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| Detail from the Book of Kells showing a stylised zoomorphic figure. |
The styles found within illuminated manuscripts find various names from various authors, so this week I sought to further clarify the distinctions found in illuminations from different places and times. Here I will focus on the insular style.
Generally recognized as Celtic in style, Patricia Seligman points out that this style could also be found in “France, Spain, Ireland, and Northern Britain… it was heavily influenced by invading tribes from the North” (The Illuminated Alphabet, London: Quantum Books, 2004, 10). The Insular style was produced in “…monastic centres in the British Isles in the seventh and eighth centuries.” (Sue Wood, Styles of Illuminated Manuscripts, in Art and Books Website, Charles Sturt University, 2011.) Often, artists working in this style drew on designs from Anglo-Saxon and Celtic metalwork, seen in the interlaced spirals, chains and braids found throughout manuscripts of this type. These designs are often interwoven with stylized birds and beasts, and abstract linear patterns. Typically, illuminators used a palette of bright, clear colours such as blue, green, red and yellow, although softer rose, purple, and pale green hues were frequently employed. Red dots were often used to outline important letters or initials, giving the illuminations a rosy glow. As with most illuminations, gold can be found in most insular illuminated manuscripts, although interestingly, the illuminator of the Lindisfarne Gospels used yellow as a substitute for gold. Carpet pages and miniatures framed by heavy double borders, filled with scrolling, interwoven designs are further characteristics of this style. The most famous examples of the insular style are the Lindisfarne Gospels (c. 698), and the Books of Kells (c. 800). These two manuscripts have many similarities, but in looking at examples from both I did notice that the Lindisfarne Gospels had a more extreme rigidity of design when compared with the Book of Kells. My thoughts were confirmed by Seligman, who notes that in the Book of Kells “…compared with the Lindisfarne Gospels, there is an unconstrained sense of freedom in the design” (10).
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| Inital page from the Gospel of St Matthew from the Lindisfarne Gospels. Note the clarity of the linear design. |
