To turn now to the Celtic style of ornament in MSS. This we find in full
development in Ireland as early as the 7th century. The Irish school of
book ornamentation was essentially a native school working out its own
ideas, created and fostered by the early civilization of the country and
destined to have a profound influence on the art of Britain and
eventually on that of the continent. It may be described as a mechanical
art brought to the highest pitch of perfection by the most skilful and
patient elaboration. Initials, borders and full-page designs are made up
of interlaced ribbons, interlaced and entangled zoomorphic creatures,
intricate knots, spirals, zig-zag ornaments, and delicate interwoven
patterns, together with all kinds of designs worked out in red dots--all
arranged and combined together with mathematical accuracy and with
exquisite precision of touch; and painted in harmonious colours in thick
pigments, which lend to the whole design the appearance of enamel. Gold
is never used. In the production of his designs the Irish artist
evidently took for his models the objects of early metal work in which
the Celtic race was so skilled, and probably, too, the classical enamels
and mosaics and jewelry which had been imported and copied in the
country. The finest example of early Celtic book ornamentation is the
famous copy of the Gospels known as the _Book of Kells_, of the latter
part of the 7th century, preserved in Trinity College, Dublin: a miracle
of minute and accurate workmanship, combining in its brilliant pages an
endless variety of design.
But, with all his artistic excellence, the Irish artist failed
completely in figure drawing; in fact he can hardly be said to have
seriously attempted it. When we contemplate, for example, the rude
figures intended to represent the evangelists in early copies of the
Gospels, their limbs contorted and often composed of extraordinary
interlacings and convolutions, we wonder that the sense of beauty which
the Irish artist indubitably possessed in an eminent degree was not
shocked by such barbarous productions. The explanation is probably to be
found in tradition. These figures in course of time had come to be
regarded rather as details to be worked into the general scheme of the
ornament of the pages in which they occur than representations of the
human form, and were accordingly treated by the artist as subjects on
which to exercise his ingenuity in knotting them into fantastic shapes.
Lindisfarne Gospels.
Passing from Ireland, the Celtic style of book ornamentation was
naturally practised in the monastic settlements of Scotland, and
especially in St Columba's foundation in the island of Iona. Thence it
spread to other houses in Britain. In the year 635, at the request of
Oswald, king of Northumbria, Aidan, a monk of Iona, was sent to preach
Christianity in that kingdom, and became the founder of the abbey and
see of Lindisfarne in Holy Isle off the Northumbrian coast. Here was
established by the brethren who accompanied the missionary the famous
school of Lindisfarne, from which issued a wonderful series of finely
written and finely ornamented MSS. in the Celtic style, some of which
still survive. The most perfect is the _Lindisfarne Gospels_ or _St
Cuthbert's Gospels_ or the _Durham Book_, as it is more commonly called
from the fact of its having rested for some time at Durham after early
wanderings. This MS., written in honour of St Cuthbert and completed
early in the 8th century, is in the Cottonian collection in the British
Museum--a beautiful example of writing, and of the Celtic style of
ornament, and in perfect condition. The contact with foreign influences,
unknown in Ireland, is manifested in this volume by the use of gold, but
in very sparing quantity, in some of the details. An interesting point
in the artistic treatment of the MS. is the style in which the figures
of the four evangelists are portrayed. Here the conventional Irish
method, noticed above, is abandoned; the figures are mechanical copies
from Byzantine models. The artist was unskilled in such drawing and has
indicated the folds of the draperies, not by shading, but by streaks of
paint of contrasting colours. Explanations of such instances of the
unexpected adoption of a foreign style are rarely forthcoming; but in
this case there is one. The sections of the text have been identified as
following the Neapolitan use. The Greek Theodore, archbishop of
Canterbury, arrived in Britain in the year 688 and was accompanied by
Adrian, abbot of a monastery in the island of Nisita near Naples; and
they both visited Lindisfarne. There can therefore be little doubt that
the Neapolitan MS. from which the text of the _Durham Book_ was derived,
was one which Abbot Adrian had brought with him; and it may also be
assumed that his MS. also contained paintings of the evangelists in the
Byzantine style, which served as models to the Northumbrian artist.
Carolingian.
The Celtic style was thus established through the north of England, and
thence it spread to the southern parts of the country. But, for the
moment, the account of its further development in Britain must be
suspended in order to resume the thread of the story of the later
classical influence on the illumination of MSS. of the Frankish empire.
Under Charlemagne, who became emperor of the West in the year 800, art
revived in many branches, and particularly in that of the writing and
the illumination of MSS. During the reigns of this monarch and his
immediate successors was produced a series of magnificent volumes,
mostly biblical and liturgical, made resplendent by a lavish use of
gold. The character of the decoration runs still, as of old, in the two
lines of illustration and of pure ornament. We find a certain amount of
general illustration, usually of the biblical narrative, in pictorial
scenes drawn in freehand in the later classical style, and undoubtedly
inspired by the western art of Rome. But those illustrations are small
in number compared with the numerous examples of pure ornament. Such
ornament was employed in the tables of the Eusebian canons, in the
accessories of the traditional pictures of the evangelists, in the
full-page designs which introduced the opening words of the several
books of Bibles or Gospels, in the large initial letters profusely
scattered through the volumes, in the infinite variety of borders which,
in some MSS., adorned page after page. In all this ornament the debased
classical element is prominently in evidence, columns and arches of
variegated marbles, and leaf mouldings and other architectural details
are borrowed from the Roman basilicas, to serve as decorations for text
and miniature. The conventional portrait-figures of the evangelists are
modelled on the Byzantine pattern, but with differences which appear to
indicate an intervening influence, such as would be exercised on the
eastern art by its transmission through Italy. Such figures, which
indeed become, in course of time, so formal as almost to be decorative
details along with their settings, grew stereotyped and passed on
monotonously from artist to artist, always subject to deterioration, and
were perpetuated especially in MSS. of German origin down to the 11th
and 12th centuries.
[Illustration: PLATE II.