EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXVIII, Issue 45, 8 November 1900, Page 19

EARLY CHRISTIAN ART IN IRELAND.

Ireland (says a writer in the Anglican Church Timet) is regarded as the key in the question of Early Christian Art to the sister countries. ]]g., as regards Round Towers, of which numerous examples still exist in Ireland there are only two specimens in Scotland and 1 have never heard of any instance of such in England. The High Crosses of Ireland, which cover the period from the tenth to the twelfth century, are numerous, and are believed to have bet n developed in Ireland earlier than in Scotland. But when we compare the antiquities of Ireland and Scotland in the matter of sepulchral monument* of a Christian type we are struck with the marked contrast. Ireland gives upwards of 244 tombstoneß with inscriptions in the vernacular ; Scotland can only boast of seven, five or which, moreover, are from lona and are of a decidedly Irish type and origin Again, Ireland yields 154 of the Ogham inscription^ while .Scotland only shows four on the mainland and seven on the Orkney and Shetland Inlands. It is very important to note that ihocu^t .in of offering prayers for the departed has no such testimony el -e where in its early prevalence to the Church as that afFoMlel by Ireland, where every tombstone, almost from the earliest time-*, is inscribed with a request for intercession for the -onl of the departed. The arts in which Christian Ireland excelled before fie thirteenth century were the writing and ornamentation of M^.. met ul-work. stone-cutting, and architecture. Ireland cxc 1 led ni the writing apparatus, consisting of tabulae, graphia, and calami, nUo in her ink nnd parchment. As regards the decoration of -MS-\, Kiihkin says th.it the roots of leaf ornament in Christian art j.io the I J reek acanthus and tae Egyptian lotus. In Irish Chri-tun art the vine and the trefoil are the roots of all Irish leaf ornament, ami both those plants have a meaning in Christian symbolism. Covers ot shrines for bells seem almost unknown in any otlu r branch of the Christian Church than the Irish. Six examples ol the-e beautiful reliquaries are still in existence— one of which w.is recently exhibited at the evening meeting of the R.S.A.I. This was the -hrine of the golden bell of St. Senanus of Scattery Maud at the mouth of the Shannon. Two of these shrines are believed to be in Scotland, but of the two one is supposed to have belong- '1 to Ireland. Again, no chalice of the Early Church existt in ScnUnrt, find although chalices do not seem, strange to say, to have, b.vn such essential portions of church requisites in Ireland as the bell, the croziur, and the book, yet there were primitive chalicea of gli.^ . and in the seventh century bronze chalices were believed to have bjen in use. Tnirty sculptural and inscribed crosses and tomb-to Ties in Ireland have been assigned to dates varying from the year to 1 li.". In Ireland valuable Missals were kept in cases c tile 1 ■ Cumd.ich-i ' made of oak covered with plates of silver, and i\<> example ot a'Cumdach' has as yet been found in Scotland. The form of the Irish cross being that of a Greek cross, with arms profiting ouNide the circle and shaft elongated, is a curious combination of the Greek and Latin cross, and seems symbolic of the whole subject of In*h 7]cdes<iascical art, which from its beginning shows By/,,mtine and Latin elements commingled. All this is merely a hurried sketch of a most interesting and important subject, and is collected and summarised from Miss Margaret !->t(ikes's " E irly Chri-ti.m Art in Ireland.' A clever Catholic lady, bent on conuover.sy, Raid to me at Lisdoonvarna, ' You, of course, altogptlu r regard the Middle Ages as the Dark Ages.' ' Not quite,' J wild, ' considering the beauty of the metal work, the sculpture, tne uiuiuit^ture, and lllu-ninated MSS. e)f the time.'