Art in Medieval Scotland
In the
Insular art is the name given to the common style that developed in Britain and Ireland from the eighth century and which became highly influential in continental Europe and contributed to the development of Romanesque and Gothic styles. It can be seen in elaborate jewellery, often making extensive use of semi-precious stones, in the heavily carved high crosses found particularly in the Highlands and Islands, but distributed across the country and particularly in the highly decorated illustrated manuscripts such as the Book of Kells, which may have been begun, or wholly created at the monastic centre of Iona.
Scotland adopted the Romanesque style relatively late and retained and revived elements of its style after the Gothic style had become dominant from the thirteenth century. Much of the best Scottish artwork of the High and Late Middle Ages was either religious in nature or realised in metal and woodwork, and has not survived the impact of time and the Reformation. However, examples of sculpture are extant as part of church architecture, including evidence of elaborate church interiors. From the thirteenth century there are relatively large numbers of monumental effigies. Native craftsmanship can be seen in a variety of items. Visual illustration can be seen in the illumination of charters and occasional survivals of church paintings. Surviving copies of individual portraits are relatively crude, but more impressive are the works or artists commissioned from the continent, particularly the Netherlands.
Early Middle Ages
Pictish stones
About 250 Pictish stones survive and have been assigned by scholars to three classes.
Class II stones are carefully shaped slabs dating after the arrival of Christianity in the eighth and ninth centuries, with a cross on one face and a wide range of symbols on the reverse. In smaller numbers than Class I stones, they predominate in southern Pictland, in Perth, Angus and Fife. Good examples include Glamis 2, which contains a finely executed Celtic cross on the main face with two opposing male figures, a centaur, cauldron, deer head and a triple disc symbol and Cossans, Angus, which shows a high-prowed Pictish boat with oarsmen and a figure facing forward in the prow.[2] Class III stones are thought to overlap chronologically with Class II stones.[2] Most are elaborately shaped and incised cross-slabs, some with figurative scenes, but lacking idiomatic Pictish symbols. They are widely distributed but predominate in the southern Pictish areas.[2]
Pictish metalwork
Items of metalwork have been found throughout Pictland. The earlier Picts appear to have had a considerable amount of silver available, probably from raiding further south, or the payment of subsidies to keep them from doing so. The very large hoard of late Roman hacksilver found at Traprain Law may have originated in either way. The largest hoard of early Pictish metalwork was found in 1819 at Norrie's Law in Fife, but unfortunately much was dispersed and melted down.[3] Over ten heavy silver chains, some over 0.5 metres (1.6 ft) long, have been found from this period; the double-linked Whitecleuch Chain is one of only two that have a penannular ring, with symbol decoration including enamel, which shows how these were probably used as "choker" necklaces.[3] The St Ninian's Isle Treasure of 28 silver and silver-gilt objects, contains perhaps the best collection of late Pictish forms, from the Christian period, when Pictish metalwork style, as with stone-carving, gradually merged with Insular, Anglo-Saxon and Viking styles.[4]
Irish-Scots art
Early Anglo-Saxon art
Early examples of Anglo-Saxon art are largely metalwork, particularly bracelets, clasps and jewellery, that has survived in pagan burials and in exceptional items such as the intricately carved whalebone
Insular art
Insular art, or Hiberno-Saxon art, is the name given to the common style produced in Scotland, Britain and Anglo-Saxon England from the seventh century, with the combining of Celtic and Anglo-Saxon forms.
Christianity discouraged the burial of grave goods so the majority of examples of insular metalwork that survive from the Christian period have been found in archaeological contexts that suggest they were rapidly hidden, lost or abandoned.
The most significant survivals in sculpture are in
Viking age art
Viking art avoided naturalism, favouring stylised animal motifs to create its ornamental patterns. Ribbon-interlace was important and plant motifs became fashionable in the tenth and eleventh centuries.
Late Middle Ages
Architecture and sculpture
Architectural evidence suggests that, while the Romanesque style peaked in much of Europe in the later eleventh and early twelfth century, it was still reaching Scotland in the second half of the twelfth century[30] and was revived in the late fifteenth century, perhaps as a reaction to the English perpendicular style that had come to dominate.[31] Much of the best Scottish artwork of the High and Late Middle Ages was either religious in nature or realised in metal and woodwork and has not survived the impact of time and the Reformation.[32] However, examples of sculpture are extant as part of church architecture, a small number of significant crafted items have also survived and, for the end of the period, there is evidence of painting, particularly the extensive commissioning of works in the Low Countries and France.[33]
The interiors of churches were often more elaborate before the Reformation, with highly decorated sacrament houses, like the ones surviving at Deskford and Kinkell.
Decorative arts
Survivals from late Medieval church fittings and objects in Scotland are exceptionally rare even compared to those from comparable areas like England or Norway, probably because of the thoroughness of their destruction in the Scottish Reformation. The Scottish elite and church now participated in a culture stretching across Europe, and many objects that do survive are imported, such as Limoges enamels.[40] It is often difficult to decide the country of creation of others, as work in international styles was produced in Scotland, along with pieces retaining more distinctive local styles.
Two secular small chests with carved whalebone panels and metal fittings illustrate some aspects of the Scottish arts. The Eglington and Fife Caskets are very similar and were probably made by the same workshop around 1500, as boxes for valuables such as jewellery or documents. The overall form of the caskets follows French examples, and the locks and metal bands are decorated in Gothic style with "simple decorations of
Key examples of native craftsmanship on items include the
One of the largest groups of surviving works of art are the seal matrices that appear to have entered Scottish usage with feudalism in the reign of David I, beginning at the royal court and among his Anglo-Norman vassals and then by about 1250 they began to spread to the
Illumination and painting
Manuscript illumination continued into the late Middle Ages, moving from elaborate gospels to charters, like that confirming the rights of
See also
References
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- ^ A. Lane, "Citadel of the first Scots", British Archaeology, 62, December 2001. Retrieved 2 December 2010.
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- ISBN 0714105546, pp. 72–115, and 170–174 and D. M. Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Art: From The Seventh Century To The Norman Conquest (Overlook Press, 1984), pp. 113–114 and 120–130.
- ^ R. G. Calkins, Illuminated Books of the Middle Ages (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press 1983), pp. 57–60.
- ^ ISBN 1851094407, pp. 915–19.
- ^ D. M. Wilson, Anglo-Saxon Art: From The Seventh Century To The Norman Conquest (Overlook Press), 1984, p. 118.
- ^ G. Henderson, Early Medieval Art (London: Penguin, 1972), pp. 63–71.
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- ^ Glenn, 1–4; Chapter III on enamels
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- ^ R. Brydall, Art in Scotland: its Origins and Progress (Edinburgh and London: Blackwood, 1889), p. 17.
- ^ M. R. Apted and W. R. Robinson, "Late fifteenth century church painting from Guthrie and Foulis Easter"[permanent dead link], Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, vol. 95 (1964), pp. 262–79.
- ^ D. H. Caldwell, ed., Angels, Nobles and Unicorns: Art and Patronage in Medieval Scotland (Edinburgh: National Museum of Scotland, 1982), p. 84.