The Lindisfarne Gospels An Insular Identity - 1748 Words

Langara College The Lindisfarne Gospels; An Insular Identity Connor Budd Western Art: Prehistory to Renaissance (AHIS 1114) Denise Panchysyn November 17th, 2016 Beginning with the conversion of the Irish Celts around the fifth century, Christianity began to spread across the British Isles. Around 630, an envoy of monks was sent from a monastery on the Scottish Isle of Iona to a small Northumbrian island (only about 4 square kilometers at high tide) situated in the North Sea of the Atlantic. An Irish monk, Saint Aidan, established a monastery on that small spit of land that would come to be called Lindisfarne, or simply Holy Island. Together with the monastery at Iona, Lindisfarne became an integral part of artistic creation in early medieval northern Europe (Kleiner 288), and from it’s workshop would emerge a new style of artwork that wove elements of pre-existing artistic styles of the British Isles, such as those of the Celts and the Anglo-Saxons, with unfamiliar Christian imagery imported from Near East to create the Hiberno-Saxon, or Insular style. This style would be employed by the monks at Lindisfarne to create one of the m ost splendid texts of early medieval Brittania, the eponymous Lindisfarne Gospels. A wondrous illuminated manuscript worthy of its acclaim, these Gospels are a quintessential example of Hiberno-Saxon style, and they expertly demonstrate the dedication and craftsmanship invested by the monks of Lindisfarne as they melded paganShow MoreRelatedThe Conversion Of The Irish Celts1542 Words   |  7 Pages Langara College The Lindisfarne Gospels; XXXXXXXXXXXXX Connor Budd Western Art: Prehistory to Renaissance (AHIS 1114) Denise Panchysyn November 17th, 2016 Beginning with the conversion of the Irish Celts around the fifth century, Christianity began to spread across the British Isles. Around 630, an envoy of monks was sent from a monastery on the Scottish Isle of Iona to a small Northumbrian island (only about 4 square kilometers at high tide) situated in the