Icons in the Art of Irish and Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts (the Seventh-Ninth Centuries)

Abstract

The paper investigates the iconic form of figural representations in Irish and Anglo-Saxon manuscripts produced between the fifth and ninth centuries. It argues that an important factor that influenced the iconic form was pre-Christian native art with its tendency towards abstraction and schematism. Other factor that had a bearing on the iconic appearance of Insular figural representations, as suggested in the paper, were icons brought by ecclesiastics to Ireland and England as well as a rich exegetical tradition on the image.