The Archer in the Ruthwell Cross

Abstract

Two highly suggestive studies were devoted some time ago to the Ruthwell Cross, a monument of probably the seventh or eighth century, near the English-Scottish border, which combines classical elements with others of Anglian or Celtic origin. One study was written by the late Professor Saxl;1 and the other one by Professor Meyer Schapiro.2 They were published almost simultaneously, in Spring 1945, although owing to the contingencies of wartime communications it so happened that the authors were barely informed of each other's doings.3 Whereas Professor Saxl stressed the Mediterranean origin of the iconographic items and of some stylistic elements of the representations sculptured in the Cross and its shaft, Professor Schapiro broadly discussed the religious meaning of the reliefs. The latter's interpretation of the Cross, which he came to regard as a landmark of Insular asceticism reflecting ideals of the Egyptian desert fathers, appears particularly persuasive. In fact, most of the subjects represented i...