MINIATURIST, Irish
(active 2nd half 7th century)

Book of Durrow

650-700
Manuscript (Ms. A.4.5 [57]), 245 x 145 mm
Trinity College Library, Dublin

Folio 192 verso at the beginning of the St John gospel is one of the magnificent carpet pages that book illumination in the British Isles so delightfully specialized in.

The religious symbol of the cross, or to be more precise, a version of the Greek cross as a sign of the victory of Christ, is distinctly on the small side in its location at the heart of a gold-rimmed disc within the centre square, a disc otherwise filled to the last with tangled interlace motifs. The outer areas are decorated another impenetrably tangle, this time featuring inter-linked zoomorphic creatures.