Studio: international art (14.1898)

Celtic Sculpture

FIG. 10.—CROSS IN THE TOWN OF KELLS
(From a photograph by 7. Mansel Franklen, Esq.)

Norman Christian monument in Scotland. It
suggests an exact reproduction of one of the cross-
pages of illuminated Scotic MSS.

We now proceed to consider other monuments
illustrating the transition from the upright cross-
slab to the free-standing high cross of the Iona or
Irish type. On the St. Madoes stone the decora-
tive sculpture consists of two parts, namely, the
cross and the background. The changes of form
we are about to trace resulted from a gradual
removal of the background, and piercing the
hollows between the arms right through the slab
170

until at last the outline of the cross and
that of the monument were the same.

The first step in the modification of
the shape of the rectangular cross-slab is
the rounding of the top so as to conform
to the outline of the cross within the
circle. We have a good instance of this
in the Papil stone (Fig. 4) now in the
Edinburgh Museum. It is interesting
also on account of the Celtic monks with
their leathern book satchels * slung over
their shoulders represented on each side
of the shaft. We cannot linger now over
the beast with spiral ornament, or the
bird-headed monsters armed with axes.

If the background on each side of the
shaft of the cross be removed we get, what
is perhaps not very appropriately called, a
wheel-cross, as at Llantwit Major, Gla-
morganshire (Fig. 5). There are other
good examples of this type at Kirk Brad-
dan and Lonan, in the Isle of Man,
Margam Abbey in Glamorganshire, and
on a smaller scale at many places in Corn-
wall, t

In the cross at Penmon Priory, Angle-
sey, the arms begin to show in the outline
of the monument, as on Fig. 6. This
form cannot be commended on artistic
grounds and has an archteological interest
only. It is uncommon except in Corn-
wall.

Lastly, when the hollows between the
arms and the ring are pierced right through,
the whole outline of the cross can be seen
standing out against a background of sky
instead of stone. In Cornwall these are
popularly called “ four-hole ” crosses.
One of the most perfect and beautiful
specimens of the free-standing cross is
that of the Muireadach at Monasterboice,
Co. Louth, shown on Fig. 7. It is of
a fine-grained sandstone, and is constructed of
three separate pieces: (1) The base, in the form
of a truncated pyramid, 2 ft. 6 ins. high; (2) the
shaft, two side arms, and the four quadrants of the
connecting ring, 11 ft. 2 ins. high; and (3) the
top arm of the cross, 3 ft. 3 ins. high, evidently
made in the shape of one of the metal shrines of
the period, which in its turn seems to have been
copied from an oratory with a high-pitched gabled

* Existing specimens of these leathern book satchels are
still to be seen at Trinity College, Dublin, and Oxford,
t See A. G. Langdon’s “Old Cornish Crosses,”