The Tara Brooch and the Brosna (or Hunterston) Brooches are among the most spectacular survivals of early medieval Celtic metalwork, and they have come to define the modern understanding of what a Celtic brooch looks like. The two great pseudo-penannular brooches, dated to the eighth and ninth centuries, are products of the flowering of metalwork in the Irish and Scottish monasteries of the early medieval period, and they belong to the broader tradition of Celtic metalwork and jewelry that drew on the technical mastery of the La Tène past and adapted it to the new Christian world. They are an essential part of the wider Celtic art and craftsmanship tradition, and they show how the older ornamental vocabulary of the Hallstatt and La Tène art styles could be transformed in the service of the new Christian elite.
The Discovery of the Brooches
The Tara Brooch was found in 1850, reputedly near Bettystown, County Meath, not far from the Hill of Tara, the ancient seat of the High Kings of Ireland. The brooch was acquired by the Dublin jeweller G. & S. Waterhouse, who exhibited it at the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, and it was later acquired by the Royal Irish Academy and transferred to the National Museum of Ireland, where it remains one of the most visited objects in the collection. The Tara Brooch has become so iconic that the name is sometimes loosely applied to a whole class of related brooches, and the specific form of cast silver pseudo-penannular brooch with elaborate filigree, amber, and glass inlay is sometimes called the Tara type.
The Brosna Brooch was found in the nineteenth century near the village of Brosna in County Offaly, in the Irish midlands. The brooch takes its name from the village and is sometimes grouped with the Hunterston Brooch, a closely related Scottish example in the National Museum of Scotland. Like the Tara Brooch, the Brosna Brooch passed through several private collections before being acquired by the National Museum of Ireland, where it can be seen alongside the Tara Brooch. The two Irish brooches are often exhibited together, since they represent the two main forms of the Irish pseudo-penannular brooch and illustrate the range of decoration that the early medieval Irish goldsmith could achieve.
The Form and Construction of the Brooches
The Tara Brooch is a pseudo-penannular brooch, meaning that the ring is not fully open as in a true penannular brooch but is closed by a short bar. The brooch is made of cast silver, with the body of the ring worked in high relief and the terminals of the ring expanded into flat, decorated panels. The long pin, which would have been used to fasten a cloak or a mantle, is attached to the back of the brooch by a hinged arrangement, and the whole is decorated with a combination of cast relief, applied filigree, inlay of amber and coloured glass, and gilding. The decorative program is of extraordinary richness, with panels of interlace, animal interlace, spirals, trumpet patterns, and geometric ornament, all worked at a scale that has rarely been matched in medieval metalwork.
The Brosna Brooch is a closely related but distinct type, with a longer, narrower ring, more elongated terminals, and a different decorative program. The ring of the Brosna Brooch is decorated with cast panels of openwork interlace, with the spaces between the strands filled with red enamel, amber, and coloured glass. The terminals of the ring are expanded into long, decorated panels that would have rested on the shoulders of the cloak, and the head of the pin is in the form of an animal head, a motif that goes back to the late La Tène tradition of zoomorphic terminals.
The Decoration and Iconography
The decoration of the Tara Brooch is among the most complex of any surviving early medieval object, and the entire surface of the brooch is covered with ornament. The front of the ring is divided into a series of panels, each with its own design, and the back of the ring, the terminals, the pin, and the head of the pin are all separately decorated. The most elaborate panels show animal interlace in which the bodies of stylised animals are woven into the interlace pattern, with the heads and limbs of the animals emerging from the strands in a way that recalls the older Celtic animal style.
The decoration of the Brosna Brooch is more restrained but no less accomplished. The interlace panels of the ring are of a more regular, more disciplined idiom than those of the Tara Brooch, and the use of coloured enamel and glass inlay is more systematic. The Brosna Brooch also includes a long panel of interlace on the back of the ring, suggesting that the brooch was meant to be admired from all sides, and the iconographic program is more clearly developed, with a sequence of panels that may have had a specific narrative or symbolic meaning.
The Brooches in the Context of Irish Society
The early medieval Irish brooches of the Tara and Brosna type were status objects of the highest order, and they were worn by the kings, the great ecclesiastics, and the members of the aristocratic families who formed the ruling class of early medieval Ireland. The brooches were used to fasten the elaborate woollen cloaks that were the principal outer garment of the Irish aristocracy, and a richly decorated brooch was an essential part of the costume of a person of rank.
The eighth and ninth centuries, in which the Tara and Brosna brooches were made, were a period of considerable wealth and political complexity in Ireland, and the great monastic foundations, including Clonmacnoise, Armagh, Kells, and Durrow, were centres of learning, of art, and of patronage. The brooches were probably made in workshops attached to the great monasteries or in workshops patronised by the Irish kings, and the close relationship between the monastic and the aristocratic worlds is reflected in the combination of Christian ornament and older Celtic motifs in their decoration.
The Brooches and the Wider European Tradition
The Tara and Brosna brooches are not isolated phenomena, and they belong to a wider European tradition of early medieval metalwork that included the great Anglo-Saxon brooches of the Sutton Hoo type, the Frankish and Merovingian fibulae of the continental Germanic world, and the Byzantine and Mediterranean brooches of the Eastern Christian world. The Irish brooches, however, have a distinctively Celtic character, and the combination of the older La Tène ornamental vocabulary with the new Christian subject matter and the new Christian techniques of filigree and enamel striking features of the Irish tradition.
The influence of the Irish tradition extended well beyond Ireland. The Scottish and Northumbrian metalwork of the eighth and ninth centuries, including the famous Hunterston and Breadalbane brooches of the British Museum, shows strong Irish influence, and the Irish forms of brooch spread into Viking-age Scandinavia, where they influenced the development of the great oval brooches of the late Viking period. The Tara and Brosna brooches, in short, are not merely Irish treasures but European masterpieces, and they belong to the wider history of early medieval art.
Related Topics
- The Celtic metalwork and jewelry tradition of which the Tara and Brosna brooches are among the most famous survivals.
- The Celtic knotwork and symbolism that decorates the interlace panels of the brooches.
- The Celtic stone carving and high crosses of the same period in which similar ornamental motifs appear in monumental form.
- The Hallstatt and La Tène art styles from which the older elements of the brooches’ decoration descend.
- The broader Celtic art and craftsmanship tradition within which the brooches are major landmarks.