What is Celtic art?

Rich designs with hidden meanings, many of which remain mysterious to us now.

2,500 years ago, the peoples that the ancient Greeks knew as the Celts expressed their shared beliefs through similar abstract art styles which were used across northern Europe, from the Atlantic to the Black Sea. Objects decorated with sinuous organic forms and fantastic animals were used for feasting, religious ceremonies, adornment and warfare. These designs were rich with hidden meanings, many of which remain mysterious to us now. They were both stunning works of art and powerful ways to convey a shared identity. The development of this Celtic art style contrasted strongly with the increasing realism being used by the ancient Greeks around the same time. Circular bronze shield boss with a pair of stylised birds. Dredged from the River Thames near Wandsworth, London, 300–200 BC. Drawing by Craig Williams. Celtic art continued in Roman Britain, transforming and taking on new influences. In the exhibition you will see objects made using typically Roman forms and technologies, such as multi-coloured enamelling, but decorated in characteristic Celtic motifs. Local people, invaders and settlers coming to Britain from around the Roman Empire used these older abstract designs on new types of objects to express Romano-British identities. Beyond the frontier, communities in northern Scotland were affected by the conquest in a very different way. The exhibition also presents the new types of objects they created once they found themselves the neighbours of a powerful empire, such as distinctive jewellery which emphasised their difference from the Romans.