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Remnants of the Celtic people have been around for at least 4,000 years. Archaeologists mainly interpret Celtic history and art from relics left over in graves and garbage dumps. Roman documents are also a source for scholars yet they can be one sided description of the Celts. Many of the elements in Celtic art are not totally Celtic. Many of the relics and Artifacts that are found are borrowed from many parts of western Europe. The Celts picked up some of these styles from other areas that they may have been trading with or even attacking at the times the artifacts were constructed. Scholars divide Celtic art into three stages. These three stages consist of Hallstatt Culture, La Tene, and The age of Celtic Renaissance.
The first stage that was identified was the Hallstatt Culture. This culture lasted from two-thousand BC to six-hundred BC. Artifacts found from this time period were named after a small town in western Austria. Artifacts from this era stretch from Austria to Brittany in France. The art found from this time period is believed to have influence from the Mediterranean. The Hallstatt zone was split into a eastern section and a western section. Pottery found from the western part
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The Book of Kells is one of the best examples representing illumination during this period. A superb computer-checked facsimile of the manuscript can be viewed at the Lilly Library at Indiana University. Some came from the north as far as the Netherlands. Usually the heads were made of gold. ” (Megaw 59) However compasses were put too much use by the Celts. As the Celts expanded there settlements all over Europe there art was influenced by many different cultures that they may have been trading with or even attacking. Many of these relics and artifacts were found in streams, lakes, rivers, and wells which makes them very difficult to date. By putting horses in pictures and on different artifacts leads us to believe that they were and important part of the Celts culture. These new styles that started to show up were under the influence of Greek and over all the oriental cultures. Probably the most significant and most important types of art during this period are the Celtic Christian art of Ireland and Northumberland.
The next stage of Celtic art was the La Tène Culture. There were many forested valleys which limited the numbers of horses that they had. Illuminated manuscripts illustrated with the most abstract luminous lettering were carefully inscribed by Celtic monks from their monastaries. The ends of the drinking horns had ram heads with very intricate geometric designs up the handle. This would be close to the Czech Republic in current day and time.
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