I've never seen The Book of Kells in person, but I have seen The Belles Heures, and it's imprinted in my mind as one of the most incredible works of art I've ever seen.
I agree; I visited trinity collage a couple years ago and the book is fascinating from a historical perspective, but seeing it in a case isn't much better than a photo. The library itself is the better attraction.
Honestly, I don't know the exact intent of the producers here, but that film seemed more like an introduction and primer for Druidic Paganism than a historical examination of monastic scribal practices in the 9th century.
European Christianity in many ways was integrated with the local mythologies and mysticisms of the peoples who took it up. For example, the magic in infinite knotwork became Christian prayer in the new framework. It's not so far-fetched to see the illumination of the Book of Kells as being in direct continuity with the pagan heritage, and the message of the film seemed to me to be the exposition of that relationship, and of how that relationship was used in evangelization.
The Vikings themselves were eventually pacified by the same evangelization, and social integration into the new Europe.
I think the intention was both to share a lot of Irish folklore and the tumultuous times where that book was made in the era before Ireland became as Catholic as most of us were used to thinking of it as. The idea that something beautiful could come out of the violent Viking era is a pretty powerful concept for a filmmaker, and the art style shows that the makers weren’t rejecting their Celtic heritage.
You're telling me that a 9th century young monk didn't defeat the pegan god Crom Cruach, steal his eye and use it to write the Book of Kells?
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As a less sarcastic response: the movie is about the atmosphere / setting of dark-age Ireland, drawn in the style demonstrated by the Book of Kells (a book from those centuries).
One of the wonders of the book is that whoever wrote it seems to have had a magnifying glass, as many designs are enlarged objects. But magnifying glasses were not yet invented. Maybe they had a different technique involving water bubbles or something in the 9th century to see the incredibly intricate drawings of that book. Or maybe they independently discovered magnifying glasses and kept it secret somehow. Who knows?
But going ham by saying "Oh, they stole the eye of the pegan god and used that to help write the book" is quite epic and excellent storytelling. Its obviously ahistorical but a cool story nonetheless.
And its one cool way of acknowledging one cool mystery of that book.
I saw it in Dublin. No special tickets or long waits, IIRC. It's totally worth it, as is Trinity College.
I've also been to Iona! There was a bus trip through Mull (not that exciting) and then a ferry to Iona. There was some cattle land, but otherwise pretty undeveloped.
Iona is pretty much Scotland's open-air equivalent of Westminster Abbey - there are supposed to be 48 Dalriadan/Scottish kings buried there, as well as eight Norwegian and four Irish kings.
It also has some of the nicest beaches I have seen anywhere - although relatively few people ever go to them as they are mostly on the far side of the island from the pier and the abbey.
We were just there in October. There is a ticketing system now with timed entry, so get your tickets in advance. It’s reasonable. Like 10 Euro or something. We got there later in the day and it was sold out, but my fiancé was able negotiate her way in :) She loved it! The rest of the library looked really cool too.
I once read that the Book of Kells has a feature that can usually not or only under ideal circumstances be observed on a digital reproduction or photo: Some narrow lines of the drawings produce optical illusions when seen from a typical reading distance. It is supposed to be a kind of "virtual" glowing colours between the lines that seem to disappear when you focus on them. -- Can anyone here confirm this?
I’ve seen it in person. At that time (90s) they had it open to one page, and would turn the page every week or so.
Unfortunately when I was there some clueless old codger decided to take a picture with a 35mm camera, leading to a massive flash, after all the signs telling everyone not to. It really brought home how much safer these artifacts are when the idiot public has no access.
For anyone else interested, and to clarify, "the Book of Kells experience" is to stand in for the exhibit in the Old Library while it's closed for renovations until 2025 [1].
Rather than and Old Library, it's a huge red prefab building in New Square. Might not be quite as impressive as the original tour.
If you've ever got the occasion to visit Phœnix, AZ, there is a permanent exhibition which includes a full-colour facsimile, and entry is always free of charge.
My daughter has a reproduction, and I've enjoyed many hours of looking at the illustrations. My girlfriend and her best friend went to see it at Trinity last year. I'm jealous.
The etymology of miniature was news to me - South Asian artists have been decrying the term as colonial as of late and this provides some important context
Both of these traditions are very established in Art History and any hypothetical tie to Western colonialism is, well, fully absent. That said, do a search using your favorite search engine. Miniature is not exactly a niche concept, so you will find lots and lots of great (small) stuff.
https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/470306
If you're ever in NYC, do yourself a favor and make your way up to The Cloisters - it's housed there. Very cool museum even aside from this.