The Celtic and Carolingian artistic style's are two of Histories most influential cultures. Bot similar yet very much different in all aspects of art. Celtic art is based on sympols and mythology. Symbols and mythology, according to Celtic artists, are the clothing of divintiy. While one may not be able to see a god or goddess in mortal terms, they are immediately available to anyone through symbols which come from the ages. Carolingian art is based on religion. The best perserved artistic acheivements of the age are wrks of small dimensions. If a comparison of Celtic and Carolingian artistic design is made then the similarities and differences can be forund in materials, artistic style and symbolism.
             It is not possible to speak of the Celts in general, nor of their art in particular, without defining what exactly distinguishes them from their mediterranean contemperaries. The origions of the Celts, now lost in the midst of time, were undoubtably European; they spoke ancient Indo-European language-Celtic-that is still alive in the British Isles. As the Celtic group expanded from the nordic plains and the Mediterranean coast, their own particular art forms developed and flourished(Glen 43).
             Charlemagne's dream of a revival of the Roman Empire in the West determined both his political aims and his artistic program. His strong patronage of the arts gave impetus to a remarkable return to Roman classicism in the copying of Early Christian models and the influence of contemporary Byzantine and Greco-Roman styles, although the classicism was modified by local traditions favouring linearity and patterning and by Carolingian innovations are really a renovation rather than a true rebirth of classicism. It was, nevertheless, important for having revived the antique heritage in the West and for transmitting that interest to subsequent art. By the death of Charlemagne, the style was well defined, and even though local schools became...