Above : One page on Book Of Armagh

Christian Art in Ireland attained its highest excellence in four branches: the writing and ornamentation of manuscripts, metal-work, stone-carving, and building. It should be remembered that there was a native art in Ireland even before Christianity came to the country, and that the pagan Irish had highly developed the art of work­ing in bronze, silver, gold, and enamel before St. Patrick’s time. From the pagan period we have torques, brooches, gorgets, and combs with char­acteristic ornamentation, and the delicate crafts­manship and purity of taste displayed in the early Celtic ornaments has often been noted. A well-known authority* stated that two of the fragments of a bronze ornament of the pre-Christian period might challenge comparison for beauty of design and execution with any specimens of cast bronze work that it had ever been his fortune to see. The character of the arts introduced into Ireland with Christianity was therefore grafted upon and modi­fied by the arts as already practised by the people, and few variations of design were introduced from the Continent by the missionaries and the foreign artists who came in their train. The arts, too, were assiduously cultivated by the people, and Ferdinand Keller’s remarks on the manner in which the excellence of the Irish school of cali-graphy was obtained are also applicable to the other arts. They attained a high degree of culti­vation, which certainly did not result from the genius of single individuals, but from the emula­tion of numerous schools, and the improvements of several generations.

Below : St Assicus Picture

The position which the artist and the crafts­man held in society, is an indication of how the arts were loved and esteemed in Ireland. The title, of scribe is frequently used in our ancient literature to enhance the dignity of a bishop, and we find that St. Conlaeth, the first Bishop of Kildare, was a skilled worker in metals. St. Dega was also a celebrated artificer and scribe; one of St. Patrick’s three smiths was Fortchern, son of Laery, King of Ireland; and it is stated in the Trepartite Life that the holy Bishop Assicus was his coppersmith. A builder of churches was entitled under the Brehon Laws to the same compensation for any injury done to his person as the lower rank of nobles, and the artist who worked for a king could claim half the amount payable to the king himself in a similar case. The greatest care was taken that the workers in the various arts should be competent craftsmen, and they had to possess a certificate of proficiency from the Ollave or Chief Artist.

Under such conditions a native art was developed in Ireland to a high degree of perfection and its characteristics have been described as " the union of primitive rhythmical designs with a style which accords with the highest laws of the arts of design, the exhibition of a fine architectural feeling in the distribution of parts, and such delicate and perfect execution, whatever the material in which the art was treated, as must command respect for the con­scientious artist by whom the work was carried out."* The conversion of the island to Christianity gave a new energy and inspiration to the imaginative powers of the race, and a new impulse that was felt in all branches of the national life, more especially in the cultivation of the arts. The art of illumination was the first to be culti­vated in Christian Ireland, and it was brought to a higher degree of perfection than any of the other arts. It reached its highest excellence at the close of the seventh and at the beginning of the eighth century. The designs and ornamentation used are not entirely of native origin, but the Irish school is distinguished from Celtic work elsewhere by a fine judgment displayed in the use of ornamenta­tion, a delicate and refined taste, and a knowledge of architectural design. The interlaced patterns were probably introduced from Northern Italy and Southern Gajil; the spirals, zigzags and other designs belong to the pre-Christian Art of Ireland; and they were gradually grafted on the style intro­duced by the Christian missionaries. The writing was done with the quills of birds, and the inks used were of various colours, blended together with great artistic effect. Sixty-one remarkable scribes are mentioned in the Annals of the Four Masters as having flourished in Ireland before the year 900. The distinctively Irish art of illumination has often heen confused with Anglo-Saxon Art from the fact that many manuscripts written in Anglo-Saxon were illuminated by Irish artists, or by monks who had learned the art in Ireland. The Irish monks who went to Iona, Melrose, Lindis-farne and other places in Great Britain had been trained in this art, and taught it to the peoples amongst whom they lived. An Anglo-Saxon monk, Ethelwulf, tells of an Irish missionary named TJltan, who worked in England in the eighth century, and who was unrivalled in the art of illumination, and the influence of Irish artists is plainly discernible in many of the manuscripts preserved in the British Museum and the Univer­sities of Oxford and Cambridge.