Celtic art

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Art of the Celtic peoples of Western Europe, emerging about 500 BC, probably on the Rhine. It spread to most parts of Europe, but after the 1st century BC flourished only in Britain and Ireland, its influence being felt well into the 10th century AD. Pottery, woodwork, jewellery, and weapons are among its finest products, with manuscript illumination and stone crosses featuring in late Celtic art. Typically, Celtic art is richly decorated with flowing curves which, though based on animal and plant motifs, often form semi-abstract designs.

Early Celtic art, which reached its high point in 1st-century Britain, excelled in metalwork – in particular weapons and jewellery. In Britain and Ireland, Celtic art flourished anew with the coming of Christianity, producing sculpture (stone crosses) and manuscript illumination, such as the Lindisfarne Gospels (British Museum, London), made about AD 690.

An outstanding example of Celtic art found in continental Europe is highly wrought metalwork, inlaid with coloured enamel and coral, found at La Tène, a site at Lake Neuchâtel, Switzerland.