About This Video
In Ireland, it is a popular myth that the Celtic cross was introduced to the island by Saint Patrick during his time converting the pagan Irish. It is believed that he combined the symbol of Christianity, a cross, with the symbol of the sun, to give pagan followers an idea of the importance of the cross by linking it with the idea of the life-giving properties of the sun.
The indigenous Celtic tradition in Ireland declined rapidly during the 12th century. Increasing foreign influences, such as the introduction of the Cistercian order in the mid-1100s, weakened traditional artistic practice, and in 1170 the Norman conquest of Ireland put a complete end to it. Thereafter, Irish art tended to be a mere subcategory of English art. Irish Gothic art, the dominant style through the 15th and 16th centuries, was only a weak imitation of English Gothic. Not until the 18th century did Irish art enjoy a resurgence. In architecture, the neoclassical style then popular in England swept over Ireland, and Irish architects, sculptors, and decorators produced many distinguished country houses and town residences in that style. Irish painting emerged in this period, when a number of Irish artists in London achieved modest successes in the field of landscape and genre painting. The attempt of James Barry to change the course of English art by reviving large-scale historical painting, however, was a notable failure. In Dublin, a native school of art, particularly devoted to landscape, coalesced after 1800 around such artists as William Sadler and George Mulvany.
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