Celtic art

Home > Literature and the Arts > Art and Architecture > Art: General

Celtic art. The art of the Celts, a group of ancient peoples identifiable by common cultural and linguistic features; in pre-Roman times they inhabited much of central and western Europe, including parts of the British Isles, France, Germany, and Spain. A distinctive type of Celtic art first emerged in the 5th century bc. It survives mainly in the form of metalwork, a field in which the Celts showed extraordinary skill. They decorated practical objects, such as weapons, armour, and drinking vessels, and also made jewellery, working chiefly in bronze and gold and using sophisticated inlay techniques. Motifs were borrowed from many sources, including Greek art, but they were transformed by the Celtic genius for abstract ornament; vigorous geometrical and spiral designs are characteristic, often combined with stylized animal forms. Human figures are rarer and are usually depicted in a similarly non-naturalistic manner.

This early Celtic art, from the time of its emergence to the coming of the Romans (c.450–c.50 bc), is often referred to as La Tène art, after an archaeological site at the east end of Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland, where substantial remains were found in the 19th century. The spread of Roman power tended to submerge native forms in a provincial classicism, and the Celtic tradition survived most strongly in areas on the fringes of Europe, outside the Roman Empire. Metalwork skills declined, but with the Christianizing of Ireland Celtic art took on a new lease of life in illuminated manuscripts, the written text sometimes being eclipsed by intricate ornamentation. The most famous manuscript in this vein is the Book of Kells (c.800).

After the Romans abandoned Britain in the 5th century ad, there was an influx of Celtic influence from Ireland, felt particularly in the north of England and most notably in the Lindisfarne Gospels (c.700). In sculpture, Celtic art found expression in the free-standing stone cross, a type of work that is found only in Britain and Ireland at this time. Remains of thousands of these crosses survive, some of them substantially complete. The most famous example is at Ruthwell in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, vigorously carved with Bible scenes, vine leaves (a symbol of Christ), and runic inscriptions—combining Christian imagery with pagan decorative motifs. Also well known and probably of about the same date (8th century) is the example at Bewcastle, Cumberland. Such crosses served various purposes, for example as gravestones and centres of outdoor worship.

Although much modified by Scandinavian influence, the Celtic tradition continued to flourish in Ireland until the 12th century, when following the Anglo-Norman invasion of 1169–72 the country came much more into the mainstream of Romanesque art. Vestiges of the Celtic style of ornamentation survived, however, into the 14th century.

The term Celtic Revival refers to a vogue for the imitation of Celtic decorative forms in the applied arts (mainly in Ireland but also elsewhere) that began in the 1840s, reached its peak around 1900, and continued well into the 20th century. It was an expression of a growing nationalistic interest in Ireland's past and was also related to the Arts and Crafts movement. See also Insular art.

Celtic art . The earliest clearly Celtic style in art was developed in S Germany and E France by tribal artisans of the mid- to late 5th cent. BC With the dispersal of Celtic tribes during the next five centuries, their characteristically sophisticated designs were spread throughout Europe and the British Isles. Although some classical influence was evident in Celtic work, most of the complex, linear, highly ornamented pieces that survive reveal an inspiration of great originality and power. Stylized and fantastic plant and animal forms, as well as strong, geometrical, intertwining patterns, decorated the surfaces of household and ritual vessels, weapons, and body ornaments. The principal materials used in the surviving pieces of metalwork, most numerous of the remains, are gold and bronze. Some painted ceramics and enamel work survive as well from the early period. Frequently, Greek-inspired arabesque motifs were modeled in low relief. Artisans of the British Isles adapted Celtic design in the 3d cent. BC, producing distinctive, vigorous works that soon owed little to Continental originals. Asymmetrical line engraving gained ascendancy in the 1st cent. BC for decorated weaponry and utensils. Two hundred years later Roman influence had effectively overwhelmed Celtic styles, although typical motifs were retained well into the medieval period. Numerous first-rate examples of Celtic craftsmanship may be seen at the British Museum.

Bibliography: See E. M. Jope and P. Jacobsthal, Early Celtic Art (2 vol., 1989); R. and V. Megaw, Celtic Art: From Its Beginnings to the Book of Kells (1989); F. Muller, Art of the Celts, 700 BC to AD 700 (2009).

Celtic art Artworks produced by Celts during the prehistoric La Tène period. For convenience, this period is normally subdivided into four periods: Early Style (after c.480 bc); Waldalgesheim style (after c.350 bc); plastic style (after c.290 bc); and Hungarian sword style (after c.190 bc). Its chief characteristic was swirling, abstract design, which found its fullest expression in metalwork and jewellery. The term is sometimes also applied to the La Tène-influenced early Christian art of w Europe, such as the Book of Kells.