THE ART OF THE CELTS by...

THE ART OF THE CELTS by Lloyd & Jennifer Laing (Thames and Hudson: $12.95, illustrated) and CELTIC DESIGN: Animal Patterns by Aidan Meehan (Thames and Hudson: $14.95, illustrated). In their attractive survey, Lloyd and Jennifer Laing note that Celtic art is an unusually broad term used to describe the art created in Europe between the 5th Century B. C. and the 1st Century A. D. “by people who are usually labeled ‘Celts’ ”; the art produced in Britain and Ireland from the 5th to the 12th centuries A. D.; and 19th and 20th Century works that use Christian Celtic art as a source for designs and patterns, including the so-called “Celtic Revival.” Certain characteristics link these diverse creations: Unlike their Greco-Roman counterparts, Celtic artists never attempted to produce an ideal standard of beauty, and showed no interest in accurately portraying nature. They rarely employed straight lines or symmetrical patterns. The finest Celtic artwork involved the decoration of manuscript pages and metal objects with linear patterns of astonishing complexity. Even the most famous Celtic sculptures, the stone crosses that dot the Irish landscape, suggest free-standing motifs from the Book of Kells. “Animal Patterns” continues Meehan’s notable how-to series on Celtic illumination. He reveals that the dazzlingly complicated knots of elongated dogs, birds and serpents that ornament brooches and manuscripts are based on fairly simple grid patterns, and his step-by-step instructions on how to reconstruct them will delight ambitious calligraphers. However, novice artists should master the more elementary designs in the first two books before attempting the interwoven tangles adapted from the Sutton Hoo treasures.