Birds in insular art

Here, Bain collects examples of birds from across early medieval insular art onto poor quality, thin paper. They are taken from manuscripts, incised or sculpted stone slabs and metalwork. All are from Scotland, Ireland or Northumbria. His notes show he’s working out comparisons across art forms and countries. This approach became key to his presentation of Celtic art.

HIs notes open a window on his studies. A looping arrow, with the command ‘compare’, links birds from the Book of Kells and a Pictish sculpted stone from Meigle in Perthshire. A remark on the left side compares a panel in the Psalter of St John with ones in the Gospels of MacDurnan. Bain’s wonder at the intricacy of insular art is literally underlined in his annotation bottom right. With his drawing of a detail from the Tara brooch he records ‘much enlarged’.

George Bain’s research eventually resulted in his book Celtic Art: The Methods of Construction. It was published by William Macllellan, the Glasgow publisher, in 1951. The book brings together his successful series of six booklets on the different Celtic art styles, first printed in 1944.