CELTIC ORNAMENT.
,difficult, because so little is known of real Byzantine Art previous to
the seventh or eighth century.
Certain, however, it is that the ornamentation of St. Sophia, so elaborately
illustrated by H. Salzenberg,
exhibits no analogy with our Celtic patterns; a much greater resemblance
exists, however, between
the latter and the early monuments of Mount Athos, representations of some
of which are given by
M. Didron, in his Iconographie de Dieu.  In our Egyptian Plate X., Figs.
10, 13-16, 18-23, and
Plate XI., Figs. 1, 4, 6, and 7, will be perceived patterns formed of spiral
lines or ropes, which may
have suggested the spiral pattern of our Celtic ornaments ; but it will be
perceived that in the
majority of these Egyptian examples the spiral line is arranged like an S.
 In Plate X., Fig. I ,
however, it is arranged C-wise, and thus to a greater degree agrees with
our patterns, although wide
enough in detail for them. The elaborate interlacements, so common in Moresque
ornamentation,
agree to a certain extent with the ornaments of Sclavonic, Ethiopic, and
Syriac MSS., numerous examples
of which are given by Silvestre, and in our Palceographia Sacra Pictoria;
and as all these, probably,
had their origin in Byzantium or Mount Athos, we might be led to infer a
similar origin in the idea,-
worked out, however, in a different manner by the Irish and Anglo-Saxon artists.
We have thus endeavoured to prove that, even supposing the early artists
of these islands might
have obtained the germ of their peculiar styles of ornament from some other
source than their own
national genius, they had, between the period of the introduction of Christianity
and the beginning
of the eighth century, formed several very distinct systems of ornamentation,
perfectly unlike in their
developed state to those of any other country; and this, too, at a period
when the whole of Europe,
owing to the breaking up of the great Roman empire, was involved in almost
complete darkness as
regards artistic productions.
4. LATER ANGLO-SAXON ORNAMENT.-About the middle of the tenth century another
and equally
striking style of ornament was employed by some of the Anglo-Saxon artists,
for the decoration of
their finest MSS., and equally unlike that of any other country.  It consisted
of a frame-like design,
composed of gold bars entirely surrounding the page, the miniatures or titles
being introduced into
the open space in the centre. These frames were ornamented with foliage and
buds; but, true to the
interlaced ideas, the leaves and stems were interwoven together, as well
as with the gold bars-the
angles being, moreover, decorated with elegant circles, squares, lozenges,
or quatrefoils.  It would
appear that it was in the South of England that this style of ornament was
most fully elaborated,
the grandest examples having been executed at Winchester, in the Monastery
of St. .Xthelwold, in
the latter half of the tenth century. Of these the Benedictional belonging
to the Duke of Devonshire,
fully illustrated in the Archceologia, is the most magnificent; two others,
however, now in the public
library of Rouen, are close rivals of it; as is also a copy of the Gospels
in the library of Trinity College,
Cambridge. The Gospels of King Canute in the British Museum is another example,
which has afforded
us the Figure 20 in Plate LXV.
There can be little doubt that the grand MSS. of the Frankish schools of
Charlemagne, in which
foliage was introduced, were the originals whence our later Anglo-Saxon artists
adopted the idea of
the introduction of foliage among their ornaments.
J. 0. WESTWOOD.


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