Insular and Anglo-Saxon Art and Thought in the Early Medieval Period ed. by Colum Hourihane (review)

This sumptuously illustrated volume, with more than 180 reproductions (70 in full color), provides a broad overview of the current status quaestionis in the study of art produced between the sixth and eleventh centuries in the British Isles. The vast majority of the pieces considered are ecclesiastical in nature, with the great illuminated Gospel Books and other manuscripts taking pride of place; sculpture and metalwork also are examined in some detail. The contributors are frequently eager to explore the iconographic and theological underpinnings and associations of this material, and the collection therefore provides a fascinating series of glimpses into the rich intellectual and social milieu of the churches in Britain and Ireland during the first millennium.

The volume deliberately adopts an inclusive approach, examining earlier Insular pieces (perhaps more closely associated with the Celtic "peripheries") together with productions connected with the later Anglo-Saxon Benedictine Reform. Individual essays embrace this inclusiveness, eschewing hard (and often artificial) boundaries in favor of exploring interconnections between the artistic traditions of the Isles, examined as part of (rather than in isolation from) the European mainstream. Thus Niall Xavier O'Donoghue's survey of chrismals—here in the specialized meaning of pyxes worn about the person containing the consecrated Host—uncovers previously unrecognized English examples of what was considered a purely Irish phenomenon; Peter Harbison argues that an important stimulus in the development of the Irish High Cross can be traced directly to the court of Emperor Charles the Bald; and Carol Neuman de Vegvar suggests that images of Victoria on Roman coinage may have had a surprisingly widespread and long-lasting impact on Northern medieval art.

This inclusive approach also inspires the two important papers that open the collection, where Nancy Netzer and Lawrence Nees offer serious challenges to the established chronology of Insular art (most notably regarding the date and relative positioning of the Book of Durrow). Elsewhere, Michelle P. Brown and Michael Ryan survey Southumbrian book culture and Irish metalwork within their European context, Heather Pulliam and Jane E. Rosenthal examine depictions of the Virgin Mary in the Book of Kells and the Arenberg Gospels, and Jennifer O'Reilly and Martin Werner consider the iconographic and theological significance of the Apostle John (the former in an impressive survey of Insular and Anglo-Saxon illumination, the latter in specific examination of designs on the binding of the Stonyhurst Gospel).

Éamonn Ó Carragáin follows the sun's course as a guide to reading the iconography of Irish high crosses, whereas Paul Meyvaert provides a useful catalog of depictions of John the Baptist (up to the sixteenth century) in his quest to demonstrate that the saint is not depicted on the Ruthwell Cross. Both Herbert R. Broderick III and Benjamin C. Withers examine the illustrated Old English Hexateuch in Cotton Claudius B.IV: the former considers the exegetical implications of Moses's veil, whereas the latter's reflections—on the relevance to the perils of translation of an unusual depiction of Satan within a mandorla—recall Carol Farr's earlier investigation of the performative power of Insular images.

Taken as a whole, these papers demonstrate the advantages of openness to the possibilities of cross-fertilization within and between the cultures of the early-medieval British Isles, revealing the beauty—intellectual as well as visual—of the perhaps more-widespread "hisperic aesthetic" (pp. 107, 108) that Benjamin C. Tilghman skillfully identifies in the Book of Kells. The studies in this volume provide stimulating testaments to the same conviction that Tilghman uncovers in legendary accounts of the creation of the Irish language:" the idea that excellence comes not in the form of a single unalloyed tradition or through a recovery of some original state, but through the blending...