So-called „Norman Ornament“ and architectonical Sculptures in Middle Europe about

1250

My paper falls into the Session 5: „England and the Continent in the High Middle Ages.
Artistic Exchange or National Independence?“. It will deal with establishment Scottish
Benediktine monasteries in Central and West Europe and with their issues in architectonical
Sculptures in the first half of the 13th century. Dominant artistic Centres of this area were
Scottisch monastery in Regensburg and Scottisch abbey Unserer Lieben Frau zu den
Schotten in Vienna. Their construction took place in the second half of the 12th century.
These monasteries kept active connections with parent monasteries in Ireland. Irish monks
brought master builders and stonemasons along. Norman décor spread to Western and
Central Europe due these Irish-Scottish missions and newly built monasteries. Norman
orientated decoration is specific to parish and convent churches in Ireland for the whole 12th
century. In the second half of the 13th century, there appeared group of buildings in Lower
Austria (Vienna, Wiener Neustadt, Mödling, Tulln, Schöngrabern, Bad Deutsch Altenburg),
in southern Moravia (Třebíč, Měřín) and in western Hungary (Ják, Lébeny). These buildings
are architecturally interrelated and the influence of Irish-Scottish art on them is indisputable.
Beside above mentioned kind of decoration, so decorated portals are also related by
environment where they appear - environment of Benedictine monasteries. In Lower
Austria, individual buildings – including church of St. Stephen in Vienna or church of Holy
Virgin in Wiener Neustadt – were patronized by one founder Frederick II. from the
Babenberg dynasty. An aim of this paper is a capturing of activities of this Benedictine
building works in Central Europe and a setting of individual buildings into chronological
context.