Hiberno-Saxon Style (Insular art)

Hiberno-Saxon art is broadly defined as the visual forms and iconography of the British Isles and Ireland from the sixth to ninth centuries CE. The term derives from the Latin name for Ireland (Hibernia) and the coastal lowlands of Britain (Saxony), although the latter term belies the Germanic roots of the migration period (c. 300–700 CE). The term is not universally accepted, sometimes rejected in favor of the terms Insular Art or Anglo-Saxon, which are themselves not without problems (the former seeming pejorative; the latter too limiting). The chronology of Hiberno-Saxon art is no less controversial. The dates given are conservative, with some scholars pushing the beginnings to the end of Roman rule sometime in the early fifth century CE and the end as late as 1200 CE.

Background

The transitory nature of the populace (and thus artistic and cultural influences) helped shape three key elements in Hiberno-Saxon art: densely textured forms, playful decoration, and schematic animal and human forms, which are focused on conveying distilled meanings rather than on natural forms. The dense language of Anglo-Saxon heroic epics like Beowulf (c. 700–1000 CE) is reflected in the intricate, but packed, visual organic forms. Within these, multiple images are nested or combined to reveal hidden meanings requiring careful observation and contemplation. As such, meaning, direct or hidden, overrides any desire to represent animals and humans directly. This is especially effective in representations of God, Christ, or any of the many religious figures whose divinity or sanctity is beyond ordinary words and deeds. Many of these visual elements owed much to the rich regional traditions of the Celts, Saxons, and even the Romans, although the art was never strictly insular, enjoying occasional touches of Italian, Byzantine, and Near Eastern styles.

Overview

The lack of a strong state, urban structure, or artist workshops, placed much of the artistic development in the scriptorium and the monastic producers of illustrated (illuminated) manuscripts. Moreover, because of the need to evangelize and because many potential converts and new members (neophytes) were often illiterate, it was necessary to illustrate the biblical narratives. One of the earliest masterpieces of book art is the Book of Durrow (c. 650–700 CE), now in Trinity College, London. One of the purely ornamental pages at the start of each book of the Gospel (Carpet page) illustrates a combination of Celtic curvilinear and spiraling forms with insular interlaced animal decoration set in a traditional Roman grid decoration. Although the portraits of the evangelists are flat and their garments treated like decorative tapestries, the animal symbols of the evangelists adhere to a regional insular style with curving outlined musculature. The patterned forms and rich colors further echo the contemporary developments in metalworking.

Further stylistic developments can be seen in later manuscripts. The portraits of the evangelists in the Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 700 CE), now in the British Library in London, shows the influence of eastern medieval art in the rich colors from Egypt (Coptic style) and patterned, slightly more natural figures inspired from Italy (Italo-Byzantine style). Finally, the Barberini Gospels (c. 800 CE), now in the Vatican Libraries, shows the sophisticated skill of the scriptorium in the Mercian monastery (in modern Peterborough). Here the Italo-Byzantine style is softened, less harsh having been filtered through the learned lessons of the Carolingian illuminated manuscripts and their revival of classicizing forms. Likewise, the Celtic spiraling forms, scrollwork, and ornament are simplified into neat patterns, while the insular interlacing animals are now compartmentalized and restricted to small framing elements.

Secular art was more prominent in the production of metal work and jewelry, which was used for personal adornment, gift exchange, armor, and weaponry. The early seventh century CE ship burial of Sutton Hoo, near Woodbridge in East Anglia is one of the richest and most spectacular. The metal ornaments of the deceased’s clothing, especially the gold buckle, shoulder clasps, and purse cover, illustrate the artistry and richness of Hiberno-Saxon jewelry and metal work. The buckle consists of a dense surface of interwoven animals set along the broadly elongated and wavy gold plate. Both the shoulder clasps and the purse cover further embellish the same interlacing animal designs with garnets surrounded by gold metal outline (cloisonné) either to form animals or interlocking patterns. The importance of the deceased is confirmed by the fact that so much wealth was removed from circulation for the burial.

The purposeful burial of a large mass (hoard) of precious metals (more than 3,500 pieces of gold and silver) in the form of disposed and recycled weaponry found near Hammerwich in southern Staffordshire has put into question how one understands the transmission and movement of artistic styles, the value of metals (both precious and base), and how we understand production. The presence of different metal working techniques, artistic styles, and wealth of objects in the Staffordshire Hoard suggests that the recycling of material wealth was not uncommon, probably necessary to pay for loyalty of vassals, and may change how we interpret rich burials like the one at Sutton Hoo and the chronology and diffusion of Hiberno-Saxon portable art.

Sculpture in the round is quite rare and relief sculpture is minimal and fragmentary. Most portable objects that have survived are either metal (as discussed above) or small, worked bone or ivory, such as the Gandersheim casket (late eighth century CE), made of whale bone, and now in Braunschweig, Germany. The casket is a house-shaped box used to hold sacramental ointments (a chrismatory) and is decorated with spiraling trees on its short sides and square panels with animal interlacing and scrollwork—related to forms seen in illuminated manuscripts, but perhaps lacking the delicate and dense visual aspects—on its long sides. On one of the long sides of the Gandersheim casket, an ingenious pattern of seven interconnected spirals forms a rosette, the negative space of which forms three Celtic triskeles.

Monumental or architectural sculpture typically appears as church decoration or funerary decoration. The so-called Cross of Acca—erroneously identified as the cross standing over the grave of Bishop Acca as described by Symeon of Durham—from Hexam (c. 725–750 CE) shows a sensitive hand at executing the woven vinework on the tall shaft on which is surmounted a cross, now mostly missing. Despite its simple form, it represents a distilled hybrid of Christian iconography, insular decoration, and Roman funerary tradition, as seen in the Latin inscription.

Despite our knowledge of illuminated manuscripts from sites such as Lindisfarne, we know little about the form that these monastic settlements and religious structures took. Early churches were made of wood, which leaves little physical evidence; however, as discussed earlier, some fragmentary architectural decoration made of stone does survive. The early church writers (e.g., the Venerable Bede) do occasionally describe structures and materials.

Bibliography

Brown, Michelle. The Lindesfarne Gospels and the Early Medieval World. London: British Library, 2011. Print.

Deshman, Robert. Eye and Mind: Collected Essays in Anglo-Saxon and Early Medieval Art. Ed. Adam S. Cohen. Kalamazoo: Medieval Institute and Western Michigan U, 2010. Print.

Hawkes, Jane, ed. Making Histories. Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Insular Art, York 2011. Lincolnshire: Tyas, 2013. Print.

Hourihane, Colum, ed. Insular and Anglo-Saxon Art and Thought in the Early Medieval Period. The Index of Christian Art Occasional Papers 13. University Park: Penn State UP, 2011.

Karkov, Catherine E. The Art of Anglo-Saxon England. Rochester: Boydell, 2011. Print.

Karkov, Catherine E., and George Hardin Brown, eds. Anglo-Saxon Styles. Albany: State U of New York P, 2003. Print.

Kwakkel, Erik, ed. Writing in Context: Insular manuscript Culture, 500–1200. Leiden: Leiden UP, 2013. Print.

Leahy, Kevin, and Roger Bland. The Staffordshire Hoard. London: British Museum P, 2014. Print.

Meehan, Bernard. The Book of Kells. London: Thames, 2012. Print.

Webster, Leslie. Anglo-Saxon Art: A New History. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 2012. Print.