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.

Objectives

By the end of the module, students should have acquired:

• a familiarity with the many different artistic media employed in the period
• an understanding of some of the issues involved in the cultural transmission of the visual languages current in the region
• an understanding of some of the complexities of imagery and meaning in early medieval religious art
• a knowledge of some of the major monuments of the period and their historical context
• an awareness of the various scholarly approaches to the material and the factors informing them

Preliminary Reading

• L. & M. De Paor, Early Christian Ireland, London 1958/1961
• S. Youngs (ed), The Work of Angels, London 1989
• J. Campbell (ed), The Anglo-Saxons, London 1982/1991
• J. Hawkes, The Golden Age of Northumberland, Morpeth/Newcastle upon Tyne, 1996
• L. Webster & J. Backhouse (eds), The Making of England, London 1991
• J. Backhouse, et al (eds), The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art, London 1984
• J. Lang, Anglo-Saxon Sculpture, Aylesbury 1988
• R. Stalley, Irish High Crosses, Dublin 1991