Re: Celtic body art? pre-christian

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: : Well this is a fun subject. Most people think of the : : elaborate interlocking knotwork of Irish art as "Celtic" today. : : However, this was almost entirely developed by Irish Christian : : monks to illuminate holy manuscripts from ca. 700 AD on. : : Of course, at this point nudity, tattooing and body-painting : : would have been forbidden by the Catholic Church and : : largely disappeared. : : What would be authentic Celtic art that was what most : : assuredly what Caesar and other Roman authors saw on : : the bodies of the Celtic and Gaulish warriors was the : : more ancient form known as "La Tene" style, named by : : archeologists after a site in France where this type of art : : was first discovered. There are many examples from the : : British Isles as well. It is very curvilinear, with : : plenty of spirals, but no knotwork. It tends to have : : a fair amount of large solids in it, and has something : : of the feel of the yin-yang symbol graphically speaking. : : You have to dig for this stuff, but there is a little : : of it in many Celtic knotwork artbooks (seeGeo. Baine), : : and there are at least one or two books devoted to this : : ancient pre-Christian era of Celtic art. : : In practical terms (having done the northern California : : Rennaisance Faire where 7 artists applied henna to : : about 2500 eager customers last summer, and British/Celtic : : design is very popular) we found that the ancient : : triple spiral symbol was very popular and easly to do. : : Also a running spiral (aka "Greek/Minoan waves") gives : : a very Celtic feel for a bracelet or arm band. : : Triple spiral and running spiral combined for a very : : strong armband. This well satisfied most peoples' : : expectations of a "Celtic" henna design. : : We practice henna as a stricly immediate, freehand medium : : without using patterns. This makes the comples geometry : : of Celtic knotwork very difficult to pull off. The : : one thing we used fairly successfully is the endless : : knot of Tibetan Buddhism (one of the 8 auspicious : : symbols) which most people see and accept as Celtic. : : And indeed there is a connection between these 2 widely : : separated peoples from very ancient times (1-2,000 BC) : : but that is another story.

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