Studio: international art (14.1898)

Celtic

sculpture may have commenced here as early,
perhaps, as the beginning of the eighth century.
As far as the evidence of the inscriptions on the
monuments themselves go, the earliest deco-
rated cross-slabs with reliable dates are those of
St. Berechtir at Tullylease, Co. Cork, a.d. 839,-
and Suibhne, son of Maelhuma, at Clonmacnois,
King’s County, a.d. 887. The high crosses of
Muireadach, at Monasterboice, Co. Louth, and
of King Flann at Clonmacnois, were erected
between a.d. 904 and 924.

The archaeological method of arranging the

FIG. 4.—UPRIGHT CROSS SLAB FROM SHETLAND,
NOW IN THE EDINBURGH MUSEUM

Sculpture

FIG. 5.—CROSS OF HOUELT FIG. 6.—CROSS AT PEN-
AT LLANTWIT MAJOR MON PRIORY, ANGLE-

SEY. (From a draw-
ing by Harold Hughes)

monuments in a series showing their evolution
supplies a certain amount of information as to
their approximate age, it being assumed that, as a
rule, the simpler the form the earlier the date. In
such a series, then, we begin with the simplest
forms and the most primitive technical processes,
and gradually proceed onwards to more compli-
cated forms and technical processes requiring
greater skill. Architectural and decorative forms
are evolved much in the same way as plants and
animals. When variation has once set in it
generally tends in a particular direction, so that
successive variations produce a cumulative effect,
instead of one neutralising the other.

We will now endeavour to arrange the early
Christian monuments of this country in a series
showing their evolution, as being the easiest way
in which they can be studied; but it must be dis-
tinctly understood that it is not always possible to
prove that the changes followed each other in
chronological order, as they should do according
to the strict laws of evolution.

As far as we know, the earliest Christian monu-
ments are rude pillar-stones, not dressed into any

166