HOW THE ANCIENT IRISH EXCELLED IN ART.

The old Irish people became wonderfully skilful in some branches of Art; and many specimens of their handiwork still remain—preserved through the wreck of ages—which exceed in beauty of design and in perfection of execution all works of the kind done by the artists of other nations.

While Art was cultivated in several branches, the Irish attained more skill in Ornamental Penwork than in any other. They took special delight, and used their utmost efforts, in ornamenting religious and devotional books, especially the Gospels and other parts of the Holy Scripture; for they justly considered that to beautify the sacred writings was one way of honouring and glorifying God.

The special Irish style of pen ornamentation was developed by successive generations of artists, who brought it to marvellous perfection. Its most marked feature is interlaced work formed by bands and ribbons, which are curved and twisted and interwoven in the most intricate way, something like basket-work infinitely varied in pattern. Here and there among the complicated designs may be seen strange half-formed faces of animals, and sometimes human faces, or full figures of men or of angels. But vegetable forms are very rare.

What most astonishes a person examining this work is the amazing variety and minuteness of the patterns, and the perfect smoothness and evenness of the curves, as if they had been traced by compasses or some other fine instruments; though they were all drawn by the unaided hand. The scribes usually made the capital letters very large, so as sometimes to fill almost an entire page; and on these they exerted their utmost skill. They painted the open spaces of the letters and ornaments in brilliant colours: and in this art—an art usually designated ‘Illumination’—the old Irish scribes also excelled.

Several manuscript-books, ornamented in this manner, have been preserved, of which it will be sufficient to mention one here—The Book of Kells, now in Trinity College, Dublin, though there are several others almost equally beautiful. It is a copy of the Four Gospels in Latin, written on vellum in the seventh or eighth century. Miss Margaret Stokes, of Dublin, a skilled artist and a great judge of such matters, who has carefully examined this book, thus speaks of it:—“No effort hitherto made to transcribe any one page of this book has the perfection of execution and rich harmony of colour which belongs to this wonderful book. It is no exaggeration to say that, as with the microscopic works of nature, the stronger the magnifying power brought to bear upon it, the more is this perfection seen. No single false interlacement or uneven curve in the spirals, no faint trace of a trembling hand or wandering thought can be detected. This is the very passion of labour and devotion, and thus did the Irish scribe work to glorify his book.”

Professor Westwood, of Oxford—an English gentleman—who examined the best specimens of penwork all over Europe, speaks even more strongly. “The Book of Kells,” he says, “is the most astonishing book of the Four Gospels which exists in the world. How men could have had eyes and tools to work out the designs, I am sure I, with all the skill and knowledge in such kind of work which I have been exercising for the last fifty years, cannot conceive. I know pretty well all the libraries in Europe where such books as this occur, but there is no such book in any of them. There is nothing like it in all the books which were written for Charlemagne and his successors.”

There was a book like this, long since lost, in St. Brigit’s convent of Kildare, which was shown to the Welshman Giraldus Cambrensis more than seven hundred years ago, and which so astonished him that he has recorded a legend—to which he devotes a separate chapter of his book—that it was written under the direction of an angel. He described it; and his description would now exactly apply to the Book of Kells. But in those times there were many such books. We can hardly be surprised at Giraldus’s legend; for whoever looks closely into some of the lovely pages of the Book of Kells—even in the photographic reproductions—will be inclined to wonder how any human head could have designed, or how any human hand could have drawn them.

These beautiful books were all written by Christian artists. We do not know if there was any attempt to ornament books in pagan times. But the pagan Irish, long before the introduction of Christianity, practised art of another kind—Metal-work—and attained great perfection in it. Those old artists exercised their skill in making and ornamenting shields; trumpets; swords with their hilts and scabbards; chariots; bridles; brooches; gold gorgets or circlets for the neck; and so forth.

We can now judge of their handiwork for ourselves; for numerous beautiful specimens are preserved in our museums. The most remarkable are what are now commonly called ‘Crescents,’ of which we have many in the National Museum, in Dublin. These are broad circlets of pure gold to be worn round the neck, all covered over with ornamental designs. Both the general shape and the designs were produced by hammering with a mallet and punches on shaped solid moulds. The patterns and workmanship are astonishingly fine, showing extraordinary skill in manipulation: they are indeed so complicated and perfect that it is difficult to understand how they could have been produced by mere handwork, with hammers, punches, and moulds. Yet they could have been made in no other way.

We may see then that when St. Patrick arrived, in the fifth century, he found the art of working in metals already highly developed. We know that he kept, as part of his household, smiths, brasiers, goldsmiths, and other artists, who were constantly employed in making crosses; crosiers; chalices; bells; and such like.On the score of obtaining skilled workmen there was no difficulty, for he had plenty of pagan artists to choose from, who, on their conversion, turned their skill to Christian work, and found little difficulty in adapting their cunning fingers to new objects and to new forms of ornamentation. So the primitive pagan artistic metal work was continued on and improved in Christian times, and was brought to the highest perfection in the tenth and eleventh centuries. The ornamentation was generally like that used in manuscripts (p. 92).

Many of the beautiful objects made by those accomplished artists are now preserved in museums; some of them will bear comparison with the best works of the kind executed by artists of other countries; and a few might be found to bear the palm from all.

The three objects that are usually brought forward as examples of the best workmanship of the Irish Christian artists are the Cross of Cong, the Ardagh Chalice, and the Tara Brooch, all of which may be seen in the National Museum in Dublin: but there are many others in the same museum almost equally beautiful. These three will be found pretty fully described, with illustrations, in the two Social Histories of Ancient Ireland. The Tara Brooch was shown some years ago in one of the great London exhibitions, and drew the eyes of all visitors. One English writer, who examined it and wrote an account of it, says that he found a difficulty in conceiving how any fingers could have made it, and that it looked more like the work of fairies than of a human artist.