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A beautifully illustrated study of Celtic arts -- style, development and revival - and the relationship between art objects and identity, covering 2500 years of history.
"For many, perhaps most, the title Early Celtic Art summons up images of Early Christian stone crosses in Ireland, Scotland, Wales, or Cornwall; of Glendalough, lona or Tintagel; of the Ardagh Chalice or the Monymusk Reliquary; of the great illuminated gospels of Durrow or Lindisfame. But as Stuart Piggott notes, the consummate works of art produced under the aegis of the early churches in Britain or Ireland, in regions Celtic by tradition or language, have an ancestry behind them only partly Celtic. One strain in an eclectic style was borrowed from the ornament of the northern Germanic world, the classical Mediterranean, and even the Eastern churches. Early Celtic art, originating in the fifth century b.c. in Central Europe, was already seven or eight centuries old when it was last traced in the pagan, prehistoric world, and the transmission of some of its modes and motifs over a further span of centuries into the Christian Middle Ages was an even later phenomenon. This volume presents the art of the prehistoric Celtic peoples, the first great contribution of the barbarians to European arts. It is an art produced in circumstances that the classical world and contemporary societiesunhesitatingly recognize as uncivilized. Its appearance, it has been said by N.K. Sandars in Prehistoric Art in Europe: "is perhaps one of the oddest and most unlikely things to have come out of a barbarian continent. Its peculiar refinement, delicacy, and equilibrium are not altogether what one would expect of men who, though courageous and not without honor even in the records of their enemies, were also savage, cruel and often disgusting; for the archaeological refuse, as well as the reports of Classical antiquity, agree in this verdict."This book comprises the first major exhibition of Early Celtic Art from its origins and beginnings to its aftermath, and was assembled by Stuart Piggott who taught later European prehistory to Honors students in Archaeolog"--Provided by publisher
Classic of scholarly research explores origins of Celtic art in Britain, Ireland, and Europe. Illustrated with 44 plates of photographs and line drawings of artifacts from a variety of sites, this study traces Celtic art in the Bronze and early Iron Ages, as well as Celtic art of the Christian period.
'Early Celtic art' - typified by the iconic shields, swords, torcs and chariot gear we can see in places such as the British Museum - has been studied in isolation from the rest of the evidence from the Iron Age. This book reintegrates the art with the archaeology, placing the finds in the context of our latest ideas about Iron Age and Romano-British society. The contributions move beyond the traditional concerns with artistic styles and continental links, to consider the material nature of objects, their social effects and their role in practices such as exchange and burial. The aesthetic impact of decorated metalwork, metal composition and manufacturing, dating and regional differences within Britain all receive coverage. The book gives us a new understanding of some of the most ornate and complex objects ever found in Britain, artefacts that condense and embody many histories.
This unique volume clearly demonstrates simple geometric techniques for making intricate knots, interlacements, spirals, Kellstype initials, human and animal figures in distinctive Celtic style. Features over 500 illustrations.
While Celtic art includes some of the most famous archaeological artefacts in the British Isles, such as the Battersea shield or the gold torcs from Snettisham, it has often been considered from an art historical point of view. Technologies of Enchantment? Exploring Celtic Art attempts to connect Celtic art to its archaeological context, looking at how it was made, used, and deposited. Based on the first comprehensive database of Celtic art, it brings together current theories concerning the links between people and artefacts found in many areas of the social sciences. The authors argue that Celtic art was deliberately complex and ambiguous so that it could be used to negotiate social position and relations in an inherently unstable Iron Age world, especially in developing new forms of identity with the coming of the Romans. Placing the decorated metalwork of the later Iron Age in a long-term perspective of metal objects from the Bronze Age onwards, the volume pays special attention to the nature of deposition and focuses on settlements, hoards, and burials -- including Celtic art objects' links with other artefact classes, such as iron objects and coins. A unique feature of the book is that it pursues trends beyond the Roman invasion, highlighting stylistic continuities and differences in the nature and use of fine metalwork.
More wide ranging, both geographically and chronologically, than any previous study, this well-illustrated book offers a new definition of Celtic art. Tempering the much-adopted art-historical approach, D.W. Harding argues for a broader definition of Celtic art and views it within a much wider archaeological context. He re-asserts ancient Celtic identity after a decade of deconstruction in English-language archaeology. Harding argues that there were communities in Iron Age Europe that were identified historically as Celts, regarded themselves as Celtic, or who spoke Celtic languages, and that the art of these communities may reasonably be regarded as Celtic art. This study will be indispensable for those people wanting to take a fresh and innovative perspective on Celtic Art.
Since early discoveries of so-called Celtic Art during the 19th century, archaeologists have mused on the origins of this major art tradition, which emerged in Europe around 500 BC. Classical influence has often been cited as the main impetus for this new and distinctive way of decorating, but although Classical and Celtic Art share certain motifs, many of the design principles behind the two styles differ fundamentally. Instead, the idea that Celtic Art shares its essential forms and themes of transformation and animism with Iron Age art from across northern Eurasia has recently gained currency, partly thanks to a move away from the study of motifs in prehistoric art and towards considerations of the contexts in which they appear. This volume explores Iron Age art at different scales and specifically considers the long-distance connections, mutual influences and shared ‘ways of seeing’ that link Celtic Art to other art traditions across northern Eurasia. It brings together 13 papers on varied subjects such as animal and human imagery, technologies of production and the design theory behind Iron Age art, balancing pan-Eurasian scale commentary with regional and site scale studies and detailed analyses of individual objects, as well as introductory and summary papers. This multi-scalar approach allows connections to be made across wide geographical areas, whilst maintaining the detail required to carry out sensitive studies of objects.
E. Mairi MacArthur looks at the work of renowned Scottish artisans and jewellers Alexander and Euphemia Ritchie.