CELTIC ART
Though there has been steady but quietly unbroken continuity of the Celtic art form in all the Celtic countries, especially Ireland and Wales, it is really only since the turn of this century that the Celtic art revival has proceeded with vigor. Today it is ever on the increase. There are artists and craftspeople working in almost every medium, utilizing Celtic designs. The intrinsic beauty of these patterns is so strong that it is very easy to see why the art form has become so well loved.
Celtic art displays a richness of color, intricacy and symbolism to equal that of any of the world’s finest styles of art. The seven created beings of the Celtic world – plant, insect, fish, reptile, bird, mammal and man – are all featured in the artwork. But because of the copying or portrayal of the works of the creator was forbidden, the artist’s representation of natural creatures is highly stylized and abstracted; arms, legs, hair and beard are often intertwined in intricate patterns.
Like their pagan gods and spirits, the Druids themselves are said to have practiced shape-shifting, or changing of form, so it is not unusual to find their gods portrayed as having bird or animal servants, or even bird or animal body parts. This same characteristic was later incorporated into the Christian Gospels, where the evangelists are given both animal and human forms.
There are four recurring designs to be found in traditional Celtic art – knotwork patterns, spirals, key patterns and zoomorphic ornaments. The interlaced knotwork patterns with their unbroken lines, symbolize the process of man’s eternal spiritual growth, the intertwining of the eternal thread of life.
The spiral is the natural form of growth, and in every culture past and present has become a symbol of eternal life. The whorls represent the continuous creation and dissolution of the world; the passages between the spirals symbolize the divisions between life, death and rebirth.
Key patterns are really spirals in straight lines. When connected, they become a processional path, leading through a complex maze to the sacred center – where Heaven and Earth are joined. Labyrinths, or mazes, were primarily religious objects and were incorporated into the Christian church.
Animals and birds were sacred to the Celts. Zoomorphic ornaments show that nothing is as it first appears; plants turn into walls, and, interweaving, develop a head, legs, or feet. In the famous illuminated Gospel, the Book of Kells, this influence is emphasized by repeatedly depicting the four evangelists through their symbols: the man for Matthew, the lion for Mark, the calf for Luke and the eagle for John.
