Insularna umjetnost

Knjiga Kellsa, stranica 292r s raskono ureenom stranicom kojom poinje Ivanovo evanelje.

Insularna umjetnost (tj. otona umjetnost) ili hiberno-saksonska

umjetnost je umjetnost na Britanskom otoju i Irskom otoku od 7. stoljea do vikinkih invazija u 9.
stoljeu (nakon ega dolazi do pojave anglosaksonske umjetnosti). U Irskoj je pak prisutna do 12.
stoljea kada ju zamijenjuje romanika. Nastala je fuzijom germanske (preko Angla i Sasa) i keltske
umjetnosti, prvenstveno u oblikovanju iluminiranih rukopisa, ali i u obradi metalnih predmeta i manje
u kamenoj plastici.

Knjiga iz Durrowa, 7. stoljee, Biblioteka Trinity Collegea, Dublin.

Povijest[uredi VE | uredi]
Irska se preobraa na kranstvo sredinom 5. stoljea s dolaskom misionara iz Britanije i Europe,
dok se istovremeno u Engleskoj naseljavaju poganski Angli, Sasi i Juti. Izuzetna politika
fragmentacija Irske i potpuni manjak urbanog razvoja sprijeio je razvoj jake episkopalne strukture.
Kao posljedica toga pojavljuje se monasticizam kao dominantna sila irskom kranstvu, a tako i u
irskoj kranskoj umjetnosti.
Keltsko kranstvo daje poseban naglasak na misionarsku aktivnost. Oko 563. sveti Kolumbaosniva
samostan na kotskom otoku Ioni, iz kojeg je zapoeo preobraenje piktskih pagana u kotskoj. Ovo
samostansko naselje dugo je ostalo kljunim sreditem kranske kulture u sjevernoj Britaniji.
Kolumbovi monasi kasnije sele u Northumbriju gdje 635. osnivaju samostan na otoku Lindisfarne iz
kojega kreu u preobraenje stanovnitva sjeverne Engleske. Meutim, iz Rima je ve zapoeo
proces pokrtavanja Angla i Sasa s juga iz Kentskog samostana 597. godine. Dolazi do sukoba
izmeu irskih monaha i Rima oko dana proslave Uskrsa, to je za posljedicu imalo povlaenje irskih
misionara iz Lindisfarnea natrag na Ionu. Meutim, vrlo rairena uporaba irskih dekorativnih oblika u
engleskoj umjetnosti i obrnuto svjedoi o velikom znaaju interakcije meu ovim dvjema kulturama.
Engleska e postepeno dolaziti pod sve vei mediteranski utjecaj, ali ne prije nego su se irsko-
keltska i anglo-saksonska umjetnost spojile.

Iluminirani rukopisi[uredi VE | uredi]

Jedan od stotina inicijala Knjige Kellsa

 Stranica evanelistara Knjiga Kellsa iz 8. st. s inicijalom Chi Rho. Slova Chi i Rho su prva slova imena Isus
Krist na grkom, Dublin, Irska.

U najranijim rukopisima, kao to je psaltir sv. Kolumbe iz 7. stoljea, prisutni su motivi spirala i
zavojnica izravno preslikani iz keltskih emajliranih posuda i metalnih predmeta latenskog stila.
Nakon psaltira sv. Kolume, dekoracija knjiga postepeno postaje sve kompleksnija, te se unose novi
stilovi ukraavanja, preuzeti iz drugih kultura. Na poetku svakog evanelja esto nalazimo itave
stranice bogato dekorirane ukrasnim motivima bez ikakvog teksta, tzv. tepih stranice. Geometrijski
motivi i isprepleteni uzorci mogli bi se objasniti i utjecajem egipatske koptske umjetnosti ili
vjerojatnije utjecajem Bizanta, dok je poveana upotreba animalnih dekoracija je posljedica
utjecaja germanske umjetnosti Angla i Sasa. Svi su se ti utjecaji i tradicije sloili u zasebni stil kojeg
se naziva hiberno-saksonski stil. Prvo vano djelo koje se moglo nazvati insularnim bila je Knjiga iz
Durrowa iz kasnog 7. stoljea, dok su najpoznatiji primjer tog stila Lindisfarnska evanelja iz oko
750.-850. godine. Iluminirani rukopisi kao to su Knjiga Kellsa i Lindisfarnska evanelja postiu
vrhunac u slikarski obraivanom inicijalu. U Lindisfarnskim evaneljima ima 45 razliiti boja, a sve su
napravljene od mljevenih minerala ili biljnih bojila.

Knjiga Kellsa je vjerojatno stvorena u Ioni u 8. stoljeu. S provalom Vikinga 807. godine, monasi iz
Ione bjee u Irsku, te odnose knjigu za sobom u grad Kells. Ovaj je rukopis najbogatije dekorirani
primjer insularnog stila u kojemu se nalazi irok spektar motiva i tehnika ukraavanja koritenih
tijekom itavog 8. stoljea.
Insularna umjetnost se naposljetku irila preko irskih monaha na kopno i inspirirala
je slikarstvo u samostanima kontinentalne Europe u romanici. Frankosaksonska kola je pojam za
kasnokarolinku kolu oslikavanja rukopisa u sjeveroistonoj Francuskoj koja je rabila ukrase
insularnog stila, ukljuujui vrlo velike inicijale, ponekad u kombinaciji s figurativnim motivima. Ovaj

najustrajniji od svih karolinkih stilova, trajao je do 11.stoljea[1]

 Lindisfarnsko evanelje, str. 27. Evanelja po Mateju; oko 680.-720., boja na pergamentu, 34,3 x 23,5
cm, Britanska knjinica, London

Tzv. Tepih-stranica s kriem prije Evanelja po Mateju, Lindisfarnsko evanelje.

Obrada metala[uredi VE | uredi]

U 7. stoljeu dolazi do preporoda metalurgije razvojem novih tehnika kao to je filigranstvo u zlatu,
to je omoguilo manje i detaljnije ukrase. To je posebno vidljivo kod keltskih broeva, vanih
statusnih simbola vladajue elite, ali i samog klera koji ih je nosio kao dio odede. Bro iz
Tare i kale iz Ardagha najspektakularniji su primjeri insularne umjetnosti. Kod tih primjera vidljive su
sve mogue vjetine na raspolaganju obraivaima zlata onog doba: urezivanje metala (chip
carving), filigranstvo, inkrustacija i ukraavanje kvarcom.

Kamena plastika[uredi VE | uredi]

Umijee prisutno kod obrade metala vidljivo je i kod izrade kamenih skulptura. Stotinama godina u
Irskoj je postojao obiaj postavljanja velikih drvenih krieva unutar dvorita samostana. Drveni
krievi su kasnije zamijenjeni kamenim krievima poznatima kao visoki krievi, koji su u pravilu
bogato ukraeni istim sloenim motivima kao kod obrade zlata, a esto i ljudskim figurama.

Insular art, also known as Hiberno-Saxon art, is the style of art produced in the post-Roman
history of the Ireland and Britain. The term derives from insula, the Latin term for "island"; in this
period Britain and Ireland shared a largely common style different from that of the rest of Europe. Art
historians usually group insular art as part of the Migration Period artmovement as well as Early
Medieval Western art, and it is the combination of these two traditions that gives the style its special
character.[2]
Most Insular art originates from the Irish monastic movement or metalwork for the secular elite, and
the period begins around 600 with the combining Celtic and Anglo-Saxon styles. One major
distinctive feature is interlace decoration, applied to decorating new types of objects mostly copied
from the Mediterranean world, above all the codex or book.[3] The finest period of the style was
brought to an end by the disruption to monastic centres and aristocratic life of the Viking raids which
began in the late 8th century. These are presumed to have interrupted work on the Book of Kells,
and no later Gospel books are as heavily or finely illuminated as the masterpieces of the 8th
century.[4] In England the style merged into Anglo-Saxon artaround 900, whilst in Ireland the style
continued until the 12th century, when it merged into Romanesque art.[5] Ireland, Scotland and the
kingdom of Northumbria in northern England are the most important centres, but examples were
found also in southern England, Wales[6] and in Continental Europe, especially Gaul (modern
France), in centres founded by the Hiberno-Scottish mission and Anglo-Saxon missions. The
influence of insular art affected all subsequent European medieval art, especially in the decorative
elements of Romanesque and Gothic manuscripts.[7]
Surviving examples of Insular art are mainly illuminated manuscripts, metalwork and carvings in
stone, especially stone crosses. Surfaces are highly decorated with intricate patterning, with no
attempt to give an impression of depth, volume or recession. The best examples include the Book of
Kells, Lindisfarne Gospels, Book of Durrow, brooches such as the Tara Brooch and the Ruthwell
Cross. Carpet pages are a characteristic feature of Insular manuscripts, although historiated
initials(an Insular invention), canon tables and figurative miniatures, especially Evangelist portraits,
are also common.

Use of the term[edit]

The term was derived from its use for Insular script, first cited by the OED in 1908,[8] and is also used
for the group of Insular Celtic languages by linguists.[9] Initially used mainly to describe the style of
decoration of illuminated manuscripts, which are certainly the most numerous type of major surviving
objects using the style, it is now used more widely across all the arts. It has the advantage of
recognising the unity of styles across the Britain and Ireland, while avoiding the use of the
term British Isles, a sensitive topic in Ireland, and also circumventing arguments about the origins of
the style, and the place of creation of specific works, which were often fierce in the 20th
century.[10] Some sources distinguish between a "wider period between the 5th and 11th centuries,
from the departure of the Romans to the beginnings of the Romanesque style" and a "more specific
phase from the 6th to 9th centuries, between the conversion to Christianity and the Viking
settlements".[11] C. R. Dodwell, on the other hand, says that in Ireland "the Insular style continued
almost unchallenged until the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1170; indeed examples of it occur even as
late as the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries".[12]
Insular decoration[edit]

One of hundreds of small initials from the Book of Kells

The Insular style is most famous for its highly dense, intricate and imaginative decoration, which
takes elements from several earlier styles. From the Iron Age came the style called late Celtic art or
"Ultimate La Tne", which originated the spirals, triskeles, circles and other geometric motifs. These
were combined with animal forms probably mainly deriving from the Germanic version of the
general Eurasian animal style, though also from Celtic art, where heads terminating scrolls were
common. Interlace was used by both these traditions, as well as Roman art (for example in
floor mosaics) and other possible influences such as Coptic art, and its use was taken to new levels
in insular art, where it was combined with the other elements already mentioned. There is no attempt
to represent depth in manuscript painting, with all the emphasis on a brilliantly patterned surface. In
early works the human figure was shown in the same geometric fashion as animal figures, but
reflections of a classical figure style spread as the period went on, probably mostly from the southern
Anglo-Saxon regions, though northern areas also had direct contacts with the Continent.[13] The
origins of the overall format of the carpet page have often been related to Roman floor
mosaics,[14] Coptic carpets and manuscript paintings,[15] without general agreement being reached
among scholars.
Background[edit]
Early Anglo-Saxon shoulder-clasps from Sutton Hoo, early 7th century. Gold, garnet,
and millefiori glass.
Unlike contemporary Byzantine art, and that of most major periods, insular art does not come from a
society where common stylistic influences were spread across a great number of types of object in
art, applied art and decorative art. Across all the islands society was effectively entirely rural,
buildings were rudimentary, and architecture has no Insular style. Although related objects in many
more perishable media certainly existed and have not survived, it is clear that both religious and
secular Insular patrons expected individual objects of dazzling virtuousity, that were all the more
dazzling because of the lack of visual sophistication in the world in which they were seen.[16]
Especially in Ireland, clerical and secular elites were often very closely linked; some
Irish abbacies were held for generations among a small kin-group.[17] Ireland was divided into
numerous, generally small kingdoms, while in Britain there was a smaller number of generally larger
kingdoms. The elites of all the islands' peoples had long traditions of metalwork of the finest quality,
much of it used for the personal adornment. The Insular style arises from the meeting of their two
styles, Celtic and Anglo-Saxon animal style, in a Christian context, and with some awareness of Late
Antique style. This was especially so in their application to the book, which was a new type of object
for both traditions, as well as to metalwork.[18]
The role of the Kingdom of Northumbria in the formation of the new style appears to have been
pivotal. The northernmost Anglo-Saxon kingdom continued to expand into areas with Celtic
populations, but often leaving those populations largely intact in areas such as Dl Riata, Elmet and
the Kingdom of Strathclyde. The Irish monastery at Iona was established by Saint Columba (Colum
Cille) in 563, when Iona was part of a Dl Riata that included territory in both Ireland and modern
Scotland. Although the first conversion of a Northumbrian king, that of Edwin in 627, was effected by
clergy from the Gregorian Mission to Kent, it was the Celtic Christianity of Iona that was initially more
influential in Northumbria, founding Lindisfarne on the eastern coast as a satellite in 635. However
Northumbria remained in direct contact with Rome and other important monastic centres were
founded by Wilfrid and Benedict Biscop who looked to Rome, and at the Synod of Whitby it was the
Roman practices that were upheld, while the Iona contingent walked out, not adopting the Roman
Easter dating until 715.[19]
Insular metalwork[edit]

The Derrynaflan paten, 8th or 9th century.

Christianity discouraged the burial of grave goods so that, at least from the Anglo-Saxons, we have
a larger number of pre-Christian survivals than those from later periods.[20] The majority of examples
that survive from the Christian period have been found in archaeological contexts that suggest they
were rapidly hidden, lost or abandoned. There are a few exceptions, notably
portable shrines("cumdachs") for books or relics, several of which have been continuously owned,
mostly by churches on the Continentthough the Monymusk Reliquary has always been in
Scotland.[21] In general it is clear that most survivals are only by chance, and that we have only
fragments of some types of objectin particular the largest and least portable. The highest quality
survivals are either secular jewellery, the largest and most elaborate pieces probably for male
wearers, or tableware or altarware in what were apparently very similar stylessome pieces cannot
be confidently assigned between altar and royal dining-table. It seems possible, even likely, that the
finest church pieces were made by secular workshops, often attached to a royal household, though
other pieces were made by monastic workshops.[22]The evidence suggests that Irish metalworkers
produced most of the best pieces,[23] however the finds from the royal burial at Sutton Hoo, from the
far east of England and at the beginning of the period, are as fine in design and workmanship as any
Irish pieces.[24]

The Ardagh Chalice, c.? 750

There are a number of large brooches, including several of comparable quality to the Tara brooch.
Almost all of these are in the National Museum of Ireland, the British Museum, the National Museum
of Scotland, or local museums in the islands. Each of their designs is wholly individual in detail, and
the workmanship is varied in technique and superb in quality. Many elements of the designs can be
directly related to elements used in manuscripts. Almost all of the many techniques known in
metalwork can be found in Insular work. Surviving stones used in decoration are semi-precious
ones, with amber and rock crystal among the commonest, and some garnets. Coloured
glass, enamel and millefiori glass, probably imported, are also used.[25]
The Ardagh Chalice and the Derrynaflan Hoard of chalice, paten with stand, strainer, and basin (only
discovered in 1980) are the most outstanding pieces of church metalware to survive (only three
other chalices, and no other paten, survive). These pieces are thought to come from the 8th or 9th
century, but most dating of metalwork is uncertain, and comes largely from comparison with
manuscripts. Only fragments remain from what were probably large pieces of church furniture,
probably with metalwork on wooden frameworks, such as shrines, crosses and other
items.[26] The Cross of Cong is a 12th-century Irish processional cross and reliquary that shows
insular decoration, possibly added in a deliberately revivalist spirit.[27] The gilt-
bronze "Athlone Crucifixion Plaque" (National Museum of Ireland, perhaps 8th century) is much the
best known of a group of nine recorded Irish metal plaques with Crucifixions, and is comparable in
style to figures on many high crosses; it may well have come from a book cover.[28]
The fittings of a major abbey church in the insular period remain hard to imagine; one thing that does
seem clear is that the most fully decorated manuscripts were treated as decorative objects for
display rather than as books for study. The most fully decorated of all, the Book of Kells, has several
mistakes left uncorrected, the text headings necessary to make the Canon tables usable have not
been added, and when it was stolen in 1006 for its cover in precious metals, it was taken from
the sacristy, not the library. The book was recovered, but not the cover, as also happened with the
Book of Lindisfarne. None of the major insular manuscripts have preserved their elaborate jewelled
metal covers, but we know from documentary evidence that these were as spectacular as the few
remaining continental examples.[29] The re-used metal back cover of the Lindau Gospels (now in
the Morgan Library, New York[30]) was made in southern Germany in the late 8th or early 9th?
century, under heavy insular influence, and is perhaps the best indication as to the appearance of
the original covers of the great insular manuscripts, although one gold and garnet piece from the
Anglo-Saxon Staffordshire Hoard, found in 2009, may be the corner of a book-cover. The Lindau
design is dominated by a cross, but the whole surface of the cover is decorated, with interlace
panels between the arms of the cross. The cloisonn enamel shows Italian influence, and is not
found in work from the Insular homelands, but the overall effect is very like a carpet page.[31]
Insular manuscripts[edit]

Cathach of St. Columba, 7th century

Main article: Insular illumination
Although many more examples survive than of large pieces of metalwork, the development of the
style is usually described in terms of the same outstanding examples:
Cathach of St. Columba. An Irish Latin psalter of the early 7th century,[32] this is perhaps the oldest
known Irish manuscript of any sort. It contains only decorated letters, at the beginning of each
Psalm, but these already show distinctive traits. Not just the initial, but the first few letters are
decorated, at diminishing sizes. The decoration influences the shape of the letters, and various
decorative forms are mixed in a very unclassical way. Lines are already inclined to spiral and
metamorphose, as in the example shown. Apart from black, some orange ink is used for dotted
decoration. The classical tradition was late to use capital letters for initials at all (in Roman texts it is
often very hard to even separate the words), and though by this time they were in common use in
Italy, they were often set in the left margin, as though to cut them off from the rest of the text. The
insular tendency for the decoration to lunge into the text, and take over more and more of it, was a
radical innovation.[33] The Bobbio Jerome which according to an inscription dates to before 622,
from Bobbio Abbey, an Irish mission centre in northern Italy, has a more elaborate initial with
colouring, showing Insular characteristics still more developed, even in such an outpost. From the
same scriptorium and of similar date, the Bobbio Orosius has the earliest carpet page, although a
relatively simple one.[34]
The beginning of the Gospel of Mark from the Book of Durrow.
Durham Gospel Book Fragment. The earliest painted Insular manuscript to survive, produced
in Lindisfarne c. 650, but with only seven leaves of the book remaining, not all with illuminations.
This introduces interlace, and also uses Celtic motifs drawn from metalwork. The design of two of
the surviving pages relates them as a two-page spread[35]
Book of Durrow. The earliest surviving Gospel Book with a full programme of decoration (though
not all has survived): six extant carpet pages, a full-page miniature of the four evangelist's symbols,
four full-page miniatures of the evangelists' symbols, four pages with very large initials, and
decorated text on other pages. Many minor initial groups are decorated. Its date and place of origin
remain subjects of debate, with 650690 and Durrow in Ireland, Iona or Lindisfarne being the normal
contenders. The influences on the decoration are also highly controversial, especially
regarding Coptic or other Near Eastern influence.[36]
After large initials the following letters on the same line, or for some lines beyond, continue to be
decorated at a smaller size. Dots round the outside of large initials are much used. The figures are
highly stylised, and some pages use Germanic interlaced animal ornament, whilst others use the full
repertoire of Celtic geometric spirals. Each page uses a different and coherent set of decorative
motifs. Only four colours are used, but the viewer is hardly conscious of any limitation from this. All
the elements of Insular manuscript style are already in place. The execution, though of high quality,
is not as refined as in the best later books, nor is the scale of detail as small.[37]
Carpet page from the Lindisfarne Gospels
Lindisfarne Gospels Produced in Lindisfarne by Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne, between about 690
and his death in 721 (perhaps towards the end of this period), this is a Gospel Book in the style of
the Book of Durrow, but more elaborate and complex. All the letters on the pages beginning the
Gospels are highly decorated in a single composition, and many two-page openings are designed as
a unit, with carpet pages facing an incipit ("Here begins..") initial page at the start of each Gospel.
Eadfrith was almost certainly the scribe as well as the artist. There are four Evangelist portraits,
clearly derived from the classical tradition but treated without any sense of depth; the borders around
them are far plainer than the decoration of the text pages, and there is clearly a sense of two styles
which Eadfrith does not attempt to integrate wholly. The carpet-pages are enormously complex, and
superbly executed.[38]
Lichfield Gospels Likely made in Lichfield around 730, this deluxe gospel-book contains eight
major decorated pages, including a stunning cross-carpet page and portraits of the evangelists Mark
and Luke. The gospels of Matthew and Mark and the beginning of Luke survives. From its time in
Wales, pages include marginalia representing some of the earliest examples of Old Welsh writing.
The manuscript has been at Lichfield Cathedral since the late 10th century, except for a brief period
during the English Civil War.
St Petersburg Bede. Attributed to Monkwearmouth-Jarrow Abbey in Northumbria between about
730746, this contains larger opening letters in which metalwork styles of decoration can clearly be
seen. There are thin bands of interlace within the members of letters. It also contains the
earliest historiated initial, a bust probably of Pope Gregory I, which like some other elements of the
decoration, clearly derives from a Mediterranean model. Colour is used, although in a relatively
restrained way.[39]
Book of Kells Usually dated to around 800, although sometimes up to a century earlier, the place of
origin is disputed between Iona and Kells, or other locations.[40] It is also often thought to have been
begun in Iona and then continued in Ireland, after disruption from Viking raids; the book survives
nearly intact but the decoration is not finished, with some parts in outline only. It is far more
comprehensively decorated than any previous manuscript in any tradition, with every page (except
two) having many small decorated letters. Although there is only one carpet page, the incipit initials
are so densely decorated, with only a few letters on the page, that they rather take over this function.
Human figures are more numerous than before, though treated in a thoroughly stylised fashion, and
closely surrounded, even hemmed in, by decoration as crowded as on the initial pages. A few
scenes such as the Temptation and Arrest of Christ are included, as well as a Madonna and Child,
surrounded by angels (the earliest Madonna in a Western book). More miniatures may have been
planned or executed and lost. Colours are very bright and the decoration has tremendous energy,
with spiral forms predominating. Gold and silver are not used.[41]
Other books[edit]
St John from the Book of Mulling
A distinctive Insular type of book is the pocket gospel book, inevitably much less decorated, but in
several cases with Evangelist portraits and other decoration. Examples include the Book of
Mulling, Book of Deer, Book of Dimma, and the smallest of all, the Stonyhurst Gospel(now British
Library), a 7th-century Anglo-Saxon text of the Gospel of John, which belonged to St Cuthbert and
was buried with him. Its beautifully tooled goatskin cover is the oldest Western bookbinding to
survive, and a virtually unique example of insular leatherwork, in an excellent state of
preservation.[42]
Both Anglo-Saxon and Irish manuscripts have a distinctive rougher finish to their vellum, compared
to the smooth-polished surface of contemporary continental and all late-medieval vellum.[43] It
appears that, in contrast to later periods, the scribes copying the text were often also the artists of
the illuminations, and might include the most senior figures of their monastery.[44]
Movement to Anglo-Saxon art[edit]
Main article: Anglo-Saxon art
In England the pull of a Continental style operated from very early on; the Gregorian mission from
Rome had brought the St Augustine Gospels and other manuscripts now lost with them, and other
books were imported from the continent early on. The 8th-century Cotton Bede shows mixed
elements in the decoration, as does the Stockholm Codex Aureus of similar period, probably written
in Canterbury.[45]In the Vespasian Psalter it is clear which element is coming to dominate. All these
and other members of the "Tiberius" group of manuscripts were written south of the
river Humber,[46] but the Codex Amiatinus, of before 716 from Jarrow, is written in a fine uncialscript,
and its only illustration is conceived in an Italianate style, with no insular decoration; it has been
suggested this was only because the volume was made for presentation to the Pope.[47] The dating
is partly known from the grant of additional land secured to raise the generations of cattle, amounting
to 2,000 head in all, which were necessary to make the vellum for three complete but unillustrated
Bibles, which shows the resources necessary to make the large books of the period.
Many Anglo-Saxon manuscripts written in the south, and later the north, of England show strong
Insular influences until the 10th century or beyond, but the pre-dominant stylistic impulse comes
from the continent of Europe; carpet-pages are not found, but many large figurative miniatures are.
Panels of interlace and other Insular motifs continue to be used as one element in borders and
frames ultimately classical in derivation. Many continental manuscripts, especially in areas
influenced by the Celtic missions, also show such features well into the early Romanesque period.
"Franco-Saxon" is a term for a school of late Carolingian illumination in north-eastern France that
used insular-style decoration, including super-large initials, sometimes in combination with figurative
images typical of contemporary French styles. The "most tenacious of all the Carolingian styles", it
continued until as late as the 11th century.[48]
Legacy of Insular art[edit]

9th-century Carolingian Franco-Saxon Incipit initial combines Insular decoration with

classicising Evangelist portraits.
The true legacy of insular art lies not so much in the specific stylistic features discussed above, but
in its fundamental departure from the classical approach to decoration, whether of books or other
works of art. Insular decoration, spiralling across formal partitions, becomes a feature of later
medieval art, especially Gothic art, in areas where specific Insular motifs are hardly used, such as
architecture. The mixing of the figurative with the ornamental also remained characteristic of all later
medieval illumination; indeed for the complexity and density of the mixture, Insular manuscripts are
only rivalled by some 15th-century works of late Flemish illumination. It is also noticeable that these
characteristics are always rather more pronounced in the north of Europe than the south; Italian art,
even in the Gothic period, always retains a certain classical clarity in form.[49]
Unmistakable Insular influence can be seen in Carolingian manuscripts, even though these were
also trying to copy the Imperial styles of Rome and Byzantium. Greatly enlarged initials, sometimes
inhabited, were retained, as well as far more abstract decoration than found in classical models.
These features continue in Ottonian and contemporary French illumination and metalwork, before
the Romanesque period further removed classical restraints, especially in manuscripts, and the
capitals of columns.[50]
Muiredach's High Cross, Monasterboice
Sculpture[edit]
Main article: High cross
Large stone high crosses, usually erected outside monasteries or churches, first appear in the 8th
century in Ireland,[51] perhaps at Carndonagh, Donegal, a monastic site
with Ionian foundations,[52] apparently later than the earliest Anglo-Saxon crosses, which may be
7th-century.[53] Later insular carvings found throughout Britain and Ireland were almost entirely
geometrical, as was the decoration on the earliest crosses. By the 9th century figures are carved,
and the largest crosses have very many figures in scenes on all surfaces, often from the Old
Testament on the east side, and the New on the west, with a Crucifixion at the centre of the cross.
The 10th-century Muiredach's High Cross at Monasterboice is usually regarded as the peak of the
Irish crosses. In later examples the figures become fewer and larger, and their style begins to merge
with the Romanesque, as at the Dysert Cross in Ireland.[54]
The 8th-century Northumbrian Ruthwell Cross (now in Scotland), unfortunately damaged
by Presbyterian iconoclasm, is the most impressive remaining Anglo-Saxon cross, though as with
most Anglo-Saxon crosses the original cross head is missing. Many Anglo-Saxon crosses were
much smaller and more slender than the Irish ones, and therefore only had room for carved foliage,
but the Bewcastle Cross, Easby Cross and Sandbach Crosses are other survivals with considerable
areas of figurative reliefs, with larger-scale figures than any early Irish examples. Even early Anglo-
Saxon examples mix vine-scroll decoration of Continental origin with interlace panels, and in later
ones the former type becomes the norm, just as in manuscripts. There is literary evidence for
considerable numbers of carved stone crosses across the whole of England, and also straight
shafts, often as grave-markers, but most survivals are in the northernmost counties. There are
remains of other works of monumental sculpture in Anglo-Saxon art, even from the earlier periods,
but nothing comparable from Ireland.[55]
Pictish standing stones[edit]
Main article: Pictish stones
A replica of the Hilton of Cadboll Stone, carved in the Pictish Easter Ross style 800900 AD
The stone monuments erected by the Picts of Scotland north of the Clyde-Forth line between the
6th8th centuries are particularly striking in design and construction, carved in the typical Easter
Ross style related to that of insular art, though with much less classical influence. In particular the
forms of animals are often closely comparable to those found in Insular manuscripts, where they
typically represent the Evangelist's symbols, which may indicate a Pictish origin for these forms, or
another common source.[56] The carvings come from both pagan and early Christian periods, and the
Pictish symbols, which are still poorly understood, do not seem to have been repugnant to
Christians. The purpose and meaning of the stones are only partially understood, although some
think that they served as personal memorials, the symbols indicating membership of clans, lineages,
or kindreds and depict ancient ceremonies and rituals[57] Examples include the Eassie Stone and
the Hilton of Cadboll Stone. It is possible that they had subsidiary uses, such as marking tribal or
lineage territories. It has also been suggested that the symbols could have been some kind
of pictographic system of writing.[58]
There are also a few examples of similar decoration on Pictish silver jewellery, notably the Norrie's
Law Hoard, of the 7th century or perhaps earlier, much of which was melted down on
discovery,[59] and the 8th-century St Ninian's Isle Hoard, with many brooches and bowls.[60] The
surviving items from both are now held by National Museums Scotland.[61]

Celtic art is the art associated with the peoples known as Celts; those who spoke the Celtic
languages in Europe from pre-history through to the modern period, as well as the art of ancient
peoples whose language is uncertain, but have cultural and stylistic similarities with speakers of
Celtic languages.
Celtic art is a difficult term to define, covering a huge expanse of time, geography and cultures. A
case has been made for artistic continuity in Europe from the Bronze Age, and indeed the
preceding Neolithic age; however archaeologists generally use "Celtic" to refer to the culture of
the European Iron Age from around 1000 BC onwards, until the conquest by the Roman Empire of
most of the territory concerned, and art historians typically begin to talk about "Celtic art" only from
the La Tne period (broadly 5th to 1st centuries BC) onwards.[1] Early Celtic art is another term
used for this period, stretching in Britain to about 150 AD.[2] The Early Medieval art of Britain and
Ireland, which produced the Book of Kells and other masterpieces, and is what "Celtic art" evokes for
much of the general public in the English-speaking world, is called Insular art in art history. This is
the best-known part, but not the whole of, the Celtic art of the Early Middle Ages, which also includes
the Pictish art of Scotland.[3]
Both styles absorbed considerable influences from non-Celtic sources, but retained a preference for
geometrical decoration over figurative subjects, which are often extremely stylised when they do
appear; narrative scenes only appear under outside influence.[4] Energetic circular
forms, triskeles and spirals are characteristic. Much of the surviving material is in precious metal,
which no doubt gives a very unrepresentative picture, but apart from Pictish stones and the
Insular high crosses, large monumental sculpture, even with decorative carving, is very rare;
possibly the few standing male figures found, like the Warrior of Hirschlanden and the so-
called "Lord of Glauberg", were originally common in wood.
Also covered by the term is the visual art of the Celtic Revival (on the whole more notable for
literature) from the 18th century to the modern era, which began as a conscious effort by Modern
Celts, mostly in the British Isles, to express self-identification and nationalism, and became popular
well beyond the Celtic nations, and whose style is still current in various popular forms, from Celtic
cross funerary monuments to interlace tattoos. Coinciding with the beginnings of a coherent
archaeological understanding of the earlier periods, the style self-consciously used motifs closely
copied from works of the earlier periods, more often the Insular than the Iron Age. Another influence
was that of late La Tne "vegetal" art on the Art Nouveau movement.
Typically, Celtic art is ornamental, avoiding straight lines and only occasionally using symmetry,
without the imitation of nature central to the classical tradition, often involving complex symbolism.
Celtic art has used a variety of styles and has shown influences from other cultures in their knotwork,
spirals, key patterns, lettering, zoomorphics, plant forms and human figures. As the archaeologist
Catherine Johns put it: "Common to Celtic art over a wide chronological and geographical span is an
exquisite sense of balance in the layout and development of patterns. Curvilinear forms are set out
so that positive and negative, filled areas and spaces form a harmonious whole. Control and
restraint were exercised in the use of surface texturing and relief. Very complex curvilinear patterns
were designed to cover precisely the most awkward and irregularly shaped surfaces".[5]
Background[edit]
The ancient peoples now called "Celts" spoke a group of languages that had a common origin in the
Indo-European language known as Common Celtic or Proto-Celtic. This shared linguistic origin was
once widely accepted by scholars to indicate peoples with a common genetic origin in southwest
Europe, who had spread their culture by emigration and invasion. Archaeologists identified various
cultural traits of these peoples, including styles of art, and traced the culture to the earlier Hallstatt
culture and La Tne culture. More recent genetic studies have indicated that various Celtic groups
do not all have shared ancestry, and have suggested a diffusion and spread of the culture without
necessarily involving significant movement of peoples.[6] The extent to which "Celtic" language,
culture and genetics coincided and interacted during prehistoric periods remains very uncertain and
controversial.
Carved stone ball from Towie in Aberdeenshire, dated from 32002500 BC[7]
The term "Celt" was used in classical times as a synonym for the Gauls (, Celtae). Its English
form is modern, attested from 1607. In the late 17th century the work of scholars such as Edward
Lhuyd brought academic attention to the historic links between Gaulish and the Brythonic
and Goidelicspeaking peoples, from which point the term was applied not just to continental Celts
but those in Britain and Ireland. Then in the 18th century the interest in "primitivism", which led to the
idea of the "noble savage", brought a wave of enthusiasm for all things Celtic and Druidic. The "Irish
revival" came after the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 as a conscious attempt to demonstrate an
Irish national identity, and with its counterpart in other countries subsequently became the "Celtic
Revival".
Pre-Celtic periods[edit]
The earliest archaeological culture that is conventionally termed Celtic, the Hallstatt culture, comes
from the early European Iron Age, ca. 800-450 BC. Nonetheless the art of this and later periods
reflects considerable continuity, and some long-term correspondences, with earlier art from the
same regions, which may reflect the emphasis in recent scholarship on "Celticization" by
acculturation among a relatively static population, as opposed to older theories of migrations and
invasions. Megalithic art across much of the world uses a similar mysterious vocabulary of circles,
spirals and other curved shapes, but it is striking that the most numerous remains in Europe are the
large monuments, with many rock drawings left by the Neolithic Boyne Valley culture in Ireland,
within a few miles of centres for Early Medieval Insular art some 4,000 years later. Other centres
such as Brittany are also in areas that remain defined as Celtic today. Other correspondences are
between the gold lunulas and large collars of Bronze Age Ireland and Europe and the torcs of Iron
Age Celts, all elaborate ornaments worn round the neck. The trumpet shaped terminations of various
types of Bronze Age Irish jewellery are also reminiscent of motifs popular in later Celtic decoration.
Iron Age; Early Celtic art[edit]
Stone head from Meck ehrovice, Czech Republic, wearing a torc, late La Tne culture
Unlike the rural culture of Iron Age inhabitants of the modern "Celtic nations", Continental Celtic
culture in the Iron Age featured many large fortified settlements, some very large, for which the
Roman word for "town", oppidum, is now used. The elites of these societies had considerable
wealth, and imported large and expensive, sometimes frankly flashy, objects from neighbouring
cultures, some of which have been recovered from graves. The work of the German migr to
Oxford, Paul Jacobsthal, remains the foundation of the study of the art of the period, especially
his Early Celtic Art of 1944.[8]
The Halstatt culture produced art with geometric ornament, but marked by patterns of straight lines
and rectangles rather than curves; the patterning is often intricate, and fills all the space available,
and at least in this respect looks forward to later Celtic styles. Linguists are generally satisfied that
the Halstatt culture originated among people speaking Celtic languages, but art historians often
avoid describing Halstatt art as "Celtic".
As Halstatt society became increasingly rich and, despite being entirely land-locked in its main zone,
linked by trade to other cultures, especially in the Mediterranean, imported objects in radically
different styles begin to appear, even including Chinese silks. A famous example is the
Greek krater from the Vix Grave in Burgundy, which was made in Magna Graecia (the Greek south
of Italy) c. 530 BC, some decades before it was deposited. It is a huge bronze wine-mixing vessel,
with a capacity of 1,100 litres.[9] Another huge Greek vessel in the Hochdorf Chieftain's Grave is
decorated with three recumbent lions lying on the rim, one of which is a replacement by a Celtic
artist that makes little attempt to copy the Greek style of the others.[10] Forms characteristic of
Hallstatt culture can be found as far from the main Central European area of the culture as Ireland,
but mixed with local types and styles.[11]

Sculpture from Roquepertuse, including "skull-niches" and seated figures

Figures of animals and humans do appear, especially in works with a religious element. Among the
most spectacular objects are "cult wagons" in bronze, which are large wheeled trolleys containing
crowded groups of standing figures, sometimes with a large bowl mounted on a shaft at the centre of
the platform, probably for offerings to gods; a few examples have been found in graves. The figures
are relatively simply modelled, without much success in detailed anatomical naturalism compared to
cultures further south, but often achieving an impressive effect. There are also a number of single
stone figures, often with a "leaf crown" two flattish rounded projections, "resembling a pair of
bloated commas", rising behind and to the side of the head, probably a sign of divinity.[12]
Human heads alone, without bodies, are far more common, frequently appearing in relief on all sorts
of objects. In the La Tne period faces often (along with bird's heads) emerge from decoration that at
first looks abstract, or plant-based. Games are played with faces that change when they are viewed
from different directions. In figures showing the whole body, the head is often over-large. There is
evidence that the human head had a special importance in Celtic religious beliefs.[13]
The most elaborate ensembles of stone sculpture, including reliefs, come from southern France,
at Roquepertuse and Entremont, close to areas colonized by the Greeks. It is possible that similar
groups in wood were widespread. Roquepertuse seems to have been a religious sanctuary, whose
stonework includes what are thought to have been niches where the heads or skulls of enemies
were placed. These are dated to the 3rd century BC, or sometimes earlier.
In general, the number of high-quality finds is not large, especially when compared to the number of
survivals from the contemporary Mediterranean cultures, and there is a very clear division between
elite objects and the much plainer goods used by the majority of the people. There are many torcs
and swords (the La Tne site produced over 3,000 swords, apparently votive offerings[14]), but the
best-known finds, like the Czech head above, the shoe plaques from Hochdorf and the Waterloo
Helmet, often have no similar other finds for comparison. Clearly religious content in art is rare, but
little is known about the significance that most of the decoration of practical objects had for its
makers, and the subject and meaning of the few objects without a practical function is equally
unclear.

The imported Greek Vix Krater, found in the Vix Grave, France.
La Tne style[edit]
About 500 BC the La Tne style, named after a site in Switzerland, appeared rather suddenly,
coinciding with some kind of societal upheaval that involved a shift of the major centres in a north-
westerly direction. The central area where rich sites are especially found is in northern France and
western Germany, but over the next three centuries the style spread very widely, as far as Ireland,
Italy[15] and modern Hungary. In some places the Celts were aggressive raiders and invaders, but
elsewhere the spread of Celtic material culture may have involved only small movements of people,
or none at all. Early La Tne style adapted ornamental motifs from foreign cultures into something
distinctly new; the complicated brew of influences including Scythian art and that of the Greeks
and Etruscans among others. The occupation by the Persian Achaemenid
Empire of Thrace and Macedonia around 500 BC is a factor of uncertain importance.[16] La Tne
style is "a highly stylised curvilinear art based mainly on classical vegetable and foliage motifs such
as leafy palmette forms, vines, tendrils and lotus flowers together with spirals, S-scrolls, lyre and
trumpet shapes".[17]
The most lavish objects, whose imperishable materials tend to mean they are the best preserved
other than pottery, do not refute the stereotypical views of the Celts that are found in classical
authors, where they are represented as mainly interested in feasting and fighting, as well as
ostentatious display. Society was dominated by a warrior aristocracy and military equipment, even if
in ceremonial versions, and containers for drink, represent most of the largest and most spectacular
finds, other than jewellery.[18] Unfortunately for the archaeologist, the rich "princely" burials
characteristic of the Hallstatt period greatly reduce, at least partly because of a change
from inhumation burials to cremation.[19]
The torc was evidently a key marker of status and very widely worn, in a range of metals no doubt
reflecting the wealth and status of the owner. Bracelets and armlets were also common.[20] An
exception to the general lack of depictions of the human figure, and of the failure of wooden objects
to survive, are certain water sites from which large numbers of small carved figures of body parts or
whole human figures have been recovered, which are assumed to be votive offerings representing
the location of the ailment of the supplicant. The largest of these, at Source-de-la-
Roche, Chamalires, France, produced over 10,000 fragments, mostly now at Clermont-Ferrand.[21]

Bronze fitting from France in the "vegetal" style

Several phases of the style are distinguished, under a variety of names, including numeric (De
Navarro) and alphabetic series. Generally, there is broad agreement on how to demarcate the
phases, but the names used differ, and that they followed each other in chronological sequence is
now much less certain. In a version of Jacobsthal's division, the "early" or "strict" phase, De Navarro
I, where the imported motifs remain recognisable, is succeeded by the "vegetal", "Continuous
Vegetal", "Waldalgesheim style", or De Navarro II, where ornament is "typically dominated by
continuously moving tendrils of various types, twisting and turning in restless motion across the
surface".[12]
After about 300 BC the style, now De Navarro III, can be divided into "plastic" and "sword" styles, the
latter mainly found on scabbards and the former featuring decoration in high relief. One scholar,
Vincent Megaw, has defined a "Disney style" of cartoon-like animal heads within the plastic style,
and also an "Oppida period art, c 125c 50 BC". De Navarro distinguishes the "insular" art of the
British Isles, up to about 100 BC, as Style IV, followed by a Style V,[22] and the separateness of
Insular Celtic styles is widely recognised.[23]
The Great Torc from Snettisham, England, 1st century BC.
The often spectacular art of the richest earlier Continental Celts, before they were conquered by the
Romans, often adopted elements of Roman, Greek and other "foreign" styles (and possibly used
imported craftsmen) to decorate objects that were distinctively Celtic. So a torc in the rich Vix
Grave terminates in large balls in a way found in many others, but here the ends of the ring are
formed as the paws of a lion or similar beast, without making a logical connection to the balls, and
on the outside of the ring two tiny winged horses sit on finely worked plaques. The effect is
impressive but somewhat incongruous compared to an equally ostentatious British torc from
the Snettisham Hoard that is made 400 years later and uses a style that has matured and
harmonized the elements making it up. The 1st century BC Gundestrup cauldron, is the largest
surviving piece of European Iron Age silver (diameter 69 cm, height 42 cm), but though much of
its iconography seems clearly to be Celtic, much of it is not, and its style is much debated; it may
well be of Thracian manufacture. To further confuse matters, it was found in a bog in north
Denmark.[24] The Agris Helmet in gold leaf over bronze clearly shows the Mediterranean origin of its
decorative motifs.
By the 3rd century BC Celts began to produce coinage, imitating Greek and later Roman types, at
first fairly closely, but gradually allowing their own taste to take over, so that versions based on sober
classical heads sprout huge wavy masses of hair several times larger than their faces, and horses
become formed of a series of vigorously curved elements.
A form apparently unique to southern Britain was the mirror with a handle and complex decoration,
mostly engraved, on the back of the bronze plate; the front side being highly polished to act as the
mirror. Each of the more than 50 mirrors found has a unique design, but the essentially circular
shape of the mirror presumably dictated the sophisticated abstract curvilinear motifs that dominate
their decoration.[25]

The Staffordshire Moorlands Pan, 2nd century AD Romano-British, with enamel.

Despite the importance of Ireland for Early Medieval Celtic art, the number of artefacts showing La
Tne style found in Ireland is small, though they are often of very high quality. Some aspects of
Hallstatt metalwork had appeared in Ireland, such as scabbard chapes, but the La Tne style is not
found in Ireland before some point between 350-150 BC, and until the latter date is mostly found in
modern Northern Ireland, notably in a series of engraved scabbard plates. Thereafter, despite
Ireland remaining outside the Roman Empire that engulfed the Continental and British Celtic
cultures, Irish art is subject to continuous influence from outside, through trade and probably periodic
influxes of refugees from Britain, both before and after the Roman invasion. It remains uncertain
whether some of the most notable objects found from the period were made in Ireland or elsewhere,
as far away as Germany and Egypt in specific cases.[26]
But in Scotland and the western parts of Britain where the Romans and later the Anglo-Saxons were
largely held back, versions of the La Tne style remained in use until it became an important
component of the new Insular style that developed to meet the needs of newly Christianized
populations. Indeed, in northern England and Scotland most finds post-date the Roman invasion of
the south.[27] However, while there are fine Irish finds from the 1st and 2nd centuries, there is little or
nothing in La Tne style from the 3rd and 4th centuries, a period of instability in Ireland.[28]
After the Roman conquests, some Celtic elements remained in popular art, especially Ancient
Roman pottery, of which Gaul was actually the largest producer, mostly in Italian styles, but also
producing work in local taste, including figurines of deities and wares painted with animals and other
subjects in highly formalized styles. Roman Britain produced a number of items using Roman forms
such as the fibula but with La Tne style ornament, whose dating can be difficult,[29] for example a
"hinged brass collar" from around the time of the Roman conquest shows Celtic decoration in a
Roman context.[30] Britain also made more use of enamel than most of the Empire, and on larger
objects, and its development of champlev technique was probably important to the later Medieval
art of the whole of Europe, of which the energy and freedom derived from Insular decoration was an
important element. Enamel decoration on penannular brooches, "dragonesque"
brooches,[31] and hanging bowls appears to demonstrate a continuity in Celtic decoration between
works like the Staffordshire Moorlands Pan and the flowering of Christian Insular art from the 6th
century onwards.
Continental examples

Gold mounts on a bowl, adapting Mediterranean motifs, Germany, c. 420BC

Disc brooch, France, 4th century BC

Parade Helmet, Agris, France, 350 BC, decorated in a mixture of Mediterranean styles

Folio 27r from the 8th-century Lindisfarne Gospels contains the incipit Liber generationis of
the Gospel of Matthew.
Post-Roman Ireland and Britain[edit]
Celtic art in the Middle Ages was practiced by the peoples of Ireland and parts of Britain in the 700-
year period from the Romanwithdrawal from Britain in the 5th century, to the establishment
of Romanesque art in the 12th century. Through the Hiberno-Scottish mission the style was
influential in the development of art throughout Northern Europe.
In Ireland an unbroken Celtic heritage existed from before and throughout the Roman era of Britain,
which had never reached the island, though in fact Irish objects in La Tne style are very rare from
the Late Roman period. The 5th to 7th centuries were a continuation of late Iron Age La Tne art,
with also many signs of the Roman and Romano-British influences that had gradually penetrated
there.[32] With the arrival of Christianity, Irish art was influenced by both Mediterranean and
Germanic traditions, the latter through Irish contacts with the Anglo-Saxons, creating what is called
the Insular or Hiberno-Saxon style, which had its golden age in the 8th and early 9th centuries
before Viking raids severely disrupted monastic life. Late in the period Scandinavian influences were
added through the Vikings and mixed Norse-Gael populations, then original Celtic work came to end
with the Norman invasion in 11691170 and the subsequent introduction of the general European
Romanesque style.
The interlace patterns that are often regarded as typical of "Celtic art" were in fact introduced to
Insular art from the Mediterranean, both directly and via the animal Style II of Germanic Migration
Period art, though they were taken up with great skill and enthusiasm by Celtic artists in metalwork
and illuminated manuscripts. Equally, the forms used for the finest Insular art were all adopted from
the Roman world: Gospel books like the Book of Kells and Book of Lindisfarne, chalices like
the Ardagh Chalice and Derrynaflan Chalice, and penannular brooches like the Tara Brooch. These
works are from the period of peak achievement of Insular art, which lasted from the 7th to the 9th
centuries, before the Viking attacks sharply set back cultural life.
In the 7th and 9th centuries Irish Celtic missionaries travelled to Northumbria in Britain and brought
with them the Irish tradition of manuscript illumination, which came in to contact with Anglo-
Saxon metalworking knowledge and motifs. In the monasteries of Northumbria these skills fused and
were probably transmitted back to Scotland and Ireland from there, also influencing the Anglo-
Saxonart of the rest of England. Some of the metalwork masterpieces created include the Tara
Brooch, the Ardagh Chalice and the Derrynaflan Chalice. New techniques employed
were filigree and chip carving, while new motifs included interlace patterns and animal
ornamentation. The Book of Durrow is the earliest complete insular script illuminated Gospel
Book and by about 700, with the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Hiberno-Saxon style was fully developed
with detailed carpet pages that seem to glow with a wide palette of colours. The art form reached its
peak in the late 8th century with the Book of Kells, the most elaborate Insular manuscript. Anti-
classical Insular artistic styles were carried to mission centres on the Continent and had a continuing
impact on Carolingian, Romanesque and Gothic art for the rest of the Middle Ages.
In the 9th and 11th century plain silver became a popular medium in Anglo-Saxon England, probably
because of the increased amount in circulation due to Viking trading and raiding, and it was during
this time a number of magnificent silver penannular brooches were created in Ireland. Around the
same time manuscript production began to decline, and although it has often been blamed on the
Vikings, this is debatable given the decline began before the Vikings arrived. Sculpture began to
flourish in the form of the "high cross", large stone crosses that held biblical scenes in carved relief.
This art form reached its apex in the early 10th century and has left many fine examples such as
Muiredach's Cross at Monasterboice and the Ahenny High Cross.
Christ in Majesty, Book of Kells.
The impact of the Vikings on Irish art is not seen until the late 11th century when Irish metal work
begins to imitate the ScandinavianRingerike and Urnes styles, for example the Cross of Cong.
These influences were found not just in the Norse centre of Dublin, but throughout the countryside in
stone monuments such as the Dorty Cross at Kilfenora and crosses at the Rock of Cashel.
Some Insular manuscripts may have been produced in Wales, including the 8th century Lichfield
Gospels and Hereford Gospels.[33] The late Insular Ricemarch Psalter from the 11th century was
certainly written in Wales, and also shows strong Viking influence.

Art from historic Dumnonia, modern Cornwall, Devon, Somerset and Brittany on
the Atlantic seaboard is now fairly sparsely attested and hence less well known as these areas later
became incorporated into England (and France) in the medieval and Early Modern
period.[34]However archaeological studies at sites such as Cadbury Castle,
Somerset,[35] Tintagel,[36] and more recently at Ipplepen [37] indicate a highly sophisticated largely
literate society with strong influence and connections with both the Byzantine Mediterranean as well
as the Atlantic Irish, and British in Wales and the 'Old North'. Many crosses, memorials and
tombstones such as King Doniert's Stone,[38] the Drustanus stone and the notorious Artognou
stone show evidence for a surprisingly cosmopolitan sub-Roman population speaking and writing in
both Brittonic and Latin and with at least some knowledge of Ogham indicated by several extant
stones in the region. Breton and especially Cornish manuscripts are exceedingly rare survivals but
include the Bodmin manumissions[39] demonstrating a regional form of the Insular style.
Picts (Scotland)[edit]
From the 5th to the mid-9th centuries, the art of the Picts is primarily known through stone sculpture,
and a smaller number of pieces of metalwork, often of very high quality; there are no known
illuminated manuscripts. The Picts shared modern Scotland with a zone of Irish cultural influence on
the west coast, including Iona, and the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria to the south. After
Chistianization, Insular styles heavily influenced Pictish art, with interlace prominent in both
metalwork and stones.
Pictish stones are assigned by scholars to 3 classes. Class I Pictish stones are unshaped standing
stones incised with a series of about 35 symbols which include abstract designs (given descriptive
names such as crescent and V-rod, double disc and Z-rod, 'flower' and so on by researchers);
carvings of recognisable animals (bull, eagle, salmon, adder and others), as well as the Pictish
Beast, and objects from daily life (a comb, a mirror). The symbols almost always occur in pairs, with
in about one third of cases the addition of the mirror, or mirror and comb, symbol, below the others.
This is often taken to symbolise a woman. Apart from one or two outliers, these stones are found
exclusively in north-east Scotland from the Firth of Forth to Shetland. Good examples include
the Dunnichen and Aberlemno stones (Angus), and the Brandsbutt and Tillytarmont stones
(Aberdeenshire).
Class II stones are shaped cross-slabs carved in relief, or in a combination of incision and relief, with
a prominent cross on one, or in rare cases two, faces. The crosses are elaborately decorated wllith
interlace, key-pattern or scrollwork, in the Insular style. On the secondary face of the stone, Pictish
symbols appear, often themselves elaborately decorated, accompanied by figures of people (notably
horsemen), animals both realistic and fantastic, and other scenes. Hunting scenes are common,
Biblical motifs less so. The symbols often appear to 'label' one of the human figures. Scenes of
battle or combat between men and fantastic beasts may be scenes from Pictish mythology. Good
examples include slabs from Dunfallandy and Meigle
(Perthshire), Aberlemno (Angus), Nigg, Shandwick and Hilton of Cadboll(Easter Ross).
Class III stones are in the Pictish style, but lack the characteristic symbols. Most are cross-slabs,
though there are also recumbent stones with sockets for an inserted cross or small cross-slab (e.g.
at Meigle, Perthshire). These stones may date largely to after the Scottish takeover of the Pictish
kingdom in the mid 9th century. Examples include the sarcophagus and the large collection of cross-
slabs at St Andrews (Fife).
The following museums have important collections of Pictish stones: Meigle (Perthshire), St
Vigeans (Angus) and St Andrew's Cathedral (Fife) (all Historic Scotland), the Museum of
Scotland, Edinburgh (which also exhibits almost all the major pieces of surviving Pictish metalwork),
the Meffan Institute, Forfar (Angus), Inverness Museum, Groam House Museum, Rosemarkie and
Tarbat Discovery Centre, Portmahomack (both Easter Ross) and Tankerness House
Museum, Kirkwall, Orkney.
Celtic revival[edit]

Cover of The Boys' Cuchulain, 1904, in fact closer to Viking Urnes style.
Main article: Celtic Revival
The revival of interest in Celtic visual art came some time later than the revived interest in Celtic
literature. By the 1840s reproduction Celtic brooches and other forms of metalwork were
fashionable, initially in Dublin, but later in Edinburgh, London and other countries. Interest was
stimulated by the discovery in 1850 of the Tara Brooch, which was seen in London and Paris over
the next decades. The late 19th century reintroduction of monumental Celtic crosses for graves and
other memorials has arguably been the most enduring aspect of the revival, one that has spread well
outside areas and populations with a specific Celtic heritage. Interlace typically features on these
and has also been used as a style of architectural decoration, especially in America around 1900, by
architects such as Louis Sullivan, and in stained glass and wall stenciling by Thomas A.
O'Shaughnessy, both based in Chicago with its large Irish-American population. The "plastic style" of
early Celtic art was one of the elements feeding into Art Nouveau decorative style, very consciously
so in the work of designers like the Manxman Archibald Knox, who did much work for Liberty & Co.
The Arts and Crafts Movement in Ireland embraced the Celtic style early on, but began to back away
in the 1920s. The governor of the National Gallery of Ireland, Thomas Bodkin, writing in The Studio
magazine in 1921, drew attention to the decline in Celtic ornament in the Sixth Exhibition of the Arts
and Crafts Society of Ireland said, "National art all over the world has burst long ago, the narrow
boundaries within which it is cradled, and grows more cosmopolitan in spirit with each succeeding
generation." George Atkinson, writing the foreword to the catalogue of that same exhibit emphasized
the society's disapproval of any undue emphasis on Celtic ornament at the expense of good design.
"Special pleading on behalf of the national traditional ornament is no longer justifiable.The style had
served the nationalist cause as an emblem of a distinct Irish culture, but soon intellectual fashions
abandoned Celtic art as nostalgically looking backwards.[40]
Interlace, which is still seen as a "Celtic" form of decorationsomewhat ignoring its Germanic
origins and equally prominent place in Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian medieval arthas remained
a motif in many forms of popular design, especially in Celtic countries, and above all Ireland, where it
remains a national style signature. In recent decades it has been used worldwide in tattoos, and in
various contexts and media in fantasy works with a quasi-Dark Ages setting. The Secret of Kells is
an animated feature film of 2009 set during the creation of the Book of Kells which makes much use
of Insular design.
By the 1980s a new Celic Revival had begun, which continues to this day. Often this late 20th
century movement is referred to as the Celtic Renaissance.[41] By the 1990s the number of new
artists, craftsmen, designers and retailers specializing in Celtic jewelry and crafts was rapidly
increasing. The people involved ranged from hippies to mainstream artists, designers and
entrepreneurs.The Celtic Renaissance has been an international phenomenon, with participants no
longer confined to just the Old-World Celtic countries. [42]
Celtic art types and terms[edit]
Hanging bowl. According to the traditional theory, these were created by Celtic craftsmen
during the time of the Anglo-Saxon conquests of England. They were based on a Roman
design, usually made of copper alloy with 3 or 4 suspension loops along the top rim, from
which they were designed to be hung, perhaps from roof-beams or within a tripod. Their art-
historical interest mainly derives from the round decorated plaques, often with enamel, that
most have along their rims. Some of the finest examples are found in the hoard at Sutton
Hoo (625) which are enamelled. The knowledge of their manufacture spread to Scotland and
Ireland in the 8th century. However, although their styles continue popular Romano-British
traditions, the assumption that they were made in Ireland is now questioned.
Carpet page. An illuminated manuscript page decorated entirely in ornamentation. In
Hiberno-Saxon tradition this was a standard feature of Gospel books, with one page as an
introduction to each Gospel. Usually made in a geometric or interlace pattern, often framing
a central cross. The earliest known example is the 7th century Bobbio Orosius.
 High cross. A tall stone standing cross, usually of Celtic cross form. Decoration is abstract
often with figures in carved relief, especially crucifixions, but in some cases complex multi-
scene schemes. Most common in Ireland, but also in Great Britain and near continental
mission centres.
Pictish stone. A cross-slaba rectangular slab of rock with a cross carved in relief on the
slab face, with other pictures and shapes carved throughout. Organised into three Classes,
based on period of origin.
Insular art or the Hiberno-Saxon style, from the 6th to 9th centuries. The fusion of pre-
Christian Celtic and Anglo-Saxon metalworking styles, applied to the new form of the
religious illuminated manuscript, as well as sculpture and secular and church metalwork.
Also includes influences from post-classical Europe, and later Viking decorative styles. The
peak of the style in manuscripts occurred when Irish Celtic missionaries traveled to
Northumbria in the 7th and 8th centuries. Produced some of the most outstanding Celtic art
of the Middle Ages in illuminated manuscripts, metalworking and sculpture.
Celtic calendar. The oldest material Celtic calendar is the fragmented Gaulish Coligny
calendar from the 1st century BC or AD.

Insular illumination refers to the production of illuminated manuscripts in the monasteries of Ireland
and Great Britain between the 6th and 9th centuries, as well as in monasteries under their influence
on continental Europe. It is characterised by decoration strongly influenced by metalwork, the
constant use of interlacing, and the importance assigned to calligraphy. The most celebrated books
of this sort are largely gospel books. Around sixty manuscripts are known from this period.
The insular artistic style began after the conversion of Ireland by St Patrick in the 4th and 5th
centuries AD. The new religious institutions of Celtic Christianity, mostly organised around
monasteries, ordered the creation of numerous works of art, liturgical objects and vestments, and
also manuscripts. Two types of manuscripts dominated: small format gospels to be used by
preachers and missionaries or in private worship (e.g. the Book of Dimma and the Book of Mulling),
and large works, reserved for the liturgical services of the monasteries (such as the Book of
Kells).[1]

The Irish monks took part in the conversion of Scotland and the north of Great Britain], establishing
numerous monasteries, such as Iona Abbey, founded by Columba in Scotland in 563 and
Lindisfarne, founded by Aidan in Northumbria in 635. The Irish missionaries brought their art to
Britain along with their religion. Over the course of the 6th and 7th centuries, especially after the
Gregorian mission, the south of Britain came under the direct influence of continental Christianity,
mainly Italian. Some Italian and Byzantine manuscripts came to the island as a result, influencing the
development of insular illumination as well.[2] In turn, the major centres of production were
concentrated first in Northumbria, then in southern England and Kent over the 7th and 8th centuries.
The monasteries in these places benefited from more conditions which were more prosperous than
those in Ireland as well as from the protection and patronage of the Anglo-Saxon kings. The
scriptoria of Lindisfarne and Iona were the most prolific at the end of the 8th century.[3]

At the end of the 7th century, several Irish missionaries led by Columbanus travelled to the continent
and contributed to the creation of several monasteries in France, Switzerland and Northern Italy.
Columbanus' disciple, Saint Gall, took part in the foundation of an abbey in Switzerland and St Kilian
of Wrzburg (fr) was active in southern Germany. All these establishments helped to spread the
insular calligraphy and decorative techniques to manuscripts produced on the continent in this
period.[1] Often referred to as "Franco-Saxon (fr)", the manuscripts made in northern France in the
Carolingian period also show a direct insular influence.[4]
Characteristics[edit]
Despite the great diversity of origins of manuscripts of the insular style, several common
characteristics can be identified.

Treatment of the parchment[edit]

The treatment of the parchment creates a suede-like appearance, which makes it very receptive to
ink and colour. This treatment was applied to both veal-skin and sheep. It enables both calligraphy
and ornamentation.[5]

Types of ornamental motifs[edit]

The interlace is the best-known motif of insular art. This decoration, however, is not limited to Celtic
art of Insular illumination. It is also seen in some Egyptian papyrus, Byzantine and Italian works and
some Anglo-Saxon works of art, like those found in the tomb at Sutton Hoo. But the use of this
pattern in insular manuscripts is almost systematic from the middle of the 7th century onwards. It can
fill out the space around other types of illumination, as well as initials, frames, margins, and carpet
pages. Different types of interlace can be identified: simple, double, or triple.[6]

Rectilinear motifs include diamonds, chequerboard patterns, clefs and Greek frets. Round motifs
include circles, spirals, and winding helixes.[7]

Zoomorphic motifs generally extend into the interlace: their heads are located at an end and
occasionally the rear of the animal reappears at the other end of the interlace. In the earlier
manuscripts, their character remains very schematic and it is difficult to identify specific species of
animal. From the Lindisfarne Gospels onwards, some kinds of animal begin to appear with more
realism, especially dogs and predators, which recall the art of the hunt appreciated by the Anglo-
Saxon elite.[8]
The earliest insular designs are generally images of the cross, sometimes included in a carpet page.
The first representations of individuals in insular manuscripts probably only occur as a result of the
influence of works acquired from the continent. Specialists have been able to distinguish several
details of these earliest miniatures which are shared with ancient manuscripts of the Diatessaron
from Persia, which might have come to the British Isles as a result of pilgrimage to the Near East.
Representations of humans are very schematic, with individuals on foot, usually the Evangelists are
represented without wings or nimbus. Sometimes their representation is limited to their symbols
(lion, cow, eagle, man) depicted in a heraldic manner.[10]

Insular script
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 Insular (Gaelic) script

The beginning of the Gospel of Mark from the Book of

Durrow.

Type Alphabet

Languages Latin, Irish, English

Time period fl. 600850 AD

Parent systems Latin script

Insular (Gaelic) script

This article contains IPA phonetic

symbols.Without proper rendering support, you may
see question marks, boxes, or other symbolsinstead
of Unicode characters.

Insular script was a medieval script system invented in Ireland that spread to Anglo-Saxon
England and continental Europe under the influence of Irish Christianity. Irish missionaries also took
the script to continental Europe, where they founded monasteries such as Bobbio. The scripts were
also used in monasteries like Fulda, which were influenced by English missionaries. It is associated
with Insular art, of which most surviving examples are illuminated manuscripts. It greatly
influenced Irish orthographyand modern Gaelic scripts in handwriting and typefaces.
Insular script comprised a family of different scripts used for different functions. At the top of the
hierarchy was the Insular half-uncial (or "Insular majuscule"), used for important documents and
sacred text. The full uncial, in a version called "English uncial", was used in some English centres.
Then "in descending order of formality and increased speed of writing" came "set minuscule",
"cursive minuscule" and "current minuscule". These were used for non-scriptural texts, letters,
accounting records, notes, and all the other types of written documents.[1]

Origin[edit]
The scripts developed in Ireland in the 7th century and were used as late as the 19th century,
though its most flourishing period fell between 600 and 850. They were closely related to
the uncial and half-uncial scripts, their immediate influences; the highest grade of Insular script is the
majuscule Insular half-uncial, which is closely derived from Continental half-uncial script.
Appearance[edit]

St Chad Gospels: "Et factum est iterum cum sabbatis ambularet Iesus per sata" (Mark 2:23, p. 151)

Simplified relationship between various scripts, showing the development of Uncial from Roman and
the Greek Uncial.
Works written in Insular scripts commonly use large initial letters surrounded by red ink dots
(although this is also true of other scriptswritten in Ireland and England). Letters following a large
initial at the start of a paragraph or section often gradually diminish in size as they are written across
a line or a page, until the normal size is reached, which is called a "diminuendo" effect, and is a
distinctive insular innovation, which later influenced Continental illumination style. Letters
with ascenders (b, d, h, l, etc.) are written with triangular or wedge-shaped tops. The bows of letters
such as b, d, p, and q are very wide. The script uses many ligatures and has many unique scribal
abbreviations, along with many borrowings from Tironian notes.
Insular script was spread to England by the Hiberno-Scottish mission; previously, uncial script had
been brought to England by Augustine of Canterbury. The influences of both scripts produced the
Insular script system. Within this system, the palaeographer Julian Brown identified five grades, with
decreasing formality:
Insular half-uncial, or "Irish majuscule": the most formal; became reserved
for rubrics (highlighted directions) and other displays after the 9th century.[2]
Insular hybrid minuscule: the most formal of the minuscules, came to be used for formal
church books when use of the "Irish majuscule" diminished.[2]
Insular set minuscule
Insular cursive minuscule
Insular current minuscule: the least formal;[3] current here means running (rapid).[4]
Brown has also postulated two phases of development for this script, Phase II being mainly
influenced by Roman Uncial examples, developed at Wearmouth-Jarrow and typified by
the Lindisfarne Gospels.[5]
Usage[edit]
Insular script was used not only for Latin religious books, but also for every other kind of book,
including vernacular works. Examples include the Book of Kells, the Cathach of St. Columba,
the Ambrosiana Orosius, the Durham Gospel Fragment, the Book of Durrow the Durham Gospels,
the Echternach Gospels, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Lichfield Gospels, the St. Gall Gospel Book,
and the Book of Armagh.
Insular script was influential in the development of Carolingian minuscule in the scriptoria of the
Carolingian empire.
In Ireland, Insular script was superseded in c. 850 by Late Insular script; in England, it was followed
by a form of Caroline minuscule.
The Tironian et equivalent of ampersand (&) was in widespread use in the script
(meaning agus and in Irish and ond and in Old English) and is occasionally continued in
modern Gaelic typefaces derived from insular script.
Unicode[edit]
There are only a few insular letters encoded, these are shown below, but most fonts will only display
U+1D79 (). To display the other characters there are several fonts that may be used; three free
ones that support these characters are Junicode, Montagel, and Quivira.
According to Michael Everson, in the 2006 Unicode proposal for these characters:[6]
To write text in an ordinary Gaelic font, only ASCII letters should be used, the font making all the
relevant substitutions; the insular letters [proposed here] are for use only by specialists who require
them for particular purposes.

KELTSKA CRKVA

Ipak, ako je onaj koji je govorio latinski bio kao kod kue u Italiji, Galiji ili junoj Britaniji, postojale su
granice kao to su Irska i severna Britanija gde latinska kultura nije bila odomaena i gde se
hrianstvo razvilo u drugaijoj varijanti.
Vek pre nego to se Avgustin iskrcao u Kentu predstavlja slavan period istorije Irske crkve. Za
njega je u velikoj meri zasluan Patrik. Poto je postao hrianin, zaplovio je u Irsku i poeo sa
irenjem jevanelja u zemlji u kojoj je nekada bio rob. Patrikovo propovedanje zapazili su prvi od
velikih kraljeva Irske. Uskoro je Patrik krstio kraljevog sina, Konala. Hiljade su sledile njegov
primer. Konalov praunuk Kolumba bio je misionar Keltske crkve na kopnu. Jona, naselje na
zapadnoj obali kotske, bila je njegova misionarska baza.
Keltska crkva je verovala u prvenstvo Pisma. Poto su nali da su odreene stvari u veri i praksi
Rimske crkve nebiblijske, Keltska crkva ih je odbacila. U Rimu se govorilo o izmatinim Keltima, a
papa je nainio plan da poalje Avgustina da koriguje jogunaste keltske hriane.
Kolumbina smrt i dolazak Avgustina desili su se u razmaku od dvanaest meseci jedno od drugog.
Meu Saksoncima juno od Temze Avgustin je naiao na znaajan otpor svojim pokuajima da
nametne rimski poredak; a postojao je jo vei otpor dalje na severu. No, ak je i taj otpor bio
minimalan u poreenju sa onim na ta je naiao u Nortambrijskom kraljevstvu severno od Hambera
(Humber). Tamo je crkveni centar bio Lindisfarn. Lindisfarnski episkop je bio Ajden, a njegov uitelj
je bio Kolumba, koga je kralj Osvald pozvao da iri jevanelje po Nortambriji.
Sukob izmeu Keltske crkve i rimskog poretka, koji je predstavljao Avgustin, bio je predmet sabora u
Vitbiju 664. godine. Rimski model je trijumfovao. kotski episkop Kolman napustio je Britaniju,
izvestio je Bid, vodei sa sobom kote koje je okupio u Lindisfarnu, zajedno sa oko trideset Engleza
koje je isto tako obuavao monakom ivotu. Oni su nali novo utoite blizu obale Irske. Neki su
gledali na odluku sabora u Vitbiju kao na odstupanje od Biblije i hrianstva koje je zasnovano na
njoj.

LINDISFARNSKO JEVANELJE
Lindisfarn i crkva koju on predstavlja imaju trajno mesto u istoriji engleske Biblije. Tamo su nainjena
Lindisfarnska jevanelja. Ovi izvanredno nadahnuti manuskripti, koji se sada nalaze u Britanskom
muzeju, najlepa su rukotvorina koja je ostala od Keltske crkve. Oni su nainjeni u ast svetog
Katberta (St. Cuthbert) koji je umro 687. godine. Glavni tekst je onaj iz latinske Vulgate, ali je
izmeu redova kasnije dopisan parafraziran latinski tekst na primitivnom engleskom koji obino
zovemo anglosaksonski.

Naizgled suene oblikovnosti, malo je u estetskom smislu veliko i iroko, pojavljuje se u bezbroj
idejnih i formalnih varijanti celine i detalja. Muziku umetnost obeleevaju dela pisana za solo
instrumente i male sastave, u knjievnosti su bitni kratka pria, sonet, haiku i aforizam a kratka
forma postoji i u filmu, pozoritu i videu. Za razliku od tih vremenskih, likovna umetnost je prostorna,
za nju su presudni fizika veliina, trodimenzionalnost i opipljivost. U Aristotelovo vreme, u Atini su
stvarala dvojica istaknutih skulptora. Jedan je klesao glatke i dopadljive figure koje su teile
idealnom i savrenom a drugi je grubljim izrazom istraivao dubinu umetnikog. Aristotel je vie
cenio tog drugog vajara, za koga je kao i za Leonarda da Vinija umetnost bila geometrija, fizika i
matematika na najviem, estetskom nivou. Za povest srpske male likovne forme bitan je i Milovan
Vidak koji se celog stvaralakog veka drao svoje devize da slikar treba to manje da stvara, to
bolje moe i da to skuplje proda delo. Naslikao je samo tri vee slike, petnaestak galerijskog
formata a najvei deo njegovog opusa ine mala ulja. Priu o dvojici antikih skulptora moemo
proiriti Vidakovom podelom umetnika na dve vrste. Uoio je postojanje istraivaa, naunika i
sistematiara kojima je i sam pripadao i drugih koji su u stalnom razvoju i samopronalaenju,
moemo smatrati (post)modernistima, imajui u vidu da se veina poznavalaca slae da je
renesansa poetak moderne i da su se mnogi (post)moderni umetnici stvaralaki stalno menjali.
Aristotel i Vidak su imali mnogo dublju osnovu za vrednovanje umetnosti od matematikog
istraivanja forme, kompozicije i anatomije. Re je o tajni koja je privlaila i privlai mnoge pa i
Milana Miletia. U pitanju je pronalaenje mere, harmonije i srazmere. Posedovanje takta, obzira u
prikazivanju likovnih odnosa, potraga za skladnim, nije nita drugo do primena boanskih naela.
Smisao stvaranja je u borbi, muci da se definie najbolja forma, da se izbori s njom i pronae
odgovarajue reenje koje postaje vrednost za sebe. Mera u stvaranju, samerenost forme i veliine,
kljuni su za minijaturu i kratku formu prie, skea, jednoinke, epigrama, sentence i anagrama.
Nalik leku i otrovu koji se doziraju samo u malim koliinama i u zavisnosti od njih mogu zameniti
uloge, male forme ponekad su neuporedivo izraajnije od velikih. U japanskom budizmu kljune
pouke mladim kaluerima svode se na kratku zen priu ili reenicu, ak re ili gest koji mogu da
dovedu do potpune promene linosti. Autor devize Manje je vie podizao je prve moderne
oblakodere od elika i stakla ali je veoma dobro poznavao vrednosti svoenja i umanjenja. U
najmonumentalnijem vidu umetnosti kakav je arhitektura postoji takoe svest o malom, graditelji su
sa isto toliko truda zidali male hramove, crkvice, kapele, tolose i inoazerije kao dvorce i imperijalna
zdanja. Umetnost je prepuna izraza naklonosti i ljubavi prema malom, zavetni i prenosivi predmeti,
depne Venere, skulpture iz Tanagre, emajli i kameje, ikonice, medalje, znake, odlija, krstii,
panagije, enkolpioni, slikane minijature kao delovi retabla ili kao samostalne celine, olje za aj i
kafu, burmutice, geme, kameje, kristalne ae, kutije za nakit, karte i kockice za igru i ahovske
figure, imaju bitan udeo u bogatstvu evropske i azijske umetnosti. U Japanu je veoma cenjena
netsuke, umetnost skulptorske minijature, veliki kineski majstori su u lobanjice od slonovae
ugraivali mehanizam za otvaranje a na Zapadu se razvijala minijatura kao slika ili silueta izrezana
od papira i jo vie kao knjina ilustracija, o emu e kasnije biti vie rei. Iz elizabetanske
renesanse, udesnog perioda evropske kulture, moda najbolje to se sauvalo od umetnosti jesu
izuzetne minijature. Nekada je postojao u evropskom slikarstvu poseban tip kolovanja, za slikara
minijaturistu, koji se razlikovao od pripreme za slikara religioznih i istorijskih scena. Ne treba nikako
zaboraviti dve hiljade godina minijaturne umetnosti koja je svakodnevno pred oima i u upotrebi
vanredni umetnici oblikovali su i oblikuju reljefe za izradu metalnog novca i daju nacrte za tampu
papirnatih novanica.
Malo, skromno i minijaturno, danas, u doba spektakla i olimpijskih, globalnih, monumentalnih
zahvata, koji slue grandioznom preureenju sveta i imaju odraz u likovnoj i vizuelnoj sferi, nije
izgubilo znaaj. Svaki predmet malih dimenzija i kada nije umetniki, psiholoki poziva na
saobraavanje, uspostavljanje prave mere, budi oseanja i time ljudskom vraa dostojanstvo, to
deca najbolje znaju. Mala forma u umetnosti stvara nove odnose i nepoznate estetske vrednosti i to
je razlog to se veti slikari kao Mileti njome bave. Hokusaj je kao i pojedini drugi umetnici znao
kako da ujedini, saobrazi i prikae veliko u malom i malo u velikom. Kamerna forma vraa na scenu
zaboravljene, tanije odbaene estetske kategorije: ljupko, armantno, deje, rokajno i draesno.
Termin minijatura potie od latinskog minium u znaenju cinober crveno a izvedeno je od lat.
minus = manje. Odnosio se na svaki crveni materijal kojim su bojene margine tekstualnog bloka ili
stranice pisanog rukopisa. Iz dekoracije koja predstavlja vitice i figure razvila se knjina ilustracija
koju danas pogreno nazivamo minijatura. Miniator je prvobitno bio pisac, prepisiva tekstualnih
strana a slikar, ilustrator knjiga, zvao se Illuminator. U njegovom nazivu sadrana je latinska re za
svetlost, slikar je umetnik koji u knjigu unosi lumen, koji je obasjava. Srednjovekovne i renesansne
male slike u knjigama predstavljaju prozore otvorene ka drugaijem svetu od tekstualnog, na njima
se smenjuju udesni prizori. U pitanju je naslikani nakit koji na rukopisima i kodeksima (Codices)
nestaje u estnaestom veku sa pronalaskom tampe. Rukom pisani i slikani inicijali, zastavice, ivini
crtei i slike koje prate i proiruju znaenje teksta, nestali su na svom vrhuncu ali ne sasvim. U
osamnaestom veku pojavili su se minijaturni portreti na pergamentu, jaem papiru, slonovai i
porcelanu. U to vreme uraene vodenim bojama, male slike imale su zajedniki postupak izrade koji
se nije zasnivao na potezima ve na takama. Minijaturni rad usredituje sliku, vraa je na poetak,
na taku iz ijeg niza proishodi, izvire linija, taku koja se ne moe izmeriti, nije fizika veliina, ali
jeste metafizika. Pojedini majstori slikali su krunim a drugi izduenim takama, likovne elementi
izraavali su finoom koja je zahtevala veliku vetinu izrade. ak se i Mikelanelo divio
najpoznatijem renesansnom minijaturisti Juliju Kloviu. Slike te vrste veoma su trajne, zlato na
pozadini i boja i danas su dobro ouvani, tehnoloki su minijaturisti bili napredni, samo se slonovaa
pokazala kao loa osnova, na kojoj slike s vremenom poute. Posle srednjeg veka i renesanse kada
su prikazivale sloene religiozne scene, male slike najee su koriene za portrete u
novovekovnoj evropskoj i ruskoj umetnosti. Poruivali su ih dvor, plemstvo i bogato graanstvo.
Parmiianinov Autoportret u konveksnom ogledalu, u vidu tonda iz 1524. godine, ulje na dasci
prenika 24,4 cm, nije samo jedna od najljupkijih i najneobinijih predstava mladog umetnika ve i
smelo oslobaanje od stega crkve i javnosti, posveivanje sebi i likovnoj problematici. Veoma male
slike postavljane su ispod stakla iz vie razloga da se ne bi otetile, da bi se bolje videle i da bi im
se dalo na znaaju. Minijaturnim slikarstvom bavili su se i veliki umetnici kao Hans Memling, ali u
njegovoj istoriji ima vie bezimenih stvaralaca nego genija. Blizak zanatskom, njihov je rad na svet
donosio dela velike lepote, dobrog i harmoninog izgleda kao to i danas postoje slikari te vrste.
Mala slika uvek je dragocena, nosila se oko vrata, naslikana na unutranjosti rasklopivih privezaka,
u krunim ili elipsastim okvirima, ili na unutranjosti poklopaca depnih satova. Prikazivala je uvek
vlasniku dragu osobu, otvaranje i razgledanje takve kutijice bio je mali ritual, nalik molitvi pred
ikonicom, vlasnik se preputao mislima i oseanjima. Nije nevano da takve slike nisu mogle biti
preslikane ili doslikane, na njima nema prerada, naknadnih intervencija, njihova originalnost je
nesumnjiva.
Mnogo pre nego to su drvorez, bakrorez i tampa bacili minijaturu u senku, pre njenog
cvetanja u petnaestom veku, kada su najbolji slikari te vrste bili Italijani i Holanani i pre etrnaestog
veka kadaj je vladao meunarodni stil gotike, minijatura je dostigla nesluene visine u zanatskom,
izvoakom i likovnom smislu. Meu irskim monasima pojavilo se od sedmog slikarstvo krajnje
originalnog stila, sloenih, simetrinih prepleta, poreklom iz starije keltske i umetnosti iz doba seobe
naroda. Za uvene rukopise kao to je Lindisfarnsko jevanelje mislilo se da su ih slikali aneli. Iz
Irske se takva umetnost proirila po Evropi, mnoge od prvobitnih minijatura prekrivaju cele stranice
slubenih knjiga, najee misala i evangelijara i nisu minijature po dananjem shvatanju, niti su
izraene takanjem pomou vrha kista. Posle Irske minijatura se razvila u Vizantiji a ne treba
zaboraviti ni sjajne bliskoistone i indijske primere ukraavanja knjiga i rukopisa. Pojedine kole
preciznog slikarstva na malom formatu u Indiji su bile nasledne i ouvale su se do devetnaestog
veka. Po prvobitnom oslikavanju knjiga dobio je kasnije naziv svaki finiji rad malog formata, drugaiji
od skice, krokija i likovne zabeleke. U razliitima tehnikama, ak i kao video umetnost, predstavlja
se sada na specijalistikim i bijenalnim izlobama u Srbiji i svetu. Slikarstvo malog formata
podrazumeva posebnu kulturu unutar likovne, druge vrste etkica, kojima se mogu izvoditi veoma
precizni potezi, u staro vreme pravljenih iskljuivo od skupocene samurove dlake. Nene, fino ribane
boje, pa ak i traktati kakav je Minjanov, objavljen u Parizu 1818. godine, odreuju minijaturno
slikarstvo.
Umetnost na malom formatu, pored svoje posebnosti i samostalnosti, uvek je sledila
preovlaujui stil epohe u kojoj je nastajala. Najstarije slike te vrste su tri hiljade godina stare, potiu
iz grobnica starog Egipta, nalaze se na rolanama papirusa. Na slian nain su i Rimljani ukraavali
knjige, ali od njih nita nije sauvano. Najstariji primer oslikavanja knjige iz doba naeg raunanja
vremena je rukopis sa delovima Vergilijeve knjievnosti u vatikanskoj biblioteci u Rimu. Odvojena od
kaligrafije, minijatura je cvetala u istonorimskom carstvu. Najuveniji rukopis iz tog perioda,
predmet mnogih prouavanja je Geneza iz petog veka, uvana u Beu, kojom se bavio jo 1895.
poznati istoriar umetnosti Franc Vikof. Minijatura koja se razvila u Irskoj od sedmog veka nije
srodna sa vizantijskom. Njena apstraktnost, ornamentalnost i linearni stil u kojem je naglaeno biljno
i ivotinjsko, blii su orijentalnoj umetnosti nego pravoslavnoj, u kojoj je uvek najvea panja data
oveku. Kada su predstavljali ljudsku figuru, irski monasi nisu bili na onoj stvaralakoj visini kao kada
su pleli apstraktne strukture. Jo dugo vremena je posle sedmog veka u zapadnoj minijaturi, na
skulpturi i na crkvenim predmetima vladala meavina ornamentalnog i ivotinjskog, ljudska figura
bila je karikaturalno predstavljena. Dobar primer srednjovekovnog stila je meunarodno poznato
Miroslavovo jevanelje iz dvanaestog veka, najstariji srpski iriliki rukopis, mada su njegove
ilustracije skromne u poreenju sa drugim iz povesti rukopisnog slikarstva. Umetnost minijaturnog
slikarstva su irski lutajui monasi proirili po Engleskoj, vajcarskoj i severnoj Italiji. Vizantijska i
irska minijatura dale su plodno tlo za razvoj novog stila u Nemakoj, Francuskoj i Holandiji, koji je
krajem etrnaestog veka doiveo vrhunac. U novom, karolinkom, nemakom stilu, koji se razvio od
devetog veka, ne daju vie samo sveti spisi materijal za predstavljanje ve i poetske prie, herojski
epovi, pripovesti o ivotinjama i trubadurska poezija. Umetnicima se kao i pesnicima tog vremena
otvorio nov svet, pojavilo se slikarstvo bujne fantazije. Inicijali, biljni i ivotinjski motivi, vie nisu bili
povezani sa tekstom, to je u ranoj gotici dovelo do veeg obraanja panje na ljudsko telo. Na
njenom poetku crte je bio izvoen perom a boje su bez prelamanja popunjavale prostor izmeu
linija. U poznijem gotskom slikarstvu pojavila se naglaena plastika modelacija; glave i ruke bile su
paljivo predstavljene na osnovu posmatranja prirode, izvor stvaranja nije vie samo imaginarno.
Figure likovno odreuju pregibi na odei, svetlije i tamnije forme a u pozadini prostor otvaraju
arhitektura i pejza. U petnaestom veku je gotski stil dobio na eleganciji i realistinosti, slikarstvo
brae Van Ajk uticalo je da se istaknu portretne karakteristike, briljivo izvedu detalji a slike dobiju na
prirodnosti. Umetnost tog tipa razvila se posebno u Flandriji. Filip Dobri je 1443. posedovao
najbogatiju biblioteku knjiga sa rukopisnom ilustracijom, samo gradu Briu ostavio je devetsto
trideset pet primeraka. Veruje se da pojedina ostvarenja iz njegove zbirke pripadaju najpoznatijim
majstorima flandrijske kole. Brevijar Hercoga od Bedforda iz 1424. (sada u Parizu) pripisuje se
Janu van Ajku. Umetnost kamerne forme bila je omiljena meu carevima, kraljevima i vlastelom,
njen procvat je povezan sa optim umetnikim poletom ali i nezavisan u onoj meri koliko je
minijatura drugaija od drugih vidova slikarstva. otovim posredstvom u renesansi je minijatura
doivela jo vei uspon; istaknuti slikari kao Atavante, iralomo od knjige ili iralomo dei Libri,
Liberale da Verona i Hrvat Juraj Klovi ili Julio Klovio, uradili su veliki broj dragocenih slika na
papskim, vojvodskim i crkvenim rukopisima kao i za kralja Matiju Korvina, ugarskog zatitnika
renesanse. Tim vidom slikarstva bavili su se i veliki umetnici kao Fra Aneliko i Sandro Botieli.
Izumom tampe minijaturno slikarstvo opada; premda su na prvim tampanim knjigama ostavljana
prazna mesta na stranicama za slikanje inicijala, ivinu ornamentaciju i slike, u esnaestom veku
izgubio se smisao takvog stvaralatva. Umesto crtea i slike u odnosu na tekst preovlauju tampani
drvorez a zatim bakrorez. Od prvih drvoreznih ilustracija u tzv. blokbuh tehnici, radova velikih
grafiara kao to su Martin ongauer i Albreht Direr, do modernih majstora ex librisa, razvija se
grafika minijatura i grafika malog formata. Moglo bi se na razne naine pisati o prirodi grafike
umetnosti, neraskidivo povezane sa preciznou, tanou i skoro naunim vienjem i definisanjem
forme. Grafika i crte najpogodniji su za izraavanje na malom formatu, tehniki pogoduju
umanjenju. Ex libris kao zaseban vid grafike umetnosti i potreba grafiara da se izraavaju sa
manijakalnom preciznou, vode grafiku ka kamernom.
Minijaturistima su se u sedamnaestom veku nazivali slikari malog formata ija dela ne bi mogli
smatrati minijaturnim po kriterijumima dananjim specijalistikim izlobi. U poetku slikane vodenim
ili pokrivnim bojama na pergamentu, u svim delovima briljivo ostvarene, minijaturne slike su raene
i tehnikom ulja na drvetu, bakru i mesingu. Upeatljive sjajne boje emajla, umetnosti izmeu
slikarstva i zlatarstva, od starog Egipta, Vizantije do art dcoa ostavljaju veliki utisak na vernike i
posmatrae a i danas su veoma cenjen vid minijaturne umetnosti. Oslobodivi se posle renesanse
rukopisne i tampane kulture, minijaturno slikarstvo se razvilo na drugi nain, pa su se njime bavile i
slikarke kao Nemica Sofi Friderike Dinglinger (1736-91). Nenadmane su, meutim, male slike
engleskih majstora na koje je uticao Hans Holbajn. Nikolas Hiliard, Isak i Piter Oliver, doveli su
krajem estnaestog i sedamnaestog veka, vremenu britanske, pozne, elizabetanske renesanse,
minijaturu do nesluenih izvoakih i poetikih visina. Vanredna istorijska vrednost umetnosti u
malom imala je odziv u istoriji umetnosti kao nauci, izuava se sistematski od sredine devetnaestog
veka. Objavljene su specijalistike studije o pojedinim periodima, njome su se bavili i veliki naunici
kao Nikodim Pavlovi Kondakov koji je u dva toma 1886-91 pisao o istoriji vizantijske minijature a
Julius fon loser je jo 1898. objavio studiju o ilustracijama Sarajevske Hagade. Jo su u
devetnaestom veku publikovani trotomni renici posveeni minijaturistima i prirunici za
kolekcionare.
Ova kratka istorija (istorije) minijaturne umetnosti samo ima cilj da uvede u problematiku
savremene umetnosti, ukazujui na znaaj celokupne umetnosti malog formata. U propozicijama
pojedinih bijenalnih izlobi kao odgovarajue smatra se samo delo do veliine 10x10x10 cm, mada
se nikada istorijski nije tano odredio ili nametnuo kljuan format za vrednovanje likovnog dela kao
minijaturnog. Sumarni pregled povesti kamernog slikarstva moe da ukae koliko je malo i
minijaturno bitno i za dananju estetiku, koliko je zastupljeno u delima umetnika koji se njime ne
bave sporadino ve posveeno. Jedan od njih je i Milan Mileti.
Kljune promene u srpskoj umetnosti donela je beogradska grupa Mediala koja je prerasla u
pokret i ostavila trag na generacije slikara i crtaa. Dovela je u pitanje vekovnu balkansku tradiciju sa
uporitem u antikoj umetnosti iz koje istorijski proizilazi vizantijska. Freska, pastelni ton, slikarstvo
irih poteza i dugih linija, otvoreno i svetlo, uticalo je na srpski modernizam, mediteranski duh
proima domau umetnost od srednjeg veka do prvih impresionista, plenerista, meuratnih slikara
Beogradske kole i poratnih modernista. Sa Medialom u nae slikarstvo ulazi duh Severa,
manijakalni detaljizam, pozivanje na Hijeronimusa Boa, Pitera Brojgela, Konrada Vica i Albrehta
Direra. Pojavila su se krajnje precizno izvedena dela, po principu severne renesanse, crtei i slike
ispunjeni mranim iracionalizmom, erosom, crnom matom u dosluhu sa nadrealizmom. Milovan
Vidak, jedan od najveih medialnih majstora, u svom Kodeksu, idejnom programu iz 1952. godine,
kao lan 5. naveo je Ovladati izvoakom tehnikom do nestvarnog. Prodor minucioznog dogodio
se upravo kada je sa enformelom i poznomodernistikom apstrakcijom srpsko slikarstvo bilo
najoputenije, razbarueno i neobavezno a taj nasilni upad ostavio je bitan trag na generacije
umetnika koje e doi. Posle Mediale, slikari nove figuracije primaju uticaje pop-arta a u narednoj
generaciji hiperrealizma kao vida modernog realizma. Milan Mileti se u vreme pojave novog
romantizma istakao kao znaajan umetnik. Ohladio je visoku temperaturu slike koju su krajnje
poetikim sredstvima definisali slikari iz njegove generacije Ljubica Mrkalj, Safet Zec, Smail Karailo,
Kemal Ramujki i Lidija Macura. Njegovo shvatanje slike potie iz svesti o znaaju idejnog,
metafizikog i konceptualnog, on pronalazi pravu meru, ontoloku vrednost slike i zato su njegova
do kraja detaljno uraena dela mali traktati o prirodi i misaonim mogunostima slikarstva. Drugaije
od Milene Pavlovi Barili, ukazao je na mogunosti metafizikog a ne fantastinog, mada se
metafiziko najee u istoriji umetnosti predstavlja kao podanr ili umetnost srodna nadrealnoj.
Povukao je imaginarnu vertikalu od renesansnih majstora do modernih realista, uz Vladislava
Lalickog, Zorana Nastia, Vladimira Pajevia i Vladimira Vlaju Jovanovia, zaetnik je u srpskoj
umetnosti nove vrste slikarstva. Izmatano postaje realno, razuzdana mata ohlaena je i
kompresovana do nultog stepena. Meu tim novim slikarima koji nisu odbacili tehniku i ideje
hiperrealista, zaeo se nov tip figuracije, drugaiji od medialne i pozno modernistike, koji vraa na
majstorstvo Paje Jovanovia, Uroa Predia i renesansnih umetnika. U toj grupi Mileti je osoben po
panji koju pridaje predmetnom svetu, na njegovim slikama kao na najboljim primerima evropskog
iluzionizma, predmetu je dat veliki znaaj, predstavljeni objekt uzdignut je do apsolutnog. Ako je
Mediala otvorila dveri paljivog crtanja i slikanja, omoguivi i pojavu grafiara meu kojima se
eljko urovi i Ivan Miladinovi svrstavaju u grupu najboljih svetskih majstora ex librisa, onda je
Mileti otiao korak dalje.
Postigao je likovni izraz velike preciznosti, analitikim sredstvima anatomski secira prizor,
posmatra ga i predstavlja u potpunosti, ali u ljudima, predmetima, gradovima i crkvama koje slika
otkriva skrivenu oseajnost, poetinost i unutranju dubinu. Prizori koje slika su vanvremeni, mogu
pripadati ovom ili prolom vremenu, ali nain na koji izraava metafiziko, izgubljeno vreme je
savremen. Njegovo tajanstveno slikarstvo nije jedan od brojnih savremenih priloga estetici realizma,
na drugoj je, suprotnoj strani od hiperrealizma kao vida konceptualizacije, posuvraenja, realizma
kao istorijske avangarde a ne klasine tafelajne umetnosti. Od foto i savremenih realista odvaja ga i
posebnost njegove poetike, odnos prema slici koja ima obeleja kamernog. Mnoge slike je zasnovao
u duhu estetike dela malog formata, tanije kao minijaturistiki obraene celine. Slika nije niz detalja
ve su detalji niz slika. U njegovom opusu moemo hronoloki i logiki pratiti istoriju pojedinih
predstava, npr. kristalne ae koja ima veristiki razvoj od samostalne slike, minijature, dela manjeg
formata do detalja na veoj kompoziciji. Kao slikar veoma je zainteresovan za sudbinu malog u
velikom i velikog u malom, za predmete koji simboliki moe da predstavi. Nije vana samo njegova
nova serija slika malog formata, ve injenica da o slici esto razmilja kao minijaturista, duh
minijature ivi u njegovim delima i kada su veih dimenzija. Moda umetnosti nita vie nije ostalo
osim predmetne prakse i filozofije, u doba (posle) postmodernizma, na kraju dvadesetog i poetku
dvadeset prvog veka, vie se ne slikaju mrtve prirode niti se stvara objektna umetnost. U skladu sa
genijalnom idejom Leonida ejke o sveoptem fizikom i umetnikom ubritu, metafori i praksi
novog, posttehnolokog sveta, predmeti se sada sakupljaju sa otpada i iz okoline a umetnost se
predstavlja u vidu arhive i kolekcije. Mileti je tom novom, desakralizovanom predmetu, koji eka da
mu se reciklaom vrati fiziki lik i duhovni sadraj, koji moe da vaskrsne sa ubrita, iz nitavila,
suprotstavio predmetno trajno a u idejnom smislu veno. U materijalno prebogatoj a duhovno
siromanoj civilizaciji, za koju ovaj slikar kae: Sada je vreme unitavanja a ne stvaranja, groblje je
izvesnost umetnikog. Miletieva strategija je drugaija, on uznosi lik i predmet, obouje ih, daje im
sakralni smisao, slikarstvo suprotstavlja ubrinom. Zna da to nije mogue izvesti na monumentalan
nain, slike velikog formata su odve profanizovane u avangardi, apstrakciji i u politikoj umetnosti.
Treba poeti ponovo od malog da bi se obnovile snage, vratile energije, to znaju i vajari koji su
pojedina od najdragocenijih dela ostvarili u vidu male plastike. Malo, ljupko, skromno, ubavo i
bibavo, reeno jezikom stare Srbije, do punog znaaja dolazi na slikama kamerne pojavnosti, malo
postaje veliko jer je dragoceno. Zato je Mesonije, kako se pria, prodavao svoje male slike u
zamenu za dijamante. U pitanju je povratak slike, njenog punog znaenja i znaaja, deifikacija
svakodnevnog prizora, jer je u Bojem svetu sve malo veliko. Povratak slike i povratak slici nisu
mogui bez obraanja panje na najmanje i na detalj. Zato, kada govorimo o Miletievom kamernom
slikarstvu, nemamo u vidu pojedinu sliku, odreeno kompoziciono reenje, metafiziku realizma ili
peotiku prizora, ve celokupnu slikarevu strategiju, zamisao i pristup. Njegovo delo kljuno odreuje
odnos prema predmetima i ljudima kao dragocenim biima, mali objekti su voljeni, predstavljeni na
intiman nain, sa aurom ali i oprezom, jer u njima poiva tajna. Sliku zasniva kao izraz potovanja
posebnosti naslikanog, posveeniki, jer ceo svet proima jedan duh i jedan dah. Po elji da s
krajnjom panjom likovno komentarie pojavno, nalikuje animistima, za koje su svako bie i predmet
ivi, ali slii i ikonopiscima koji sliku nikada nisu shvatali povrno ili proizvoljno. Ikona bez detalja i
ikona bez minijaturnog nije ikona i to bi moglo da bude pravilo za mnoge slikare, tim pre to je u
pitanju likovno odreenje od antike, fajumskih portreta do rane renesanse. Mileti je pregao da
obnovi sliku. Jedan je od zaetnika nove tradicije, slikarstva na razmei neokonzervativnog i
konceptualnog, slikar je u doba kada teoretiari s velikom pakou i cinizmom proriu smrt
umetnosti. Za njega bi se zato u hrianskom, svedriteljskom smislu, moglo rei da je restaurator i
renovator, u vreme palih umetnika moemo za njega rei: Ecce pictor!
On veoma dobro zna da male slike bude duboka oseanja, da je malo draesno i dragoceno,
da se uvek uva i pazi, da se minijaturno i kamerno najbolje mogu definisati kao krasno. To je jedini
smisao srednjovekovnih i renesansnih rukopisnih iluminacija, udesne su i za itaoca i za
posmatraa. Slika se sada mora zasnovati kao svetlozarna, kako bi rekao Leonid ejka, da bi se
suprotstavila medijskom i spektakularnom, masovnom i zaglupljujuem, agresivnoj najezdi
sportskog, komercijalnog i potroakog. Moe li bilo ta biti likovno izuzetnije od malih Van Ajkovih
slika, pred jednom njegovom gospom je eljko Toni, moda najbolji mlai evropski majstor,
proveo nekoliko sati. Miletieve slike pozivaju da im se obratimo u tiini, s potovanjem, sabrano i
usredsreeno, mogu da smire unutranje bure, da rasvetle mrak bia i deluju lekovito, ostave vedar i
sunan utisak, poletan i lak, kao kada se prevlada bolest. Njegove male i velike slike usreuju svoje
vlasnike, nema ih po galerijama niti ih vlasnici preprodaju. uvaju se kao nakit i srebrenina, vlasnik
je svestan da je u pitanju dragocenost do koje se ne dolazi lako. Zato nastaju dugo, sporo, moda i
pipavo, kao kada sajdija popravlja asovnik ili kada zlatar uglavljuje kamen u prsten. U tiini ateljea,
ritualnim inom slikanja, nastaju njegova dela koja i kada nisu malog formata podrazumevaju
minijaturno.
U pitanju je slikar koji je vratio dostojanstvo predmetnom svetu i oveku. Bilo da predstavlja
akt, mrtvu prirodu ili portret, monaha ili Salvadora Dalija, kao da boju ukucava ili lepi na platno,
njegova ulja krajnje su zasiene pojavnosti. Predmetima, likovima i figurama kao retko ko u
savremenom srpskom slikarstvu dao je punou i smisao. Uraene s merom, skromno i suzdrano,
gospodski, njegove slike su na suprotnoj strani od modernog purizma i minimalizma, likovne
raskone i kada su najmanje, na planu bogatstva detalja kod nas nenadmane. Takav stil odgovara
kamernoj formi, poev od erkinog portreta u dobi od tri godine do najnovije serije od trideset pet
slika formata 20x25 cm iz 2011-12 godine, pojedina od najboljih dela ovog umetnika uraena su na
malom formatu. Za dela te vrste dobijao je i prestine nagrade. Evo nekog ko vraa poverenje u
sliku, stvara nevinu, tajanstvenu i armantnu umetnost u doba njene sveopte ogrubelosti, sirovosti i
surovosti, poruneloj i ostareloj od svakidanjih bezobzirnih (post)modernistikih stremljenja.
Umesto beskrupuloznosti, Milan Mileti potvruje estesko i etiko naelo slikarstva, obnavlja lepotu
povezanu sa mladou, ustanovljuje vrednosni kriterijum u vreme opteg opadanja i zato kao
nekada za najizvrsnijeg, za njega moemo rei: Evo slikara!.

Dejan ori
Sve do otkria tiskarstva u XV. stoljeu, knjige su pisane i prepisivane rukom pa su zbog
dugotrajnog postupka izrade bile skupe, rijetke i stoga dragocjene.

U srednjem vijeku prijepisi su se uglavnom odnosili na Evanelja i druge biblijske tekstove u slubi
irenja kranske vjere. Samostani kao sredita pismenosti imali su posebne prostorije za
prepisivanje rukopisa, tzv. skriptorije. Rad u skriptoriju bio je dio redovnikih zaduenja, meditativan,
ali vrlo zahtjevan te osobito cijenjen jer se smatrao izrazom najvee predanosti i pobonosti.
Prepisivalo se za dnevnog svjetla u posvemanjoj tiini, a komunikacija s armarijusom, redovnikom
koji je pisarima dodjeljivao zadatke i pratio njihovu izvedbu, odvijala se iskljuivo znakovima.
Prepisivanju kao i ukraavanju svetih tekstova pristupalo se s najveom panjom. Ukraavalo ih se
inicijalima, bordurama, razliitim ornamentima, vinjetama i minijaturnim slikama, to je s vremenom
preraslo u pravu umjetnost i dobilo zajedniki naziv iluminacije.

Da bi se jedna knjiga prepisala i iluminirala, bilo je potrebno puno strpljivog rada, jer u nekima od njih
znalo je biti i vie od sto iluminacija. Ti ukraeni rukopisi danas predstavljaju prave minijaturne
umjetnike zbirke. Velika vrijednost ovih rukopisa je u tome to su izraivani runo tako da svaki od
njih predstavlja jedinstveno umjetniko djelo.

Sam naziv iluminacija dolazi od svjetlucanja zlatne boje u rukopisima i doslovno znai osvjetljavanje,
rasvjetljavanje. Zlatna boja simbolizira boansku svjetlost, duhovno nebo, drugi svijet i bila je
prisutna u svim svetim tekstovima. Naziv iluminacija kasnije se proirio na sve oblike ukraavanja
teksta. Na mnogim stranicama starih rukopisa iluminacije zauzimaju vie prostora od samog teksta
ponekad i cijele stranice, posebice na onima iz XIV. i XV. stoljea. Velika se panja posveivala i
koricama knjiga, tako da su neke optoene zlatom, srebrom, draguljima, ime se dodatno isticala
njihova vrijednost.

Bogatstvo jednog samostana tradicionalno se mjerilo ne samo bogatstvom dragocjenosti u njegovoj

riznici, nego i bogatstvom iluminiranih knjiga u njegovoj knjinici. Knjige su nekada bile pravo blago i
nisu bile svima dostupne.

U XIV. stoljeu pojavljuju se i komercijalni skriptoriji, kad se osnivanjem prvih sveuilita poveala
potreba za knjigama. Tada su se iluminirala i znanstvena, povijesna i knjievna djela. U
srednjovjekovnoj Europi, naroito Zapadnoj, nalazimo velik broj bestijarija sa slikama ivotinja,
herbarija sa slikama biljaka, oslikanih alkemijskih rukopisa, medicinskih spisa, i sl. No najljepe su
iluminirana sakralna djela jer su raena s najveom posveenosti, a meu njima e kasnije istaknuto
mjesto zauzeti molitvenici koji su se u dvorskim krugovima darivali povodom vjenanja, roenja, i sl.
Veina iluminiranih rukopisa danas se uva u muzejima, knjinicama i samostanima irom svijeta;
dio je zavrio u privatnim zbirkama pa je nedostupan javnosti. Mnogi od njih su u loem stanju zbog
nemara te nestrunog rukovanja i uvanja.

Tradiciju iluminacije rukopisa ne nalazimo samo u srednjovjekovnoj Europi, kako se obino

pogreno smatra, nego irom svijeta i to od najdrevnijih vremena. Nalazimo je kod Egipana,
idova, Perzijanaca, Indijaca, Kineza, Tibetanaca, Armenaca, u Rimu, Grkoj i Bizantu, kod drevnih
Azteka i Maya, i mnogih drugih naroda.

Vrste ukrasa

Gotovo je nemogue sastaviti potpun popis motiva koji se pojavljuju u rukopisima, jer oni ovise o
karakteru spisa, kulturi i vremenu u kojem su nastali. esto se javlja pleter, koji je mogao biti vrlo
sloen, te biljni motivi. Pojavljuju se i neobine kombinacije biljnih i ivotinjskih motiva, kao i motivi s
ljudskom figurom ili dijelovima ljudskog tijela. Prisutni su geometrijski motivi i prikazi nebeskih tijela,
boanstava i svetaca, ak se mogu pronai i prikazi nekih dogaaja. Ipak, najei su iluminacijski
elementi inicijal, vinjeta i ukrasne bordure. Inicijal (lat. poetak) je posebno ukraeno poetno slovo
rukopisa. Ono se isticalo veliinom, a bilo je raskono iscrtano i obojano. Vinjeta (franc. zastava) je
ukras na poetku ili kraju teksta. Ukrasne bordure inile su okvir za tekst i sliku. Najee su ih inili
stilizirani biljni motivi. Kad bi tekst na nekoj stranici bio u dva stupca, granice koje bi se provlaile
izmeu njih tvorile bi borduru.

Smisao iluminacija

Iluminacija u rukopisima nema samo dekorativnu svrhu, odnosno ne slui samo ukraavanju i uitku
za oko. Iluminacije su vizualni tekst koji pomae boljem osvjetavanju sadraja koji se prenosi kako
rijeima, tako i slikom. Vidjeli smo da se pisanje i oslikavanje svetih tekstova smatralo svetim inom,
kao i nainom izraavanja pobonosti i predanosti. Iluminacija odraava i stav prema uenju i knjizi
kao neem vrijednom.

Umjetnost iluminiranja u Europi cvjetala je sve do Gutenbergova izuma tiskarskog stroja koji e
otvoriti vrata informacijskom dobu, ali i oznaiti kraj jedne lijepe umjetnosti.

Autor: Biljana Lukari

Book of Kells, stranica kojom poinje Evanelje po Ivanu. Book of Kells (Knjiga iz Kellsa) je rukopis
etiri Evanelja na latinskom jeziku. Smatra se da je nastao u VIII. stoljeu u skriptoriju irskog
samostana na otoku Ioni (Unutarnji Hebridi), gdje se ranije nalazilo keltsko druidsko svetite.
Samostan je bio izuzetno znaajan u irenju kranstva jo od 561. godine, kad ga je ustanovio sv.
Kolumba (Columcille). Nakon razornog vikinkog napada, mnogi su redovnici prebjegli u samostan u
Kellsu, u irskoj unutranjosti, i sa sobom su donijeli Evanelja. Ovaj rukopis spada u najbogatije i
najljepe iluminirane sauvane rukopise. Sastoji se od 340 pergamentnih listova, a svaka je stranica
originalna i nije preslika neke prethodne. Knjiga iz Kellsa je najpoznatija po bogato ukraenim
poetnim slovima (inicijalima) ija se ljepota ne moe opisati rijeima. Zato nije udno to se dugo
vjerovalo da su ovu knjigu iluminirali sami aneli. Danas se kao najdragocjeniji rukopis nalazi u
vlasnitvu dublinskog Trinity Collegea. Book of Kells i Lindisfarne Gospels iluminirani su s
izvanredno skladno ukomponiranim mnotvom gusto isprepletenih detalja koji jasno govore o
nastojanju kranskih misionara da elemente keltske tradicije poveu s kranskom koja se tu tek
raala.

Ilustracije brae Limbourg. Braa Pol, Jan i Hermant Limbourg bili su poznati flamanski minijaturisti s
kraja XIV. i poetka XV. stoljea. Njihovo najznaajnije djelo je asoslov vojvode od Berryja1. Za
ovog su vojvodu minijaturama oslikali dva asoslova u duhu gotike s elementima rane renesanse.
Ta remek-djela francuske iluminacije sadre velike i male kompozicije, dijelom biblijske teme, ali i
teme iz seoskog i dvorskog ivota s prizorima karakteristinim za pojedine mjesece u godini (sjetva,
etva, itd).
Grki rukopis iz XIV. stoljea, izraen u potpunosti u bizantskom stilu, opisuje prizore iz ivota
Aleksandra Velikog. Iluminiranje je u Bizantu bilo oblik umjetnikog izraavanja po vrijednosti jednak
slikanju ikona i mozaicima po kojima je Bizant bio nadaleko poznat. Za vrijeme ikonoklastike krize,
u VIII. i IX. stoljeu, bilo je zabranjeno prikazivati slike svetaca, pa su mnogi rukopisi nepovratno
uniteni. Iako je do danas sauvano na tisue iluminiranih bizantskih rukopisa, iz tog su razloga svi
kasnijeg datuma. Oslikavani su biblijski dogaaji, prikazivani Isus Krist i evanelisti, aneli i sl.

U islamskom svijetu se prepisivanje i iluminacija Kurana smatralo inom bogotovlja. Jedan od

najvanijih iluminativnih ukrasa jest udejre, to bi znailo malo drvo. Drugi ukras jest rozeta ili
emse, to bismo mogli prevesti kao malo sunce. emse moe biti u obliku krunice sa zracima,
ponekad u obliku zvijezde, a nekad se doista radi o prikazu Sunca. emse se obino stavljala na
prvu stranicu rukopisa, a sadravala je zapis s imenom onoga kome se duguje zahvalnost za
njegovu izradu. Na stranicama iluminiranog Kurana dominantno su prisutni isprepleteni geometrijski
likovi, pleteri i biljni motivi zlatne i plave boje. Na nekima vidimo i zelenu, crvenu i ruiastu boju.
Izmeu redova sa slovima esto se provlae zlatne niti, a i neka slova su iluminirana, odnosno
pozlaena. Mnoge bogato ukraene stranice Kurana podsjeaju na mandale. U Iranu su kaligrafija i
iluminacija kroz stoljea postigle izuzetan stupanj profinjenosti, a otud su se proirile u Tursku i
Indiju. emse na slici , dimenzija 38,6 x 26,5 cm, nosi titulu i ime cara aha Dahana (1628.
1658.), Mogulsko carstvo, Indija, XVII. stoljee.
Lindisfarne Gospels
This legacy of an artist monk living in Northumbria in the early eighth century is a precious testament
to the tenacity of Christian belief during one of the most turbulent periods of British history. Costly in
time and materials, superb in design, the manuscript is among our greatest artistic and religious
treasures. It was made and used at Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island, a major religious community
that housed the shrine of St Cuthbert, who died in 687.

Enlarged image Zoomable high-resolution image

Lindisfarne Gospels

The Lindisfarne Gospels: Gospel of St Matthew the Evangelist, initial page. Lindisfarne, late 7th or
early 8th century
British Library Cotton MS Nero D.IV,
Copyright The British Library Board
Buy the print
What is a gospel?
A gospel recounts the life of Jesus of Nazareth and his teachings, which form the foundations of the
Christian faith. He lived in Israel during the Roman occupation of the country. His mission to reform
what he saw as corruption in the Jewish faith caused conflict with the religious hierarchy and led to
his execution by the Roman authorities. After his death and subsequent reports of his rising from the
dead, followers of Christ - meaning 'the anointed one' - developed his teachings into a new faith,
independent of Judaism but keeping much of its scriptures.

Several gospels had been written by disciples of Jesus during the centuries following his death, but
only four were authorised by the Council of Nicaea in 325 for inclusion in the Christian Bible. These
four were attributed to St Matthew, St Mark, St Luke and St John, known as the four Evangelists.
This page shows the first words of the 'Gospel of St John'.

Do we know who made this manuscript?

Medieval manuscripts were usually produced by a team of scribes and illustrators. However, the
entire Lindisfarne Gospels is the work of one man, giving it a particularly coherent sense of design.
According to a note added at the end of the manuscript less than a century after its making, that
artist was a monk called Eadfrith, Bishop of Lindisfarne between 698 and 721.

His superb skill is evident in the opening pages of each gospel. A painting of the gospel's Evangelist
is followed by an intricately patterned 'carpet' page. Next is the 'incipit' page, that is, an opening page
in which the first letters of the gospels are greatly elaborated with interlacing and spiral patterns
strongly influenced by Anglo-Saxon jewellery and enamel work.
Eadfrith employed an exceptionally wide range of colours, using animal, vegetable and mineral
pigments. It was an enormous act of faith. In some places the manuscript remains partly unfinished,
suggesting Eadfrith's cherished work was ended prematurely by his death in 721.

Why is it important?
Apart from its intrinsic value as a remarkable survival of an ancient and astonishingly beautiful work
of art, the manuscript displays a unique combination of artistic styles that reflects a crucial period in
England's history.

Christianity first came to Britain under the Romans, but subsequent waves of invasion by non-
Christian Saxons, Angles, and Vikings drove the faith to the fringes of the British Isles. The country
was gradually re-converted from 597, after St Augustine arrived from Rome to convert the pagan
"Angles into angels".

Religious differences between the indigenous 'Celtic' Church and the new 'Roman' Church were
settled at the Synod of Whitby in 664. In the manuscript, native Celtic and Anglo-Saxon elements
blend with Roman, Coptic and Eastern traditions to create a sublimely unified artistic vision of the
cultural melting pot of Northumbria in the seventh and eighth centuries.

The Lindisfarne Gospels, and others like it, helped define the growing sense of 'Englishness' - a
spirit of consolidated by the Venerable Bede, the historian monk, in his 'History of the English
Church and People', completed in 731.
A medieval monk takes up a quill pen, fashioned from a goose feather, and dips it into a rich, black
ink made from soot. Seated on a wooden chair in the scriptorium of Lindisfarne, an island off the
coast of Northumberland in England, he stares hard at the words from a manuscript made in Italy.
This book is his exemplar, the codex (a bound book, made from sheets of paper or parchment) from
which he is to copy the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. For about the next six years, he
will copy this Latin. He will illuminate the gospel text with a weave of fantastic images snakes that
twist themselves into knots or birds, their curvaceous and overlapping forms creating the illusion of a
third dimension into which a viewer can lose him or herself in meditative contemplation.
Lindisfarne Gospels, John cross-carpet page f 210v (British Library)
The book is a spectacular example of Insular or Hiberno-Saxon artworks produced in the British
Isles between 500-900 C.E., a time of devastating invasions and political upheavals. Monks read
from it during rituals at their Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island, a Christian community that
safeguarded the shrine of St Cuthbert, a bishop who died in 687 and whose relics were thought to
have curative and miracle-working powers.
A Northumbrian monk, very likely the bishop Eadfrith, illuminated the codex in the early 8th century.
Two-hundred and fifty-nine written and recorded leaves include full-page portraits of each evangelist;
highly ornamental cross-carpet pages, each of which features a large cross set against a
background of ordered and yet teeming ornamentation; and the Gospels themselves, each
introduced by an historiated initial. The codex also includes sixteen pages of canon tables set in
arcades. Here correlating passages from each evangelist are set side-by-side, enabling a reader to
compare narrations.
In 635 C.E. Christian monks from the Scottish island of Iona built a priory in Lindisfarne. More than a
hundred and fifty years later, in 793, Vikings from the north attacked and pillaged the monastery, but
survivors managed to transport the Gospels safely to Durham, a town on the Northumbrian coast
about 75 miles west of its original location.
We glean this information from the manuscript itself, thanks to Aldred, a 10th-century priest from a
priory at Durham. Aldreds colophonan inscription that relays information about the books
productioninforms us that Eadfrith, a bishop of Lindisfarne in 698 who died in 721, created the
manuscript to honor God and St. Cuthbert. Aldred also inscribed a vernacular translation between
the lines of the Latin text, creating the earliest known Gospels written in a form of English.
Lindisfarne Gospels, St Matthew, Cross-Carpet page, f.26v (British Library)
Matthews cross-carpet page exemplifies Eadfriths exuberance and genius. A mesmerizing series of
repetitive knots and spirals is dominated by a centrally-located cross. One can imagine devout
monks losing themselves in the swirls and eddies of color during meditative contemplation of its
patterns.
Compositionally, Eadfrith stacked wine-glass shapes horizontally and vertically against his intricate
weave of knots. On closer inspection many of these knots reveal themselves as snake-like creatures
curling in and around tubular forms, mouths clamping down on their bodies. Chameleon-like, their
bodies change colors: sapphire blue here, verdigris green there, and sandy gold in between. The
sanctity of the cross, outlined in red with arms outstretched and pressing against the page edges,
stabilizes the backgrounds gyrating activity and turns the repetitive energy into a meditative force.
Lindisfarne Gospels, St Luke, incipit page, f.139 (British Library)
Likewise, Lukes incipit (incipit: it begins) page teems with animal life, spiraled forms, and swirling
vortexes. In many cases Eadfriths characteristic knots reveal themselves as snakes that move
stealthily along the confines of a letters boundaries.
Blue pin-wheeled shapes rotate in repetitive circles, caught in the vortex of a large Q that forms
Lukes opening sentenceQuoniam quidem multi conati sunt ordinare narrationem. (Translation: As
many have taken it in hand to set forth in order.)
Lindisfarne Gospels, St Luke, incipit page, f.139 (British Library)
Birds also abound. One knot enclosed in a tall rectangle on the far right unravels into a blue herons
chest shaped like a large comma. Eadfrith repeats this shape vertically down the column, cleverly
twisting the comma into a cats forepaw at the bottom. The feline, who has just consumed the eight
birds that stretch vertically up from its head, presses off this appendage acrobatically to turn its body
90 degrees; it ends up staring at the words RENARRATIONEM (part of the phrase -re narrationem).
Eadfrith also has added a host of tiny red dots that envelop words, except when they dontthe
letters NIAM of quoniam are composed of the vellum itself, the negative space now asserting
itself as four letters.
 Lindesfarne Gospels, St. Luke, portrait page
(137v) (British Library)
Lukes incipit page is in marked contrast to his straightforward portrait page. Here Eadfrith seats the
curly-haired, bearded evangelist on a red-cushioned stool against an unornamented background.
Luke holds a quill in his right hand, poised to write words on a scroll unfurling from his lap. His feet
hover above a tray supported by red legs. He wears a purple robe streaked with red, one that we
can easily imagine on a late fourth or fifth century Roman philosopher. The gold halo behind Lukes
head indicates his divinity. Above his halo flies a blue-winged calf, its two eyes turned toward the
viewer with its body in profile. The bovine clasps a green parallelogram between two forelegs, a
reference to the Gospel.
According to the historian Bede from the nearby monastery in Monkwearmouth (d. 735), this calf, or
ox, symbolizes Christs sacrifice on the cross. Bede assigns symbols for the other three evangelists
as well, which Eadfrith duly includes in their respective portraits: Matthews is a man, suggesting the
human aspect of Christ; Marks the lion, symbolizing the triumphant and divine Christ of the
Resurrection; and Johns the eagle, referring to Christs second coming.
 Lindisfarne
Gospels, Johns cross-carpet page, folio 210v. (British Library)
A dense interplay of stacked birds teem underneath the crosses of the carpet page that opens
Johns Gospel. One bird, situated in the upper left-hand quadrant, has blue-and-pink stripes in
contrast to others that sport registers of feathers. Stripes had a negative association to the medieval
mind, appearing chaotic and disordered. The insane wore stripes, as did prostitutes, criminals,
jugglers, sorcerers, and hangmen. Might Eadfrith be warning his viewers that evil lurks hidden in the
most unlikely of places? Or was Eadfrith himself practicing humility in avoiding perfection?
All in all, the variety and splendor of the Lindisfarne Gospels are such that even in reproduction, its
images astound. Artistic expression and inspired execution make this codex a high point of early
medieval art.
Essay by Louisa Woodville

The ruins of Lindisfarne Priory on Holy Island, off the coast of north-east England

What is the black lettering between the lines?

Because the Christian faith was spread by the Roman Empire, its sacred texts and rituals were
written and performed in Latin, a language understood by educated people across Europe. Catholic
services were still in Latin until the middle of the 20th century.
Like most medieval Christian manuscripts, the Lindisfarne Gospels was written in Latin. However,
around 970, when it was owned by the Minster of Chester-le-Street, Aldred, the Provost, added an
Anglo-Saxon translation in red ink beneath the original Latin. This is the oldest surviving version of
the gospels in any form of English - another indication of the manuscript's importance in the growth
of England's national identity.

Late classical influence from the Mediterranean is blended with celtic

motifs and Germanic animal ornament to produce a distinctive and
satisfying whole, characterising Eadfrith as an accomplished and
imaginative craftsman who exercised the full range of his talents in
celebration of his Christian faith.

One very distinctive form of ornament is used to more

striking effect in the Lindisfarne Gospels than in any other
insular manuscripts - the technique of applying tiny drops
of red lead to form backgrounds, outlines or patterns. The
initial page of St.Luke has 10,600 dots, experimentation
suggests a rate of 30 dots per minute - thus would have
taken a minimum of six hours' hard work!

Eadfrith had one small idiosyncrasy which is apparent on several of the major decorated pages
which has not been satisfactorily explained. Apparently deliberately, he several times either left a
small part of the design unfinished or introduced into it a detail at odds with the remainder of the
page. There are some schools of thought that believe he died leaving the work unfinished, but some
of these imperfections are at the beginning of the book and are so small that it seems unlikely that
they were the results of major interruptions to the work. It seems more feasible to suppose that
Eadfrith was practising the humility of avoiding absolute perfection in the mammoth task which he
had undertaken.

Holy Island has a very special place in history as the birthplace of the Lindisfarne Gospels,
among the most celebrated illuminated books in the world.

According to an inscription added in the 10th century at the end of the original text, the
manuscript was made in honour of God and of St. Cuthbert by Eadfrith, Bishop of
Lindisfarne, who died in 721.

Eadfrith played a major part in establishing Cuthbert's cult after his relics had been raised to
the altar of the monastery church on 20th March, 698, the eleventh anniversary of his death.
The Gospels may have been made in honour of that event.

The book's original leather binding was provided by Ethelwald, who followed Eadfrith as
bishop and died about 740. He had been associated with Cuthbert in his lifetime. An outer
covering of gold, silver and gemstones was added by Billfrith the Anchorite, probably about
the middle of the 8th century.

Both covers have long since vanished but the manuscript itself has survived the thirteen
centuries associated with Cuthbert's relics at Durham during the Middle Ages and preserved
from destruction after the Reformation through the scholarly interest of Tudor antiquaries.

The Lindisfarne Gospels is now part of the collection of Sir Robert Cotton, (d. 1631), in the
British Library in London, where it is seen by visitors from all over the world.

Made up of more than 250 leaves of high quality vellum, (i.e. calf skin), the manuscript
contains the texts of the Four Gospels, in Latin, with appropriate introductory material,
including a set of Canon Tables.

Third Canon Table Last Canon Table

A word by word translation into Old English, (Anglo-Saxon), was added between the lines
during the third quarter of the 10th century by a priest named Aldred, afterwards Provost of
Chester-le-Street, giving us, in addition, the earliest surviving version of the gospels in any
form of the English language.

The rich decoration of the book is carried out in a

wide range of colours drawn from animal, vegetable
and mineral sources, some of which were imported
over vast distances.

Anglo-Saxon writing implements.

 Fifteen elaborate fully decorated pages are supplemented by a
series of lesser decorated initials and sixteen pages of canon
table arcades.

Each Gospel is distinguished by an image of the appropriate

evangelist, followed by a 'cross carpet' page of pure decoration
and a major initial page.

Late classical influence from the Mediterranean is blended with

celtic motifs and Germanic animal ornament to produce a
distinctive and satisfying whole, characterising Eadfrith as an
accomplished and imaginative craftsman who exercised the full
range of his talents in celebration of his Christian faith.

One very distinctive form of ornament is used to more

striking effect in the Lindisfarne Gospels than in any
other insular manuscripts - the technique of applying tiny
drops of red lead to form backgrounds, outlines or
patterns. The initial page of St.Luke has 10,600 dots,
experimentation suggests a rate of 30 dots per minute -
thus would have taken a minimum of six hours' hard
work!

Eadfrith had one small idiosyncrasy which is apparent on several of the

major decorated pages which has not been satisfactorily explained.
Apparently deliberately, he several times either left a small part of the
design unfinished or introduced into it a detail at odds with the remainder of
the page. There are some schools of thought that believe he died leaving the
work unfinished, but some of these imperfections are at the beginning of the
book and are so small that it seems unlikely that they were the results of
major interruptions to the work. It seems more feasible to suppose that
Eadfrith was practising the humility of avoiding absolute perfection in the
mammoth task which he had undertaken.
For the first time in 12 years, an extraordinary book is heading back to its home in north-east
England. The Lindisfarne Gospels, a 1,300-year old manuscript, will be the centrepiece of a much
awaited exhibition in Durham starting in July.
But why is this book so special?

The Lindisfarne Gospels (c) British Library Board

The medieval book is in almost perfect condition
A small, bleakly beautiful island just off the Northumberland coast was the theatre of an epic feat.
This island is Lindisfarne, also known as Holy Island.

The hero of this story was a man named Eadfrith.

In this quiet place, cut off by the tide from the rest of the world for a few hours a day, every day, he
undertook a gruelling battle; his weapon was not the sword but the pen. Eadfrith is the person
credited as the mastermind behind the Lindisfarne Gospels.

The manuscript is commonly regarded as one of the greatest achievements of British medieval art.

Just a cursory glance at its pages reveals curvy, embellished letters; strange creatures and
enchanting, spiralling symbols of exquisite precision and beauty.

A copy of the four Gospels of the New Testament, it was produced around AD715 in honour of St
Cuthbert, one of the most revered medieval saints.

The making of the book - which contains the oldest surviving English version of the Gospels and
escaped Viking raids and turmoil - required time, dedication, and the invention of new tools and
materials.

Continue reading the main story

The sack of Lindisfarne

Lindisfarne Castle
Lindisfarne was raided for the first time by the Vikings in AD793
At that point, it was the centre of spiritual power for northern England and southern Scotland
It was the first recorded Viking raid on Britain
Letters by the scholar Alcuin of York to the king of Northumbria and the Bishop of Lindisfarne give
great insight on how the Christian world reacted to the raids
Lindisfarne was sacked again in AD875. The monk community moved to Chester-le-Street with their
most treasured possessions, including St Cuthbert's shrine and the Lindisfarne Gospels.
Where did the Vikings go when they left Lindisfarne?
In a note (or 'colophon') added to the manuscript around AD960, Eadfrith is said to have copied and
decorated the Gospels on his own. This is extraordinary, not only because books were normally
made by groups of several people, but also because Eadfrith undertook this giant task on top of his
responsibilities as the Bishop of Lindisfarne.

Experts estimate that it would have taken him between five and ten years to complete his devotional
act of meditation, defeating the dark and cold North Sea winters and, probably, his own old age.

Experimental chemist
With no modern technology at his disposal, he is credited with inventing some of his own gadgets to
help.

"He was a technical innovator who invented the pencil and the light box in order to achieve his
complex artistic and social vision," explains Professor Michelle Brown, an expert in medieval
manuscript studies at the University of London's School of Advanced Study.

An experimental chemist, Eadfrith was able to manufacture a palette of around 90 colours using only
six local minerals and vegetable extracts: "He knew about lapis lazuli [a semi-precious stone with a
blue tint] from the Himalayas but could not get hold of it, so made his own," adds Prof Brown.

The result of Eadfrith's eclectic approach is one of the most colourful gifts that we have received
from the Dark Ages.

Infographic: the Lindisfarne Gospels in numbers

The Lindisfarne Gospels in numbers (sources: Janet Backhouse, Michelle Brown, British Library)
The manuscript is a melting pot of styles, inspired by "all the different peoples who lived in these
islands at the time - Britons, Picts, Celts, Anglo-Saxons - along with those of Mediterranean and
Middle Eastern cultures," says Prof Brown.

Prof Brown also sees in the art of the Gospels a statement about Britain's multiculturalism in that
age: "At a time when people signified their status, genealogy and belief by the symbols and
decorative motifs they wore, such an 'esperanto' of art signified that everyone had a place in this
colourful vision of an eternal harmony to come."

Today a book is, for most, something to be enjoyed in solitude, but in the 8th Century, explains Prof
Brown, the Lindisfarne manuscript was one of the most seen and visited books of its day; pilgrims
flocked to St Cuthbert's shrine, where it stayed.

Medieval multi-media
Continue reading the main story

Start Quote
A page from the Lindisfarne Gospels (c) British Library Board
The beauty of the book conveys the value of the content

Richard Gameson
Durham University
British Library: Explore the Lindisfarne Gospels online
The Lindisfarne Gospels' intricate and symbolic artwork helped convey its message to those who
could not read.

Professor Richard Gameson, an expert on the history of the book at the University of Durham, even
sees it as a precursor to modern multi-media, as it was designed to be a visual, sensual and artistic
experience for its audience.

"The full-page decoration, the elaborate verse-like arrangement of the text, written in calligraphic
letters, the integration of colourful initials of different sizes throughout enrich and enhance the
reader's interaction with the volume," says Prof Gameson.

"The beauty of the book conveys the value of the content, simultaneously enriching the reader's
experience of it." The Gospels originally had a precious metal binding, which made the visual impact
even greater.

Aldred, the colophon's author, also added a word by word translation of the entire text, so that above
every Latin word on the manuscript there is one or more Old English equivalents, a process known
as 'gloss'.

This is the oldest English version of the Gospels that has come to us. Prof Gameson compares the
gloss to current technology, in which we are only a click away from a dictionary.

Prof Brown adds that, because of its evocative art and the power given by the still relatively new
medium of writing, the book's impact was similar to those of films and electronic media today.

And just like modern media, the Gospels helped transform society: "Books such as the Lindisfarne
Gospels became books of the high altar, before which legal transactions - such as the freeing of
slaves - would be enacted.

"Such books formed focal points in a process of social transformation that could lead warriors to
embrace pacifism, and kings to free slaves and forgive enemies, at risk of assassination for
overturning the social order," she says.

Built to last
Continue reading the main story
What books meant to the Anglo-Saxons

Lindisfarne Gospels Chi-Rho page

A riddle contained in the Exeter Book of Old English Poetry (c. 960-70) describes the benefits of
consulting a book - probably a gospel book.

It almost resembles an advert for the latest fashionable gadget:

"If the children of men are willing to make use of me, they shall be the more healthy and the more
victorious [...] They will have more friends, dear ones and kindred, true and virtuous, good and
trusty, who will bounteously increase their fame and fortune, and kindly surround them with benefits,
and will hold them fast in a loving embrace." (Translation: Richard Gameson)

Who were the Anglo-Saxons?

Another extraordinary aspect of the Lindisfarne Gospels is that, unlike most early medieval books, it
has come to us in almost perfect condition.

It certainly did not have a quiet life: it survived Viking raids and was carried by the wandering
Lindisfarne monk community to Chester-le-Street and, from there, to Durham. Much later on, after
the dissolution of the monasteries, it ended up in the hands of private collectors in London.

The fact that it endured all this might ultimately be down to luck, but it also tells us that it was
treasured and, indeed, built to last. Prof Gameson says that, in medieval times, a book was an
investment for eternity.

"The emphasis was to reach as many people as possible for ever," he explains. "And you did
something to last [for example by] choosing animal skin and other durable materials, because 100
years from now, 1,000 years from now it was going to be as valued."

It is hard to say whether Eadfrith expected that, 1,300 years later, thousands of people would still
queue to see his masterpiece.

But the Lindisfarne Gospels, with its beauty and history, continues to inspire awe in those who see it
as it did in the Middle Ages.
Celtic polytheism, commonly known as Celtic paganism,[1][2][3] comprises the religious beliefs and
practices adhered to by the Iron Age people of Western Europe now known as the Celts, roughly
between 500 BCE and 500 CE, spanning the La Tne period and the Roman era, and in the case of
the Insular Celts the British and Irish Iron Age.
Celtic polytheism was one of a larger group of Iron Age polytheistic religions of the Indo-European
family. It comprised a large degree of variation both geographically and chronologically, although
"behind this variety, broad structural similarities can be detected"[4] allowing there to be "a basic
religious homogeneity" among the Celtic peoples.[5]

The Celtic pantheon consists of numerous recorded theonyms, both from Greco-Roman
ethnography and from epigraphy. Among the most prominent ones are Teutatis, Taranis and Lugus.
Figures from medieval Irish mythology have also been adduced by comparative mythology,
interpreted as euhemerized versions of pre-Christian Insular deities. The most salient feature of
Celtic religion as reflected in Roman historiography is their extensive practice of human sacrifice.
According to Greek and Roman accounts, in Gaul, Britain and Ireland, there was a priestly caste of
"magico-religious specialists" known as the druids, although very little is definitely known about
them.[6]

Following the Roman Empire's conquest of Gaul (5851 BCE) and southern Britannia (43 CE), Celtic
religious practices began to display elements of Romanisation, resulting in a syncretic Gallo-Roman
culture with its own religious traditions with its own large set of deities, such as Cernunnos, Artio,
Telesphorus, etc.

In the later 5th and the 6th centuries, the Celtic region was Christianized and earlier religious
traditions were supplanted. However, the polytheistic traditions left a legacy in many of the Celtic
nations, influenced later mythology, and served as the basis for a new religious movement, Celtic
Neopaganism, in the 20th century.

Contents [hide]
1 Sources
1.1 Archaeological sources
1.2 Irish and Welsh records
1.3 Greek and Roman records
2 Deities
2.1 Common Celtic theonyms
2.2 Antiquity
2.3 Insular mythology
3 Animistic aspects
4 Burial and afterlife
5 Cultic practice
5.1 Votive offerings
5.2 Human sacrifice
5.3 Head hunting
6 Priesthood
6.1 Druids
6.2 Poets
7 Calendar
8 Gallo-Roman religion
9 Christianization
10 Folkloristic survivals
11 Neopagan revival
12 References
13 Further reading
14 External links
Sources[edit]

Three Celtic goddesses, as depicted at Coventina's well.

Comparatively little is known about Celtic polytheism because the evidence for it is fragmentary, due
largely to the fact that the Celts who practiced it wrote nothing down about their religion.[7][8]
Therefore, all we have to study their religion from is the literature from the early Christian period,
commentaries from classical Greek and Roman scholars, and archaeological evidence.[9]

The archaeologist Barry Cunliffe summarised the sources for Celtic religion as "fertile chaos",
borrowing the term from the Irish scholar Proinsias MacCana. Cunliffe went on to note that "there is
more, varied, evidence for Celtic religion than for any other example of Celtic life. The only problem
is to assemble it in a systematic form which does not too greatly oversimplify the intricate texture of
its detail."[10]

Archaeological sources[edit]
The archaeological evidence does not contain the bias inherent in the literary sources. Nonetheless,
the interpretation of this evidence can be colored by the 21st century mindset.[7]

Various archaeological discoveries have aided understanding of the religion of the Celts. These
include the coins of the Roman provinces in the Celtic lands of Gaul, Raetia, Noricum, and
Britannia,[citation needed] and another is the sculptures, monuments, and inscriptions associated
with the Celts.[citation needed] Most of the monuments, and their accompanying inscriptions, belong
to the Roman period and reflect a considerable degree of syncretism between Celtic and Roman
gods; even where figures and motifs appear to derive from pre-Roman tradition, they are difficult to
interpret in the absence of a preserved literature on mythology.[citation needed] A notable example
of this is the horned deity that was called Cernunnos; several depictions and inscriptions of him have
been found, but very little is known about the myths that would have been associated with him or
how he was worshiped.

Irish and Welsh records[edit]

Literary evidence for Celtic religion also comes from sources written in Ireland and Wales during the
Middle Ages, a period when traditional Celtic religious practices had become extinct and had long
been replaced by Christianity. The evidence from Ireland has been recognised as better than that
from Wales, being viewed as "both older and less contaminated from foreign material."[11] These
sources, which are in the form of epic poems and tales, were written several centuries after
Christianity became the dominant religion in these regions, and were written down by Christian
monks, "who may not merely have been hostile to the earlier paganism but actually ignorant of
it."[12] Instead of treating the characters as deities, they are allocated the roles of being historical
heroes who sometimes have supernatural or superhuman powers, for instance, in the Irish sources
the gods are claimed to be an ancient tribe of humans known as the Tuatha D Danann. Because
they were written in a very Christian context, these sources must be scrutinised with even more rigor
than the classical sources in assessing their validity as evidence for Celtic religion.[7]

While it is possible to single out specific texts that can be strongly argued to encapsulate genuine
echoes or resonances of the pre-Christian past, opinion is divided as to whether these texts contain
substantive material derived from oral tradition as preserved by bards or whether they were the
creation of the medieval monastic tradition.[7]

Greek and Roman records[edit]

Various Greek and Roman writers of the ancient world commented on the Celts and their beliefs.
Barry Cunliffe stated that "the Greek and Roman texts provide a number of pertinent observations,
but these are at best anecdotal, offered largely as a colourful background by writers whose prime
intention was to communicate other messages."[10] The Roman general (and later dictator) Julius
Caesar, when leading the conquering armies of the Roman Republic against Celtic Gaul, made
various descriptions of the inhabitants, though some of his claims, such as that the Druids practiced
human sacrifice by burning people in wicker men, have come under scrutiny by modern
scholars.[citation needed]

However, the key problem with the use of these sources is that they were often biased against the
Celts, whom the classical peoples viewed as "barbarians".[7] In the case of the Romans who
conquered several Celtic realms, they would have likely been biased in favour of making the Celts
look uncivilised, thereby giving the "civilised" Romans more reason to conquer them.[13]

Deities[edit]
Main articles: Celtic pantheon and Celtic animism

Image of a "horned" (actually antlered) figure on the Gundestrup cauldron, interpreted by many
archaeologists as being cognate to the god Cernunnos.
Celtic religion was polytheistic, believing in many deities, both gods and goddesses, some of which
were venerated only in a small, local area, but others whose worship had a wider geographical
distribution.[14] The names of over two hundred of these deities have survived to us today, although
it is possible that some of these names were different titles or epithets used for the same deity.[4]

Common Celtic theonyms[edit]

Some Celtic theonyms can be established as Pan-Celtic (descending from the Common Celtic
period) by comparing Continental with Insular Celtic evidence. An example of this is Gaulish Lugus,
whose name is cognate with Irish Lugh and Welsh Lleu. Another example is Gaulish Brigantia,
cognate with Irish Brigid. This latter theonym can even be reconstructed as a Proto-Indo-European
epithet of the dawn goddess, as *bhrg'hnt "the one on high".

Antiquity[edit]
Some of the Greek and Roman accounts mention various deities worshipped in Gaul, for instance
Lucan noted the names of Teutates, Taranis and Esus,[15] although Julius Caesar instead conflated
the Celtic Gaulish deities with those of Roman religion, and did not mention their native Gaulish
names. He declared that the most widely venerated god in Gaul was Mercury, the Roman god of
trade, but that they also worshipped Apollo, Minerva, Mars and Jupiter.[16]

According to Classical era sources, the Celts worshiped the forces of nature and did not envisage
deities in anthropomorphic terms,[17] as other "pagan" peoples such as the Greeks, Romans, and
Egyptians did. Whether or not this is true, as the classical peoples grew in influence over the Celtic
cultures, it encouraged the depiction of deities in human forms, and they appear to move from a
more animistic-based faith to a more Romanised polytheistic view.

Several of these deities, including Lugus and Matrones, were triple deities.[18]

Insular mythology[edit]
In the Irish and to a lesser extent Welsh vernacular sources from the Middle Ages, various human
mythological figures were featured who have been thought of by many scholars as being based
upon earlier gods. The historian Ronald Hutton however cautioned against automatically equating all
Irish and Welsh mythological figures as former deities, noting that while some characters "who
appear to be human, such as Medb or St. Brighid, probably were indeed once regarded as divine...
the warriors who are the main protagonists of the stories have the same status as those in the Greek
myths, standing between the human and divine orders. To regard characters such as C Chulainn,
Fergus Mac Roich or Conall Cernach as former gods turned into humans by a later storyteller is to
misunderstand their literary and religious function... C Chulainn is no more a former god than
Superman is."[19]

Examining these Irish myths, Barry Cunliffe stated that he believed they displayed "a dualism
between the male tribal god and the female deity of the land"[20] while Anne Ross felt that they
displayed that the gods were "on the whole intellectual, deeply versed in the native learning, poets
and prophets, story-tellers and craftsmen, magicians, healers, warriors... in short, equipped with
every quality admired and desired by the Celtic peoples themselves."[21]

Insular Celts swore their oaths by their tribal gods, and the land, sea and sky; as in, "I swear by the
gods by whom my people swear" and "If I break my oath, may the land open to swallow me, the sea
rise to drown me, and the sky fall upon me."[22]

Animistic aspects[edit]
Main article: Celtic animism
Some scholars, such as Prudence Jones and Nigel Pennick,[23] have speculated that the Celts
venerated certain trees and others, such as Miranda Aldhouse-Green, that the Celts were animists,
believing that all aspects of the natural world contained spirits, and that communication was possible
with these spirits.[24]

Places such as rocks, streams, mountains, and trees may all have had shrines or offerings devoted
to a deity residing there. These would have been local deities, known and worshiped by inhabitants
living near to the shrine itself, and not pan-Celtic like some of the polytheistic gods. The importance
of trees in Celtic religion may be shown by the fact that the very name of the Eburonian tribe
contains a reference to the yew tree, and that names like Mac Cuilinn (son of holly) and Mac Ibar
(son of yew) appear in Irish myths[dubious discuss]. In Ireland, wisdom was symbolised by the
salmon who feed on the hazelnuts from the trees that surround the well of wisdom (Tobar
Segais).[citation needed]

Burial and afterlife[edit]

A reconstructed Celtic burial mound located near Hochdorf an der Enz in Germany. Such burials
were reserved for the influential and wealthy in Celtic society.
Celtic burial practices, which included burying food, weapons, and ornaments with the dead, suggest
a belief in life after death.[25]

The druids, the Celtic learned classes that included members of the clergy, were said by Caesar to
have believed in reincarnation and transmigration of the soul along with astronomy and the nature
and power of the gods.[26]

A common factor in later mythologies from Christianized Celtic nations was the otherworld.[27] This
was the realm of the fairy folk and other supernatural beings, who would entice humans into their
realm. Sometimes this otherworld was claimed to exist underground, while at other times it was said
to lie far to the west. Several scholars have suggested that the otherworld was the Celtic afterlife,[27]
though there is no direct evidence to prove this.

Cultic practice[edit]
Further information: the ritual of the oak and the mistletoe
Evidence suggests that among the Celts, "offerings to the gods were made throughout the
landscape both the natural and the domestic."[28] At times they worshipped in constructed temples
and shrines, evidence for which have been unearthed across the Celtic world by archaeologists,
although according to Greco-Roman accounts, they also worshipped in areas of the natural world
that were held to be sacred, namely in groves of trees. Across Celtic Europe, many of the
constructed temples, which were square in shape and constructed out of wood, were found in
rectangular ditched enclosures known as viereckschanzen, where in cases such as Holzhausen in
Bavaria votive offerings were also buried in deep shafts.[29] However, in the British Isles, temples
were more commonly circular in design. According to Barry Cunliffe, "the monumentality of the Irish
religious sites sets them apart from their British and continental European counterparts" with the
most notable example being the Hill of Tara.[30]

However, according to Greco-Roman accounts of the druids and other Celts, worship was held in
groves, with Tacitus describing how his men cut down "groves sacred to savage rites."[31] By their
very nature, such groves would not survive in the archaeological record, and so we have no direct
evidence for them today.[32] Alongside groves, certain springs were also viewed as sacred and
used as places of worship in the Celtic world. Notable Gaulish examples include the sanctuary of
Sequana at the source of the Seine in Burgundy and Chamalieres near to Clermont-Ferrand. At both
of these sites, a large array of votive offerings have been uncovered, most of which are wooden
carvings, although some of which are embossed pieces of metal.[33]

In many cases, when the Roman Empire took control of Celtic lands, earlier Iron Age sacred sites
were reused, with Roman temples being built on the same sites. Examples include Uley in
Gloucestershire, Worth in Kent, Hayling Island in Hampshire, Vendeuil-Caply in Oise, Saint-
Germain-le-Rocheux in Chatillon-sur-Seine and Schleidweiler in Trier.[34]

Votive offerings[edit]
The Celts made votive offerings to their deities, which were buried in the earth or thrown into rivers
or bogs. According to Barry Cunliffe, in most cases, deposits were placed in the same places on
numerous occasions, indicating continual usage "over a period of time, perhaps on a seasonal basis
or when a particular event, past or pending, demanded a propitiatory response."[35]

In particular, there was a trend to offer items associated with warfare in watery areas, evidence for
which is found not only in the Celtic regions, but also in Late Bronze Age (and therefore pre-Celtic)
societies and those outside of the Celtic area, namely Denmark. One of the most notable examples
is the river Thames in southern England, where a number of items had been deposited, only to be
discovered by archaeologists millennia later. Some of these, like the Battersea Shield, Wandsworth
Shield and the Waterloo Helmet, would have been prestige goods that would have been labour-
intensive to make and thereby probably expensive.[35] Another example is at Llyn Cerrig Bach in
Anglesey, Wales, where offerings, primarily those related to battle, were thrown into the lake from a
rocky outcrop in the late first century BCE or early first century CE.[35]

At times, jewellery and other high prestige items that were not related to warfare were also deposited
in a ritual context. At Niederzier in the Rhineland for example, a post that excavators believed had
religious significance had a bowl buried next to it in which was contained forty-five coins, two torcs
and an armlet, all of which made out of gold, and similar deposits have been uncovered elsewhere in
Celtic Europe.[36]

Human sacrifice[edit]
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An 18th century illustration of a wicker man, a form of human sacrifice that Caesar alleged the
Druids, or Celtic priesthood, performed, though no archaeological evidence has been uncovered to
support this.
Greco-Roman writers stated that the Celts practiced human sacrifice in Gaul: Cicero, Julius Caesar,
Suetonius, and Lucan all refer to it, and Pliny the Elder says that it occurred in Britain, too. It was
forbidden under Tiberius and Claudius. However, it is possible that these claims may have been
false, and used as a sort of propaganda to justify the Roman conquest of these territories.[37]
Similar claims have been made regarding Roman descriptions of the religion of Ancient Carthage.
There are very few recorded archaeological discoveries that preserve evidence of human sacrifice
and thus most contemporary historians[weasel words] tend to regard human sacrifice as rare within
Celtic cultures.[citation needed]

However, there is also archaeological evidence from western Europe that has been widely used to
back up the idea that human sacrifice was widely performed by the Iron Age Celts. Mass graves
found in a ritual context dating from this period have been unearthed in Gaul, at both Gournay-sur-
Aronde and Ribemont-sur-Ancre in what was the region of the Belgae chiefdom. The excavator of
these sites, Jean-Louis Brunaux, interpreted them as areas of human sacrifice in devotion to a war
god,[38][39] although this view was criticised by another archaeologist, Martin Brown, who believed
that the corpses might be those of honoured warriors buried in the sanctuary rather than
sacrifices.[40] At a bog in Lindow, Cheshire, England was discovered a body, designated the
"Lindow Man", which may also have been the victim of a sacrificial ritual, but it is just as likely that he
was an executed criminal or a victim of violent crime.[41] The body is now on display at the British
Museum, London. In Ireland, similar discoveries in 2003 of two murdered individuals preserved in
separate bogs, each subsequently dated to around 100 BCE, lends some credence to the ritual
murder theory.[42]

Head hunting[edit]
The iconography of the human head is believed by many archaeologists and historians to have
played a significant part in Celtic religion. The Greek historian Diodorus Siculus, writing in the 1st
century BCE, described how Celtic warriors "cut off the heads of enemies slain in battle and attach
them to the necks of their horses."[43] Strabo meanwhile commented in the same century that until
the Roman authorities put a stop to it, among the Celts, "the heads of enemies held in high repute
they used to embalm in cedar oil and exhibit to strangers."[44] Archaeological evidence indicating
that the Celts did indeed behead humans and then display their heads, possibly for religious
purposes, has been unearthed at a number of excavations; one notable example of this was found
at the Gaulish site of Entremont near to Aix-en-Provence, where a fragment of a pillar carved with
images of skulls was found, within which were niches where actual human skulls were kept, nailed
into position, fifteen examples of which were found.[45]

The archaeologist Barry Cunliffe believed that the Celts held "reverence for the power of the head"
and that "to own and display a distinguished head was to retain and control the power of the dead
person"[46] while the archaeologist Anne Ross asserted that "the Celts venerated the head as a
symbol of divinity and the powers of the otherworld, and regarded it as the most important bodily
member, the very seat of the soul."[47] The archaeologist Miranda Aldhouse-Green meanwhile
stated that "I refute any suggestion that the head itself was worshipped but it was clearly venerated
as the most significant element in a human or divine image representing the whole."[48] The
historian Ronald Hutton however criticised the idea of the "cult of the human head", believing that
both the literary and archaeological evidence did not warrant this conclusion, noting that "the
frequency with which human heads appears upon Celtic metalwork proves nothing more than they
were a favourite decorative motif, among several, and one just as popular among non-Celtic
peoples."[49]

Priesthood[edit]
Main articles: Druid, Fili, Bard, and Vates
Druids[edit]
According to a number of Greco-Roman writers such as Julius Caesar,[50] Cicero,[51] Tacitus[52]
and Pliny the Elder,[53] Gaulish and British society held a group of magico-religious specialists
known as the druids in high esteem. Their roles and responsibilities differed somewhat between the
different accounts, but Caesar's, which was the "fullest" and "earliest original text" to describe the
druids,[54] described them as being concerned with "divine worship, the due performance of
sacrifices, private or public, and the interpretation of ritual questions." He also claimed that they were
responsible for officiating at human sacrifices, such as the wicker man burnings.[50] Nonetheless, a
number of historians have criticised these such accounts, believing them to be biased or
inaccurate.[55][56] Vernacular Irish sources also referred to the druids, portraying them not only as
priests but as sorcerers who had supernatural powers that they used for cursing and divination and
who opposed the coming of Christianity.[57] Various historians and archaeologists have interpreted
the druids in different ways; Peter Berresford Ellis for instance believed them to be the equivalents of
the Indian Brahmin caste,[58] while Anne Ross believed that they were essentially tribal priests,
having more in common with the shamans of tribal societies than with the classical philosophers.[59]
Ronald Hutton meanwhile held a particularly sceptical attitude to many claims made about them, and
he supported the view that the evidence available was of such a suspicious nature that "we can
know virtually nothing of certainty about the ancient Druids, so that although they certainly existed
they function more or less as legendary figures."[60]

Two druids, from an 1845 publication, based on a bas-relief found at Autun, France.
Poets[edit]
In Ireland the fili were visionary poets, which many get confused with Vates, associated with
lorekeeping, versecraft, and the memorisation of vast numbers of poems. They were also magicians,
as Irish magic is intrinsically connected to poetry, and the satire of a gifted poet was a serious curse
upon the one being satirised. To run afoul of a poet was a dangerous thing indeed to a people who
valued reputation and honor more than life itself.[citation needed] In Ireland a "bard" was considered
a lesser grade of poet than a fili more of a minstrel and rote reciter than an inspired artist with
magical powers. However, in Wales bardd was the word for their visionary poets, and used in the
same manner fili was in Ireland and Scotland.[citation needed]

The Celtic poets, of whatever grade, were composers of eulogy and satire, and a chief duty was that
of composing and reciting verses on heroes and their deeds, and memorising the genealogies of
their patrons. It was essential to their livelihood that they increase the fame of their patrons, via tales,
poems and songs. As early as the 1st century CE, the Latin author Lucan referred to "bards" as the
national poets or minstrels of Gaul and Britain. In Gaul the institution gradually disappeared,
whereas in Ireland and Wales it survived. The Irish bard through chanting preserved a tradition of
poetic eulogy. In Wales, where the word bardd has always been used for poet, the bardic order was
codified into distinct grades in the 10th century. Despite a decline of the order toward the end of the
European Middle Ages, the Welsh tradition has persisted and is celebrated in the annual eisteddfod,
a national assembly of poets and musicians.[citation needed]

Calendar[edit]
Main article: Celtic calendar
Further information: Irish calendar
The oldest attested Celtic calendar is the Coligny calendar, dated to the 2nd century and as such
firmly within the Gallo-Roman period.

Some feast days of the medieval Irish calendar have sometimes been speculated to descend from
prehistoric festivals, especially by comparison to terms found in the Coligny calendar. This concerns
Beltane in particular, which is attributed ancient origin by medieval Irish writers. The festivals of
Samhain and Imbolc are not associated with "paganism" or druidry in Irish legend, but there have
nevertheless been suggestions of a prehistoric background since the 19th century, in the case of
Samhain by John Rhys and James Frazer who assumed that this festival marked the "Celtic new
year".

Gallo-Roman religion[edit]
Main article: Gallo-Roman religion
The Celtic peoples of Gaul and Hispania under Roman rule fused Roman religious forms and modes
of worship with indigenous traditions. In some cases, Gaulish deity names were used as epithets for
Roman deities, as with Lenus Mars or Jupiter Poeninus. In other cases, Roman gods were given
Gaulish female partners for example, Mercury was paired with Rosmerta and Sirona was
partnered with Apollo. In at least one case that of the equine goddess Epona a native Celtic
goddess was also adopted by Romans. This process of identifying Celtic deities with their Roman
counterparts was known as Interpretatio romana.

Eastern mystery religions penetrated Gaul early on. These included the cults of Orpheus, Mithras,
Cybele, and Isis. The imperial cult, centred primarily on the numen of Augustus, came to play a
prominent role in public religion in Gaul, most dramatically at the pan-Gaulish ceremony venerating
Rome and Augustus at the Condate Altar near Lugdunum on 1 August.

Generally Roman worship practices such as offerings of incense and animal sacrifice, dedicatory
inscriptions, and naturalistic statuary depicting deities in anthropomorphic form were combined with
specific Gaulish practices such as circumambulation around a temple. This gave rise to a
characteristic Gallo-Roman fanum, identifiable in archaeology from its concentric shape.

Christianization[edit]
Further information: Epistle to the Galatians and Celtic Christianity

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The Celtic cross.

The conversion to Christianity (Christianization) inevitably had a profound effect on this socio-
religious system from the 5th century onward, though its character can only be extrapolated from
documents of considerably later date. By the early 7th century the church had succeeded in
relegating Irish druids to ignominious irrelevancy, while the filidh, masters of traditional learning,
operated in easy harmony with their clerical counterparts, contriving at the same time to retain a
considerable part of their pre-Christian tradition, social status, and privilege. But virtually all the vast
corpus of early vernacular literature that has survived was written down in monastic scriptoria, and it
is part of the task of modern scholarship to identify the relative roles of traditional continuity and
ecclesiastical innovation as reflected in the written texts. Cormac's Glossary (c. 900 CE) recounts
that St. Patrick banished those mantic rites of the filidh that involved offerings to "demons", and that
the church took particular pains to stamp out animal sacrifice and other rituals repugnant to Christian
teaching[citation needed]. What survived of ancient ritual practice tended to be related to filidhecht,
the traditional repertoire of the filidh, or to the central institution of sacral kingship. A good example is
the pervasive and persistent concept of the hierogamy (sacred marriage) of the king with the
goddess of sovereignty: the sexual union, or banais rghi ("wedding of kingship"), which constituted
the core of the royal inauguration, seems to have been purged from the ritual at an early date
through ecclesiastical influence, but it remains at least implicit, and often quite explicit, for many
centuries in the literary tradition.

Folkloristic survivals[edit]
Nagy has noted the Gaelic oral tradition has been remarkably conservative; the fact that we have
tales in existence that were still being told in the 19th century in almost exactly the same form as
they exist in ancient manuscripts leads to the strong probability that much of what the monks
recorded was considerably older.[61] Though the Christian interpolations in some of these tales are
very obvious, many of them read like afterthoughts or footnotes to the main body of the tales, which
most likely preserve traditions far older than the manuscripts themselves.

Mythology based on (though, not identical to) the pre-Christian traditions was still common place
knowledge in Celtic-speaking cultures in the 19th century. In the Celtic Revival, such survivals were
collected and edited, thus becoming a literary tradition, which in turn influenced modern mainstream
"Celticity".

Various rituals involving acts of pilgrimage to sites such as hills and sacred wells that are believed to
have curative or otherwise beneficial properties are still performed. Based on evidence from the
European continent, various figures that are still known in folklore in the Celtic countries up to today,
or who take part in post-Christian mythology, are known to have also been worshiped in those areas
that did not have records before Christianity.

In Twilight of the Celtic Gods (1996), Clarke and Roberts describe a number of particularly
conservative folkloristic traditions in remote rural areas of Great Britain, including the Peak District
and Yorkshire Dales, including claims of surviving pre-Christian Celtic traditions of veneration of
stones, trees and bodies of water.[62]

Neopagan revival[edit]
Archaeologists believe that the Iron Age Celts had many gods and goddesses and that the Celts
worshipped their gods through sacrifice, giving them valuable objects to keep them happy.

But material treasures weren't the only sacrifices - the Iron Age Celts sacrificed (killed) animals, and
even humans, to their gods.
The Celts also sacrificed weapons to the gods by throwing them into lakes, rivers and bogs - places
they considered special. At Llyn Cerrig Bach, archaeologists have found over 150 objects of bronze
and iron, including spears, shields and swords.

The Celts paid great respect to the human head. Roman historians say they cut off the heads of their
ancestors, and even their enemies, and worshipped the skulls.

The Celtic religion was closely tied to the natural world and they worshipped gods in sacred places
like lakes, rivers, cliffs and bushes. The moon, the sun and the stars were especially important - the
Celts thought that there were supernatural forces in every aspect of the natural world.

Druids

The druids were very important in Iron Age society but we know very little about them. They were the
Celts' priests, responsible for all sorts of religious ceremonies. They were educated and powerful
members of the tribe and were well respected by the other Celts. The main centre of the druids in
Britain was Anglesey.

We know a little about the druids from descriptions by Roman historians. The Romans tried to limit
the powers of the druids because they were so important in Iron Age society.
Celtic Religion
On the religious aspect of Celtic culture there are problems in reaching a clear description. Caesar's
assessment that in general the Celts worshipped the same gods as the Romans (under different
names) would appear to be an over-simplification. Nevertheless there are elements of truth therein.
Roman religious concepts went back a long way and had common ground with the origins of Celtic
religion. People in the ancient world felt the need to attribute certain aspects of daily life to
appropriate gods / spirits. In Rome as elsewhere there were controlling spirits for such important
aspects of life as earth, water, fire, wind, fertility, etc.

It is when we when we try to separate out what might be the unique features of Celtic religion that
we can run into difficulties. While part of Celtic religion would have been unique to the Upper
Danube homeland, as Celtic influence spread the Celts themselves absorbed ideas and practices
from the peoples with whom they came in contact. We are lacking in evidence of the basics of the
concepts of the Celtic homeland - most accounts of Celtic religion are concerned with the areas with
which they came in contact - Iberia, Gaul, Britain, etc. How many of these elements were "Celtic" in
origin and how many were indigenous would be hard to determine. Caesar drops a strong hint in his
comment on the Druidic doctrine having origins in the British Isles. The policy among the Celts of not
committing such matters to writing does not help our investigation.

As in Bablylon, Egypt, and mediaeval Christian Europe education in the Celtic world was under the
umbrella of the religious system - in this case Druidism. (As opposed to Classical Greece and Rome
where education was secular in organization). Thus the study of "religious" matters was allied to that
of the sciences, astronomy, law, medicine, etc.
Celtic religion does not seem to be as closely associated with religious buildings as other faiths but
more with simple rural shrines associated with water sources, groves of trees, rocks and other
natural features. In this however it would have been little different from the Neolithic period religion of
the early farmers on the Western seaboard. It is the large urban cultures like Rome which produced
the great temples (and later churches). Writers about Minoan Crete, for example, have commented
on the presence of rural shrines rather than temples.

One aspect of Celtic life which may again have been general in the early agricultural world was the
holding of great assemblies at central points at fixed times of the year. For these an area was
marked out by a ditch or other form of marker to create a tememos and inside each was a simple
wooden religious building. One can imagine a blend of religious, social, and political activities
including elections and feasting. But again there are indications of such activities in the Neolithic era
within henges etc.

The Celts held important ceremonies at key points in the farming year. These included Imbolc (Feb.
1st.), Beltaine (May 1st.), Lughnasad (August 1st.), Samhain (October 31st). These however would
be in line with similar ceremonies based around the early megalithic structures. They also inherited
the traditions of their megalithic forbears in their fascination with the moon and its relationship in its
movements with those of the sun.

To the Celts the head was sacred. This feature appears often in Celtic art. Warriors collected heads
of distinguished foes. (Other cultures throughout the world have done so until comparatively recent
times). The number 3 was also sacred. High importance was attached to water sites - bogs, lakes,
rivers, springs - and to trees and plants. Animals too were sacred - such as stags, bulls, etc. What
this tells us is that we are looking at a culture which had not yet become "urbanised" and where the
wonder inspired by Nature in the early farmers was still present.

There would also seem to have been a practice of making depositions of high quality weapons and
other metalwork in specially excavated holes in the earth and in water sources as offerings to the
gods. This would seem to be the only logical reason for the finds which keep turning up. Such items
appear to have been ritually broken - "killed" - before deposition. In Central America the Maya for
example deposited such objects in sacred wells (cenotes). Near early Christian churches in the
British Isles - often in Ireland - such deposits of valuables are found. Ostensibly this was to protect
them from the Vikings but the fact that so much was left unclaimed could give rise to the question of
whether this was evidence of a dimly-remembered Celtic practice.

Arising from the Celtic interest in astronomy there arose a complex working calendar. There was a
continuous chain of knowledge shared by the early farmers whether in megalithic Western Europe,
Egypt, Mesopotamia etc. The Druids were heirs to this body of knowledge which crossed barriers of
time and location. A part of Celtic religion was perhaps a preoccupation with the "dark side". Night
preceded day. The "Otherworld" was very real to them - so much so that we have evidence of i.o.u.'s
being issued for payment in the next world. To the Celts there was a next world. On the death of the
physical body the soul passed on into another body.

Sacrifice played a big part in religious rites. All important activities were preceded by ceremonies
and sacrifices. It was also essential to take the auspices before a planned event or activity. The
appearance of the organs of a sacrifice, the flight of birds, were all regarded as omens. In this Celts,
Greeks, Romans, Etruscans, Babylonians were little different. Caesar commented on the Celts being
particularly superstitious - but perhaps he himself was, for a Roman, unusually lacking in
"superstition" if the story of his disregard for the "Ides of March" is valid!

Classical writers give harrowing descriptions of "blood-drenched altars" in sacred groves. This would
seem to be a fair comment on Greek and Roman altars also, one would imagine. The aspect of how
much part was played by human sacrifice has been mentioned already. It could well have been a
feature of very bad times such as famine.

In looking at religious practices one must take account of how humans tend to cling tenaciously to
their well-tried practices when introduced to a new faith - as in the case of the observance of the old
dates of Christmas and Easter in Christian practices and the continued use of Neolithic sacred sites
for churches.

The gods and goddesses of the Celts were legion, since they included local traditional spirits in their
areas of influence. One is tempted to wonder whether in their heartland the Celts' religion was based
around Nature spirits which would need no 3-dimensional form. The gods who are portrayed by
writers - like those of the Greeks, seem to be of the "hero god" category living a life akin to that of
humans. Some, like the Dagda, Danu, Brigid, are of more ancient origin than the Celts themselves,
dating from the Neolithic/Bronze Age cultures of Western Europe, and appear in surviving Irish
mythology.

The Celts
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Conclusion
Reference to Ireland brings us to the topic of "Celtic Mythology" in general. I feel that very often so-
called "Celtic" mythology should really be called Irish Mythology. Much of it in origin predates the
Celts and should be attributed to that country - taken up by the Celts no doubt but not originating
with them. While Caesar tells us a lot about the Gauls and Tacitus about the Britons for example,
that is not necessarily a 100% accurate description of the Celts. Celtic culture absorbed - and was
absorbed by - the races with whom they came in contact. Truly a "hidden" people if we accept that
definition of "Celtic."

Ireland plays a special role in all this. It is a unique area in Europe which was spared the culture-
changing influence of the Romans and even to a large extent of the Dark Age barbarians. Who
knows even how much it was ever influenced by the Celts? Being at the end of the known world it
would not have felt the full force of Celtic expansion. But it did draw much on Celtic art, in particular
that of the La Tne phase, to which Ireland made its own invaluable contribution. How much Irish
culture, law, religious ideas, owe to the Celts and how much Celtic culture owes to Ireland could be a
profitable if difficult field of study. Ireland can be seen as a repository of Neolithic, Bronze Age, and
Iron Age/Celtic culture.

The use of the word "Celtic" to describe Welsh and Scottish cultures can also in some cases be a
simplification. "Scottish means by definition "Irish". There is a blend therefore of the P-Celtic and Q-
Celtic culture in Scotland. Wales is an undoubted example of the P-Celtic. But Ireland, Scotland, and
Wales have their own separate racial identities. How much they were affected racially by Celtic
"invaders" remains to be seen. But there is no doubt about their cultural debt to the Celts. Peaceful
penetration, trade, some immigration, imitation, resulted in the absorption of Celtic culture. And we
must remember that it was 2-way traffic - each learned from the other.

To sum up the Celts represent a great culture. They had a vast influence on the language, religion,
art, thinking, education, and social structure of Western Europe in the pre-Roman era. In their earlier
manifestation (Hallstatt) they influenced areas such as France, Spain, Portugal, the British Isles,
through trade and settlement. Because their systems were admired they were adopted - and
adapted. Later (La Tne) came a more aggressive military expansionist phase with incursions into
Italy, Greece, and Turkey. This phase was much less successful than earlier more peaceful
penetration. Is there a lesson to be learned there?

In talking about the Celts we are not referring to a nation. Ingrained tribal, "democratic", independent
attitudes prevented any permanent union. Nor can we identify them today as a specific race. Even in
their Danubian homeland they appear to be a mixture of tribal groups of varying characteristics. In
this respect the problem of origins is not dissimilar to that posed by the Sumerians. In short it is a
culture we are looking at.

The megalithic farming communities of the Atlantic seaboard likewise evolved a great culture,
aspects of which would have spread Eastwards into Central Europe, meeting "Fertile Crescent"
cultural features moving up the Danube Valley. Each learned from the other. As Celtic influence
moved Westwards in the Later Bronze Age and the Iron Age to the Atlantic shores a further
exchange took place. The ebb and flow of knowledge and custom is part of the ebb and flow of
people.

Late Celtic culture personifies the Iron Age. Like all cultures there is a mixture of good and bad
aspects. Iron made better tools and therefore increased agricultural prosperity. Prosperity and road
systems (an aspect of the Celts not always given the importance it deserves) meant trade and the
exchange of ideas. But iron also meant superior weaponry and more warfare. Strong as the Celtic
system was militarily it lacked the political ability and motivation to create a nation - and as a nation
to create an empire. This is where Rome scored. The emergence of hill-forts in the Iron Age is an
indication of an aggressive phase in Western Europe with local wars created by competing factions
wasting energy and resources. Can we "blame" the Celts for this? Perhaps not - put it down to
human nature in certain given circumstances.

An Irish government minister, recently asked to explain the success of the "Celtic" Tiger, gave as his
answer "Education". Perhaps that is the longest-lasting legacy of the Celts. Or was the Druidic
system - as Caesar suggests - a survivor of an ancient system of the Atlantic seaboard surviving in
Ireland and Western Britain? Never mind - the Celts were certainly good learners as well as good
teachers.

Outposts of Celtica
 History and Heroes of the Celtic World by J.P.
MacLean.

The surviving Celtic world of today, though vibrant and engaging in itself, is only a remnant of the
culture that once dominated most of Europe and parts of Asia. From the Anatolian plains in present
day Turkey to the Highlands of Scotland, the tribal Celts reigned supreme across this vast expanse
for over four hundred years.

The cities that the Celts founded and once called their own, include Ankara in Turkey, Belgrade in
Serbia and Milan in Italy.

Heroes of the Celtic world include Brennus who once held Rome to ransom, Queen Boudicca who in
defence of her tribe decimated London, and William Wallace (Braveheart) who defeated an Anglo
army twice the size of his spirited battalion.

During the Dark Age of Europe, the monasteries of Celtica were a beacon of light and a source of
knowledge and learning in a world that seemed to be in regression.

This book explores pieces of Celtic history from its birthplace in central Europe, to the surviving
outposts in western Europe and on into the Americas to such places as the Patagonia region of
Argentina and the Cape Breton region of eastern Canada outposts that still resist absorption into
the larger generic culture of the modern world.

Purchase Outposts of Celtica

The Celtic World of Albion
Ireland (Hibernia) - An excerpt from Chapter 2.

Circa AD 400, Ireland was firmly Celtic and would remain so for centuries to come. There would be
various kingdoms within Ireland that would rise and fall, various tribes that would dominate vast
lands across the island and there would be tribal excursions into Britannia where Irish Celtic
communities would arise. There were periods in time when excursions into Britannia were not so
friendly, when the Irish would raid and plunder Britannia and the maritime lands of Europe not unlike
the Norse raids into Ireland in later years. There were periods in time when trade and commerce
with other tribes and other lands including those of Rome were not uncommon.

Although there is much history surrounding the lands that would become known as Ireland, the
history was within the confine of a Celtic world. The Romans would never hold any sway in Ireland,
though they believed they could. The dominant influences that would eventually lead to cultural
change in Ireland were the growth and expansion of the Anglo-Saxons and Normans and just as
significantly the evolution of the Christian church in Ireland led by the inspired missionaries who
would see the conversion of most of the population.

Historical accounts of the pre-Roman Celtic world in Northern Ireland and the west highlands and
islands of Scotland are cloudy because much of the documentation that does exist was written
centuries after the times of the actual occurrences referenced. Coupled with this issue is the
frequent situation that in existing documentation, there is a seamless blend of truth and legend
making it difficult to ascertain one from the other. There were some external references to the lands
of Hibernia by Greek and Roman historians. Later the Christian missionaries would record history.
There was always a bias however that reflected the desire or objectives of the authors; so early
history remains an approximation.

An important and interesting source that provides a pseudo-historical view of Ireland is various
medieval writings and manuscripts that together form four distinct periods or cycles of Irish history
and mythology. The most of these manuscripts were penned in the 11th and 12th century AD, but
much of the writing dates back as early as the sixth century. The manuscripts are compiled under
four main albeit loosely followed themes: the Mythological Cycle which references early pre-
Christian history, the Ulster Cycle that references the time of the beginning of the Christian era, the
Fenian Cycle which concerns itself with heroes from around the third century AD and the Historical
Cycle (also known as Cycle of the Kings) which outlines the hierarchy of Kings of Ireland dating back
to the fifth century BC.

Some scholars believe the documents are of historical significance; others feel they are of little
relevance historically. Most have extracted some truth from the mythology and fiction as there is
sufficient evidence to suggest that the references to many of the tribes, kings, battles and places of
importance, are of some relevance. Just as important as their historical reference value, is that they
provide a taste of the cultural world of the time period in which they were written.

The Greek historian Ptolemy produced a map referencing Ireland circa AD 100 detailing the resident
tribes of the time. The map is one of few early external historical references providing some detail as
to the homes of various tribes in the region. Interestingly, the Cruithin in the north, who also resided
in Scotland, were considered to be a Pictish tribe by some historians. Their appearance as a noted
tribe in Ireland would indicate that assimilation of the various tribal entities had commenced most
likely at a much earlier period in time.
Ptolomy's Map of Ireland Circa 100AD and Interpretation

The Druids

Cult of the Sun - An excerpt from Chapter 3.

There is evidence dating back to 1200 BC in northern and central Europe that there was an
organized priesthood associated with worship of the sun. Many artifacts found in differing locations
across these areas have motifs clearly pointing to reverence directed at solar worship. These
artifacts include long conical golden hats decorated with wheels and concentric circles, which many
historians believe alluded to the sun.

The best preserved of these artifacts includes a 37 inch golden cone that had been uncovered in
Bavaria and is entirely engraved with row after row of varying image patterns most likely in reference
to variations of the sun.

Other items include the Trundholm sun chariot found in Denmark. The disk being carried in this
chariot is gilded on one side only, the right-hand side (relative to the horse). This has been
interpreted as an indication of a belief that the sun is drawn across the heavens from east to west
during the day, presenting its bright side to the Earth and returns from west to east during the night,
when the dark side is being presented to the Earth.

Also related to the sun and older than these artifacts are some of the passage tombs found
throughout the British Isles and western Europe. In Ireland, dating back to circa 3200 BC, are
megalithic passage tombs such as those in the eastern county of Meath located
at Newgrange,Knowth, Dowth and Loughcrew as well as other sites. These magnificent edifices
were called passage tombs because it was believed that here the souls of the dead would pass from
this world to the next; the deceased, sometimes cremated and sometimes not, were placed in these
tombs for what was planned to be an eternity.

What is fascinating about these tombs in addition

to their megalithic size and intricate design is their astronomical alignment in relation to the sun. In
the case of the Newgrange passage tomb, the main passage and chamber are illuminated by
the winter solstice sunrise. A shaft of sunlight shines through the roof box over the entrance and
pierces through the passage to light up the interior chamber. This dramatic event lasts for about 17
minutes at dawn from the 19th to the 23rd of December only.

The passage tomb at Dowth (which is also known through Irish mythology as the Fairy Mound of
Darkness) is of similar size to the tomb at Newgrange, but rather than alignment to the winter
solstice sunrise, this tomb is aligned to the winter solstice sunset.

In the megalithic cairns located at Loughcrew, Cairn T was constructed to align with the spring and
fall equinox. A beam of light illuminates the back stone of the chamber inside the Cairn, at sunrise on
the spring and autumn equinoxes. The sunlight is shaped by the stones of the entrance and
passageway and with the light finding its way to the back stone while moving from left to right
illuminating a number of solar symbols.
Clearly, the builders of such edifices had a comprehensive knowledge of astronomy as well as
grounded abilities in engineering that would have allowed the construction of such megaliths. It is
possible and probable that the ancestors of the Celtic people of Europe were in large part
descendants of these Neolithic indigenous races of people. It is also probable that through the
cultural evolution that eventually produced the Celtic tribes and their Druid wise men, this ancient
knowledge of ritual and rite and science and engineering were, at least in part, carried forward.
The Celts, an ancient Indo-European people, reached the apogee of their influence and territorial
expansion during the 4th century bc, extending across the length of Europe from Britain to Asia
Minor. From the 3rd century bc onward their history is one of decline and disintegration, and with
Julius Caesars conquest of Gaul (5851 bc) Celtic independence came to an end on the European
continent. In Britain and Ireland this decline moved more slowly, but traditional culture was gradually
eroded through the pressures of political subjugation; today the Celtic languages are spoken only on
the western periphery of Europe, in restricted areas of Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Brittany (in this
last instance largely as a result of immigration from Britain from the 4th to the 7th century ad). It is
not surprising, therefore, that the unsettled and uneven history of the Celts has affected the
documentation of their culture and religion.

SOURCES
Two main types of sources provide information on Celtic religion: the sculptural monuments
associated with the Celts of continental Europe and of Roman Britain, and the insular Celtic
literatures that have survived in writing from medieval times. Both pose problems of interpretation.
Most of the monuments, and their accompanying inscriptions, belong to the Roman period and
reflect a considerable degree of syncretism between Celtic and Roman gods; even where figures
and motifs appear to derive from pre-Roman tradition, they are difficult to interpret in the absence of
a preserved literature on mythology. Only after the lapse of many centuriesbeginning in the 7th
century in Ireland, even later in Waleswas the mythological tradition consigned to writing, but by
then Ireland and Wales had been Christianized and the scribes and redactors were monastic
scholars. The resulting literature is abundant and varied, but it is much removed in both time and
location from its epigraphic and iconographic correlatives on the Continent and inevitably reflects the
redactors selectivity and something of their Christian learning. Given these circumstances it is
remarkable that there are so many points of agreement between the insular literatures and the
continental evidence. This is particularly notable in the case of the Classical commentators from
Poseidonius (c. 135c. 51 bc) onward who recorded their own or others observations on the Celts.

THE CELTIC GODS

SIMILAR TOPICS
Roman religion
Greek religion
Slavic religion
Baltic religion
Hellenistic religion
Germanic religion and mythology
ancient Iranian religion
Finno-Ugric religion
Neo-Paganism
The locus classicus for the Celtic gods of Gaul is the passage in Caesars Commentarii de bello
Gallico (5251 bc; The Gallic War) in which he names five of them together with their functions.
Mercury was the most honoured of all the gods and many images of him were to be found. Mercury
was regarded as the inventor of all the arts, the patron of travelers and of merchants, and the most
powerful god in matters of commerce and gain. After him the Gauls honoured Apollo, Mars, Jupiter,
and Minerva. Of these gods they held almost the same opinions as other peoples did: Apollo drives
away diseases, Minerva promotes handicrafts, Jupiter rules the heavens, and Mars controls wars.

In characteristic Roman fashion, however, Caesar does not refer to these figures by their native
names but by the names of the Roman gods with which he equated them, a procedure that greatly
complicates the task of identifying his Gaulish deities with their counterparts in the insular literatures.
He also presents a neat schematic equation of god and function that is quite foreign to the
vernacular literary testimony. Yet, given its limitations, his brief catalog is a valuable and essentially
accurate witness. In comparing his account with the vernacular literatures, or even with the
continental iconography, it is well to recall their disparate contexts and motivations. As has been
noted, Caesars commentary and the iconography refer to quite different stages in the history of
Gaulish religion; the iconography of the Roman period belongs to an environment of profound
cultural and political change, and the religion it represents may in fact have been less clearly
structured than that maintained by the druids (the priestly order) in the time of Gaulish
independence. On the other hand, the lack of structure is sometimes more apparent than real. It has,
for instance, been noted that of the several hundred names containing a Celtic element attested in
Gaul the majority occur only once, which has led some scholars to conclude that the Celtic gods and
their cults were local and tribal rather than national. Supporters of this view cite Lucans mention of a
god Teutates, which they interpret as god of the tribe (it is thought that teut meant tribe in
Celtic). The seeming multiplicity of deity names may, however, be explained otherwisefor
example, many are simply epithets applied to major deities by widely extended cults. The notion of
the Celtic pantheon as merely a proliferation of local gods is contradicted by the several well-
attested deities whose cults were observed virtually throughout the areas of Celtic settlement.

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According to Caesar the god most honoured by the Gauls was Mercury, and this is confirmed by
numerous images and inscriptions. His Celtic name is not explicitly stated, but it is clearly implied in
the place-name Lugudunon (the fort or dwelling of the god Lugus) by which his numerous cult
centres were known and from which the modern Lyon, Laon, and Loudun in France, Leiden in the
Netherlands, and Legnica in Poland derive. The Irish and Welsh cognates of Lugus are Lugh and
Lleu, respectively, and the traditions concerning these figures mesh neatly with those of the Gaulish
god. Caesars description of the latter as the inventor of all the arts might almost have been a
paraphrase of Lughs conventional epithet sam ildnach (possessed of many talents). An episode
in the Irish tale of the Battle of Magh Tuiredh is a dramatic exposition of Lughs claim to be master of
all the arts and crafts, and dedicatory inscriptions in Spain and Switzerland, one of them from a guild
of shoemakers, commemorate Lugus, or Lugoves, the plural perhaps referring to the god conceived
in triple form. An episode in the Middle Welsh collection of tales called the Mabinogion, (or
Mabinogi), seems to echo the connection with shoemaking, for it represents Lleu as working briefly
as a skilled exponent of the craft. In Ireland Lugh was the youthful victor over the demonic Balar of
the venomous eye. He was the divine exemplar of sacral kingship, and his other common epithet,
lmhfhada (of the long arm), perpetuates an old Indo-European metaphor for a great king
extending his rule and sovereignty far afield. His proper festival, called Lughnasadh (Festival of
Lugh) in Ireland, was celebratedand still is at several locationsin August; at least two of the
early festival sites, Carmun and Tailtiu, were the reputed burial places of goddesses associated with
the fertility of the earth (as was, evidently, the consort Maiaor Rosmerta [the Provider]who
accompanies Mercury on many Gaulish monuments).

CONNECT WITH BRITANNICA

The Gaulish god Mars illustrates vividly the difficulty of equating individual Roman and Celtic
deities. A famous passage in Lucans Bellum civile mentions the bloody sacrifices offered to the
three Celtic gods Teutates, Esus, and Taranis; of two later commentators on Lucans text, one
identifies Teutates with Mercury, the other with Mars. The probable explanation of this apparent
confusion, which is paralleled elsewhere, is that the Celtic gods are not rigidly compartmentalized in
terms of function. Thus Mercury as the god of sovereignty may function as a warrior, while Mars
may function as protector of the tribe, so that either one may plausibly be equated with Teutates.

TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE

Sultan Omar Ali Saifuddien Mosque at dusk, Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. World Religions &
Traditions
The problem of identification is still more pronounced in the case of the Gaulish Apollo, for some of
his 15 or more epithets may refer to separate deities. The solar connotations of Belenus (from Celtic:
bel, shining or brilliant) would have supported the identification with the Greco-Roman Apollo.
Several of his epithets, such as Grannus and Borvo (which are associated etymologically with the
notions of boiling and heat, respectively), connect him with healing and especially with the
therapeutic powers of thermal and other springs, an area of religious belief that retained much of its
ancient vigour in Celtic lands throughout the Middle Ages and even to the present time. Maponos
(Divine Son or Divine Youth) is attested in Gaul but occurs mainly in northern Britain. He appears
in medieval Welsh literature as Mabon, son of Modron (that is, of Matrona, Divine Mother), and he
evidently figured in a myth of the infant god carried off from his mother when three nights old. His
name survives in Arthurian romance under the forms Mabon, Mabuz, and Mabonagrain. His Irish
equivalent was Mac ind g (Young Son or Young Lad), known also as Oenghus, who dwelt in
Bruigh na Binne, the great Neolithic, and therefore pre-Celtic, passage grave of Newgrange (or
Newgrange House). He was the son of Dagda (or Daghda), chief god of the Irish, and of Boann, the
personified sacred river of Irish tradition. In the literature the Divine Son tends to figure in the role of
trickster and lover.

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There are dedications to Minerva in Britain and throughout the Celtic areas of the Continent. At
Bath she was identified with the goddess Sulis, whose cult there centred on the thermal springs.
Through the plural form Suleviae, found at Bath and elsewhere, she is also related to the numerous
and important mother goddesseswho often occur in duplicate or, more commonly, triadic form. Her
nearest equivalent in insular tradition is the Irish goddess Brighid, daughter of the chief god, Dagda.
Like Minerva she was concerned with healing and craftsmanship, but she was also the patron of
poetry and traditional learning. Her name is cognate with that of Brigant, Latin Brigantia, tutelary
goddess of the Brigantes of Britain, and there is some onomastic evidence that her cult was known
on the Continent, whence the Brigantes had migrated.

The Gaulish Sucellos (or Sucellus), possibly meaning the Good Striker, appears on a number of
reliefs and statuettes with a mallet as his attribute. He has been equated with the Irish Dagda, the
Good God, also called Eochaidh Ollathair (Eochaidh the Great Father), whose attributes are his
club and his caldron of plenty. But, whereas Ireland had its god of the sea, Manannn mac Lir
(Manannn, son of the Ocean), and a more shadowy predecessor called Tethra, there is no clear
evidence for a Gaulish sea-god, perhaps because the original central European homeland of the
Celts had been landlocked.

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The insular literatures show that certain deities were associated with particular crafts. Caesar makes
no mention of a Gaulish Vulcan, though insular sources reveal that there was one and that he
enjoyed high status. His name in Irish, Goibhniu, and Welsh, Gofannon, derived from the Celtic word
for smith. The weapons that Goibhniu forged with his fellow craft gods, the wright Luchta and the
metalworker Creidhne, were unerringly accurate and lethal. He was also known for his power of
healing, and as Gobbn the Wright, a popular or hypocoristic form of his name, he was renowned as
a wondrous builder. Medieval Welsh also mentions Amaethon, evidently a god of agriculture, of
whom little is known.

GODDESSES AND DIVINE CONSORTS

One notable feature of Celtic sculpture is the frequent conjunction of male deity and female consort,
such as Mercury and Rosmerta, or Sucellos and Nantosvelta. Essentially these reflect the coupling
of the protecting god of tribe or nation with the mother-goddess who ensured the fertility of the land.
It is in fact impossible to distinguish clearly between the individual goddesses and these mother-
goddesses, matres or matronae, who figure so frequently in Celtic iconography, often, as in Irish
tradition, in triadic form. Both types of goddesses are concerned with fertility and with the seasonal
cycle of nature, and, on the evidence of insular tradition, both drew much of their power from the old
concept of a great goddess who, like the Indian Aditi, was mother of all the gods. Welsh and Irish
tradition also bring out the multifaceted character of the goddess, who in her various epiphanies or
avatars assumes quite different and sometimes wholly contrasting forms and personalities. She may
be the embodiment of sovereignty, youthful and beautiful in union with her rightful king, or aged and
hideously ugly when lacking a fitting mate. She may be the spirit of war, like the fearsome Morrgan
or the Badhbh Chatha (Raven of Battle), whose name is attested in its Gaulish form, Cathubodua,
in Haute-Savoie, or the lovely otherworld visitor who invites the chosen hero to accompany her to
the land of eternal youth. As the life-giving force she is often identified with rivers, such as the Seine
(Sequana) and the Marne (Matrona) in Gaul or the Boyne (Boann) in Ireland; many rivers were
called simply Devona, the Divine.

The goddess is the Celtic reflex of the primordial mother who creates life and fruitfulness through her
union with the universal father-god. Welsh and Irish tradition preserve many variations on a basic
triadic relationship of divine mother, father, and son. The goddess appears, for example, in Welsh as
Modron (from Matrona, Divine Mother) and Rhiannon (Divine Queen) and in Irish as Boann and
Macha. Her partner is represented by the Gaulish father-figure Sucellos, his Irish counterpart Dagda,
and the Welsh Teyrnon (Divine Lord), and her son by the Welsh Mabon (from Maponos, Divine
Son) and Pryderi and the Irish Oenghus and Mac ind g, among others.
ZOOMORPHIC DEITIES
The rich abundance of animal imagery in Celto-Roman iconography, representing the deities in
combinations of animal and human forms, finds frequent echoes in the insular literary tradition.
Perhaps the most familiar instance is the deity, or deity type, known as Cernunnos, Horned One or
Peaked One, even though the name is attested only once, on a Paris relief. The interior relief of the
Gundestrup Caldron, a 1st-century-bc vessel found in Denmark, provides a striking depiction of the
antlered Cernunnos as Lord of the Animals, seated in the yogic lotus position and accompanied by
a ram-headed serpent; in this role he closely resembles the Hindu god iva in the guise of Paupati,
Lord of Beasts. Another prominent zoomorphic deity type is the divine bull, the Donn Cuailnge
(Brown Bull of Cooley), which has a central role in the great Irish hero-tale Tin B Cuailnge (The
Cattle Raid of Cooley) and which recalls the Tarvos Trigaranus (The Bull of the Three Cranes)
pictured on reliefs from the cathedral at Trier, W.Ger., and at Ntre-Dame de Paris and presumably
the subject of a lost Gaulish narrative. Other animals that figure particularly prominently in
association with the pantheon in Celto-Roman art as well as in insular literature are boars, dogs,
bears, and horses. The horse, an instrument of Indo-European expansion, has always had a special
place in the affections of the Celtic peoples. The goddess Epona, whose name, meaning Divine
Horse or Horse Goddess, epitomizes the religious dimension of this relationship, was a pan-Celtic
deity, and her cult was adopted by the Roman cavalry and spread throughout much of Europe, even
to Rome itself. She has insular analogues in the Welsh Rhiannon and in the Irish dan Echraidhe
(echraidhe, horse riding) and Macha, who outran the fastest steeds.

Gundestrup Caldron, a Celtic ritual vessel, 1st century bc. Inside on the left is Cernunnos, lord
The Print Collector/Heritage-Images
BELIEFS, PRACTICES, AND INSTITUTIONS
Cosmology and eschatology
Little is known about the religious beliefs of the Celts of Gaul. They believed in a life after death, for
they buried food, weapons, and ornaments with the dead. The druids, the early Celtic priesthood,
taught the doctrine of transmigration of souls and discussed the nature and power of the gods. The
Irish believed in an otherworld, imagined sometimes as underground and sometimes as islands in
the sea. The otherworld was variously called the Land of the Living, Delightful Plain, and Land of
the Young and was believed to be a country where there was no sickness, old age, or death, where
happiness lasted forever, and a hundred years was as one day. It was similar to the Elysium of the
Greeks and may have belonged to ancient Indo-European tradition. In Celtic eschatology, as noted
in Irish vision or voyage tales, a beautiful girl approaches the hero and sings to him of this happy
land. He follows her, and they sail away in a boat of glass and are seen no more; or else he returns
after a short time to find that all his companions are dead, for he has really been away for hundreds
of years. Sometimes the hero sets out on a quest, and a magic mist descends upon him. He finds
himself before a palace and enters to find a warrior and a beautiful girl who make him welcome. The
warrior may be Manannn, or Lugh himself may be the one who receives him, and after strange
adventures the hero returns successfully. These Irish tales, some of which date from the 8th century,
are infused with the magic quality that is found 400 years later in the Arthurian romances. Something
of this quality is preserved, too, in the Welsh story of Branwen, daughter of Llr, which ends with the
survivors of the great battle feasting in the presence of the severed head of Bran the Blessed,
having forgotten all their suffering and sorrow. But this delightful plain was not accessible to all.
Donn, god of the dead and ancestor of all the Irish, reigned over Tech Duinn, which was imagined as
on or under Bull Island off the Beare Peninsula, and to him all men returned except the happy few.
Worship
According to Poseidonius and later classical authors Gaulish religion and culture were the concern
of three professional classesthe druids, the bards, and between them an order closely associated
with the druids that seems to have been best known by the Gaulish term vates, cognate with the
Latin vates (seers). This threefold hierarchy had its reflex among the two main branches of Celts in
Ireland and Wales but is best represented in early Irish tradition with its druids, filidh (singular fili),
and bards; the filidh evidently correspond to the Gaulish vates.

The name druid means knowing the oak tree and may derive from druidic ritual, which seems in
the early period to have been performed in the forest. Caesar stated that the druids avoided manual
labour and paid no taxes, so that many were attracted by these privileges to join the order. They
learned great numbers of verses by heart, and some studied for as long as 20 years; they thought it
wrong to commit their learning to writing but used the Greek alphabet for other purposes.

As far as is known, the Celts had no temples before the Gallo-Roman period; their ceremonies took
place in forest sanctuaries. In the Gallo-Roman period temples were erected, and many of them
have been discovered by archaeologists in Britain as well as in Gaul.

Human sacrifice was practiced in Gaul: Cicero, Caesar, Suetonius, and Lucan all refer to it, and
Pliny the Elder says that it occurred in Britain, too. It was forbidden under Tiberius and Claudius.
There is some evidence that human sacrifice was known in Ireland and was forbidden by St. Patrick.

Festivals
Insular sources provide important information about Celtic religious festivals. In Ireland the year was
divided into two periods of six months by the feasts of Beltine (May 1) and Samhain (Samain;
November 1), and each of these periods was equally divided by the feasts of Imbolc (February 1),
and Lughnasadh (August 1). Samhain seems originally to have meant summer, but by the early
Irish period it had come to mark summers end. Beltine is also called Cetamain (First Samhain).
Imbolc has been compared by the French scholar Joseph Vendryes to the Roman lustrations and
apparently was a feast of purification for the farmers. It was sometimes called omelc (sheep milk)
with reference to the lambing season. Beltine (Fire of Bel) was the summer festival, and there is a
tradition that on that day the druids drove cattle between two fires as a protection against disease.
Lughnasadh was the feast of the god Lugh.

The impact of Christianity

The conversion to Christianity had inevitably a profound effect on this socio-religious system from
the 5th century onward, though its character can only be extrapolated from documents of
considerably later date. By the early 7th century the church had succeeded in relegating the druids
to ignominious irrelevancy, while the filidh, masters of traditional learning, operated in easy harmony
with their clerical counterparts, contriving at the same time to retain a considerable part of their pre-
Christian tradition, social status, and privilege. But virtually all the vast corpus of early vernacular
literature that has survived was written down in monastic scriptoria, and it is part of the task of
modern scholarship to identify the relative roles of traditional continuity and ecclesiastical innovation
as reflected in the written texts. Cormacs Glossary (c. 900) recounts that St. Patrick banished those
mantic rites of the filidh that involved offerings to demons, and it seems probable that the church
took particular pains to stamp out animal sacrifice and other rituals grossly repugnant to Christian
teaching. What survived of ancient ritual practice tended to be related to filidhecht, the traditional
repertoire of the filidh, or to the central institution of sacral kingship. A good example is the pervasive
and persistent concept of the hierogamy (sacred marriage) of the king with the goddess of
sovereignty: the sexual union, or banais rghi (wedding of kingship), that constituted the core of the
royal inauguration seems to have been purged from the ritual at an early date through ecclesiastical
influence, but it remains at least implicit, and often quite explicit, for many centuries in the literary
tradition.

Myles Dillon