ardagh hoard

7/29/2019 Ardagh Hoard

1/4

Ardagh Hoard

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Ardagh Chalice Ardagh chalice.jpg

Ardagh chalice at the

National Museum of Ireland

Material Silver, gilt bronze, gold wire, glass, and enamel.

Created Early Christian Period

(700 AD - 800 AD)

Discovered 1868 near the village of Ardagh, County Limerick, Ireland

Present location National Museum of Ireland, Dublin: IA:1874.99

The Ardagh Hoard, best known for the Ardagh Chalice, is a hoard of metalwork from the 8th and 9th

centuries. Found in 1868, it is now on display in the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. It consists of

the chalice, a much plainer stemmed cup in copper-alloy, and four brooches, three elaborate pseudo-

penannular ones, and one a true pennanular brooch of the thistle type; this is the latest object in the

hoard, and suggests it may have been deposited around 900.[1] The chalice ranks with the Book of Kells

as one of the finest known works of Insular art, indeed of Celtic art in general, and is thought to have

been made in the 8th century AD. Elaborate brooches, essentially the same as those worn by important

lay-people, appear to have been worn by monastic clergy to fasten vestments of the period.

Contents

1 History

2 The chalice

3 See also

4 Notes

5 References

6 Further reading


2/4

7 External links

History

The hoard was found in 1868 by two boys, Jim Quinn and Paddy Flanagan, digging in a potato field on

the south-western side of a rath (ring fort) called Reerasta, beside the village of Ardagh, County

Limerick, Ireland. The chalice held the other items, covered merely by a slab of stone; the pieces must

have been interred in a hurry, probably temporarily, as though the owner probably intended to return

for them at a later time. The brooches found with the chalice show that it was not buried until the Viking

period.

The chalice

The whole hoard

The chalice is a large, two-handled silver cup, decorated with gold, gilt bronze, brass, lead pewter and

enamel, which has been assembled from 354 separate pieces; this complex construction is typical of

early Christian Irish metalwork. The main body of the chalice is formed from two hemispheres of sheet

silver joined with a rivet hidden by a gilt-bronze band. The names of the apostles are incised in a frieze

around the bowl, below a girdle bearing inset gold wirework panels of animals, birds, and geometric

interlace. Techniques used include hammering, engraving, lost-wax casting, filigree applique, cloisonn

and enamel. Even the underside of the chalice is decorated (photo below).

According to the art historian Lawrence Stone (writing before the discovery of the Derrynaflan Hoard):

"Here the Irish artist has shown a capacity for classical restraint by a deliberate decision to prevent the

ornamentation from spreading so copiously as to blur the proportions... contrasting markedly with the

lavish ornamental spread of the almost contemporary Tara Brooch and the still more elaborate systems

of the later period. The bulk of the decoration consists of exquisitely drawn spiral or interlace patterns,

given depth by the soldering of two layers of gold thread one on top of the other. At intervals are set

cloisonn enamel bosses of blue and red, the complicated manufacture of which shows direct continuity

with the Anglo-Saxon jewellers' craft of the preceding century. But apart from the extraordinaryperfection of execution of this elaborate decoration, what gives to the Ardagh Chalice its outstanding

position in Irish metalwork is the strictness of the relationship between the simple swelling lines of the

cup and its base and the arrangement of the glittering studs, bands, and roundels that adorn its

surface."[2] The standard monograph is L.S. Ggan, The Ardagh Chalice.


3/4

The chalice is similar to the only other major early Irish example to survive, the Derrynaflan Chalice,

found close by in the neighboring County Tipperary. That was found with a paten and liturgical strainer.

At that time the ruling dynasty in Tipperary and most of Munster were the Eganachta, while their allies

and possible cousins the U Fidgenti ruled in the Limerick area (see Byrne 2001; Begley 1906). Although

the early suggestion that the chalice was fabricated at Clonmacnoise and stolen from there by a Limerick

Dane is widely circulated, this is unprovable. A Munster origin is just as likely if not more so given the

1980 discovery of the sister Derrynaflan Hoard. A Clonmacnoise origin is not mentioned at the National

Museum of Ireland website [1].

The chalice seen from below

The chalice was featured on a 1 value definitive postage stamp issued by An Post between 1990 and

1995 as part of the series Irish Heritage and Treasures designed by Michael Craig.

Two Gaelic Athletic Association trophies are modeled on the Chalice: the O'Duffy Cup and the Sam

Maguire Cup.

See also

Ressad

Broighter Gold

Derrynaflan Chalice

Tara Brooch

Cross of Cong

Notes

Jump up ^ NMI, 185

Jump up ^ Stone, 18

References


4/4

"NMI": Wallace, Patrick F., O'Floinn, Raghnall eds. Treasures of the National Museum of Ireland: Irish

Antiquities ISBN 0-7171-2829-6

Stone, Lawrence. Sculpture in Britain: The Middle Ages, 1955, Penguin Books (now Yale History of Art)

Further reading

Begley, John, The Diocese of Limerick, Ancient and Medieval. Dublin: Browne & Nolan. 1906.

Bhreathnach, Edel, "The cultural and political milieu of the deposition and manufacture of the hoard

discovered at Reerasta Rath, Ardagh, Co. Limerick", in Mark Redknap (ed.), Pattern and Purpose in

Insular Art. Oxbow Books. 2001.

Byrne, Francis J., Irish Kings and High-Kings. Four Courts Press. 2nd edition, 2001.

Duffy, Sen (ed.), Medieval Ireland: An Encyclopedia. Routledge. 2005.

Ggan, Liam S., The Ardagh Chalice. Dublin. 1932.

External links

The Ardagh Chalice at the National Museum of Ireland

The Ardagh Chalice

Ardagh Chalice

LS Gogan

Treasures of early Irish art, 1500 B.C. to 1500 A.D., an exhibition catalogue from The Metropolitan

Museum of Art (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on the Ardagh Hoard (cat. no.

33,34,40)

ardagh hoard

Documents