Thomas Pool: How do you see the iconography of The Book of Kells in dialogue with Irish arts today?
Rachel Moss: I think for many people, the distinctive initials and animal-based designs have become an artistic shorthand for Irish national identity, inspiring art across mediums – from tattoos and murals to Irish dance costume – almost to the point of cliché. Ironically, we don’t know for sure that the manuscript was even made in Ireland. It’s more likely the product of an Irish monastery in Scotland and was inspired by art from across Christian culture. This includes Middle Eastern icons, contemporary Carolingian gospel books, and the non-Christian art of north-eastern Europe and the Celts, albeit drawn together in a way that was unique to Ireland at the time.In this, one might draw an analogy with many Irish art practices today that create dialogues between global themes and distinctively local experiences.
What is your background and training? How did you become interested in working as an art historian?
Despite dire warnings of future penury from my school guidance counsellor, I followed my passion for ‘old things’, studying Art History and Italian at Trinity College Dublin, where I also completed my PhD. I’m drawn to historic art and architecture because of its immediacy. The textual ‘tools’ of the historian typically speak with a single voice, written by the educated elite for the educated elite and from a very specific point of view. The privilege of being able to ‘read’ historic objects and buildings provides a much richer window to the past. The Book of Kells is a great example. Its materiality – including the 159 calf skins used in its making – confirm the backing of a wealthy patron, while its pigments demonstrate alchemical knowledge. The art is deeply intellectual and exquisitely planned and executed. Yet the very human side of it is demonstrated in the numerous errors found in the transcription of the biblical text.
The line between art and artefact becomes thinner, the older an object becomes. How would you categorise The Book of Kells and is there an importance in this distinction?
The Book of Kells is equally a work of art and a work of theological scholarship. The reader of the gospels was encouraged not just to understand the literal story being told, but to meditate on its various layers of meaning. The art in the book operates in this way too. Initially you see letters, patterns, animal and human figures. But the closer and longer you look, elements such as Christian number symbolism, references to the Old Testament, to theological ideas associated with the natural world, and the deeper moralistic reading of the text, reveal themselves. The distinction between art and artefact is semantic but has led to the devaluation of many very brilliant works of medieval art, particularly those made from fine metalwork and illustrated books. Historically these were dismissed by the canon as ‘fine arts’ or ‘craft’ and further devalued as ‘anonymous works’.
What were the particular challenges, if any, with helping to create the Book of Kells Experience and how does this new interactive and immersive format enhance the visitor experience?
As a bound book, it is only possibly to display one opening, or 1/339th of the manuscript, at any one time. The minute scale of the work and pressures of visitor numbers also make it difficult to accommodate the close looking that the artists intended for the work. With the immersive experience, the first concern was that the content should be respectful to the book as a sacred object. Immersive technologies were used to highlight aspects that are harder to showcase in a more traditional exhibition format. The most obvious of these was exposing visitors to the dazzling range of illustrations at a large scale and visually deconstructing pages to understand more easily the skill involved in its making. This has been set against the narrative of the incredible story of how such an ephemeral object has survived 1,200 years, a fact almost as amazing as the book itself.
Dr Rachel Moss is Associate Professor in History of Art at Trinity College Dublin.
