Thoughtful words

The sympathetic message on this card is quite different to Bain’s other greetings cards. This text, in Gaelic and English, could be relevant to someone starting a new chapter in their life. Or perhaps it was meant as consolation after a bereavement. It is one of twelve designs for cards in his collection.

The intricate pattern focuses on four men, drawn in a semi-realistic style. They entwine to form an equal-sided cross. Outlined in yellow and red, their main joints are shown as simple scrolls. The intersecting arms, legs and torsos are marked by cross-hatching, an unusual detail in insular art. Their long hair and beards form elaborate knotwork patterns. The strands meet in four pairs of double-coiled spirals.

Bain had found a similar motif of four male figures on one of the cross-shafts at Clonmacnoise in Ireland. It is included in his Methods of Construction, as is another of three men from the Book of Kells.

See: Bain’s Celtic Art, Methods of Construction page 115, Plates 13 & 14