Text VI The story of art in the British Isles

Christian art begins in the catacombs of Rome, the first bu­rial-places, and also, on account of the security they afforded, the primitive churches of the imperial city. The earliest decoration of the catacombs differed little from that of Pagan tombs, with the addition of such figures as the Good Shepherd ^l or Daniel in the lion's den. Gradually, however, scenes from the Old and New Testaments become more numerous, the favourite ones from the Old Testament being those, that were believed to point most di­rectly to the work of Christ, such as Noah in the Ark, symboli­sing the Church, through which believers are saved from the destruction awaiting the world; Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, ty­pifying the sacrifice of Christ; and the story of Jonah, referring to the resurrection of Christ on the third day. In the catacombs are also the earliest examples of the Christian use of symbolism, based upon the real or supposed qualities of animal life, derived in part from the Bible and in part from the fabulous tales about ani­mals told in the ancient natural histories such as that of Pliny. The sheep typifies the flock of Christ; the peacock is an emblem of the resurrection, in accordance with the old belief that its flesh is incorruptible, and that it loses its plumage in the winter only the more gorgeously to attire itself² in the spring; the fish is a symbol of Christ, because the letters of the Greek word for fish form the first letters of the Greek words for «Jesus Christ, the Son of God, Saviour».

It was natural, also, that in the transition from paganism to Christianity such pagan myths and legends as could be interpreted in any Christian sense³ should be seized upon. The favourite representation of Christ as the Good Shepherd bearing the lost sheep can be traced to the pagan motive of Hermes, as the god of flocks, carrying a lamb or kid; and the Legend of Orpheus taming the wild beasts with his music is used to set forth the power of Christ to subdue the wild passions of the human heart.

When Christianity received the imperial sanction and spread throughout the Roman Empire, it carried these art-motives with it, and others were added in course of time, as one or another dog­ma received special emphasis.⁴ The vessels used in the church ritual, the sarcophagi in which the dead were buried, the pictures in mosaic with which the walls and ceilings of the churches were decorated, ivories in such forms as book-covers, reliquaries, cru­cifixes, and images, manuscripts such as psalters and Bibles, were all decorated with scenes and figures like those in the catacombs.

Following this symbolism into our own islands, we find that the cross, which, except as a monogram of the name of Christ did not come into use until the fifth century, is the first symbol found in them. We have seen it used in the Christian art of Roman Britain. In Ireland we have found it on the bee-hive cell⁵ of Skellig Mhichel; and on the Round Tower of Antrim a cross is carved in relief on a slab of stone above the lintel of the doorway; the emblem referring in each case to the blood of the lamb sprinkled upon the lintels of the house doors of the Israelites in Egypt, and to Christ's words, «I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall-be saved». With the exception of these crosses the early Irish churches show but little sculptured ornament, for which we have to look to sepulchral monuments and stone crosses.

The belief in the resurrection of the body has led Christians in all ages, as in the early centuries in the catacombs, to attach great importance to the tomb; although since there was no belief, as in Egypt, that the spirit remained with or revisited the body while it lay in the tomb, the tombs of Christendom have not been as elaborate and as elaborately ornamented as those of Egypt. The figured ornament of the Egyptian tomb was believed to be of use to the spirit while it remained with the body in the long home; the figured ornament of the Christian tomb only gives expression to the faith in which the departed has died, and in which those who have erected the memorial live. The earliest sepulchral monuments in Ireland are in the form of rude pillar-stones, of which 121 are known. They are not peculiar to Ireland, however, 107 similar stones being found in Wales, thirty — in Cornwall and Devon, and five — in Scotland, this distribution suggesting that Ireland may be regarded as their place of origin in the British Isles. They are pieces of hard, volca­nic stone, usually about six feet in length, placed upright in a hole dug in the ground, and are neither dressed nor squared. An inscription giving the name of the deceased was also cut in the stone, either in rudely formed Roman letters or in Oghams, a form of writing consisting of straight lines crossing each other, used by the ancient Irish, or both forms of writing are used. The in­scription often begins with the Latin Hic jacet (here lies), and is- in either Latin or Irish or both languages. A later series of monuments consists of dressed stones of such varied forms as erect crosses, cross-slabs, cylindrical pillars, recumbent cross-slabs, and coped tomb-stones, which are ornamented with inter­laced and spiral patterns derived from earlier pagan art, and with labyrinthine key-patterns and animal forms with their bodies and different members interlaced in most grotesque fashion; and at a later date foliage was similarly employed.

The designs were di­vided into panels and surrounded with a border. The language and lettering of the inscriptions vary according to the situation of the monuments. At CLonmacnois there are 179 sepulchral cross-slabs varying in date, as ascertained by the names inscribed, from A. D.⁶ 628 to A. D. 1273 Considered as art,⁷ the interlaced and other decorative work shows remarkable skill in design, but the figure-drawing is extremely rude. We have already seen that in the bronze age great skill was shown in the designing of geomet­rical patterns, but that the representation of animal and human forms was not attempted. The Celtic Christian artists, in their decorative work, testify to the value⁸ of traditional skill; the feeble­ness of their figure-drawing, on the other hand, being accounted for by its being a mere clumsy imitation of examples imported from the East. Still, the traditional art became excessively mechanical in character.