Insular and Anglo-Saxon Art

Insular and Anglo-Saxon art is the name given to the distinctive visual culture of the British Isles and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms between the conversion of Ireland in the fifth century and the coming of the Viking raids in the ninth. Its most celebrated products are the great illuminated gospel books — the Book of Durrow, the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Book of Kells, and the Book of Deer — but the tradition also produced the carved high crosses of Ireland and Northumbria, the metalwork of the Irish and Anglo-Saxon workshops, and the painted books, the carved shrines, and the liturgical objects that filled the monasteries of the British Isles. The broader context is in the early medieval art and architecture; the manuscript production is covered in the illuminated manuscripts of the early Middle Ages; and the relationship to the Carolingian and Ottonian art of the continent is treated in the Carolingian and Ottonian art.

Insular art is also called Hiberno-Saxon art, reflecting the close interaction between the Irish, Scottish, and Anglo-Saxon monastic cultures of the period. The tradition is the first major non-Mediterranean Christian art of the medieval West, and it developed in relative isolation from the Byzantine and Frankish worlds. Its visual language is highly distinctive: an ornamental style of interlace, spirals, key patterns, zoomorphic forms, and step patterns combined with figurative imagery drawn from the Bible and the lives of the saints. The resulting works are among the most original and most carefully studied of all early medieval art.

The Conversion of Ireland and the Origins of Insular Art

The conversion of Ireland to Christianity in the fifth century, traditionally associated with the mission of the St. Patrick, created the conditions for the development of a distinctive Irish Christian art. The Irish Church, organized around the great monastic communities of Iona, Clonmacnoise, Glendalough, and Kells, developed its own distinctive monastic culture, with strong Irish, Romano-British, and Continental influences. The earliest surviving Irish Christian art, of which the Derrynaflan Chalice and the Ardagh Chalice are the most famous examples, shows strong Mediterranean influence in the form and decoration of the liturgical objects, but the ornamental motifs that would later become characteristic of the Insular style are also present.

The Irish monastic tradition was extraordinarily energetic. The Irish monks founded monasteries in Scotland, Northumbria, and the Frankish heartland, and the great Irish missionary expansion of the sixth and seventh centuries carried the Insular visual and literary culture to Iona, Lindisfarne, Wearmouth-Jarrow, and the other great centers of the British Isles. The Synod of Whitby in 664, which brought the Irish and Roman missionary traditions into closer alignment, marked the beginning of a more uniform Christian culture in the north of England, and the Roman mission of the Augustine of Canterbury in 597 brought the Roman Christian tradition to the southern Anglo-Saxon kingdoms. The interaction of these two traditions, the Irish and the Roman, produced the distinctive Insular style of the eighth and ninth centuries.

The Great Gospel Books

The great gospel books are the most celebrated products of the Insular tradition. The Book of Durrow (c. 650–700), perhaps the earliest surviving fully decorated Insular gospel book, was produced at the monastery of Durrow in Ireland or at Iona. The Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 700), produced at the monastery of Lindisfarne in Northumbria, is the masterpiece of the early Northumbrian scriptorium. The Book of Kells (c. 800), produced at Iona or at the monastery of Kells in Ireland, is generally regarded as the masterpiece of the Insular tradition and one of the most famous illuminated manuscripts in the history of Western art. The Book of Deer (c. 850–1000), the MacRegol Gospels (c. 800), and the Book of Armagh (c. 800) are the other major surviving examples.

The gospel book was the most prestigious object in the Insular monastery. The book was used in the liturgy, displayed on the altar on major feasts, processed through the church, and venerated with a kiss. The decoration of the gospel book was a sacred act: the lettering, the ornament, and the figurative imagery all served to honor the Word of God, and the artist was understood to be working under divine inspiration. The pages of the great gospel books are covered with abstract ornament of extraordinary complexity: interlace in red, brown, yellow, and green; spirals and trumpet patterns; key patterns and step patterns; zoomorphic forms that twist and interlock with the abstract ornament; and figurative imagery drawn from the Bible and the symbols of the evangelists. The result is an art of dazzling visual complexity that has no close parallel in the contemporary Byzantine or Carolingian traditions.

The script of the Insular gospel books — the Insular half-uncial and the Insular majuscule — is itself a major artistic achievement. The letterforms are heavily decorated, with the shafts of the letters extended into spirals, the bowls of the letters filled with red dots, and the spaces between the letters filled with ornament. The script is so distinctive that paleographers can identify the scriptoria of Iona, Lindisfarne, Wearmouth-Jarrow, and the major Irish monasteries from the letterforms alone. The Insular script tradition, including the later Insular minuscule, was carried to the Continent by the Irish and Anglo-Saxon missionaries and had a major influence on the development of the Carolingian and post-Carolingian script traditions.

The High Crosses of Ireland and Northumbria

The high cross is the most distinctive monumental art form of the Insular tradition. The Irish high crosses, of which the Cross of Muiredach at Monasterboice, the West Cross at Clonmacnoise, and the crosses at Kells, Monasterboice, and Clonmacnoise are the most famous examples, were erected in monastic sites throughout Ireland in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries. The Northumbrian and Anglo-Saxon high crosses, of which the Ruthwell Cross, the Bewcastle Cross, the Easby Cross, and the Brompton Cross are the most famous, were erected in monastic and parish sites throughout Northumbria and the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

The high cross was an outdoor liturgical monument, erected in the monastic enclosure or the churchyard, and used as a focus for prayer, preaching, and pilgrimage. The cross was carved in stone, often in a single piece or in a small number of fitted pieces, and was covered with biblical scenes, ornamental motifs, and inscriptions. The iconography of the Irish crosses includes Old and New Testament scenes, the life of Christ, the lives of the saints, and the symbols of the evangelists. The ornamental language is closely related to the manuscript tradition, with interlace, spirals, key patterns, and zoomorphic forms covering the edges and the spaces between the figural scenes.

The technique of stone carving in the Insular tradition was highly developed. The carvers used simple iron tools — chisels, gouges, and drills — to carve the hard local stone, and they worked slowly and carefully to produce the high level of finish that characterizes the best examples. The crosses were often painted in addition to being carved, and the surviving traces of pigment show that the high crosses were originally brightly colored, like the contemporary manuscripts. The high cross tradition continued in Ireland and Scotland into the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and influenced the development of the Romanesque and Gothic sculpture of the British Isles.

Anglo-Saxon Art

The Anglo-Saxon contribution to Insular art developed in the seventh and eighth centuries in the kingdoms of Northumbria, Mercia, and Wessex. The greatest concentration of surviving Anglo-Saxon art is in the metalwork of the period: the famous Sutton Hoo treasure, deposited in the seventh century in a ship burial at Sutton Hoo in Suffolk, includes the famous Sutton Hoo helmet, the Sutton Hoo purse lid, the great gold buckles, the silver dishes, and the many other objects of gold, silver, garnet, and bronze that constitute the most spectacular surviving hoard of early medieval metalwork in northern Europe. The decorative language of the Sutton Hoo treasure is closely related to the manuscript tradition, with cloisonné garnet inlay, filigree, and granulation in complex ornamental patterns.

The Anglo-Saxon gospel books, of which the Lindisfarne Gospels, the Codex Amiatinus (the great Wearmouth-Jarrow Bible of c. 700), and the Royal Bible are the most famous examples, are technically and artistically the equal of the Irish and Iona products. The Benedictional of St. Æthelwold, the Winchester Style manuscripts of the tenth century, and the great Anglo-Saxon ivory carvings are the masterpieces of the late Anglo-Saxon period. The conversion of England to Christianity (see the conversion of England to Christianity), was accompanied by a rich production of art for the church and the royal court.

The Anglo-Saxon visual tradition also produced a distinctive tradition of stone sculpture. The Anglo-Saxon stone crosses of Northumbria and the southern kingdoms, of which the famous Sandbach Crosses and the Rothbury Cross are the most famous, were carved in the eighth, ninth, and tenth centuries. The technique of carving in the local sandstone was highly developed, and the figural and ornamental programs show the same mixture of Insular and Roman influence that characterizes the manuscript tradition. The Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman manuscript tradition (see the Anglo-Saxon England), continued to flourish in the centuries after the Viking raids and prepared the way for the rich manuscript production of the Anglo-Norman and later medieval English tradition.

Insular Art on the Continent

The Irish and Anglo-Saxon missionaries of the seventh and eighth centuries carried the Insular visual tradition to the Continent. The great monasteries of Bobbio, St. Gall, Reichenau, and Echternach were founded or reformed by Irish and Anglo-Saxon monks, and the scriptoria of these foundations produced manuscripts in the Insular style. The famous Book of Kells, produced at Iona, was carried to the monastery of Kells in Ireland, but other great Insular manuscripts were produced at the Continental foundations. The famous St. Gall manuscripts, the Lichfield Gospels, the Book of Cerne, and the Book of Dimma are the most famous surviving examples of the Continental Insular tradition.

The influence of the Insular tradition on the development of Carolingian art was substantial. The Carolingian court school, the scriptoria of Tours, Reims, and Corbie, and the great monastic libraries of the Frankish heartland all incorporated Insular elements in the development of the new Carolingian visual language. The famous Ada Gospels, the Godescalc Evangelistary, and the Utrecht Psalter all show the influence of the Insular tradition, and the development of the Carolingian minuscule is in part a synthesis of Insular, Roman, and local Frankish scripts. The treatment of this synthesis in the Carolingian and Ottonian periods is found in the Carolingian and Ottonian art.