Irish medieval art and architecture

ABSTRACT:  The rules for orientation of Early Christian oratories or chapels in Ireland and Scotland have been the subject of scholarly speculation for some time. By applying the techniques of archaeoastronomy (Hawkins 1983) to monastic oratories, new light is shed onto the history of Early Christianity. It now appears that oratories were calendrically oriented to sunrise on saint’s days of the Celtic Early Christian Church and pagan solar bonfire days.

Un'analisi che esamini la Miniatura Insulare a partire dal sostrato culturale e storico-artistico in cui si è sviluppata, tenendo in considerazione la cultura e l’arte dei popoli contemporanei ad essa ed i precedenti, che si insediarono nella medesima area geografica, creando civiltà altrettanto diverse tra loro.
Alle isole britanniche si riconducono le popolazioni celtiche, che ivi si sono stanziate, e quelle germaniche, che lo hanno fatto in seguito, dando vita quindi ad un miscuglio di popoli con caratteristiche del tutto uniche, che confluiscono nell'affascinante mondo dell’arte insulare.

This article re-examines the art and architecture of twelfth-century Ireland to argue that the style term 'Romanesque' is aptly applied to such works.  Cormac's Chapel at Cashel is placed within the context of literary references to the Holy Roman Emperors, and the significance of its twin towered plan is therefore highlighted. Toirdelbach Ua Conchobair's patronage of crosses, both stone and metal, and his enshrining of a fragment of the True Cross in the Cross of Cong, may also have been intended to bear imperial symbolism. Finally, two capitals from the church of Sts Peter and Paul at Armagh show direct stylistic reference to Rome. Thus twelfth-century Irish art can be shown to look both to Rome, and, in some senses, to the Holy Roman Empire; this makes it at one culturally, if not aesthetically, with other Romanesque artwork across western Europe.

In a paper published in 1995, I explored Romanesque revivalist features in Scottish architecture from the late fourteenth to the early sixteenth centuries, and , by comparing them to contemporary Italian examples, conclude that cultural nationalism was the cause. The present  article revisits the argument and extends it by the inclusion of of examples from Irish architecture of the same period. This is a black and white scan where the original colour illustrations reproduce poorly for which I apologise.

The purpose of this paper is to define and describe what is meant by the term “Irish High Cross.”  Included in this assessment will be a description of the morphology, or physical characteristics of the crosses; the date range during which they were carved; the purpose and meaning of the crosses; their decoration, including both geometric design and figural art; and a special note regarding a sub-set of Irish High Crosses known as Scripture crosses.

This collection of studies on the history of Gaelic Ireland is the product of an essay competition sponsored jointly by the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains (Buanchomhairle Thaoisigh Éireann) and Clans of Ireland (Finte na hÉireann). The essays represent the winning entries and superior-quality submissions from 2018–20 and cover the early and medieval period from c. 600 to c. 1700. The topics under study are diverse and range from early medieval saints to Gaelic lordship in the high Middle Ages, and from archaeology to the custodians of Gaelic scholarship and learning, the Aos Dána class. Other themes under study throw new light on towerhouses, medieval literary texts, as well as on aspects of kinship and culture. The central focus is upon the Gaelic-Irish and Anglo-Norman population groups who were settled in Ireland during the period under study.
The first volume in this series, Gaelic Ireland (c. 600–c. 1700) politics, culture and landscapes, edited by Dr Katharine Simms (Wordwell, 2013), was the fruit of a competition initiated by the Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains, with the object of both encouraging research into Gaelic Ireland among postgraduate historians, and of reaping the harvest of independent researchers within the bounds of an accessible, academic publication. The second volume, titled Politics, kinship and culture in Gaelic Ireland c. 1100–c. 1690, followed suit in 2018, taking as its core theme culture and kinship of the later medieval period.

The continuance of the competition and the appearance of this third anthology, edited by Luke McInerney and Dr Katharine Simms, under the joint sponsorship of the Clans of Ireland and Standing Council of Irish Chiefs and Chieftains, stands testament to the success of the original project and the wide appeal of Gaelic history and culture. The essay competition continues to this day, and it is hoped that it helps foster academic interest in this fascinating period of Irish history among new generations of historians and independent scholars.

Available to order at this link: https://wordwellbooks.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=1997&search=Gaelic

Carrickfergus has been a town for over 800 years and it is one of the most excavated urban centres in Ulster.  A number of major monuments survive in the town — the famous medieval Castle, St. Nicholas’ Church (a fascinating mixture of medieval and 17th century architecture), the early 17th century town walls (the earliest town walls in Ulster) and Ireland's only preserved Victorian gasworks.  All of these represent important stages in the history and development Carrickfergus.  Heavily illustrated with colour maps and photographs, the book describes the fascinating historical and archaeological story of the town.

There are also special sections in the book containing more detailed analysis about Carrickfergus Castle, St Nicholas' Church, and the historic town walls.

Published  by TSO Ireland in 2008.

I prepare high-quality illustrations of art objects or historical buildings for museums and academics to use in publications and related work. You can appreciate a small selection of my works at: https://sites.google.com/site/matildegrimaldi/
Please do take the time to look at my works, and do not hesitate to contact me for any enquiry!
matilde.grimaldi@gmail.com

A fragment of the shaft of a decorated free-standing cross discovered recently in a large enclosure during fieldwork in County Monaghan is described, and attention is drawn to other large enclosures in County Monaghan which may be considered to belong to the Early Christian period

One of the most frustrating aspects of our encounters with medieval art is our inability ever to know exactly how far our responses, aesthetic, emotional or intellectual, correspond with those of medieval viewers. This paper attempts to examine such responses in medieval Ireland through later interactions. It comprises a contextualisation of the inscription on the Killamery brooch, with an analysis of the reuse of an earlier lion slab in Temple Ciarán, Clonmacnoise, Co. Offaly, a re-examination of the legacy of the Cross of the Scriptures in the annals and hagiography as well as in Romanesque high crosses, some consideration of grave slabs, and a brief look at women and the non-élite at and near Clonmacnoise in the monuments of the nuns' enclosure and the Clonfinlough stone.

Patronage was the lifeblood of the mendicant orders, whose commitment to a life of poverty supported by alms rendered them heavily dependent on the laity to support their lifestyle and ministry.  This paper will consider the nature and extent of women’s involvement with the mendicant orders of friars, as patrons and benefactors, in high and late medieval Ireland.  Historical and archaeological evidence for women’s patronage of the friars will be considered.  In addition, the varying forms of patronage from which the friars benefitted will be addressed.  Patronage could potentially take forms as diverse as founding a friary, as Margaret Athy did in founding Galway Augustinian friary c. 1508, to more modest donations, such as food or small sums of money.  The paper will also investigate the extent to which women worked in partnership with men as patrons of mendicant friaries.  The issue of visibility of women’s patronage will be considered.  Documentary evidence is more likely to survive for certain types of benefactions than others.  Much of the support that enabled the friars to undertake their daily ministry is unlikely to leave documentary or physical traces.  Thus a large part of women’s involvement as patrons and benefactors of the friars in medieval Ireland may be obscured.

Stone is a reflection of the landscape from which it was obtained, and in this way the use of local sources of stone in Ireland’s architectural tradition forms a tangible physical link between the building and the landscape. However, for high status architectural and sculptural work, building stones could also be brought to the site from some distance, and could either be intended to ‘stand out’ on a number of different levels, or conversely to be an 'invisible' canvas.

The hierarchy and prioritisation of the criteria for sourcing, selection and use of different stone types for general building and for high status work in early medieval Ireland was not ad hoc, but based on clearly identifiable criteria related to stone as an artistic medium, as a practical building material, and also to criteria related on wider tangible and intangible values such as patronage and habitus.  This paper presents the approach to stone in a number of case study regions in Ireland, indicating the movement of masons within earl medieval Ireland and enabling meaningful links between widely distributed sites.

The history and archaeology of medieval Ireland is dominated firstly by the impact of the arrival of the Christian church and later by the Anglo-Normans, which introduced new concepts in the building and architectural design, and also in the use and exploitation of stone for sculptural and architectural work. This research presents the results of a study to identify the sources of stone which predominate in medieval ecclesiastical architecture in Ireland using a combination of archaeological fieldwork and petrographic analysis. The study identifies the key imported and local stone types which predominate in this period, and discusses the relationship of the sources of these stones with the complex Irish bedrock and quaternary geology of the Irish landscape. National Gallery of Ireland Research Day