Ornament and Order Essays on Viking and Northern Medieval Art for Signe Horn Fuglesang Edited by Margrethe C. Stang and Kristin B. Aavitsland © Tapir Academic Press, Trondheim 2008 ISBN 978-82-519-2320-0 This publication may not be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means; electronic, electrostatic, magnetic tape, mechanical, photo-copying, recording or otherwise, without permission. Layout: Tapir Academic Press Font: 10,5 pkt Adobe Garamond Pro Paper: 115 g Multiart Silk Printed and binded by 07-gruppen as This book has been published with founding from: Professor Lorentz Dietrichson og hustrus legat til fremme av kunsthistorisk forskning Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages, University of Oslo Fritt Ord – The Freedom of Expression Foundation, Oslo Tapir Academic Press NO–7005 TRONDHEIM Tel.: + 47 73 59 32 10 Fax: + 47 73 59 84 94 E-mail: [email protected] www.tapir.no Table of Contents Preface . 7 Tabula Gratulatoria . 9 Erla Bergendahl Hohler Signe Horn Fuglesang – an Intellectual Portrait . 13 Eloquent Objects from the Early Middle Ages David M. Wilson Jellinge-style Sculpture in Northern England . 21 Anne Pedersen and Else Roesdahl A Ringerike-style Animal’s Head from Aggersborg, Denmark . 31 James Graham-Campbell An Eleventh-century Irish Drinking-horn Terminal . 39 Ornament and Interpretation Ulla Haastrup The Introduction of the Meander Ornament in Eleventh-century Danish Wall Paintings. Thoughts on the Symbolic Meaning of the Ornament and its Role in Promoting the Roman Church . 55 Kristin B. Aavitsland Ornament and Iconography. Visual Orders in the Golden Altar from Lisbjerg, Denmark . 73 Margrete Syrstad Andås The Octogon Doorway: A Question of Purity and Danger? . 97 Iconography in Context Nigel Morgan The Iconography of the Sculpted Wooden Altar Frontals and Altarpieces of Norway and Sweden, c. 1250–1375 . 139 Margrethe C. Stang Body and Soul: The Legend of St Margaret in Torpo Stave Church . 161 Lena Liepe The Knight and the Dragon Slayer. Illuminations in a Fourteenth-century Saga Manuscript . 179 Lars Olof Larsson St Eligius in Öja. Some Notes on a Puzzling Sculpture by Egypticus . 201 The Middle Ages Transformed Mona Bramer Solhaug Modern Enthusiasm about Medieval Art. The Transformation of Limoges Crucifixes . 211 Notes on the Contributors . 227 Signe Horn Fuglesang’s Bibliography . 231 7 An Eleventh-century Irish Drinking-horn Terminal James Graham-Campbell The ornamental mount which forms the subject of this paper was acquired by Mr Laird Landmann, of California, from a London-based dealer (in 2005), but with no information available as to its provenance. It will, however, be argued below that, wherever this object was lost or deposited, it is a drinking-horn terminal of Irish manufacture, dating from the second half of the eleventh century AD (fig. 1). It is currently on loan to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Description Although a single casting, this copper-alloy mount can be described in two parts: the tubular lugged socket, for attachment to the horn; and its animal-head terminal. It is generally in good condition, although the snout is damaged and many of its small glass settings are missing, as well as some of its silver wire inlay. Length: 8.5cm (fig. 1). The socket terminates in three lugs, with one on top and the other two forming a pair on either side; the latter still contain a transverse rivet. The opening (external diameter: 1.7cm) has a billeted border. There are three oblong fields of ornament extending along both sides, and a plain silver strip runs the length of the top, link- ing two anthropomorphic/animal masks; the underside is plain, except for a mask at either end. The central longitudinal fields are wider than those above and below, with their borders inlaid with a wavy silver wire (set in niello); they all contain foli- ate interlace, with lobed terminals, in relief. In addition, there is a mask at either end of the two main fields, of which the inner ones are the mostly clearly human, with their “necks” likewise inlaid with a wavy silver wire. There is thus a total of eight masks on the socket, some of which are notably more human in appearance than the others which are somewhat elongated; a few of their sixteen eye-sockets still contain blue glass settings. 39 James Graham-Campbell An Eleventh-century Irish Drinking-horn Terminal The terminal head has a raised snout, partly executed in openwork, the upper end of which is missing. It has a pair of large circular eyes, centrally placed, beneath a raised crest the top of which is embellished with an oval silver plate. Immediately below this crest is a subsidiary pair of small eyes staring at a further pair at the other end of the snout, across which is a moulding. Looping around the main eyes, and running along the sides of the snout, is the ribbon-shaped body of a snake (inlaid with a wavy silver wire); at the end, the body turns back on itself and terminates Fig. 1 Unprovenanced drinking-horn terminal decorated in the Irish/Ringerike style of Viking art. © Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. 40 41 James Graham-Campbell An Eleventh-century Irish Drinking-horn Terminal in a moulded head resting on (or biting) its own body. The remaining ornament is foliate interlace, with its main lines inlaid with wavy silver wire. On the underside is a rectangular opening, in the form of a slot (measuring 2.2 x 0.3cm), which termi- nates in a moulded animal-mask. Discussion Technical Any detailed technical discussion of this terminal mount would require its scientific examination. On the other hand, its essential characteristics may be summarised as follows: an accomplished copper-alloy casting, in one piece, with elaborate decora- tion, some of which is inlaid with silver wire, set in niello, with the addition of two areas of silver plating and small settings in the form of blue glass studs. As described by Françoise Henry, these manufacturing and decorative techniques are amongst those that are particularly characteristic of the finest eleventh- and twelfth-century Irish metalwork.1 It may be that the terminal was originally gilt, given her observa- tion that the particular combination of “silver tracery edged with black outlined on a gold background” would doubtless have been “very pleasing”.2 On the other hand, there are no traces of gilding currently visible on this mount, although it appears to have been given a coating of some substance since its discovery; this remains, therefore, a matter for investigation. Stylistic and chronological The fact that this socketed mount takes the form of a stylised animal-head places it in a tradition of Irish zoomorphic mounts for the terminals of drinking-horns, dating from the eighth century onwards, although with Germanic antecedents (as discussed below). The animal-head itself is decorated with interlaced foliate orna- ment in relief, comprising lobed tendrils, but incorporating a total of eleven anthro- pomorphic/animal masks, together with a pair of interlacing snakes on its snout. In establishing his “Schools of metalworking in eleventh- and twelfth-century Ireland”, Raghnall Ó Floinn has written, of the so-called “Cathach group”, that “the primary design feature … is the use of panels or friezes of foliage or zoomorphic motifs in relief casting, the lines of which are rectilinear in cross-section … Foliate patterns predominate … and interlace often tends to cluster in knots”, with lobed tendrils being “commonly found”.3 These patterns are in the tradition of the elev- enth-century Ringerike style of late Viking-age art, as modified in Irish workshops.4 What is unusual about the decoration of the Landmann mount, however, is the incorporation of so many anthropomorphic/animal masks into the design, although such are not completely unknown in the Ringerike style.5 Although there would ap- 40 41 James Graham-Campbell An Eleventh-century Irish Drinking-horn Terminal pear to be no direct relationship with the Landmann mount, it is worth noting that human masks are used to terminate zoomorphic foliate interlace on a grave-slab from Bibury, Gloucestershire, England, which Signe Fuglesang has suggested dis- plays “partial Ringerike style influence”.6 This decorative feature of the Landmann mount remains therefore, for the time being at least, an idiosyncratic element in its design, for even in Irish manuscript art of the period the use of “semi-humans” for decorative initials seems to have been rare.7 On both technical and stylistic grounds, however, it seems beyond reasonable doubt that, wherever it was found, the Landmann horn-mount is of Irish manufac- ture, belonging to the well-defined workshop tradition responsible for the Cathach book-shrine, dated by its inscription to between 1062 and 1098.8 Ó Floinn has recently restated the case,9 following an earlier suggestion by the late Françoise Henry,10 for the central workshop of this school having been located in the major monastery of Kells, Co. Meath, “serving the needs of the Columban paruchia in the later eleventh century” – rather than in metropolitan Dublin, where finds of both “motif-pieces” and ornamental wood-carving indicate that the Irish version of the Ringerike style was flourishing during this period.11 On the other hand, it is impor- tant to remember that monastic craftsmen are well known to have produced work for secular patrons.12 Background Archaeological evidence for the use of drinking-horns decorated with bronze mounts is known from Ireland, from the eighth