Studio: international art (14.1898)

Celtic Sculpture

roof.* The total height of the cross, including
the base, is 17 ft. n ins., and the extreme diameter
across the arms 7 ft. These dimensions are suffi-
cient to give the scale for the photographs. The
sculpture is in high relief and is arranged in panels.
The outline of the cross is well defined by a bold
roll-moulding, and the panels are surrounded by
a cable-moulding within it. The sculpture con-
sists principally of figure subjects, which cover

* The roofing tiles, conventionally treated, can be clearly
seen in the photograph. Since the early Irish oratories were
roofed with stone, and not slates or tiles, it is probable that
the roof was taken from a Byzantine building.

FIG. II.—UNFINISHED CROSS AT KELLS
(From a photograph by T. Mansel Franklen, Esq.)

the whole of the space available for decoration
on the front and back, with the exception of the
ring and the narrow parts of the arms within the
ring. Geometrical, zoomorphic, and foliageous
designs occupy a quite subordinate position on
the two narrow faces of the cross. In the early
Irish MSS. we find ornament always takes pre-
cedence of figure subjects ; exactly the reverse of
what we have here. This would seem to indicate
that Celtic art had entered upon a new and later
stage of its development at the time that the
crosses of this type were erected at the beginning
of the tenth century.

The figure subjects, so far as
they can be made out, are Scrip-
tural. In the centre of the head
of the cross, on the front, is the
Crucifixion, and on the back the
Last Judgment, with Christ in
Glory, St. Michael weighing the
souls, the righteous in heaven, and
the doom of the wicked. On the
shaft on the back are represented
the Adoration of the Magi and the
Temptation and Expulsion of
Adam and Eve from Paradise.
The details of the costume of the
figures on the front of the shaft of
the cross are of considerable inte-
rest; in one case the method of
wearing the Celtic penannular
brooch being clearly indicated.

The purely ornamental portions
of the design of the cross of
Muireadach are beyond all praise,
and it is only when we come to
examine the figures that we find
out the weak point of the Celtic
artist. The bodies of the men are
too squat, the limbs show a ten-
dency to excessive plumpness like
those of cupids or cherubs, and
the heads are of the bullet shape
instead of being oval. Notwith-
standing these defects, the figures
sculptured on the crosses show a
marked improvement upon those
represented in the illuminated
MSS. Even in such masterpieces
of decorative art as the “Book of
Kells ” the figures are barbarous
beyond conception, and the minia-
tures of King David in the Irish
Psalter at St. John’s College, Cam.

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