surface. Buffer terminals (they look like railway buffers) form a catch at one end. A T-shaped bar is used as the lock that holds the two terminals together. Another terminal, now missing, would have joined the other ends of the tubes together (Fig. 22.14).
l Function: The sculpture of the Dying Gaul (see Fig. 22.1) shows a warrior wearing a neck collar like the Broighter Collar. Elaborate collars of this type were high-status items worn by important people on important occasions.
l Technique: The collar is the most accomplished piece of Irish manufacture in the Insular La Tène style. The design would have been applied to a flat gold sheet that was raised by chasing. The flat areas between the raised patterns were incised with compass arcs. The patterned gold sheets were then heated and rolled into a tube shape. The tubes were soldered shut and then filled with hot mastic (a wax-like substance) so the tubes could be curved without crushing or tearing them. The cast buffer terminals were riveted onto the ends of the tubes. A row of beading has been raised along the joint to hide the rivet heads.
l Decoration: The pattern on the collar is symmetrical. Based on interconnecting S scrolls, it combines a variety of plant-based forms ending in spiral bosses, which are made separately and pinned on (Fig. 22.15).The background area between the patterns has been incised with compass arcs to create a contrast in texture with the smooth surface of the raised design. On the buffer terminals there is a raised pattern of plant-based designs with a little gold bead soldered in the centre, where it meets the tubes. One of the terminals has rows of beading.
Respond to the Insular La Tène designs of the Turoe Stone and the Broighter Collar by creating a design in any medium you like to represent Ireland’s Celtic past. Research the positive and negative shapes and natural elements in the patterns.
A Change of Style
(Ultimate La Tène) Around the turn of the first millennium, there was a new development in the style. Designs became lighter, with more open space around them, and more often arranged around geometric patterns. The following examples are in this new style.
Ultimate La Tène style: In the late Iron Age, patterns became more delicate and more symmetrical. The plant-based designs of the insular style gave way to the more geometric forms of Ultimate La Tène.
The Loughnashade Trumpet
The Loughnashade Trumpet was found in Co. Antrim. It is from the 1st century AD (Fig. 22.16).
Two bronze tubes joined together with a knob
The end plate
Figure 22.16 The Loughnashade Trumpet.
Elaborated pelta shapes Vine scrolls
Leaf shapes
Figure 22.15 Schematic drawing of a section of the Broighter Collar.
316 Scrolls Trumpet ends Spiral bosses
Figure 22.17 The pattern on the end plate of the Loughnashade Trumpet.
NEW APPRECIATING ART IRELAND AND ITS PLACE IN THE WIDER WORLD
