Art of the Celts

Michelle Armstrong

I II

ART OF THE CELTS:Treasures of an Ancient Civilization

III IV

Treasures of an ancient civilization

Michelle Armstrong

1 2

ART OF THE CELTS ART OF THE CELTS

What’s in a Name?

The various names the Celts were known by were used by Greek and Latin writers to mean: the barbarians of Transalpine Europe who lived near the mouth of the Danube and inland from Massalia. They were people who had invaded the Balkans and attacked Dephi in 280/279 BC, who had served as mercenaries under numerous tyrants and dynasties from Dionsysus of Syracuse to the Attalids of Pergamum, who had settled in the heart of Anatolia. They were people who had been defeated several times by Rome and who were listed as defeated in the Fasti Triumphales and in the inscriptions on various commemorative monuments.

The Celts were sustained by a warrior ideology and were malleable and open-minded toward the customs of important peoples. Their mobility brought about the transmission of ideologies and concepts through acculturization processes and the influence they exercised over autochthonous groups. The processes of interaction, lasting thousands of years, between Celtic-speaking peoples and the “others” brought about the cultural diversification of the Celtic peoples.

The Celts and the Arts of the Ancient World

The Greeks had little respect for people who had to engage in manual labor. The general opinion was that monotonous and incessant work wore out the body and prevented participation in public life, which in turn would lead to social dependence on others. Specialized skilled workers and craftsmen who worked with precious materials, however, were highly regarded and gained a considerable amount of prestige from it.

Crafts were held in high esteem in the northern Celtic areas. A grave at LA Somme-Tourbe in France contained the remains of a man whose weapons, drinking vessel and gold jewelry were among the richest grave goods found anywhere in the Champagne region. At his feet, besides his bronze helmet, a set of iron tools consisting of a hammer, drill, files, punches and tweezers or small pincers were deposited. While this man belonged to the Celtic upper class, he did not shy away from using tools.

The high quality of Celtic artisanship is best of all illustrated by its products. The Celts used a variety of materials consisting of bronze, iron, gold and silver. In addition to

ornamentation and jewelry, they also made pottery and textiles.

Style and Taste

We can only form partial and hypothetical opinions of the aesthetics of Celtan artisans and their employers. Too many artifacts made of perishable materials such as wood and textiles are lost to us. Evidence of the use of color, which obviously has a strong effect on the appearance of an artifact, is also in short supply. However, particular attention was paid to weaponry in the Celtic age. Helmets were the showpieces of a warrior’s equipment. Those found often include sockets for projecting elements of some kind, which, however, have not been preserved. Shields were colorfully painted and decorated with animal depictions.

Iron and Bronze with gold leaf and coral, diam. 22 cm, Agris, Charente, France, Angouleme, Musee Municipal

3 4


A Love of Geometry

Over the course of the eighth century BC a particular and unique style of decorating pottery was developed in southern Germany. Almost all finds of this pottery to date have come from burials and therefore many have survived. This pottery was explicitly intended for status and prestige purposes; hand-built and decorated from top to bottom, these vessels were masterpieces. Archaeologists call it Alb-Hegau pottery.

The surface of the pottery was painted in red and graphite; the patterns were stamped or cut into the pottery with a fine blade and then encrusted with white line. The designs of the ornament consisted of bands of varying width filled with geometric patterning. The step in the

This characterization applies not only to objects made of less valuable materials but also works of gold. During the same period, artifacts from the south were imported constantly, bringing new motifs into the region that originated from a world of images totally alien to the indigenous tradition. Realistic depictions of humans and animals including unknown species such as lions found their way across the Alps.

Faces, Chimeras, and Ornamentation

Masks and grotesque faces would form one of the characteristic elements of the Early style. They adorned vessels, jewelry, fittings, things for everyday use and even works in stone. They were often crowned with forcefully animated pairs of leaves; a characteristic piece of jewelry was a necklace denoted with distinguished and elevated figures. There were an immense variety of figural brooches, which were invariably individual pieces and were probably worn as cloak fasteners for display and to attract attention. Human and animal forms represented are sometimes anatomically correct and can be clearly identified; but there are also fantastical chimeras in the most whimsical designs and arrangements, far removed from any kind of naturalism.

decoration process was a line drawing that roughly planned out the available surface. The elements of the decoration consisted of grids and panels: the grid system ensured that the repeat pattern worked out in the end. Finer divisions were then applied and filled in by stamping, incising, painting and encrusting.

Certain rules were followed in the making of the best-quality pieces: panels with the same patterns were never placed beside each other; patterns

remained unchanged within the individual panels; panels with patterns impressed into or cut out of the ceramic were always left unpainted.

Rectangular patterns were ubiquitous and usually applied to flat surfaces. Only rarely were these patterns used on concave surfaces, where their effect was greatly diminished. There was a general reluctance to use curvilinear ornamentation. Repetition of motifs to form continuous repeat patterns is carried on ad infinitum; this routine of pattern repeating appears to have ousted any creativity.

All-Hegau pottery from the 8th and 7th century BC. Hand-built and decorated with several different colors. From Wurttemberg.

Left: Spouted flagon from the Waldagesheim Tomb, decorated in the Early styleRight: Figural brooches illustrate the unique Celtic spirit. Humanoid masks, animal heads and full length figures. From the Glauberg, Hessen.

5 6


A motif that runs as a central theme through all periods of Celtic art is that of animals affronted or sometimes addorsed, most of them fantastical beasts rather than zoological creatures. In contrast, human representations in which anatomy is depicted more or less accurately is found almost only in stone sculpture.

The Waldalgesheim Style

Celtic ornament reached full maturity in its second phase, the so-called Waldalgesheim style, which was practiced for the duration of the fourth century BC. As figural brooches were no longer in vogue, masks and faces now occurred less frequently; they were, however, incorporated in a playful manner in rich vegetal foliage. Two motifs, the tendril and the lyre, dominated the repertoire of the Waldalgesheim style.

While Greek tendrils flow naturally in gentle forward motion in one direction only, Celtic wave-tendrils were abstract from the beginning and unruly in their pattern of motion: a counter movement, which created an unsettling impression, disrupted each forward-moving wave or arc.

The Greek ‘lyre’ motif, consisting of a double S-figure with an incorporated palmette was transformed in Celtic art into a dense weave peppering even the smallest empty space with a doted pattern. All the basic elements of the Waldalgesheim style may have found their inspiration in Greek pottery; however, it was a case of simple copying. The original motifs were distorted to an extent never before

Enamelled horse-trappings 8 cm high from a hoard found in a cauldron at Santon, Norfolk, mid-first century A.D. Linked s-curves and commas.

seen—cut into pieces, turned and twisted, reconstituted with added zest. The Waldalgesheim style at its purest is free with flowing tendrils

that threaten to break out in every direction. Such a design was held captive in a leaf or lobe shaped field. However, the decoration was not always as lavish as this. For innumerable pieces of jewelry—torques, arm rings and brooches—as for ceramics for everyday use and for weapons—scabbards and lanceheads—simpler decorative schemes were quite adequate.

The Late Celtic Styles

The Late styles continued what had begun with the Waldalgesheim style. In this, two general directions emerged, which archaeologists categorize as the Plastic style and the Sword style.

The Plastic style held on to the traditional basic components almost unchanged, but accentuated them even further. The style is found most frequently on arm and ankle rings or on torques made of bronze or gold. Tendrils and scrolls, previously two-dimensional now protrude markedly and become three-dimensional. Entire compositions, hitherto drawn on the surface, were now mounted on to the body of the ring as a three-dimensional decoration, which gives the object a baroque air and to modern taste appears somewhat overloaded.

1, Engraved decoration of the Bescancon bronze flagon. 2, design on unprovenanced bronze flagon in British Museum. 1 adapted from Jacobsthal and Langsdorff (1929), 2 adapted from Frey (1955)

7 8


Art in Transition

While Celtic arts and crafts on the Continent began to decline in the first century BC, it was at this time that they reached their heyday in southern England. This is illustrated by the heavy previous metal torques usually found accumulated in hoards. On such works, spiral coils and relief foliage were combined to form an irregular weave across the otherwise smooth surfaces. In addition, the backs of the bronze mirrors were designed with equal virtuosity but with greater graphic emphasis. They were clearly showpieces, and it was probably more important for the owner to impress other people than to see her own image. The engraved and typically symmetrical decoration was usually based on a highly complicated compass-drawn construction. The fine lines were rarely drawn by hand. The motifs outlined by the circular arcs stood out most clearly in cases where smooth and matted areas alternated. With regard to pottery production, the introduction of the potter’s wheel in the fifth century had already created the preconditions for the rapid manufacture of high-quality ceramic wares. The thin-walled fine ware was usually painted in simple horizontal bands, which ran around the body of the vessel. The colors consisted of various layers of fine-textured slip. Shades of light brown and red on a background of white

Left: Viking-derived ornament. 1100. Shrine of St. Patrick’s Bell.

Right: Brown terracotta case, 25 cm, with a curved body. Found in a chariot tomb in Somme Bionne. 5th century BC. Next to the careened vase with a small ‘foot,’ 18 cm. Decorated with geometic motif. Found in Marson Necropolis. 5th century.

9 10


were predominant. Groups of lines and curvilinear motifs were applied horizontally, vertically or diagonally in a quick and easy process while the potter’s wheel was rotating. An individual and unique style of painting developed in central France. Its chief motif were elegant four-legged animals taking up postures completely devoid of any anatomical reality and exhibiting extravagant headgear and tails. Brush strokes were applied with confidence and skill. In some cases the fabulous creatures were embedded in a fantastical weave of foliage with stems, leaves, and petals entirely filing all the empty spaces. The Celts also developed their own unique imagery when it came to the striking of

The Auvergne area developed its own style of painting. The mythical creature, painted in white is placed against a dark background.

Bronze with glass inlay, height 84.5 cm,London (Battersea), EnglandLondon, the Birtish Museum

coins. The Celts’ earliest encounters with money probably came about through mercenary services. The engravers composed their designs with extreme precision and displayed impressive powers of abstraction when fitting the images into the small roundels of the coins, which had contours that could often be quite irregular. Approximately from the sixth century AD onwards the last chapters of the history of Celtic art were written exclusively in Ireland. Typical products were penannular brooches, or large pins for fastening clothes, which must have had a display rather than a practical function. On the Tara brooch every single area on the brooch exhibits decoration: on the front, on the back, on the exterior and the interior rims. The decoration on the back consists of Celtic motifs, while the front shows interlaced animals and birds influenced by the so-called Animal style.

11 12


Conclusion

The art of the Celts is the earliest artistic expression in northern Europe that lead to the formation of geographically and chronologically diverse styles. Celtic art developed along the same time as Greek art, yet Celtic art is characterized by fundamentally dissimilar qualities. Greek art is represented by its sculpture, whereas ornamentation played the most important role in Celtic art. Foreign imports influenced local artistic creations: Celtic art, unlike Greek art, never strived to depict nature and the world realistically. Plants, humans and animals were dissected into their individual components and reconstituted, altered and abstracted, distorted and disguised. Celtic ornamentation developed from simple to highly complex structures. It was elitist, and thus has received little appreciation.

Bibliography

Photo Credits

The Tara brooch was one of the final highpoints of Celtic craftsmenship. It consists of gilt silver and with its amber and glass inlays was probably part of regal insignia.

Harding, D.W. The Archaeology of Celtic Art. New York, New York: Routledge, 2007. Print.Laing, Lloyd and Jennifer. Art of the Celts. New York, New York: Thames and Hudson Inc., 1992. Print.Muller, Felix. Art of the Celts: 700 BC to AD 700. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 2009. Print.Vitali, Daniele. The Celts: History and Treasures of an Ancient Civiliza-tion. Vercelli, Italy: White Star Publishers, 2007. Print.

Cover and Back:Bronze mirror, 3.5 cm from Desborough, Northamptonshire.

Title Pages:The Book of Durrow. Photo: The Board of Trinity College, Dublin.The Electrum tore from Snettisham Hoard E, copyright the Trustees of the Bristish Museum.

Gold coins from 30-10 BC and 1st century AD. British Museum, London.

USD $12.95ISBN 0-879-2801-2312-7

www.brownpublishing.comDistributed in North America by Brown Publishing Company

Celtic art was the earliest

significant contribution of

the north to the history of

European art. Its magic lay

in its complexity.

Documents

Art of the Celts