Pattern, Process, and the Creation of Meaning in the Lindisfarne Gospels

Abstract

This article argues for an understanding of divine geometrical processes as the conceptual foundation for the carpet pages and other decorative elements found in Insular art, with particular reference to the Lindisfarne Gospels, which is shown to be particularly concerned with the process of its making. The importance of sacred number and geometry has long been recognized, although primarily as an iconographic system. This article proposes that we instead think of geometry as a method of construction affording the creation of compositions that would have been conceived as divinely given rather than as the product of human creativity. Framing the carpet pages as divinely instituted forms allows us to conceptualize their roles as markers of sacredness, apotropaic devices, aids to meditation, and even artistic objects with greater subtlety and precision.