FOR MANY, Celtic art and mythology plays a significant role in what it is to be Scottish. We view the Celts as heroic early versions of ourselves, as "true" Scots. Our shops are full of Celtic knot jewellery, and many young people cover their bodies in Celtic tattoos. As a new exhibition highlights, however, it would perhaps be more accurate to say that Celtic mythology plays into what we tell ourselves it is to be Scottish. The truth about the Celts, it seems, is more fluid.

Of course it’s not just Scots whose collective imagination has been shaped by this ancient “tribe” – modern identities across the British Isles and beyond have been influenced by the Celts. But who were these people? Where did their reach extend? And how much have modern revivals and reinterpretations of their history influenced how we view them? That’s what the show at the National Museum of Scotland explores.

Recent research and archaeological discoveries are transforming our understanding of the Celts and reveals their complex and fascinating history stretches more extensively across Europe and beyond than previously imagined.

Key to the Edinburgh show, which opens this week and has been produced in partnership with the British Museum, is a fresh look at Celtic art, from its origins in western Europe in 500BC, to its influence on the Arts and Crafts and the Glasgow Style of which Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald were central, and beyond. With 350 objects, from 14 UK and 12 international lenders, many of which have never previously been shown in Scotland, the exhibition explores the idea of a Europe-wide Celtic art, which reflected status, connections and belief.

It’s a once in a lifetime chance to see so many national and international Celtic masterpieces in Scotland. Among them is the Gundestrup Cauldron, from the National Museum of Denmark, a 2000-year-old silver bowl which challenges traditional ideas of Celtic art by revealing a strong Asian influence. Another highlight is the Roman-period bronze bear statue dedicated to the goddess Deo Artio, which has come from Bern, Switzerland.

Among the Scottish masterpieces are the Hunterston brooch, found in Ayrshire, the Monymusk reliquary from the north east and the Iron Age gold torcs unearthed at Blair Drummond, Stirlingshire, by metal detectorist David Booth in 2009.

According to joint exhibition curator Dr Martin Goldberg, the Celts are not necessarily who we think they are. He said: “Over the last few centuries Celts and Celtic art have helped us to understand our own place in the bigger story of European history, but as our knowledge of the past has grown those concepts have changed to suit particular times.

“This exhibition has given us great opportunities to look afresh at our own material through new research and presentation, to display some exciting finds from across Scotland and to work with exceptional objects from other national and international collections.

“The resulting breadth, variety and quality of objects tell us fascinating, occasionally challenging things about Celts.”

Celts opens on Thursday 10 March. Admission is £10 for adults, £8 for concessions. Children aged 12-15, £6.50. Entry is free for National Museums Scotland members and children under 12.

 

SEVEN PICTURES THAT TELL THE STORY OF THE CELTS

The Herald:

The Druids: Bringing in the Mistletoe, 1890 George Henry
(1858-1943) and Edward Atkinson Hornel (1864-1933)

A group of druids, an ancient priesthood, emerge from a grove of oaks where they have been ceremonially gathering mistletoe. This Victorian painting of a scene described by the Roman writer Pliny the Elder was intended to evoke an authentic Celtic past, but the artists brought together objects and people separated by thousands of years. The older bearded figure wears ancient Bronze Age objects, the frame motifs are taken from early medieval sculpture, and the facial features of the people in the procession were inspired by encounters with Native Americans at the 1888 International Exhibition of Science, Art and Industry in Glasgow.

This striking image, which usually resides at Kelvingrove Museum and Art Gallery in Glasgow, is typical of the romanticised Victorian reimagining of a Celtic past that still informs many modern myths about Celts today.

 

The Herald:

Waldalgesheim

On loan from the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn

Decoration marked out certain objects and their users as special. Early Celtic art was rare and usually reserved for the finest of objects in gold and bronze. Only a few people would have used such items or been able to interpret their patterns. This would have identified them as men and women of significance in their community.

Around 320 BC, an important woman was buried at Waldalgesheim in western Germany with many richly-adorned objects. She wore jewellery of gold and bronze decorated with stylised vegetation, and was buried with bronze vessels for a feast. An ornate chariot accompanied her to the grave. The unusual decoration on these remarkable objects marked her out as someone extraordinary - and showed connections to a world beyond the immediate horizon.

 

The Herald:

Torrs Pony Cap

National Museum of Scotland collection

The Torrs pony cap, dating from the 3rd century BC, was discovered in the early 1800s on a farm in Kirkcudbrightshire. It is a masterpiece of early Celtic art which shows strong links to continental traditions, though it was British in origin.

It came into the hands of Sir Walter Scott and went on display at Abbotsford, his country pile, where it was shown with ornate curved horns attached. A longstanding scholarly debate ensued as to whether the horns were original or added later.

Recent archival research has uncovered a contemporary report of the find in the Caledonian Mercury in December 1812, which confirms that the horns were indeed discovered attached to the cap which gave the pony a dramatic appearance.

 

The Herald:

Seven Painted pots, Clermont-Ferrand, central France, 150-100BC

On loan from Direction Regionale des Affaires Culturelles d’Auvergne 

These painted pottery masterpieces are covered in animals which have been distorted to create a striking effect. Many resemble deer, but their antlers, legs and ears are highly exaggerated. On the largest pot, more and more animals emerge from the design the longer you stare at it. Decorated pots like this are only found in the Auvergne region of central France. They were used for storing or serving alcohol, perhaps being passed hand to hand around a gathering.

 

The Herald:

Gundestrup Cauldron

On loan from the National Museum of Denmark

One of the most important and intriguing finds from ancient Europe, this magnificent silver cauldron from Gundestrup in Denmark reveals connections between communities thousands of miles apart. While it is often called Celtic, it takes us far beyond any simple idea of the Celts.

Many of the scenes are fantastical, but they include objects such as the torc, which was worn around the neck like jewellery, and the carnyx, a wind instrument, which were typical in western and central Europe. The style of decoration and the use of silver suggest, however, that this piece was made in south-east Europe, perhaps Bulgaria or Romania, where silver was common. Its visual connections stretch even further, as far as Asia. One antlered figure is shown in a cross-legged yoga pose, while another panel features stylised elephants.

The cauldron ended its life far from where it was made, buried as an offering in a Danish bog. It highlights that we are dealing here with a connected world, not just a Celtic one.

 

The Herald:

Deo Artio, the bear goddess. Switzerland, AD150-200

On loan from Bernisches Historisches Museum, Bern

This remarkable Swiss statue shows how older gods were made visible by the Roman conquest. A large bronze female bear dominates the scene, facing a seated goddess dressed like a typical Roman deity. The inscription, however, tells us this is no Roman god – she is dea Artio, the bear goddess. The name is not Latin, but meant bear in many Celtic languages. Perhaps the deity could take either human or bear form, with both being shown here. Originally the sculpture only included the bear and the tree – the woman was added later, with the composition shuffled to accommodate her.

 

The Herald:

Hunterston Brooch

National Museum of Scotland collection

Found at Hunterston, near the Irish Sea coast of western Scotland, this brooch resembles the penannular, or broken ring, brooches that had been popular for centuries, but the design has become a completely circular ring. This innovation of the 7th century AD was most popular in Ireland.

The interlaced beasts are inspired by Anglo-Saxon designs and executed in intricate gold filigree using beaded wire, a technique far more prevalent among Anglo-Saxon goldsmiths of the time. The range of influences embodied in this lavishly decorated and intricately designed brooch tells us that powerful people in early medieval society could command resources and skills from across the British Isles.

This brooch was worn for centuries before one owner in the 10th century decided to scratch their name on the back using Scandinavian runes. The inscription is a Gaelic Christian name Maelbrigde, meaning “servant of [St] Bridget”.

This is much more than a Celtic brooch. Found in Scotland, made in an innovative style popular in Ireland, using rare goldsmiths’ techniques to create Anglo-Saxon-inspired animal interlace, and, three centuries after it was made, inscribed with a Gaelic name in Scandinavian runes, this brooch is a product of the great cultural diversity in early medieval Britain and Ireland.