CHAPTER XXXV

VARIOUS ARTS OF ANCIENT IRELAND

SAVE that of the scribe, there was no other art in ancient Ireland carried to such beautiful perfection as that of the metal worker. And we have, still remaining, hundreds of beautiful pieces of this work.

Those remaining are in gold, silver, copper, bronze, findruine (a kind of white bronze) and brass. Of Irish gold-wrought objects alone, there are in the National Museum of Dublin twelve times the weight of all the ancient gold objects from England, Scotland and Wales, collected in the British Museum.

These ancient objects are of various kinds; articles of personal adornment, bell-shrines, cumdachs or shrines for books, croziers,

etc.

Among the personal ornaments we have brooches, bracelets, rings, necklaces, torques (twisted ribbons of gold or silver) for wearing around the neck, minns or diadems, crowns, amulets, earrings, beads, balls, crescents, gorgets, the niam-lann (a flexible plate of burnished gold, silver, or findruine worn around the forehead), et cetera a lavish wealth of beautiful ornaments exquisitely wrought, which, after a long count of centuries, in some cases thirteen, fifteen and twenty, tell us the story of the rarely skilled, noble artificers of Ireland, whose genius in metal was not only unsurpassed, but even unequalled, in western Europe. Of a bronze ornament two thousand years old and of which there are some fragments in the Petrie Museum, Kemble (in Horae Ferales) says: "For beauty of design and execution they may challenge comparison with any specimen of cast bronze work that it has ever been my fortune to see." We have many beautiful bronzes of the pre-Christian period, which, in their way, rival the beauty of the gold and silver work of several centuries later.

And of the very ancient gorgets wrought in gold, Dr. Joyce says: "They are so astonishingly fine, and show such extraordinary skill of manipulation, that it is difficult to understand how they could have been produced by mere handwork, by moulds,

hammers, and punches. Yet they must have been done in that way He quotes Sir William Wilde as pronouncing of them:

"It may safely be asserted that for both design and execution, they are undoubtedly the most gorgeous and magnificent specimens of gold work discovered in any part of the world."

In a country in which, in faraway pre-Christian times, such rarely beautiful ornaments were wrought, surely it needed little poetic license for the old filé, when describing Maine, the son of Ailill and Medb, setting out to seek the hand of the beautiful Ferb of Ulster, thus to picture it:

"There were seven greyhounds attending his (Prince Maine's) chariot, in chains of silver, with balls of gold upon each chain, so that the tingling of the balls against the chains would be music sufficient (for the march). There was no known colour that was not to be seen upon these greyhounds. There were seven Cornaire (trumpeters), with corna (horns) of gold and of silver, wearing clothes of many colours, and all having fair-yellow hair. Three druids also went in front of them, who wore minda (diadems) of silver upon their heads and speckled cloaks over their dresses, and who carried shields of bronze ornamented with red copper. Three Cruitire (harpers) accompanied them; each of kingly aspect, and arrayed in a crimson cloak. It was so they arrived on the green of Cruachan."

Or for the ancient seanachie, telling us that in Tara there were "one hundred and fifty drinking vessels, ornamented with gold, silver, and carmogal" (possibly enamel).

After studying the wonderful specimens of the ancient metalwork which we possess, we can well understand why it was that nobles and saints oftentimes devoted themselves to the profession of metal-working, and also why it was that the laws rank all followers of the profession with nobles. And, it is worth noting in this connection, that it was from Irish ideas, springing from Irish minds, and by Irish hands in Ireland, that the rare articles in gold and silver were rarely wrought. In corroboration of their native conception and origin, Dr. Joyce in his Social History of Ireland quotes the decision of a Continental expert, M. Solomon Reinach, who had studied the Irish gold ornaments in the National Museum: "Of objects of gold, attesting imitation of Greek and Koman models, there is no trace."

The objects that are of pre-Christian origin are in general

easily distinguished from those of Christian Ireland by the dif ference in pattern. The ornamentation in pagan days consisted chiefly of the circle, spiral, lozenge, and parallels. Under the hand of the Christian artist there developed new patterns the most characteristic being the divergent spiral or trumpet pattern, knotting and interlacing.

Of all the many beautiful articles of personal adornment that remain to us from those ancient times in Ireland, probably the most luxurious, and very frequently the most beautiful (though far from being the most ancient) are the delgs, or brooches-the size and costliness of some of which may be judged from the Dal Riada brooch, which, accidentally dug up in an Antrim field in the middle of the last century, contained two and one-third ounces of pure gold, was five inches long, and two and an eighth inches in diameter.

But for beauty, none of them all equals the Tara brooch. This brooch, found by a child on the strand near Drogheda, is of white bronze. Both the face of the brooch and the back are overlaid with beautiful patterns, wrought in an Irish filigree or formed by amber, glass and enamel. These patterns of which there are no less than seventy-six different kinds in this single article are wrought in such minute perfection that a powerful lens is needed to perceive and appreciate the wonderful perfection of detail. All of the many designs are in perfect harmony; and the beauty of the whole can only be realised by actual sight and study of the remarkable object itself. There are many other handsome ancient brooches, such as the Ardagh brooch, the Roscrea brooch, et cetera―each with peculiar beauties of its own, showing some point or points of superiority to the Tara brooch, but none of them equalling it in total effect.

Only by a very different kind of object, the celebrated Ardagh chalice, is the Tara brooch surpassed in richness and beauty of workmanship. A partial description of this celebrated chalice is here extracted from Miss Stokes' detailed description in her "Early Christian Art in Ireland":

"This Irish chalice combines classic beauty of form with the most exquisite examples of almost every variety of Celtic ornamentation. The cup is composed of the following metals: gold, silver, bronze, brass, copper, and lead. The ornaments cut on the silver bowl consist of an inscription, interlaced patterns terminating in dogs' heads, and at the bottom a circular band of the Greek pattern. The mode of ornamentation is peculiar to this cup, being done with a chisel and hammer, as indicated by the lines being raised at

each side, which could only be produced in the manner described. Round the cup runs a band composed of two semi-cylindrical rings of silver, ornamented with small annular dots punched out with a hollow punch. The space between the rings is filled by twelve plaques of gold repoussé work, with a very beautiful ornamentation of fine filigree wire-work wrought on the front of the repoussé ground, and carrying out, in its most delicate execution, the interlaced pattern associated with the art of this country. Between the plaques are twelve round enamelled beads.

"The handles of this chalice are composed of enamels (similar to those in the borders) and plaques of gold filigree work of the same style, but different in design. Each handle has four circular pieces of blue glass, underneath which the rivets are secured which fasten the handles to the bowl. Round the enamels was a circle of amber, divided into eight spaces by pieces of bronze, which has been eaten away. One of the enamels has a circle of gold grains at the top, which has been pressed in while the glass was in fusion. The two circular ornaments on the side of the bowl are of gold filigree work of the very finest kind, with an enamelled boss in the centre; the frames which hold them are of silver. There are four settings at equal distances, which are receivers of the rivets that secure it to the bowl. In the settings were two pieces of blue glass (the same as in the handles), and two pieces of amber, which have fallen out.

"The stem and supports of the bowl are of bronze metal, gilt, beautifully carved in interlaced and knotted patterns. They are attached to the bowl by a bronze gilt ball, with a strong square tang, and most ingeniously fastened by an iron bolt, which secures all together.

"The foot is of silver, circular, with a framework on the outer rim, having eight spaces, which are filled alternately with gold and bronze gilt plaques of open work; behind them pieces of mica are inserted, which throw out more clearly the very beautiful pierced designs with which these plaques are ornamented. The intermediate spaces contain enamels (inferior to those in the upper part of the bowl), set in bronze.

"In the inside of the foot of the bowl is a circular crystal, round which there has been a circle of amber, divided into twelve tablets, with a bronze division between each tablet; surrounding this is a circle in gold filigree of the same style and workmanship as those already described. The next circle had tablets of amber, but they have all fallen out. In the space between this and the silver is a circular bronze plate, highly carved and gilt, in which are fine enamels in green.

"The extreme outer edge, like the reverse side, is divided into eight spaces, in which are pieces somewhat similar to the gold plaques on the opposite side, with this difference, that six are in silver, and two in copper; two of the silver pieces are of the most beautiful

plated wire-work I have ever met with. Between those spaces are square pieces of blue glass, underneath which are ornamented pieces of wrought silver, which give them a brilliant appearance when in strong light. Between the circles which form the upper and under surfaces of the rim of the foot are plates of lead to secure and give weight to the whole. The enamels on the foot of the cup are of a coarse kind, the pattern being impressed in the glass, and the enamel melted into it. The number of pieces of which the cup is composed amounts to 354, including 20 rivets.

"The ornamental designs upon this cup belong to the Celtic School of Art, which, according to Dr. Petrie, reached its highest perfection as regards metal-work in this country in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Of these designs there are about forty different varieties, all showing a freedom of inventive power and play of fancy only to be equalled by the work upon the so-called Tara brooch.

"There are two varieties of birds, with heads, necks, and legs elongated, and interlaced; and also animal forms interlaced. There are four dragons' heads, with sharp teeth which bear a strong resemblance to drawings of similar objects in the 'Book of Armagh': also dogs, whose long protruding tongues form a knot above their heads.

"Besides these ornamental designs there are two pieces of plaited silver wire, bearing a strong resemblance to Trichinopoli work.”

In the remains of beautiful metal work which we have, representative of various parts of the early ages, there seems to be, strange to say, a gap, when we come to the early Christian centuries of Irish history. We have the magnificent bronzes of the various pre-Christian ages, and again the truly extraordinary work, the brooches, et cetera, of the gold and silver smiths of the tenth to the twelfth centuries-but little or nothing between. Dr. Petrie, in considering the absence of ecclesiastical shrines, representative of those early Christian centuries, concludes-and other authorities agree with him—that the raiding of the Danes may account for this. Before the coming of the raiders he thinks there were few of the churches without beautiful shrines. Both directly and indirectly the Danish raiding might also account for the lack of profane objects of art, representative of those centuries-the transition period between that which is distinctively of the pagan time and that which is distinctively of the Christian. During the Danish time the annals are filled with such suggestive references as, for instance, they "devastated Clonmacnois and took therefrom great spoil of gold and silver, and many precious ornaments." (Annals of Ulster.)

Of the latter span there are in existence many wonderful bell