|
DESIGNS OF THE ANCIENT
CELTS
For the history & development
of the iconography, zoomorphic
patterns and decorative art
motifs
employed by the ancient Celts,
in metalwork, ceramics and other
artworks please see:
Celtic Designs
Celtic Interlace
Celtic Spirals
Celtic Knots
Celtic Crosses
HISTORY OF CELTIC CULTURE
For facts about the evolution of
metalwork, sculpture, ceramics
and illuminated manuscripts, see:
Celtic Art, Early Style
Celtic Coins Art
Celtic Art, Wadalgesheim
Style
Celtic Art, Late European Style
Celtic Art in Britain and
Ireland
Celtic Style Christian Art
Celtic Weapons Art
Celtic Sculpture
Celtic Jewellery Art
|
Influences
The illuminations in the Durrow manuscript
are interesting, because they point to a number of very different influences,
(notably Celtic abstract curvilinear art) which had not yet been assimilated
into a single style. The chief focus of the decoration was on the Carpet
Pages and the Evangelists' symbols. The former made extensive use of multicoloured
interlacing, which far outshone any contemporary examples, even though
the bands were broader and less subtle than in the Gospel Books of the
next century. The finest of the Carpet Page designs, however, were those
featured on folios 3v and 192v. The first of these presented an elaborate
arrangement of spirals within spirals, contained inside an attractive
interlace border. The individual groups of spirals were linked to each
other by a flowing motif, known as a trumpet spiral. This type of pattern
is highly reminiscent of the ornamental metal discs, which were featured
on the Celtic-style bronze hanging-bowls of the period.
The design of folio 192v is even more striking.
Here, a central roundel, composed of plaitwork, is enclosed within a border
of animal interlacing. Some of the creatures are clearly snakes, but the
side panels show an unusual form of quadruped. Historians have drawn telling
comparisons between these and a number of Anglo-Saxon artefacts, most
notably the pommel of a sword from Crundale Down and a purse-cover from
the Sutton Hoo ship burial.
The Evangelists' symbols conjure up an
entirely different set of associations. The highly stylized man, who represents
St Matthew (none of the Durrow symbols have either wings or haloes), can
be likened to much of the stone-carving of the period. On the crosses
of both Moone and Carndonagh, for example, it is possible to find figures
whose torsos are conveyed by a simple, formless block. At the same time,
the chequerboard decoration of the man's cloak may well have been inspired
by the millefiori enamel inlays, which were something of a specialty of
Irish metalworkers. The Durrow lion is equally interesting. The way that
its legs and haunches appear to be attached by scrolled hinges is very
close to the engraved depictions of animals on certain Pictish slabs,
dating from the first half of the 7th century.
Exemplifies Hiberno-Saxon, or Ultimate
La Tene Celtic Art
The monks who endowed the Book of Durrow
with their calligraphic art and decorative
designwork can be regarded as being among the earliest Irish artists of
the medieval period. The Gospel manuscript itself exemplifies the style
known as Hiberno-Saxon or Ultimate La Tene, which was widely practised
across the British Isles and Ireland. The Evangelist symbols in the Book
of Durrow are quite similar in style to zoomorphic iconography found on
earlier Pictish stone carvings.
The manuscript was lost in the sixteenth
century, at the time of the dissolution of Durrow Abbey, but recovered
some 100 years later. It is now kept at Trinity
College, Dublin. Latterly, an excerpt from the Book of Durrow has
appeared on a government five pound note.
Other important examples of
monastic Irish art include the gospel manuscripts: the Cathach of
Colmcille (c.560), the Book of Dimma (c.625), and the Durham Gospels (c.650),
and the celebrated Book of Kells - also called the Book of Columba - written
about 800.
See also: Celtic
Culture.
|
