The seven centuries of the Anglo-Saxon period in England, roughly AD 400-1100, were a time of extraordinary and profound transformation in almost every aspect of its culture, culminating in a dramatic shift from a barbarian society to a recognizably medieval civilization. This book traces the changing nature of that art, the different roles it played in Anglo-Saxon culture, and the various ways it both reflected and influenced the changing context in which it was created.

Art historian Meyer Schapiro defined style as "the constant form—and sometimes the constant elements, qualities, and expression—in the art of an individual or group." Today, style is frequently overlooked as a critical tool, with our interest instead resting with the personal, the ephemeral, and the fragmentary. Anglo-Saxon Styles demonstrates just how vital style remains in a methodological and theoretical prism, regardless of the object, individual, fragment, or process studied. Contributors from a variety of disciplines—including literature, art history, manuscript studies, philology, and more— consider the definitions and implications of style in Anglo-Saxon culture and in contemporary scholarship. They demonstrate that the idea of style as a "constant form" has its limitations, and that style is in fact the ordering of form, both verbal and visual. Anglo-Saxon texts and images carry meanings and express agendas, presenting us with paradoxes and riddles that require us to keep questioning the meanings of style.

An interdisciplinary collection of essays examining Irish and Anglo-Saxon art in the early medieval period.

The quoit brooch style, a decorative style of animal and geometric motifs, is unique to southern England in the 5th century AD, with the greatest concentration of such items occurring in Kent. The author defines the style through an analysis of its design organization, and, by comparing it with near-contemporary styles in England and on the continent, he identifies those features which make it unique.

Much of early medieval Celtic and Anglo-Saxon art is based on the display of motifs – key, interlacing, spiral and zoomorphic – in well-defined panels in simple and complex arrays. A study of the arrangement of the panels and the fine detail of the motifs indicates that the artists relied on geometric methods and principles first used by Egyptians and Greeks. This book reflects Derek Hull’s life-long interest in interpreting the exciting and exotic patterns revealed by scientific studies using light and electron microscopes. His interest in Celtic and Anglo-Saxon art started with a casual observation of an interlacing pattern on an early medieval stone cross set in a churchyard. There followed many years of exploration of art in metal, stone and vellum from all parts of the British Isles and Ireland, resulting in some fascinating discoveries. Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Art reveals new and intriguing facets of these works that add to our appreciation of the beauty of the art and the skills of the artists. "This is a book for lovers of Celtic art, design and calligraphy, and will both delight and captivate... A must-have for both the cognoscenti and enthusiasts of Celtic religious art."—Cambria