The Influence of the Utrecht Psalter in Carolingian Art

* This study is dedicated to the memory of Professor Albert M. Friend, to whom I owe some of the conclusions reached here. Its preparation was materially assisted by the Graduate School Research Fund of the University of Minnesota.

Abstract

THE importance of the Utrecht Psalter illustrations in the formation of early mediaeval art in various English and continental centers has been observed by a number of scholars who have called attention either to specific and direct relations with that famous work or have felt the diffusion of its style in a general way. Yet we know less about the relation of the Psalter to some important Carolingian works than we do about its influence in centers further removed from its place of origin. This study is intended to supplement existing knowledge concerning such relations and to assist in making more reliable generalizations on the subject. It will also throw some light upon the process by which Carolingian artists tried to assimilate their different sources and fuse them in a new form which at once honors the models and evinces a measure of considerable originality.