sides remains. Th e horse is recognizable as a horse, but it is a
fl ow of curves not found in real horses. Its surface was carved
with lines representing a mane and harness. Th e sculpture
was broken, probably deliberately, before it was buried; it was
customary at the time to break objects before off ering them
as sacrifi ces. An even more spectacular model wagon comes
from southern Austria from 650 b.c.e. It may be the pinna-
cle of European art of the era. On the cart stands a tall, slim
woman holding on her head a shallow bowl, perhaps where
incense was burned. Less than half her size are men standing
and on horseback, and among them are deer with large, tall
antlers. All are depicted in a fl uid style that seems to be the
logical descendant of the earlier carts. Th e depiction of carts
by European sculptors would continue into the era of the Ro-
man conquest, with the images becoming more realistic.
IRON AGE: 500–50 B.C.E. AND
THE ROMAN CONQUEST
Historians oft en record 500 b.c.e. as the peak of Celtic Euro-
pean culture. Th e Celts dominated almost all of Europe. Th eir
society was dominated by warriors, who believed that killing,
looting, and enslaving others were honorable pursuits. Th ey
were constantly at war either against non-Celts, such as the
Slavs or the Etruscans, or among themselves. Th eir art from
this era is oft en bloody, refl ecting a warrior’s code of kill or
die. Th e Celts loved art and were ostentatious in their displays
of jewelry. Th e number 3 was a magical number to them, and
their jewelry oft en features three-pointed swirls, as well as
very intricate interlaced patterns of lines.
It would be a mistake to say they were not infl uenced by
art from other cultures, but their artists absorbed the tech-
niques of others and then worked them into their own Celtic
traditions. Th us, even when their sculptures began to shift
from the abstract forms found in their model carts to the re-
alism of classical art, they continued to incorporate their own
ideas of what made for natural forms. To the Celts almost ev-
erything they saw had a living vitality, and this vitality was
seen in the graceful curves of plants and animals. Th e appar-
ent geometric designs on pottery, full of sweeping curves and
sharp angles with nothing in particular represented, were to
the Celtic artist a depiction of the complexity and vitality of
the natural world. What may look like three-pronged swirls
to an outsider looked like the sun coursing across the sky to
the Celt. Th eir twining together of lines that never seem to
end was an expression of the eternal movement of life.
Th e Celts of central Europe also made representational
art, either carving in the realistic manner of the Greeks and
Romans or making ceramic images for use in temples and
public buildings. It was customary for Celtic warriors in cen-
tral Europe to cut off the heads of their enemies and display
them. In Roquepertuse in southern France one such display
still exists, now decayed. It is a sanctuary with tall stone pil-
lars which have skull-shaped niches in them, in which were
placed skulls, a few of which remain. In about 200 b.c.e. real
heads began to be replaced by sculptures of heads. Th ese stone
and ceramic pieces were not portraits in the sense of detailed
accuracy. Th e sculptors emphasized the outstanding features
of their subjects such as thick lips, a bushy moustache, curly
hair, or a long nose. When the Romans invaded Gaul in 58
b.c.e., under the leadership of Julius Caesar, they would see
these sculptures side-by-side with real severed heads in mon-
uments built to celebrate warriors and warfare.IRON AGE TO THE END OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE:
50 B.C.E.–476 C.E.
Although Celtic and Germanic artists learned to create
works in the classical manner of the Greeks and Romans,
they never lost their love of ornamentation and of the in-
tricate, fl owing lines of Celtic art. Long aft er they had ab-
sorbed the Roman way of life—speaking Latin and thinking
of themselves as Roman people—traits of their ancestral
culture lingered. For instance, they continued to wear thick-
barred armlets. Th ese became the rings that early medieval
German poets described—the rings of power that would in-
spire the idea of magical rings in J. R. R. Tolkien’s classics
Th e Hobbit and Th e Lord of the Rings in the 20th century. To
the Celts and Germans the giving and receiving of armlets
symbolized the bond between lord and follower. In Scandi-
navia the elaborate swirls and intertwining of lines endured
into the era of the Vikings.
In 312 c.e. Rome’s Emperor Constantine I (r. 306–337
c.e.) converted to Christianity, ending centuries of persecu-
tion of Christians. In much of Europe, Christianity already
had been taking hold, but Christianity did not sweep through
Europe when it became the offi cial religion of the Roman
Empire. Yet it became a profound infl uence on European
art. One form in which Christian art excelled was the illus-
trated manuscript. Copies dating from the Roman era are
very rare, but others from the 500s and 600s c.e. survive and
have been widely reprinted in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Th ey look like ancient Celtic art. Th e three-pointed swirls,
intricate interlacing of lines, and interweaving of vines are
notable in European Christian manuscripts, whether they
are copies of the Bible or biographies of saints.
Th e Celtic cross remains a popular image. It typically
consists of a Christian-style cross with a circle around the
spot where the vertical and horizontal bars meet. Th e circle
is the ancient Celtic symbol of the sun, adapted to decorate
sculpture for the new religion and perhaps adding a touch
of the traditionally supernatural, which would be recognized
by Celtic viewers. Sculpted stone versions survive in much of
Europe. On these would be carved traditional Celtic designs
or fi gures representing a biblical passage or Christian story.
Th e images and subjects found in ancient European art
continued to be explored by artists in later eras. From the
graceful bison of cave art to abstractions of human and ani-
mal shapes, to the stylish and dynamic geometrical designs
of the Celts and Germans, artists have continually reused,
reinterpreted, and further developed the art forms and styles
begun by ancient artists.art: Europe 109