A Year in Pictures – Knotwork at Sacre Coeur

[swan_tower]

This work by http://www.swantower.com is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

I think of this kind of interlace as a Celtic thing, so I’m not sure why it’s to be found at the very tip-top of Sacre Coeur in Montmartre. Well-decorated with graffiti, of course . . . but there’s a point at which that stops actually feeling like defacement to me, and starts feeling like part of the site’s history.

Originally published at Swan Tower. You can comment here or there.

Comments

Obscure Christian Europe History Trivia.... ARISE!!!

[(Anonymous)]

A lot of France was Celtic tribeland once, though that was rather pre-Christian times. But traditions may have survived; it couldn't have been more than centuries later that Sacre Coeur was built.

(I thought a folkanthra might appreciate that way of looking at it. {g})

On the other hand, the Irish, after Ireland converted, sent A METRIC TON of evangelists out through Europe; partly for re-evangelical reasons, and partly because Ireland had become a safe haven for Greco-Roman and Christian cultural work to be collected after the fall of Rome (and the Western Empire generally) for several generations, so had come to be valued as experts in various fields of what we would call the sciences today (and theology, duh, despite some tension with Rome). They were heavily involved in the first big pre-Renaissance renaissance (so to speak) which, roughly speaking (since I know the "DA" term doesn't really fit very well), bridged the Dark Ages into the Medieval Ages.

Had the Western territories kept better (or even usually good) relations with the Eastern Imperial seat at Constantinople, that might not have been as necessary, but... well, another very large and often sad story (as you know).

Anyway. The Great Irish Cultural Renaissance, provided mostly through monastery and abbey formations, started most heavily in France for various reasons. (Partly, as I recall, because Patrick had trained there himself before going back to Ireland.) Naturally, they brought along some Irish artforms to decorate their new homes.

Yes, I did read a number of books on this topic years ago (and a book that lightly touched on it again last year).

....FINALLY THAT STUDY HAS COME IN USEFUL SOMEWHERE!!!

{g}

(Well, I'm betting one or both of those factors is the explanation.)

Sabreman d-------

Obscure Christian Europe Trivia..... FAIL!!!

[(Anonymous)]

But I was wrong, at least in fact if not in spirit. :PPPPPP

Decided to use the magic of the internet to double-check my guess, and the artwork could not possibly have predated 1875, or maybe even 1914.

Maybe they incorporated earlier art, but eh -- not impossible but clearly a saving throw hypothesis.

Thus I sink back into the darkness of obscurity, ashamed. Or at least annoyed.

(Though taking notes about your post-surgical suffering, in case that can ever be put to some good narrative use later; thx for donating it to your fellow-author crew. {s!})

d--------

Re: Obscure Christian Europe Trivia..... FAIL!!!

[swan-tower.livejournal.com]

Yeah, Sacre-Coeur (I always have to stop and remind myself how to spell that...) is way, way too recent to have anything to do with ancient Celtic influences in the region. I guess somebody just liked the look?