266 General Discussion of the Crosses 



On avait figure tres rarement le Christ en croix du VI" siecle au X® ; 

 on le rencontre encore rarement dans les sculptures anterieures au 

 XIII^.i 



On dut, au XII® siecle, sculpter le Christ sur quelques croix en pierre.* 



There is no evidence whatever to prove that such sculpture as we 

 find upon these High Crosses in Ireland was executed here before the 

 tenth [rather, twelfth] century.^ 



The crucifixion . . . did not become common in sculpture— in 

 Britain, at least— until after the eleventh century.* 



^ Caumont, Abecedaire (T ArcMologie 1. 173. 



2 Caumont 1. 232. 



^ Margaret Stokes, Early Christian Art in Ireland, p. 124. Miss Stokes 

 shows (pp. 134-9) that, out of sixteen crosses whose iconography had been 

 deciphered when she wrote, fourteen bore the image of the Crucifixion. 

 She, however, dates the high crosses too early. Rivoira {Lomb. Arch. 2, 

 255 ff.) shows that none of the principal ones antedates the second half 

 of the 12th century. He says (2. 257) : ' They were the result of a national 

 artistic revival produced by the renewal of relations with Western Europe 

 after the long period of isolation in Avhich Danish invasions and struggles, 

 and disastrous internal conflicts, had plunged the unfortunate country. This 

 revival, accordingly, was a reflex of the potent influence exercised by the art 

 of Italy and by the Papacy, in the era following the epoch of 1000, on so 

 many countries of both East and West. ... So far as carving is concerned 

 this revival cannot have become effective till considerably after the beginning 

 of the Xlth century.' Again he says (p. 256) : ' The representations on the 

 Cross of Muredach of pairs of animals facing one another and holding some 

 creature or bird between their paws are undoubtedly due to Lombardic 

 influence. Xow this motive, of Etruscan origin, did not make a start in 

 Italy before the Xlth century. The date of the cross must therefore be 

 put at the beginning of the second half of the Xllth century. To the 

 same period and school belongs the other and more imposing cro.ss at 

 Monasterboice, about 27 ft. high, wrongly assigned to the Xth century.' 

 As to the Tuam Cross, this was set up by Archbishop O'Hoisin, 1150-1161 

 (p. 256). 



* Anderson, Early Christ. Mon. of Scotland, p. Ixvi. Rivoira recognizes 

 a Cornish crucifixion of ca. 925-940 (2. 148) ; one from Durham as belonging 

 to the 10th or 11th century (2. 162 ; cf. GreenweU, Catalogue, p. 82); one 

 at Langford as of the last quarter of the 11th century (2. 193); and one 

 at Romsey as belonging to the end of the 12th century (2. 193). Keyser 

 {List of Norman Tympana, p. hii) mentions those at Langford and Romsey, 

 which Enlart (Michel, Hist, de VArt 2. 202-3) unhesitatingly ascribes to 

 the 12th century. 



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