Irish Art - Iron Age and Early Christian

The Iron AgeThe Iron AgeIron Age Ireland circa 500BC to 500

ADThe Iron Age in Ireland spans approximately one thousand years from the end of the Bronze Age to the start of the Early Christian Era ( 500BC to 500 AD). Knowledge of using Iron gradually spread throughout Ireland. Iron became the main metal used to make tools and equipment because it is very strong – much stronger than bronze.This knowledge of Iron metalwork came from Europe, where the Romans were conquering much territory as far east as the Holy Land and Persia and as far west as Britain. The Romans never invaded Ireland, although there is much evidence that they regularly traded with the Irish – especially on the east coast. However, at some point during the Iron Age the Celts invaded territory in Ireland. The Celts brought to Ireland a new culture which the native Irish adopted and made their own – celtic language, customs and Art.La TeneThe new style of Art which the Celts brought to Ireland is called La Tene. This is an abstract curvilinear style of decoration. It is called La Tene – after a site in Switzerland where the earliest curvilinear style artifacts were found. This La Tene style is found over much of Europe and in Ireland, it lasted for several hundred years until the arrival of Christianity when the Irish La Tene style merged with christian designs and symbols.

Iron Disc in La Tene Style

The Triskel was a very popular La Tene motif. It is a triple spiral design – a type of “sun wheel”.MetalworkWhile Iron became the metal to make tools such as knives, axes and functional objects such as cooking pots and stirrups, However, bronze and gold continued to be used during the Iron Age for their beauty and because these metals do not rust or decay like Iron.

La Tene –

• By the mid fifth century the centre of power and wealth in Europe had moved northwards and westwards to the Rhineland and next to the areas of present day France.
• This was where the La Tene culture came into being because some of the Celtic people came from an area known as La Tene in Switzerland.  It was part of the celtic culture to throw objects into lakes as a ceremonial offering and la tene is a prime example of a European celtic site, with great deposits of weapons and other objects found in the lake.
• This culture reached far beyond la Tene.  It had contact with many areas, such as the Mediterranean and the East.  This contact is reflected in the style of the artwork associated with this time.  The art form was varied but repetitive and very decorative.  Motifs were borrowed from Eastern and Greek ideas with special emphasis on plant forms such as the honeysuckle, and these, together with flowing tendrils, were blended into a distinctive style of abstract and curvilinear patterns.
• This style, which developed in central Europe around 300 BC was know as the waldalgesheim style and it was an offshoot of this which reached Ireland.
• Iron was commonly used at the time for implements and weapons.  Bronze was used more for ornamental objects.  Gold was also used for ornament.
• It is not certain when and where the celtic peoples first came to Ireland.  It is believed to have been around the first century AD

The Loughnashade Trumpet

The Loughnashade Trumpet is made from sheet bronze and is over six feet in length. It is made of two half- cylinders. The edges are sealed fron the inside using a strip of bronze which is fastened along the length using more than six hundred rivets. The bell of the trumpet is decorated in La Tene design and was made using the repousse technique. The trumpet was found in the eighteenth century, buried near the shore of Lough Shade, Co Armagh, together with a human skull and three other trumpets, which have since been lost. This lake is overlooked by the Navan Fort ( Eamhain Macha) which was one of the largest Celtic strongholds in Ireland. It is one of the earliest trumpets found in the world and still works as a musical instrument.Loughnashade TrumpetVideo on Loughnashade Trumpet ( 4 min)Drawing of La Tene Detail on the Loughnashade Trumpet To view video about the Trumpet click link belowhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dTMcOXjztcQ#t=14

The Petrie Crown

Petrie Crown is a fine example of Celtic Iron Age metalworking which displays the curvilinear repeated patterning typical of the La Tene style. It is made of Bronze pieces which are riveted together. The base is a bronze band which was bent into a circular shape that fits onto the head.Circular discs are attached onto the outer circumference of this bronze band.Two large outer discs are mounted on top decorated with La Tene spiral designs, the centre of some of these spirals ends in a bird head design. The discs are not flat, but are concave in shape. The designs are lined or carved in – ie the background of each line is carved away and smoothed so the lines appear raised. These discs have an enamel bead in the centre.The conical horn was cut from sheet bronze, was formed by rolling into a cylinder and beating into a cone. Originally there was a second horn that was broken and lost.Petrie Crown

The Broighter Collar

The Broighter Hoard is probably the greatest find of ancient artifacts in Ireland. It was uncovered in Co Derry in 1896, when land near the shores of Lough Foyle were being ploughed. The “ hoard’ consists of a model boat with oars and mast, a bowl, two chain necklaces, two rod twisted torcs and a hollow collar. All these objects were made in gold, which had become much a more rare and precious metal in Ireland than in the Bronze Age.The Broighter Boat and Broighter Collar are famous irish prehistoric artworks. The boat is very unusual for Iron Age Art in that it is not abstract- it is a beautiful representation of a prehistoric boat complete with mast and oars. The collar is one of the finest examples ofla Tene metal craftmanship in Europe. This hollow collar is made from two plates of thin gold soldered together in tubular form and bent into a circular shape to fit around a neck.

The La Tene style decoration was made using the repousse technique ( punched from behind). This repousse design would have been hammered into the gold sheets before they were made into a tube. The design consists of trumpet patterns ( a type of triskel)and lentoid bosses ( a boss is a lump or knob, and lentiod means its oval or lens shaped and not circular). These are all linked together with flowing curved lines that make the design resemble a climbing plant complete with stems, leaves and flowers. There are two terminals at either end of the collar that have an intricate locking device that firmly clasps the colllar together. Unfortunately, the plough that uncovered the collar more than a century ago broke the collar in two.

The Broighter Collar

The Broighter Hoard including the collar and the Broighter boat.

Iron Age Stone Carving

Iron Age was a time of revival of stone carvings in Ireland. During the Bronze Age the tradition of erecting standing stones continued from Stone Age times, but Bronze Age people did not decorate these stones. In contrast, there are many Iron Age stone carvings which fall into different categories of Iron Age Art. La Tene stones ( Celtic ), and later – Figure carvings and Ogham Stones which are believed to show the influence of Roman and Christian influences in Ireland.The Turoe StoneThe Turoe Stone is the best known and best executed of the 4 La Tene stones that still survive in Ireland. It is a grantite boulder which is 1.68m high with a rounded top and sides.The La Tene design is a rumming pattern of spirals, curves and circles, which include a triskel. Running along the base of this La Tene Pattern, there is a step ( or Key) pattern which is a greek border pattern

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Turoe Stone, Co Galway

A drawing of the pattern on the Turoe Stone The Castlegrange stone is located in Co Roscommon. Like the Turoe Stone is is La Tene in Style. Both the stones were presumably used for sone ceremonial or religious purpose, that is now long forgotten. These stones show the influence of European Art in Ireland.

Castlegrange Stone, Co Roscommon

The carvings of figures, which are found in Northern Ireland, date from the late Iron Age. This are the earliest examples that we see of human figures in Irish Art.They are believed to be of Celtic Gods or “Deities”. The Boa island figure is 75cm tall.It is located on an Island in Lough Erne called Boa- after the Celtic deity( Badbha – who helped warriors in battle and often appeared in the form of a crow). The carved figure has two faces – front and back and is believed to have been influenced by the Roman Art.god – Janus( who was two headed). It is believed that the Irish Celts were influenced by Roman and Christian cultures in Europe who made statues of gods or saints and prayed to them.In the southern half of Ireland there are several Ogham Stones. These are the earliest examples of Irish language been written down. These dashed lines represent letters on the Roman Alphabet. The Ogham Stone here is from Kickeen, in the Glen of Immal in Co Wicklow, and is unusual because of the heart shape of the stone.

METALWORK – Early Christian Ireland

Points to know :

• Colmcilles monastery in Iona was an important link between Britain and Ireland.  The anglo – Saxons had brought the animal art of northern Europe in Britain, which had also been occupied by the romans, and during the Christian era, a new artistic tradition developed which fused Germanic Roman and various traditions of the Mediterranean in Ireland.
• The traditions blended with the earlier La Tene style and formed a unique form of art found in manuscript illumination and metalwork of the late seventh and eight centuries.

Techniques:

·         Around 600AD the techniques used in fine Irish craftsmanship changed considerably from that of the Iron age.  Solid silver was used in making objects like chalices, enamel was used more and a new technique of millefiori glass was adopted.

·         Millefiori was produced by covering a cane of glass with layers of different coloured glass and cutting them into shorter lengths.  Sometimes lengths of coloured glass were laid together and fused before cutting and setting into the metalwork.

·         New types of objects became fashionable, such as large pins and penannular brooches for fastening garments.  There were probably workshops all over they country, but some are known to have been at the monastic site at Armagh and at Ballinderry crannog Co.Offaly.  A small group of penannular brooches, of which the Ballinderry brooch is the finest, survive from that time.  The penannular brooch, so called because of the gap in the ring, was developed from a Roman military style brooch found in northern Britain.

The 18^th century metalworking techniques

• Motifs used in manuscripts are also found in metalwork.  Similar colouring is applied by using enamels, and 18^th century metalwork shows an astonishing range of techniques, a love of sumptuous, all over decorations and a combination of local and borrowed techniques. 
• New techniques of gold filigree, gilding and silvering, kerbschnitt, die-stamping and a variety of new colours in glass and enamel were added to the native skills of bronze casting, engraving and colouring with red enamel.

The golden age of irish metalwork

• The early 18^th century is the era known as the Golden age and is a time of perfection in Irish art.  Objects with dazzling array of techniques, such as the Tara brooch and the Ardagh Chalice seem to have suddenly made their appearance.  However, these and other splendid pieces were found by chance and who knows what other objects have been lost from that time.

The Tara Brooch

• The tara brooch is a form of the penannular brooch which passed origionally into Irish jewellery from a Roman design.  These broochs have no particular Christian connection and were as likely to have been made form the personal adornment of a queen or king as for that of a bishop.
• There are many examples of this type of brooch n Irish art, but the Tara brooch, although one of the smallest, is the finest of them.  It is a ring brooch and has no gap through which the pin can pass and so is pseudo – pennannular.  Chain and loops are needed for fastening in a brooch like this.
• The famous brooch was not actually found at Tara but on the seashore at Bettystown, co.Meath, near where a cliff had collapsed due to the erosion of the sea.  A jeweler who had it for some time named it the Tara brooch and the name has remained.
• If the Ardagh chalice can be compared to the Book of Durrow, the Tara brooch can be compared to the Book of Kells.  As in the manuscript, the little brooch is crowned with detailed decoration front and back.  It is quite small, but has an astonishing amount of skillful work in the form of detailed ornament which, like that of the Book of Kells, fits into a very small space.
• The Tara brooch is close in style to the Ardagh chalice and, like the chalice, design, technique and materials are of the highest quality.  It belongs to the same period and may even have come from the same workshop.
• The Tara brooch is a perfect example of 18^th century metal craftsmanship in that every skill available to metalwork of the time is to be found on its small surface.

The Tara Brooch

The Ardagh Chalice

• One of the richest discoveries of early Christian Irish art was made by a boy digging potatoes near Ardagh, Co.Limerick in 1868.  This has become known as the Ardagh Chalice.
• With it he found four brooches and a bronze chalice.  They must have been part of the collection of a rich monastery.
• With its simple design using gold and silver, moulded coloured glass and its light engraving, the silver chalice is the finest piece of 18^th century metalwork to have been found in Ireland to date.   A wide range of materials and considerable technical skills were combined to produce this work of perfection.
• The Ardagh chalice can be compared to the Book of Durrow because like the manuscript, where decoration is set off against the plain vellum, large areas of silver in the chalice are also plain.  The decoration itself, however, is sumptuous and interlace and animal interlace, scrolls, plaits gold wire.  Other techniques used are engraving, casting, enameling and cloisonné, a method of enameling which separates the colours with thin strips of metal.
• Complex gold filigree work forms a band around the chalice and this is broken by red and blue glass studs.  Under this band, engraved lightly into the silver, are the names of all the apostles except Judas.
• The handles on both sides are a concentrated area of rich colours and patterns.  They are decorated with coloured glass in panels of red, blue, green and yellow, in between which are tiny panels of complex and skilled gold filigree work.  In the centre of each side is a cross within a roundel.
• The design is simple but it is richly decorated using spirals of gold wire filigree work, colored glass and a cloisonné enameled stud in the centre.
• The bowl of the chalice is joined to the base by a thick bronze stem.  The stem is heavily gilded ( a thin layer of gold impressed onto the metal), and here the decoration is the most intricate and involved of all. 
• The base is formed by a cone – shaped foot around which is a decorated flange for extra stability.  This flange has square blocks of blue glass separated by panels of interlace and geometric ornament.
• In the centre of the underside of the base is a circular crystal surrounded by gold filigree and green enamel.  The outer edge of the flange underside

      is divided into eight, with six copper studs and two silver.

The Ardagh Chalice.

Manuscripts

• Christianity is a religion of the book, and the Irish, like every other Christian community, had to learn how to read and write the scriptures.  The standard script of the 4^th and 5^th centuries were the ‘uncial script’ but the first Irish manuscripts are written in the distinctively Irish hand of the ‘half uncial’ which attained great beauty and perfection.
• This was taken abroad by the Irish missionaries to England and Scotland in the 6^th and early 7^th centuries, where it became the national script.  Missionaries and scholars wrote small gospel and missal books, which could easily be carried in the ‘miniscule’ script, but larger luxury illuminated manuscripts for use on the altar on special occasions were written in the majuscule script.

Manuscript Production

In the period between late 17^th and early 19^th centuries, Irish monks produced manuscript books that were masterpieces of calligraphy and painting, surpassing anything in the rest of Europe.  They were produced in a room called a scriptorium and copying the texts was considered an act of devotion.  Monasteries required considerable wealth for book production, such as a large herd of calves needed for vellum and expensive colors that were often imported from abroad.  Traditionally, books were kept in leather satchels which were hung on the walls, but special books were elaborately bound and sometimes stored in ornate metal boxes or shrines.

The Cathach – An Irish manuscript

• The earliest surviving Irish manuscript, now in the library of the Royal Irish Academy in Dublin, is the Psalter known as the Cathach of St. Columba.
• The name Cathach means ‘battle book’ and it earned its name when Colmcille took a rare and valuable book from St. Finian and copied it in the night.  Finian appealed to the high king of Tara, who ruled against Colmcille.  After this, Colmcille was exiled to Iona.
• The beginning of the book is missing and its decoration is confined to the first letter of each paragraph. 
• It shows a very important feature of early Christian art, that of the adaption of the old celtic motifs used in metalwork to script.
• Another important feature of the Cathach is the use of stylized animal ornament, which was to remain a particularly distinctive feature of Irish manuscript illumination during the next centuries.  The book is in black and white, with a small amount of color such as red and yellow used here and there.
• The cathach is written in a clear majuscule script with enlarged capitals introducing each psalm.  The lettering is in a peculilarly Irish style, different from the Roman models, examples of whch the first missionaries must have brought with them.  In a few generations Irish Christians had not only learned to read and write in Latin, ut had created a style of lettering and decoration of their own, quite different from the Roman ooks they had first encountered.
• Majuscule is a style of rounded capital letters written ewteen two ruled lines with very ascenders or descenders above or below the lines.  The decoration employed by the scribes seems to follow from La Tene style, as it incorportates trumpet ends, spirals and a few animal and plant forms, along with the Christian cross and fish symbols. 
• The writing is carried out with reed or quill pens, in dark ink with some dotting in red and yellow surrounding the capital letters.  Folio 6a of the Cathach shows the diminuendo effect where the letters gradually reduce in size until they are back to the general text size.  This is a characteristic feature of Irish script, not seen in Roman models.  The opening letter Q of psalm 91, which begins ‘Qui habitat..’ shows a range of the designs used in this manuscript.   A little spring spiral, an animal head and a cross are all added to the tail of the Q and a row of pen flourishes decorates the inside. 
• The diminuendo effect can clearly be seen over these opening words.  The letter M, which opens the psalm on Folio 21a, is decorated with spirals and trumpet ends.  The simple decoration employed in the cathach is echoed in contemporary stone and metalwork.  A small repertoire of designs and patterns forms the basis for the amazingly elaborate work produced by the following generations of craftsmen.       

Manuscripts – The Book of Durrow

The insular style: New Irish establishments founded in Britain and Europe would originally have been stocked with books made in Ireland, and Irish monks probably trained the scribes in these monasteries.  Influences from British and Continental traditions in art also found their way back into Ireland with migrating monks.  Books in the style called insular survived in many European monasteries.  Scholars today can’t be certain about where every book was actually written, but there is a strong element of the Irish celtic tradition in all of them.  Not many books survive from the 7^th century.  There are some from the monasteries of St Columbanus at Bobbio in northern Italy.  We are lucky to have an outstanding example in this country – The Book of Durrow.

• The Book of Durrow is the earliest example of a fully decorated manuscript in the insular style.  It is a copy of the Four Gospels with some preliminary texts.  It contains 248 folios (leaves) of vellum, most of which have writing or decoration on both sides.  There are 12 fully decorated pages and many more with decorated capitals.  The script is in the Irish majuscule style, written in long lines across the page. 
• The text is a copy of the Latin Vulgate version of the New Testament, which St Jerome compiled for Pope Damasus in the late 4^th century AD, in an effort to correct the standard translation of the books of the Bible.
• There has been much discussion in the past as to the origins of the book of Durrow.  Its associations with the early Columban monastery at Durrow can be verified as early as 877Ad as well as in 916 AD, when it was enshrined in a metal case (which is now lost).
• The book seems to be older than these dates, so it was probably written in the late 7^th or 8^th century.  The interlace pattern relates to designs on the Carandonagh cross, which was near the Columban monastery of Derry.  The animals on the carpet page at the beginning of the Gospel of John relate to Saxon or Germanic designs that might suggest a Columban nibastert ub Northumbria, where Saxon influence was strong.  It may have been given as a gift from the chief Columban monastery of Iona or it might have been produced at the scriptorium of Durrow itself.
• The book we see today is in remarkably good condition considering the ups and downs of its 1,300 years of existence.       

The Book Of  Kells (c 800 AD )

The most famous of all Irish gospel books dates from the mid 18^th century, a century before the book the Durrow.  It is now certain where the sumptuously decorated book of Kells was produced, but it is presumed to have been at the Columbian island monastery of Iona in Scotland.  It may have been produced to commemorate the centenary of the death of Colmcille.  It was honoured as the great gospel book of Columba during the middle ages.

It is thought to have come to Ireland with valuables and relics at the beginning of the 19^th century when the community moved to found the monastery of Kells after a particularly disastrous Viking raid on Iona.

The manuscript contains the four gospels in the Irish majuscule script, brilliantly illustrated.  As well as being larger and more elaborate than previous manuscripts, the Book of Kells has new features, such as drawings between lines of quite naturalistic animals, and introduces new colours and figurative scenes not seen before, such as the virgin and child and the arrest and temptation of Christ.

  Five main colors are used in the book as well as the browns and blacks which are used to fill in the background of the full – page illustrations.  The colors are:

Red: which was made from red lead and has kept its brightness very well

Yellow: made form egg white and a mineral found in the ground.  It is called orpiment.  This color has a shiny surface and looks like gold.  It was used extensively throughout the book.

Green: was made from copper and has an emerald colour.  This color also lasted well but has an acidity which sometimes eats through the page.

Purple and Blue: have been imported to Ireland.  Purple probably came from a leaf plant found in the Mediterranean countries such as Italy.  Several shades of this color have been used.  Blue is thought to have come from the precious stone called Iapis Iazuli found in India.  This color is found in some of the ornate capital letters.

  Some pages of the manuscript are missing and all but two of the remaining 680 pages are decorated.  The ornate varies from an endless variety of decorated initials and humorous marginal drawings to pages fully covered with the most detailed illustrations and designs in strong and brilliant colors.  To an already wide variety of colors is added the new technique of covering one color with a thin wash of another.

Manuscripts

The importance of books in an Irish monastery

The books of the bible were central to the practice of Christianity.  A monk in an early Christian monastery needed a copy of the bible and other texts for the daily readings and singing that were the centre of his life.  Before the invention of printing in the late 15^th century, all books had to be copied by hand.  This included not only bibles. But books of prayers and services, texts on Latin grammar and all kinds of scholary works that were needed for the education of members of the clergy and nobility.

Latin was the language of educated people throughout Europe; clerics and educated nobles could join in Church services and communicate with each other anywhere on the continent.  All church ceremonies were conducted in Latin.  Education began with Latin so that students could read the texts and further their knowledge.

Books were very precious, not simply because of the time and effort that went into their making, but as sources of knowledge, and often, as the word of God.  Carelessly copied texts would be regarded as an insult to God, whose words were being transcribed.  Monks offered their work as a prayer, so they tried to make it as perfect and beautiful as they could.

Making books

Not only had books to be written by hand, but every part had to be produced from raw materials.  There was no source of ready made pages, inks or pens.  The scribe had to make everything from what was available locally or what could be imported.  Pages had to be made and assembled into book form.

Vellum (calf skin)

In Ireland, vellum was the preferred material from which to make pages.  Vellum is calf skin.  To prepare it, it was placed in a bath of water and lime for some days to loosen the hairs on the skin.  Timing was an important element because if the skin was left too long in the bath it would become prone to bacterial attack.  (the book of kells has suffered a little from this problem, for example).  After the bath, the skin was cleaned and scraped free of hair and impurities with a blade.  Next it was rubbed smooth with a pumice stone.  The hide was then stretched flat and dried before it was cut into pages.  The vellum could be sewn into rolls or made into a codex (groups of pages sewn together into book form).  The codex became a more popular form as it was easier to refer to and to store.

Inks and Pigments

Black and dark inks were made in a variety of ways.  Carbon inks were made from burnt wood or animal fat and remained black, but they were prone to flaking off the page.  Iron gall ink was made by mixing iron sulphate with crushed oak galls and gum to bind them together.  This mixture was carried in a solution of water, wind or vinegar.  Disadvantages of iron gall ink were that the iron etched into the vellum and the gall sometimes faded to shades of brown.

The earliest books that have survived used very little colour, just a little red or yellow dotting around the capital letters at the beginning of new sections.

The Cathach (Irish manuscript)

One of the earliest surviving Irish manuscripts is the Cathach.  It is the oldest existing Irish manuscript of the Psalter (a copy of the book of psalms) and the earliest example of Irish writing.  Traditionally, this book is from the hand of St Columba, who lived from 521 to 597.  He was the founder of the Columbian order of monks who continued the tradition of manuscript writing and missionary work begun by their first abbot.  Unfortunately only 58 damaged pages of the work survive.

The name Cathach, an Irish word meaning battle was given to the book by the O’ Donnells, clansmen of Columba, who carried it with them into battle, invoking the protection of the saint.  This is reputed to be the book which Columba transcribed in haste without the permission of his master, Finnian, bringing about a court case which ruled to every cow its calf, to every book its copy.  Columbas clansmen disputed the court case and fought in battle of Cuil Dremhne for ownership of the book.  The story goes that Columba was so horrified by the death and destruction of the battle that he banished himself on permanent pilgrimage and exile from home.  This involved a life of prayer and self denial while spreading the word of God to the heathen.  His travels took him first to Iona, an island off the coast of Scotland, where he founded a monastery, which was to become the chief house of the Columban monasteries for the next 200 years.  The Cathach, is written in a clear majuscule script with enlarged capitals introducing psalms.  

1994 Exam papers – Hons – Sample Answer

Q. 2 – Trace the development of Irish illuminated manuscripts from the Catach to the book of Kells, referring in your answer to examples of decorations from the manuscripts you describe.

  The Christian communities had to learn to read and write in manuscript.  The first Irish manuscripts are not written in the ‘unical script’ but in the distinctively Irish hand of the ‘half uncial’.  This Irish hand attained great beauty and perfection was to be taken abroad by the Irish missionaries to England and Scotland where it became the national script of the counties.  Missionaries and scholars produced small gospel books which could easily be carried.  These were written in ‘minuscule script’.  Manuscripts were produced in a scriptorium and considerable wealth was required by the monasteries for the production of luxury books.  A large herd of calves was required for the production of vellum, books were kept in leather satchels which were hung on the walls but special books were elaborately bound and sometimes stored in ornate metal boxes or shrines.  Scribal activity was of the greatest importance to colmcille and he and his followers have come to be particularly associated with manuscript production.  Some Irish manuscripts are:

The Cathach – This is the oldest Irish manuscript of the psalter and the earliest example of Irish writing.  Written in Latin, it contains a vulgate version of psalms 10 to 13 with interpretative rubic or heading before each psalm.  It is traditionally ascribed to St. Columba as the copy, made at night in haste by a candle light, of a psalter lend to Columba by St. Finian.  It is possible to date the manuscript late 6^th or 7^th century from the script, but modern historical scholarships has cast doubts on the authorship by St. Columba as well as on the dating.  Between 1062 and 1098 a special shrine was made for it and the manuscript was named the ‘Cathach’ from the practice of carrying it right hand wise around the field of battle as a talisman.  The script by one scribe is early majuscule with ornamental capitals, some of which are in red and like the red in the lettering for the rubics, the colour has faded.  The framework of the capitals is often outlined by a series of scarlet dotes and the decoration is mostly by spirals and animal heads.  The capitals do not stand out of letters of dimishing size.  The leaves were taken from the casket and caked together and cockled.  In 1920, in the Brittish museum bindery, the leaves were separated and mounted in paper frames and the butt joints were overlaid with white net.  In 1980-1 further repair and rebinding work was carried out by Rodger Powell and his assistant, at the cost of  6.150 stg.

The paper mounting from which vellum leaves had come adrift, was replaced by new vellum mounts specially stained to match the colour of the original leaves.  Pieces of degreased fish skin were used for joining butted edges in the vellum mounts.  The leaves, assembled in sections, were sewn within a zig zag of handmade paper onto cards and bound in English oak boards.  The spine was covered in white alun-tawed pigskin.  To keep the vellum under pressure and to prevent cockling, the rebound manuscript was put into a special box designed by David Powell and made by George Taylor.

Capital letters from the Cathach (above).  These letters show the adaption of motifs from la Tene metalwork.  The letters are surrounded by dots.  The late 11^th century shrine of the Cathach, made by sitric of kells, co. Meath to the order of Cathbarr O’Donnell, may be seen in the national museum of Ireland (in the library of the royal Irish academy).

The Book of Durrow – This book was probably intended for use on an altar as its too large to be carried around.  Its traditionally associated with the Columban monastery and was probably produced in a scriptorium there in the mid seventh century.  The book of Durrow also introduces to the third great component of Irish art of the early Christian period, interlaced bands.  They seemed to be Coptic (Egyptian Christians) as the dots which accompany the,.  Many of the pages are framed by a loose interlace of broad bands of varying colours accentuated by double lines on the edges.  The pages are decorated in red, yellow, green and deep brown against a black background or the plain velum page.  The book of Durrow is a copy of the gospels and came origionally from the monastery founded in Durrow, Co. Offly by Saint Columbia, it was for a time in the possession of the farmer who used it to dip in the drinking water used by the cattle as a cure for disease.  It passed eventually into the hands of the Cromwellian bishop of Meath who presented it to the Trinity college library, Dublin.  This book is multicoloured using dark green, bright yellow, red and what now has become a dark brown.  The space between the bands is darkened, thus allowing them room to breathe.  Characteristics of the book of Durrow include the amount of space left free between the individual elements of the decoration and the use of large scale motifs and design.  Two of the main decorative elements can occur on the same page, but never all three together and they are always kept neatly together.  Either the artists felt that motifs which he knew to have different origins or which for him had different symbolic meanings aught to be kept apart or else he hadn’t really ‘digested’ all the components sufficiently to feel confident to mix them together.  The animals in the book of durrow are now rhymetical and free in their design, it was sometimes proven to be difficult to decide where the book of Durrow was painted and written, however, its almost certaintly a product of a Columbian monastery.  This book was illuminated in a place where metalwork was practiced.  For there are indications of borrowing from the metal smiths craft.  The use of the Celtic spiral ornament is the most obvious example.  Another is the millegerri pattern produced on the cloak of the symbol of Matthew.

   

Book of Durrow

Book of Durrow

Book of Kells

 Book Of Kells

Book Of kells - decoration

The  Cathach

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