Viking art

Gold jewellery from the 10th century Hiddensee treasure, mixing Norse pagan and Christian symbols.
Pair of "tortoise brooches," which were worn by married Viking women

Viking art, also known commonly as Norse art, is a term widely accepted for the art of Scandinavian Norsemen and Viking settlements further afield—particularly in the British Isles and Iceland—during the Viking Age of the 8th-11th centuries. Viking art has many design elements in common with Celtic, Germanic, the later Romanesque and Eastern European art, sharing many influences with each of these traditions.[1]

Generally speaking, the current knowledge of Viking art relies heavily upon more durable objects of metal and stone; wood, bone, ivory and textiles are more rarely preserved. The artistic record, therefore, as it has survived to the present day, remains significantly incomplete. Ongoing archaeological excavation and opportunistic finds, of course, may improve this situation in the future, as indeed they have in the recent past.

Viking art is usually divided into a sequence of roughly chronological styles, although outside Scandinavia itself local influences are often strong, and the development of styles can be less clear.

  1. ^ *Maurizio Tani, Le origini mediterranee ed eurasiatiche dell’arte vichinga. Casi esemplari dall’Islanda, in Studi Nordici (Roma), XIII, 2006, pp. 81–95