Ancient Celtic Sculpture
The sculpture of the ancient Celts between 700 BCE and 400 CE is nothing if not varied as artists across Europe developed their own ideas and borrowed what interested them from neighbouring cultures. Early Celtic stone and wood sculptures focus on the human form, especially heads. Such works usually represent gods and heroic warrior figures but are often abstract with typical facial features being lentoid eyes, a bulbous nose, and swept-back hair. Animals, both real and imagined, were another favourite subject, especially in miniature form in metal to adorn all manner of objects such as cauldrons, chariots, helmet crests, and jugs. Vegetal designs and swirling complex lines added extra decoration to objects and became a feature that stayed with Celtic art as it developed through the medieval period. Celtic art, in general, has enjoyed a tremendous revival from the 19th century CE up to the present day and many of the motifs which are so quintessentially 'Celtic' have their origins in the artworks produced 2,000 years ago.
Themes
The ancient peoples who spoke the Celtic language occupied territories from Iberia to Bohemia through the 1st millennium BCE and several centuries into the 1st millennium CE. The Celts in any particular area of western and central Europe had no concept they were part of a wider culture with similar approaches to religion and culture. Then, like many other long-lasting cultures, the sculpture of the Celts evolved over time, receiving influences from the cultures in the Near East and the Greeks, Etruscans, Scythians, Thracians and Romans, and, of course, from other Celts. Any treatment of ancient Celtic art is obliged, therefore, to be a general one. A further difficulty is that the Celts left very few written records and so we have no commentaries from the creators themselves on what inspired their art, what their art was intended to represent, or how it was to be used. We must judge Celtic art largely by examining only the art objects themselves and the contexts in which they have been rediscovered.
Despite these problems of definition and study, there are certainly some common themes which are expressed in Celtic sculpture wherever pieces have been found. Further, Celtic art is not restricted to prestige items but is found everywhere from large figure sculptures in stone to the humblest of clothing pins; even such highly functional items as wine flagons and fire-dogs (used to roast meat on) were embellished with ornate heads of animals.
Three subjects stand out as being of particular interest to ancient Celtic sculptors: Gods, warriors, and animals. Sculptures are rarely life-size, but this may be because examples have simply not survived. In addition, it is the head which seems to have captured the Celtic imagination most of all. Heads were considered the containers of the soul and so were especially important in Celtic religion and warfare (where they were collected as trophies). It is not surprising, then, to see the head dominate Celtic sculpture. Human heads, and many of the animals in Celtic art, are typically stylized, they often have swept-back hair, a bulbous nose, and lentoid eyes. Over time, the Celtic love of heads in sculpture seems to have diminished and been replaced by other forms but they are, nevertheless, still seen in engraved areas of other objects where they are surrounded by a camouflage of foliage and linear motifs, often, too, rendered in a highly abstract manner but visible to the trained eye.
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