IN EARLY CHRISTIAN TIMES (SECOND SERIES) THE RHIND LECTURES IN ARCHEOLOGY FOR 1880 BY JOSEPH ANDERSON, KEEPER OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND IN the previous volume, comprising the Rhind Lectures for 1879, I have described the structural remains and relics of the Early Christian Time in Scotland which are exclusively ecclesiastical in their origin and use. In this volume, comprising the Lectures delivered in 1880, the subject is continued and brought to a conclusion by the description of objects which, though not strictly ecclesiastical in origin or use, are yet closely connected with those that are so, either by the character of their art or by their associations. The second series of Lectures is therefore the necessary complement and continuation of the first, completing the description and classification of the various types of existing relics which give testimony to the nature and quality of the art and culture developed and brought to maturity in connection with the civilisation of Early Christian Times in Scotland. If I have succeeded in demonstrating the existence of a series of art-relics, and directing attention to the remains of an early culture hitherto but little known and less regarded, I trust that they will lose no portion of their interest if I have also shown that 116298 they are for the most part of indigenous types, and therefore peculiar to the area which History and Archæology alike must always recognise as Celtic Scotland. I have not attempted to exhaust the subject. My aim has rather been to present briefly, but in a popular form, a general statement of the aspects in which the Early Christian Art of Scotland may be regarded by the Archæologist seeking to utilise those remnants of ancient culture which disclose the existence of a Celtic School of Decorative Art, and claim for themselves a place in the history of Art. I have again to acknowledge my obligations to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland for the use of a number of their woodcuts; to Rev. J. B. Mackenzie, Kenmore, for Photographs of the Monuments at Nigg, Cadboll, and Killoran; and to Mr. Hutchison of Carlowrie, for Photographs of the Dunfallandy Monument, taken for him by Mr. Jackson, Perth. I have thought it necessary that some examples should be represented with that absolute truthfulness which is only attained by Photography, and have therefore preferred the rugged realism of these reproductions to illustrations more picturesque and artistic in character. J. A. 14 GILLESPIE CRESCENT, EDINBURGH October 1881. |
