The exhibition includes iron hand-bells used to call the faithful to prayer, elaborately illustrated gospel books telling the story of Jesus's life, and beautifully carved stone crosses that stood as beacons of belief in the landscape. An exceptionally rare gilded bronze processional cross from Tully Lough, Ireland (AD 700-800), will be displayed in Britain for the first time. Used during ceremonies and as a mobile symbol of Christianity, the design of this hand-held cross may have inspired some stone crosses, but metal examples rarely survive. Its decorative plates show the wider artistic connections of its makers: three-legged swirls and crescent shapes owe much to earlier Celtic traditions; other geometric motifs echo Roman designs, while interlace designs were popular across Europe and probably inspired by Anglo-Saxon art.
Hunterson Brooch, produced c.700 AD. Found in Hunterston, Ayrshire, Scotland in the 1830s. Silver, gold and amber; inscription carved in Scandinavian runes translates as ''Melbrigda owns this brooch'. National Museums Scotland
The name Celts had fallen out of use after the Roman period, but it was rediscovered during the Renaissance. From the sixteenth century it became increasingly used as shorthand for the pre-Roman peoples of Western Europe. In the early 1700s, the languages of Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Cornwall, Brittany and the Isle of Man were given the name 'Celtic', based on the name used by the Greeks and Romans 2000 years before. In the context of a continually shifting political and religious landscape, 'Celtic' acquired a new significance as the peoples of these Atlantic regions sought to affirm their difference and independence from their French and English neighbors, drawing on long histories of distinctive local identities. First used by the ancient Greeks as a way to label outsiders, the word 'Celtic' was now proudly embraced to express a sense of shared ancestry and heritage.
George Henry (1858–1943) and Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864–1933), The Druids Bringing in the Mistletoe. Oil on canvas, 1890. Lent by Glasgow Life (Glasgow Museums) on behalf of Glasgow City Council.
Over the following centuries, the Celtic revival movement led to the creation of a re-imagined, romanticised Celtic past, expressed in art and literature such as the painting The Druids: Bringing in the Mistletoe by George Henry and Edward Atkinson Hornel, 1890. Druids emerge from a grove of oaks where they have been ceremonially gathering mistletoe in this romantic Victorian reimagining of a scene described by Roman author Pliny the Elder. In an attempt to evoke an authentic Scottish past, the artists incorporated things that they thought of as Celtic: spiral motifs, the brilliant colours of illuminated manuscripts and a snake design inspired by Pictish stones. The painters claimed the faces were based on ancient ‘druid’ skulls. But the features of the central druid were really inspired by photographs of Native Americans.
Today, the word Celtic continues to have a powerful resonance. It calls to mind the ever shifting relationships between the different nations that make up Britain and Ireland, and their diaspora communities around the world. The idea of the Celts also confronts us with the long history of interaction between Britain and the rest of Europe.
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