I
ICONOGRAPHY
Iconographical subjects in medieval Ireland change
according to the period and the medium in which they
appear, with a surprisingly small selection of biblical
scenes in illuminated manuscripts. If we take the
Books of Durrow and Kells to be “Irish,” then we can
include them here as demonstrating the use of evan-
gelist symbols, which are also found in the Book of
Armagh. Kells also illustrates St. John, the
Enthroned
Christ
and the icon-like
Virgin and Child
. The smaller
gospel books have figures of the Evangelists, but nar-
rative iconography is rare among the early manu-
scripts.
The Temptation
and what is normally taken to
be
The Arrest of Christ
occur in the Book of Kells
and the codex numbered O.IV.20 in the Biblioteca
Nazionale in Turin has
The Ascension
and a
Second
Coming of Christ
. This latter scene is also encountered
in Ms. 51 in the Stiftsbibliothek in St. Gall, which has
evangelist figures and also depicts a
Crucifixion
of a
very stylized kind—a subject that is not encountered
again in Irish manuscripts until circa 1408–1411 in
the
Leabhar Breac
in the Royal Irish Academy, where
the marginally earlier Book of Ballymote features
Noah’s Ark
.
All of these biblical scenes recur on the earlier
group of Irish High Crosses which, en bloc, form
the most extensive repository of Old and New Tes-
tament iconography in northwestern Europe during
the first millennium. The Book of Genesis is a rich
source for their pictorial material—
Adam and Eve
,
Cain and Abel
,
Noah’s Ark
,
The Sacrifice of Isaac
,
as well as certain Joseph scenes which, however,
have been open to other interpretations. On the Broken
Cross at Kells, Exodus provides subjects connected
with the Israelites escaping from bondage in Egypt.
The figure of David gets extensive coverage in var-
ious manifestations, and from the later books of the
Old Testament we find, among others,
The Three
Hebrew Children in the Fiery Furnace
, and
Daniel
.
The Moone Cross shows Daniel surrounded by seven
lions, a number found only in the apocryphal
Bel
and the Dragon
, and New Testament scenes of
The
Washing of the Christ Child
at Kells (and possibly
others from an
Early Life of the Virgin
cycle at
Duleek) confirm pictorially what we know already
from literature, that the Irish monks had a good
knowledge of the Apocrypha.
The New Testament is well-represented, but selec-
tively so, on the High Crosses, with repetitious
Child-
hood of Christ
and
Passion
scenes, but only rare
appearances of Christ’s public life (apart from
The
Baptism
) and, inexplicably, no representation of
The
Nativity. Not unexpectedly, it is the Passion and post-
Passion scenes which predominate on the crosses,
where
The Crucifixion
nearly always occupies the west
face of the cross—often at the center of a ring, which
may have cosmic symbolism. Back-to-back with it on
the iconographically-richer crosses is
The Last Judg-
ment
, or some variation of the figure of
Christ in Glory
.
The only non-biblical figures to make occasional
appearances on the crosses are the desert hermits
Paul
and Anthony
.
While some of the biblical carvings display Irish
characteristics such as the penannular (open-ring)
brooch worn by Christ on Muiredach’s Cross at Mon-
asterboice, or the predominance of the piercing of the
crucified Christ’s left side, it is clear that the biblical
iconography on the High Crosses is not Irish in ori-
gin, though opinions differ as to when and from
whence it came to Ireland. The ultimate European
source is early Christian Rome, where panels in pic-
torial cycles correspond to those on the High Crosses.
Stalley would see at least some of the iconography
coming to Ireland as early as the seventh century—
from the Continent via England. Harbison, however,
would prefer to see most, if not all, of it coming more