Celtic Art in the Global Village, continued

Celtic art has been criticized for lack of originality, in that it copied from other and older cultures alike. But Allen concludes that this is not necessarily a bad thing.

"In conclusion, I wish to emphasize the fact that the beauty and individuality of the ornamental designs found in early Christian art in Great Britain are due chiefly to the great taste with which the different elements are combined and the exquisite finish lavished upon them. I cannot see that it detracts from the praise due to the originators of the style if it can be shown that the ideas underlying many of the patterns were suggested by a pre-existing native style or adapted from a foreign one. Interlaced-work, key-patterns, spirals, and zoomorphs are to be found separately in the decorative art of many races and many periods, but nowhere and at no time have these different elements been used in combination with such consummate skill, as in the early Christian period in Great Britain and Ireland."

Maze patterns, spiral patterns and interlaced patterns all can be shown to be based on the pre-existing native style of primitive geometric pattern. Animal patterns from Scandinavia were added later, as a special sort of knotwork pattern, and integrated into the existing repertoire. The outcome of this fusing of many different traditions was a new art form, and one that found its greatest freedom in abstract pattern, in contrast to the naturalism of mainstream Western art.