Visual Arts of Ireland
A brief look at the visual arts in Ireland's history.
Location: Ireland
Celtic Interlace in Irish Art
The most iconic element of traditional Irish art is interlace, or illustrated knotwork. Complex interlace appears in early Irish illustration, metalworking, sculpture, and embroidery. Elements of interlace were introduced with prehistoric Celtic cultures. The art matured in Ireland with the insular styles of the Middle Ages. Some of the finest examples of Irish interlace can be found in the 8th-century Book of Kells. The manuscript showcases the nearly unmatched skill of the island's scribes.[1] Forms of animals in interlace, known as zoomorphs, appeared with later Scandinavian influences.[2]
The Chi Rho folio of the Book of Kells.
Irish Metalworking and Sculpture
Interlace also appeared in Irish metalworking and the sculptures that adorned medieval churches and their high crosses. Medieval chalices and brooches recovered from hoards reveal the same intricate patterns seen in illuminated manuscripts. Bronze was the metal of choice, decorated with gold filigree, amber, and silver.[3]
The oldest sculptures of Ireland can still be seen on its megalithic standing stones and tombs. The ancient artists who adorned their tombs and sacred sites chiseled spiral patterns into the stone with flint or quartz.[4] Later artists carved reliefs of saints entwined with fantastic beasts into the walls of churches and monasteries. Sculptors crafted tombs for the pious and powerful and adorned cathedrals with statues of saints and other religious figures.
Modern Irish Art
The Gaelic Revival sparked new waves of creativity and expression in Irish artists. While W.B. Yeats made a name for himself in literature, his brother, Jack Butler Yeats, became one of Ireland's most famous painters. Other notable painters include William Orpen, John Lavery and Francis Bacon. Today, Irish artists work in every medium from painting to wood carving to film and photography.[6]
Bibliography
Liam de Paor, "The Christian Triumph: The Golden Age" in Treasures of Early Irish Art: 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D. Metropolitan Museum of Art, ed. (New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977).
J. F. X O' Brien, "The Art of Irish Illuminated Manuscripts. II: The Characteristics and Excellence of Irish Illumination" (The Irish Monthly 45, no. 531, 1917): 585-92. http://www.jstor.org/stable/20504881.
T.W. Moody et al., A New History of Ireland: Prehistoric and Early Ireland (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 283-295
Michael J. O'Kelly, Early Ireland: An Introduction to Irish Prehistory (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 234-241.
Rachel Moss, "Planters of Great Civilitie" in Reassessing the Roles of Women as 'Makers' of Medieval Art and Architecture, ed. Therese Martin (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 275-308.
Karen E. Brown, The Yeats Circle, Verbal and Visual Relations in Ireland, 1880-1939 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011).
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