The last decade has seen a major change in the way that many scholars have perceived the Celts and Picts. Although many have had misgivings about the use of the term ‘Celt’ in British historical and archaeological studies, it was only in the mid-1990s that such concerns began to receive a wider airing. Simon James cast serious misgivings on the word ‘Celt’ in Antiquity, 1998, and in the introduction to Britain in the Celtic Iron Age (1997). Finally - as of 2004 we saw the first major publication of English scholars that picked up the challenge to fill one of the most hartfelt vacums of the Celtic world - that of the "mysterious Picts", known to once have populated the northern part of the Brittish isles.
The Art of the Picts: Sculpture and Metalwork in Early Medieval ScotlandGeorge Henderson and Isabel Henderson
Thames & Hudson, 2004.
Reviewed by Susan M. Youngs, FSA, Jesus College, OxfordThis book’s volume of images and the generous size of the book itself might suggest that within lie lavish illustrations with few words, in the coffee-table book tradition. Nothing could be further from its real content, the fruits of years of study and observation by two scholars of great distinction in the fields of art history and Pictish studies.
The understated purpose, ‘to strengthen the evidence available for the nature of Pictish society’, is first approached by showing the continuing interaction with the response to contemporary Insular art throughout Britain and Ireland. Second, by opening the readers’ eyes to the complexity, subtlety, and brilliance of the works of Pictish sculptors and metalworkers, and to guide them through the complex programmes of ornament and its evidence for scholarship, patronage, and purpose. More broadly, the authors again reinforce the case for international acknowledgement of this evidence in the remarkable intellectual and artistic achievements of the Pictish kingdoms of early Medieval Britain and Europe.
This is necessary because these images are the material masterpieces of people who have, through historical processes, largely lost their voice along with their language and political independence. For life and death there is the growing archaeological evidence of field monuments, strongholds, houses, and cemeteries, but libraries, records, and literature have not survived, whether in the vernacular or in Latin from monastic schools and court circles. Most of what we know of kings, churchmen, and the history of the Picts through three centuries is culled from the record of their Irish and English neighbours and frequent enemies. Assisted by impressive metalwork, finely carved stone has to speak for the Picts, and this it has been persuaded to do here, with at times passionate eloquence. The words are admirably supported by essential images, and the authors pay tribute to the photographs of Tom Grey and the informed eye behind Ian G. Scott’s pencil and pen. The quality, variety, and complexity of the Christian sculpture comprises overwhelming evidence for the art, learning, and resources of its local patrons.
This is not a lazy read, however, as we find in the introductory chapter on Insular art. At no point is any key argument left without support in the text, but there are necessarily references for comparison with decorative features of numerous insular early Medieval works that could not be illustrated for reason of space. Even a well-informed reader has to perform some mental gymnastics to conjure up the relevant details of every manuscript or piece.
It is refreshing to have some familiar pieces of fine metalwork described with a keen eye for detail. Arguments are marshalled to show the Pictish nature of several key fine metalworks, which have previously been identified more broadly as ‘Insular’ in style or Irish. The suggestion that detailed reassessment by an expert in fine metalwork would lead to greater certainty about the Pictish corpus does not reflect the difficulties of dealing with portable complex objects made by itinerant craftsmen, when we are still unable to achieve a consensus on the origins or date of the great Gospel books, whose complex ornament has the added information of texts, scripts, and codicological features.
The authors recognise that the evidence from culturally distinctive and iconographically complex stone sculpture for models in metals is a major tool for recovering lost Pictish fine metalwork. This could certainly form the basis of a separate coherent investigation in favour of non-Pictish origins, which is the charge laid against earlier commentators.
The book ends on an elegiac note with interesting evidence of past losses and deliberate destruction. Finally, there is a trenchant critique of modern standards of presentation, including the display of Pictish monument in the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh. This book will itself stand future generations of students of the Picts and of western early Medieval art in good stead.
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