches. But if you’re any sort of student at all, you’ll know that horseshoe arches
are remarkable. Your bog standard Arch certainly wasn’t shaped like this.
Before the Visigoths invented these, arches were semicircular. But these horseshoe arches, they come down to here, and they have a very
different effect. Horseshoe arches look whiter, airier, taller, more elegant, as if a sail has been unfurled and filled with wind. They’re more
playful, too. Less stern. This is architecture doing more than has been asked of it. This isn’t just holding something up. This is having fun
and looking good.
So the Visigoths invented these elegant horseshoe arches, and these were a brilliant barbarian invention. But although the Visigoths
invented them, they didn’t perfect them. It was someone else who did that.
The perfectors of the horseshoe arch are the subject of the next chapter, when we look at the art of Islam. In the hands of Islamic artists,
the horseshoe arch would create Architecture of spine-tingling beauty. It’s yet another of the great achievements of the Dark Ages.
