Animals in Medieval Art, Eighth and Early Ninth Centuries

Manuscripts, and other works of art from this time period, are highly adorned with animal imagery. While many of the depictions are that of pagan symbols, they have survived throughout Christian art.

In Catherine Karkov’s book, The Insular Tradition, we are told that these pagan symbols survived in Christian art due to the translation, and adaptation of classical texts by the Christian church. Many of these texts form the basis of what evolved into illustrated bestiary, which reached its mature form in the twelfth century. There is a great obsession with animal forms, which is the main characteristic of Insular art. Animals are used to decorate everything from manuscripts, to crosses, to coffins. Christians drew upon these forms as a new focus for religious teaching.

Interlacing and Vine Scrolls

One form of insular art that seemed to enter into early Pictish design was that of Zoomorphic Interlace. These were distorded images of one or more animals, which themselves formed a type of decoration on monuments.

The interlacing animal[…]is perhaps more appropriate to the linear techniques of manuscripts and metalwork, from which it could have been adopted onto the stonework (Karkov 139).

Another important aspect is that of the Pictish use of the vine scroll, which gives us a very direct connection with Northumbria in Briton. Northumbria has a history of of sculptured vine scrolls, which seem to have influence over the metel workers, and manuscript writers of later Briton.

There are several classical texts, which help to form this basis. While there are to many to list at this time, here is a list of some examples:

Aristotle’s Historia Animalium Pliny’s Historia Naturalis Solinus’ Collectanea Memorabilium

Sources

Karkov, Catherine. The Insular Tradition. New York: State University of New York, 1997.