Description

The art of the early Insular world (present-day Ireland and Britain) allows a vivid insight into the radical changes, economic, political and social, that marked the region between the seventh and eleventh centuries. It is a period that saw a continual migration and settlement of Germanic peoples into the region, a movement that initially impacted on a Roman territory inhabited by Celtic peoples and subsequently, in the tenth and eleventh centuries, made its mark on a complex society with an economically powerful ruling elite that embraced both ‘Church’ and ‘State’. It is a period that saw the continual activity of Christian missions both into the Insular world from the Continental mainland, and into Europe from Ireland and Britain. It is thus a period that saw a meeting of cultures that were pagan and Christian, secular and religious, oral and literate, Northern European and Mediterranean.

By studying the art used to decorate the metalwork, manuscripts and stone monuments produced in the region during this period we will explore the complexities of a visual culture that could be shaped by such interactions and, at the same time, could be consciously employed in attempts to shape them.