The Golden Age of Irish Art: The Medieval Achievement, 600-1200

New York: Thames & Hudson, 1999. Hard Back. Very Good/Very Good. 9 1/4" x 12 . 368 Pages Indexed. Silk bookmark. During the Middle Ages, Ireland produced manuscripts and metalwork that put it in the front rank of artistic achievement. This flowering of the arts had a religious context: Christianity reached Ireland in the fifth century and found its most vigorous expression in monasticism. The result was a concentration of creative energy on the arts of the church, notably illuminated Gospels such as the Book of Kells and the Book of Durrow, precious objects like the Tara Brooch and the Ardagh Chalice, and a whole treasury of crosses, reliquaries and manuscripts. The bizarre imagination, minute detail and decorative invention that made this art seem to be "the work of angels rather than men" is still unequaled. But magnetic and fascinating as these beautiful objects are, the lack of dates and documentation means that they have long been the subject of scholarly dispute. The Colden Age 0f Irish Art is the first serious assessment for a generation, during which time painstaking research has added a wealth of new information and fresh insight. No one is better qualified to present the most up-to-date account of the whole period than Peter Harbison, the acknowledged authority in Irish medieval archaeology. The book is illustrated with over 200 photographs, many in color, of illuminated manuscripts, metalwork, architecture and sculpture, making this the most lavish as well as the most authoritative survey of the subject available.