CONTEMPORARY CARPET PAGE

This page was made by a UH student who worked for many months to recapture the intricate linear patterns and complex palette of English-Irish (“Hiberno-Saxon”) Gospel Books of the 7th through 9th centuries. The Gospel Book, which incorporated the accounts of Christ’s life by all four of the Evangelists, was a “best-seller” in this period. Most of the people who lived in Europe during much of the Middle Ages were illiterate. Monks, however, were highly educated, and one of their main goals was to convert pagans to Christianity. They needed books both for their own studies and for their missionary work. The book they most needed was the Gospel.

In the medieval books each of the four gospels was introduced by a series of three fully decorated pages, including one that is called the carpet page. The student work here is modeled on a special version known as a cross-carpet page (because the page is organized around the shape of the Christian cross). Some of the patterns were not merely decorative, but also had symbolic meanings. One motif is known as the “Triskel”, a type of spiral pattern that contains three parts. You can see it here in the Contemporary Carpet Page and in the facsimile of The Book of Durrow. To the ancient Celts it represented a group of gods or goddesses, while to the Christians it referred to the Holy Trinity.
The interlace patterns were also more than beautiful decoration. For the Celts they symbolized spiritual growth, and the Christian monks contemplated the intricate, rhythmic patterns as aids in their meditations.

The very richness of the decoration expressed the glory of God and the devotion of those who made and used the books. As the makers of the manuscripts wanted to avoid being vain about their work and risk comparing their creations to God’s, they always left an imperfection in the otherwise very tightly controlled, regular pattern. Can you find it here?

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