Hiberno-Saxon style

Hiberno-Saxon style

Decorative style that resulted when Irish (Hibernian) monks went to England in 635. It mingled the Celtic decorative tradition—curvilinear and “trumpet” forms, scrolls, spirals, and a double-curve motif—with the interlaced zoomorphic patterns and bright coloration of the pagan Anglo-Saxons. Mediterranean art entered as an element when St. Augustine of Canterbury's mission arrived from Rome, introducing the human figure in art objects, but the style's basic characteristics remained geometric, with interlaced designs and areas of bright colour, as seen in the Lindisfarne Gospels and the Book of Kells. It was taken to Europe by Irish and Saxon Christian missionaries and there exerted strong influence on Carolingian art. See also Anglo-Saxon art.