How The Ancient Irish Excelled In Art
The old Irish people became wonderfully skilful in some branches of Art;
and many specimens of their handiwork still remain--preserved through the
wreck of ages--which exceed in beauty of design and in perfection of
execution all works of the kind done by the artists of other nations.
While Art was cultivated in several branches, the Irish attained more
skill in Ornamental Penwork than in any other. They took special
elight,
and used their utmost efforts, in ornamenting religious and devotional
books, especially the Gospels and other parts of the Holy Scripture; for
they justly considered that to beautify the sacred writings was one way of
honouring and glorifying God.
The special Irish style of pen ornamentation was developed by successive
generations of artists, who brought it to marvellous perfection. Its most
marked feature is interlaced work formed by bands and ribbons, which are
curved and twisted and interwoven in the most intricate way, something
like basket-work infinitely varied in pattern. Here and there among the
complicated designs may be seen strange half-formed faces of animals, and
sometimes human faces, or full figures of men or of angels. But vegetable
forms are very rare.
What most astonishes a person examining this work is the amazing variety
and minuteness of the patterns, and the perfect smoothness and evenness of
the curves, as if they had been traced by compasses or some other fine
instruments; though they were all drawn by the unaided hand. The scribes
usually made the capital letters very large, so as sometimes to fill
almost an entire page; and on these they exerted their utmost skill. They
painted the open spaces of the letters and ornaments in brilliant colours:
and in this art--an art usually designated 'Illumination'--the old Irish
scribes also excelled.
Several manuscript-books, ornamented in this manner, have been preserved,
of which it will be sufficient to mention one here--The Book of Kells, now
in Trinity College, Dublin, though there are several others almost equally
beautiful. It is a copy of the Four Gospels in Latin, written on vellum in
the seventh or eighth century. Miss Margaret Stokes, of Dublin, a skilled
artist and a great judge of such matters, who has carefully examined this
book, thus speaks of it:--"No effort hitherto made to transcribe any one
page of this book has the perfection of execution and rich harmony of
colour which belongs to this wonderful book. It is no exaggeration to say
that, as with the microscopic works of nature, the stronger the magnifying
power brought to bear upon it, the more is this perfection seen. No single
false interlacement or uneven curve in the spirals, no faint trace of a
trembling hand or wandering thought can be detected. This is the very
passion of labour and devotion, and thus did the Irish scribe work to
glorify his book."
Professor Westwood, of Oxford--an English gentleman--who examined the best
specimens of penwork all over Europe, speaks even more strongly. "The Book
of Kells," he says, "is the most astonishing book of the Four Gospels
which exists in the world. How men could have had eyes and tools to work
out the designs, I am sure I, with all the skill and knowledge in such
kind of work which I have been exercising for the last fifty years, cannot
conceive. I know pretty well all the libraries in Europe where such books
as this occur, but there is no such book in any of them. There is nothing
like it in all the books which were written for Charlemagne and his
successors."
There was a book like this, long since lost, in St. Brigit's convent of
Kildare, which was shown to the Welshman Giraldus Cambrensis more than
seven hundred years ago, and which so astonished him that he has recorded
a legend--to which he devotes a separate chapter of his book--that it was
written under the direction of an angel. He described it; and his
description would now exactly apply to the Book of Kells. But in those
times there were many such books. We can hardly be surprised at Giraldus's
legend; for whoever looks closely into some of the lovely pages of the
Book of Kells--even in the photographic reproductions--will be inclined to
wonder how any human head could have designed, or how any human hand could
have drawn them.
These beautiful books were all written by Christian artists. We do not
know if there was any attempt to ornament books in pagan times. But the
pagan Irish, long before the introduction of Christianity, practised art
of another kind--Metal-work--and attained great perfection in it. Those
old artists exercised their skill in making and ornamenting shields;
trumpets; swords with their hilts and scabbards; chariots; bridles;
brooches; gold gorgets or circlets for the neck; and so forth.
We can now judge of their handiwork for ourselves; for numerous beautiful
specimens are preserved in our museums. The most remarkable are what are
now commonly called 'Crescents,' of which we have many in the National
Museum, in Dublin. These are broad circlets of pure gold to be worn round
the neck, all covered over with ornamental designs. Both the general shape
and the designs were produced by hammering with a mallet and punches on
shaped solid moulds. The patterns and workmanship are astonishingly fine,
showing extraordinary skill in manipulation: they are indeed so
complicated and perfect that it is difficult to understand how they could
have been produced by mere handwork, with hammers, punches, and moulds.
Yet they could have been made in no other way.
We may see then that when St. Patrick arrived, in the fifth century, he
found the art of working in metals already highly developed. We know that
he kept, as part of his household, smiths, brasiers, goldsmiths, and other
artists, who were constantly employed in making crosses; crosiers;
chalices; bells; and such like.
On the score of obtaining skilled workmen there was no difficulty, for he
had plenty of pagan artists to choose from, who, on their conversion,
turned their skill to Christian work, and found little difficulty in
adapting their cunning fingers to new objects and to new forms of
ornamentation. So the primitive pagan artistic metal work was continued on
and improved in Christian times, and was brought to the highest perfection
in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The ornamentation was generally like
that used in manuscripts (p. 92).
Many of the beautiful objects made by those accomplished artists are now
preserved in museums; some of them will bear comparison with the best
works of the kind executed by artists of other countries; and a few might
be found to bear the palm from all.
The three objects that are usually brought forward as examples of the best
workmanship of the Irish Christian artists are the Cross of Cong, the
Ardagh Chalice, and the Tara Brooch, all of which may be seen in the
National Museum in Dublin: but there are many others in the same museum
almost equally beautiful. These three will be found pretty fully
described, with illustrations, in the two Social Histories of Ancient
Ireland. The Tara Brooch was shown some years ago in one of the great
London exhibitions, and drew the eyes of all visitors. One English writer,
who examined it and wrote an account of it, says that he found a
difficulty in conceiving how any fingers could have made it, and that it
looked more like the work of fairies than of a human artist.