The familiar visual image of the ancient Celts, with their knotwork, their spirals, their red enamel, and their zoomorphic ornaments, is, in substantial part, an invention of the Victorian period. The Celtic revival of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries constructed a coherent Celtic style out of materials that had been, until the nineteenth century, dispersed across the art of the medieval Celtic world and the art of the Iron Age. The story of this construction is an important chapter in the Celtic legacy today and a cautionary tale about the relationship between scholarly reconstruction and historical reality.
The Problem of the Celtic Style
The problem of the Celtic style is essentially a problem of periodisation. The familiar visual elements of what we now call Celtic art — the interlace patterns, the spiral designs, the red enamel, the triskele motifs — were not all produced at the same time, and they did not all originate in the same place. The La Tène art of the Iron Age, which flourished in central Europe from the fifth century BC to the first century AD, included curvilinear designs and plant motifs that were substantially different from the interlace and zoomorphic patterns of the early medieval Celtic metalwork and jewelry of the seventh and eighth centuries AD. The Celtic knotwork of the early medieval manuscripts and the high crosses is a substantially different phenomenon from the La Tène curvilinear designs, and the visual continuity that the Victorians assumed between them is, an illusion.
The problem is compounded by the regional diversity of the older Celtic art. The La Tène tradition of central Europe, the early medieval art of Ireland and Scotland, the early medieval art of Wales and Cornwall, the Pictish art of northern Scotland, and the broader Romano-Celtic tradition of Roman Britain all had their own distinctive visual characteristics. The single unified Celtic style that the Victorians imagined is, in fact, a construction that pulls together elements from these very different traditions into a single coherent visual idiom.
The Scholarly Construction
The scholarly construction of the Celtic style was the work of a number of nineteenth-century scholars and antiquarians. The pioneering work was done by the French scholar Prosper Mérimée, the Inspector General of Historical Monuments of France, who in the 1830s and 1840s began to use the term Celtic in his classification of the medieval art of the Celtic countries. The Welsh scholar John Rhŷs and the Scottish scholar David MacRitchie also contributed to the construction of the Celtic category, and the great Victorian museum collections, including the British Museum and the National Museum of Ireland, helped to make the new category visible to a wider audience.
The construction of the Celtic style was also influenced by the comparative method of the new discipline of art history. The realisation that there were striking similarities between the La Tène designs of the Iron Age, the early medieval designs of the Celtic countries, and the older Germanic and Norse designs of the early medieval period led scholars to construct a Celtic or Northern category of design that subsumed these very different traditions into a single visual family. The work of the Austrian scholar Alois Riegl and the Swedish scholar Bernhard Salin, both of whom worked in the late nineteenth century, was particularly important in this construction.
The Visual Arts and the Celtic Revival
The construction of the Celtic style in the scholarly world was matched by a corresponding construction in the visual arts. The Arts and Crafts movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, with its interest in the older design traditions and its rejection of the mass-produced aesthetic of the industrial period, was a natural home for the new Celtic style. The work of the architect and designer Charles Robert Ashbee, who founded the Guild and School of Handicraft in 1888, was particularly important, and the Celtic-influenced jewellery and metalwork of the period drew substantially on the Victorian construction of the older Celtic visual tradition.
The work of the English designer Walter Crane, the Scottish architect and designer Charles Rennie Mackintosh, and the Irish designer and architect William Lethaby all drew on the Victorian Celtic idiom, and the Arts and Crafts exhibitions of the period gave the new style a public platform. The journal The Studio, founded in 1893, was a major vehicle for the popularisation of the new style, and the Craftsman, an American journal, also helped to make the Celtic Revival in design visible to a wider audience.
The Celtic Revival in the visual arts had a particular centre in Ireland. The work of the stained-glass artists Harry Clarke and Michael Healy, the metalwork of Edmond Johnson, and the broader movement of the Irish Arts and Crafts movement all drew on the Victorian Celtic idiom, and the Irish Exhibition of 1902 and the subsequent exhibitions of Irish-made goods were a major showcase for the new style. The Irish Celtic Revival was, in part, a product of the broader Arts and Crafts movement, and the Irish visual idiom of the early twentieth century is a major example of the Victorian construction of the Celtic style.
The Effects on Popular Culture
The Victorian construction of the Celtic style has had a profound effect on the modern popular image of the Celtic past. The image of the ancient Celtic warrior, with his torc, his cloak, his long sword, and his Celtic ornament, is a Victorian construction that has been the basis of the modern popular image of the Celtic world. The use of Celtic knotwork in modern jewellery, in modern graphic design, and in modern tattooing is, in substantial part, a product of the Victorian construction of the Celtic style, and the modern Celtic influence on popular culture is, a continuation of the Victorian visual idiom.
The Victorian construction of the Celtic style is also visible in the popular image of the ancient Celts that is found in the film, television, and fantasy literature of the modern period. The visual iconography of the ancient Celts in films like Brave and Outlander, in television series like Game of Thrones, and in fantasy literature generally draws substantially on the Victorian construction, and the resulting image of the ancient Celts is, a Victorian fantasy rather than a historical reality.
The Critical Response
The critical response to the Victorian construction of the Celtic style has been substantial. The modern scholarship on Celtic art, including the work of scholars like Eoin MacWhite, Françoise Henry, and more recently Barry Cunliffe and John Collis, has done much to clarify the regional and chronological diversity of the older Celtic art. The realisation that the Celtic style as a single unified visual idiom is a Victorian construction has led to a more careful attention to the specific historical contexts of the various Celtic visual traditions.
The critical response has not, however, diminished the importance of the Victorian construction as a cultural phenomenon. The image of the ancient Celts that the Victorians constructed continues to be a major element of the popular imagination, and the modern Celtic influence on popular culture is, a continuation of the Victorian visual idiom.
Conclusion
The invention of the Celtic style in the Victorian era is one of the most interesting examples of the modern construction of the historical past. The Victorians took a diverse set of visual materials from the Iron Age, the early medieval period, and the broader European tradition, and they constructed a single unified visual idiom that they called Celtic. The construction was, anachronistic, and the resulting image of the ancient Celts was substantially a Victorian fantasy. The construction has, however, had a profound and continuing influence on the modern visual culture, and the Victorian Celtic style important elements of the Celtic legacy today.
Related Topics
- The Celtic revival of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is the broader context in which the Celtic style was constructed.
- The Celtic art and craftsmanship of the older Celtic world is the historical reality that the Victorian construction was based on.
- The Celtic knotwork and symbolism of the medieval Celtic world is one of the major elements of the Victorian construction.
- The Celtic metalwork and jewelry tradition of the earlier medieval period is another major element of the construction.
- The Celtic influence on fantasy and popular culture is, in substantial part, a continuation of the Victorian visual idiom.