- The Social Implications of Celtic Art -
.... ~. ~
--.-- ....... ~-:-~':''''!IJII,;'_ ... -::.:::-..,.Figure 21.1 Monolith figure atop a princely burial mound
(Bittel et al. 1981: 121).Bienkowski 1908; Piggott 1965: 197-9). We see the proud nudity of Gauls in battle
or ceremonial (Bittel et at. 1981: 91, fig. 28), Celtic dress (e.g. Jacobsthal 1944: 1 I,
pI. 6, 59-60; Megaw 1971: pI. 24, 25, 231 (brooch holding cloak)); east Celts (Szabo
1971: pI. 72-5); formal processions (Moscati et al. 1991: 538f.); horse-play Gope 1983,
probably situla-inspired, d. Bittel et al. 1981: 167), or a Celtic ideal of feminine
beauty (Powell 1958: 236, pI. 6). A coin of Cunobelin (Figure 21.3; Allen 1958 : 53,
pI. v.38) shows a fully accoutred, very un-Roman-looking foot-soldier (perhaps the
best view we shall ever have), with animal-crested helmet and Celtic side-seamed
trousers bunched under the knees. Various forms of multiple and single human sac-
rifice are shown by Jacobsthal (1944: 8f., 165, pI. 2,4; see also Moscati et at. 1991:
362-3), though Rome's true motives in suppressing druidism - politically civilizing
urge, or merely security - can only be assessed through contemporary writings (Last
1949). Celtic artists had their own subtle ways of portraying their very distinctive
nature; note the profoundly un-Greek mouths of the Roquepertuse heads (third cen-
tury BC; Jacobsthal 1944: pI. 2,4, pp. 4, 105; Jope 1987: 98, pI. III); witness also the
supremely economical expression of Celtic aristocratic aloofness in Britain of the
third century BC (Figure 21.2: the Wandsworth 'mask' shield; Jope and Jacobsthal in
press: pis 70-5; Jope 1987: 108, pI. v). A similar manner of arrissed modelling has
been used to emphasize a very non-aristocratic strain in the little face on the pottery
vase from Novo Mesto in Yugoslavia (Moscati et al. 1991: II6).
Some items of artwork have overt (or accepted) status implications (e.g. a crown,
a neck-ring, a dagger, a brooch - for the kind of dress it implies (Hawkes 1982), or
the luxury silks of the Hohmichele (Hundt 1969). Others are meaningful for the
connections with wealth or authority they imply (e.g. vehicles and horse gear, or