Almost all of these monasteries of Irish tradition disappeared as a result of the incursions of the Vikings during the eighth and ninth centuries. It seems that, scattered around the monasteries, these crosses played the role of guardians against the infernal powers coming from all points of the horizon that were thought to threaten the monks’ souls. The foot of the cross is often divided into rectangles within which biblical themes are represented (Adam and Eve, Noah and the Ark, the sacrifice of Abraham, etc.). Their arms are firmly rectangular, bordered by a molding reminiscent of the goldsmith crosses, and are generally linked together by a large perforated circle that stands out against the sky.

These crosses, mostly dating from the eighth century, are imposing monuments which generally exceed three meters high and are fully covered by a sculpted decoration. The sculptural stone carving was first manifested in Ireland by interlacing Celtic ornamentation found in pillars and stelae the most notable examples are the High Celtic stone crosses*, as those of Clonmacnoise Muiredach, Ahenny, and Bealin which stand nearby the high cylindrical or conical towers of the old monasteries. The Abbey of Kells (Kells, County Meath, Ireland), early ninth century. These invaders had brought with them their Germanic decorative style, one of their brightest samples being certain objects with cloisonné and enamel decorations like those found in the royal tomb of Sutton Hoo, dating from the seventh century. Irish monks introduced to Northumbria the preaching and instruction of Christianity, and in return received typically Nordic or Germanic artistic influences thanks to the contact with the invading Angles and Saxons who had settled on English soil contemporaneously with the arrival of St. One of the Ahenny High Crosses, one of the oldest in Ireland (County Tipperary) which still bear resemblance to their wooden predecessors. The Muiredach’s High Cross (10th or possibly 9th century) at the ruins of a monastery in Monasterboice, County Louth, Ireland. The foundation of the monastery of Lindisfarne in 653 by Aidan, a monk from Iona, coincided with the peak of this first monasticism independent of Rome in northern Great Britain. Columban’s preaching extended until the area occupied by Hadrian’s Wall, at the southern boundary of Northumbria a medieval kingdom that occupied what is now northern England and south-east Scotland. Soon, these early Irish monks were attracted by the idea of evangelizing the neighboring Scotland Saint Columban went there in 565 and founded a monastery on the island of Iona in the southwest coast of Scotland. Two of the most important artifacts found at the ship-burial of Sutton Hoo (6th to 7th centuries). Their occupants learned Latin, also ventured to acquire knowledge of Greek language and culture, and commented the Holy Book with Celtic interpretation and spirit. Soon monastic life flourished on the island without abandoning its Celtic racial characteristics, and these first Irish monasteries developed a highly efficient and meritorious cultural influence. The contact Ireland had with Christianity was very superficial, when in 432 a Briton monk, Saint Patrick, introduced in Ireland a primitive monasticism. Ireland then continued organized in clans, in the form of small tribes with a monarchical hierarchy. In the following centuries it didn’t experience the slightest Romanization, and thus managed to preserve intact the Celtic style originated in the time called “La Tène”, a European Iron Age culture named after the archaeological site of the same name that flourished during the late Iron Age (from 450 BCE to the Roman conquest in the 1st century BCE) in Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Southern Germany, Hungary, eastern France, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Switzerland. The Celts were people from the Iron Age and Medieval Europe who spoke Celtic languages and shared cultural similarities.ĭuring the Age of Metals, the Irish civilization evolved greatly. During the first centuries of the Middle Ages this area of Celtic cultural tradition developed a monastic life in which a particular art style flourished reflecting, even more than the Byzantine art, a detachment from the shapes and forms of the real world.

In Europe, only Ireland, Scotland, and parts of northern England were safe from barbarian invasions. The monastery of Lindisfarne (in the Holy Island of Lindisfarne, at the northeast coast of England), ca. The Iona Abbey (Isle of Iona, West Coast of Scotland, ca.

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