An Irish Crucifixion in a St. Gallen manuscript
The Crucifixion scene in Cod. Sang. 51
Among the 18 manuscripts being generously loaned to the National Museum by the Stiftsbibliothek (Abbey Library) in St. Gallen, Switzerland, is Cod. Sang. 51, which contains the so-called Irish Gospels of St Gall. While this beautifully illustrated Gospel-book was in the library of St. Gallen by the 10th century at the latest, it is believed to have been produced in Ireland in the second half of the 8th century, perhaps at a monastery in the Irish midlands. In addition to full-page depictions of the four Evangelists, the elaborately ornamented opening words (incipits) of their respective Gospels and a cross-carpet page, the double-page 266–267 has facing depictions of the Crucifixion and the Last Judgement. Either side of the head of Christ on the Cross is a winged angel holding a book, while below the transom of the cross he is flanked to his left by Longinus, who trusts a lance or spear into his side, and to the right by Stephaton, who holds a semi-circular or crescent-shaped vessel at the tip of a long stick to the mouth of Christ. The heads of both Longinus and Stephaton are titled backwards to gaze at Christ. Christ is depicted without a beard and wearing a long sleeveless ribboned garment. Though the wounds caused by the nailing to the cross are visible on his feet and hands, Christ’s countenance is relatively serene and a long way from the tortured and suffering Christ common in later and post-medieval representations. Peter Harbison counts Cod. Sang. 51 as the earliest surviving Irish representation of the crucifixion. It has echoes of an earlier depiction found in the Durham Gospels, probably produced at Lindisfarne in Northumbria c. 700. Ireland and Northumbria enjoyed strong connections in this period and were both part of the ‘Insular world’ that produced a shared style of art often referred to as ‘Insular’.
Parallels in metal and stone
The depiction finds a close parallel in another object on display in the Words on the Wave exhibition. A Crucifixion plaque found at Rinnagan, Co. Roscommon, which lies on the River Shannon north of Athlone, also features a beardless Christ flanked by two angels above and Longinus and Stephaton, with heads tilted backwards, below. Christ’s garment is in this case decorated with Ultimate La Tène, interlace and fret patterns. This plaque has been dated to the 8th or, more likely, 9th century. The same arrangement of Christ, the two angels, and Longinus and Stephaton can be seen on several Irish high crosses of 9th- and 10th-century date. Generally, the Crucifixion scene appears at the crossing on the head of the high crosses, but in the case of the South Cross at Clonmacnoise it is carved in a panel on the west face of the shaft, though it is now badly weathered. This rectangular setting, the probable mid-9th-century date of the high cross and the proximity of Clonmacnoise to Rinnagan makes the South Cross perhaps the best comparison in stone for the arrangement found in Cod. Sang. 51 and on the Rinnagan Plaque. Indeed, Harbison has speculated that the Rinnagan Plaque may have been produced at Clonmacnoise, and there is a very similar Crucifixion plaque of somewhat later date surviving from the monastic site. It is quite likely that the craftspeople behind the manuscript, metalwork and stone representations were sometimes copying models drawn from a different medium.
The Irish Crucifixion
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of the overall Irish Crucifixion tradition of the early medieval period is the treatment of Longinus and Stephaton. While the names were attributed to them later, the actions of these two individuals at Golgotha/Calvary on Good Friday are recorded in the Gospels, though the Roman soldier Longinus’ piercing of Christ’s side is mentioned only by John. Stephaton is the name given to the bystander who is said to have dipped a sponge in wine vinegar, put it on a stick and offered it to Christ to drink. Although Stephaton is said to have offered Christ the drink before his death on the cross, and Longinus only pierced his side afterwards, the Irish depictions of the Crucifixion show both events happening before Christ’s death. It is noteworthy in this regard that John’s account of the piercing of Christ’s side was inserted into the text of Matthew’s Gospel in Cod. Sang. 51 and some other Irish Gospel-books immediately after the reference to the sponge. The inclusion of both Longinus and Stephaton below the cross is not unique to Irish art, but the positioning of the two is distinctive. Outside of Ireland, Longinus is almost always placed to the right of Christ, including in the above-mentioned Durham Gospels. As seen in Cod. Sang. 51, Rinnagan and Clonmacnoise, Longinus is generally placed to the left of Christ in Ireland. John’s account of the piercing of Christ does not actually specify which side. The Irish preference for his left side may stem from a belief that the spear caused Christ’s heart to burst, one that is expressed in a poem by Blathmac of probable mid-8th-century date and may also have been found in versions of the Passion of Longinus circulating in early medieval Ireland. The semi-circular form of the vessel containing the wine vinegar is also a mainstay of the Irish portrayal and strays from the word of the Gospels, which unanimously refer to a sponge being used. Cod. Sang. 51 and the South Cross at Clonmacnoise also seems to share a further detail belonging to a particular Irish adaptation of the Crucifixion narrative. In the manuscript image blood spurts into the eye of Longinus from the wound made by the lance, and this eye is open while the other one is a closed slit. This is likely a reference to the story of the curing of Longinus of blindness and is seemingly echoed on the South Cross, where blood appears to spout onto Longinus’ face from Christ’s side in two streams. This story of the curing of Longinus’ blindness is first attested in Irish literary sources and may have originated here.
The Crucifixion is one of the fundamental episodes in the Christian narrative and has been depicted in all types of media and throughout the Christianised world. In early medieval Ireland, a unique version of this universal scene emerged and two of the earliest objects to carry the Irish portrayal can be viewed at the upcoming Words on the Wave exhibition.
P. Harbison, ‘The bronze Crucifixion plaque said to be from St John’s (Rinnagan), near Athlone’. Journal of Irish Archaeology 2 (1984), 1–17.
P. Harbison, The high crosses of Ireland: an iconographical and photographic survey (3 vols). Römisch-Germanisches Zentralmuseum, Forschunsinstitut für Vor- und Frühgeschichte: Monographien 17 (Bonn 1992), vol. 1, 55–6; vol. 2, fig. 158.
P. Harbison, The Crucifixion in Irish art: fifty selected examples from the ninth to the twentieth century (Dublin, 2000).
M. McNamara, ‘Bible text and illumination in St Gall, Stiftsbibliothek Codex 51; with special reference to Longinus in the Crucifixion scene’, in M. Redknap, N. Edwards, S. Youngs, A. Lane and J. Knight (eds), Pattern and purpose in Insular art: proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Insular Art held at the National Museum & Gallery, Cardiff 3–6 September 1998 (Oxford, 2001), 191–202.
G. Murray, ‘Irish Crucifixion plaques: a reassessment’, in J. Mullins, J. Ní Ghrádaigh and R. Hawtree (eds), Envisioning Christ on the Cross. Ireland and the early medieval West (Dublin, 2013), 286–317.
J. O’Reilly, ‘The St Gall Gospels: art and iconography’, in J. O’Reilly, Early medieval text and Image 1: the Insular Gospels; edited by C. A. Farr and E. Mullins (Abingdon, 2019), 279–350.
https://www.e-codices.unifr.ch/en/list/one/csg/0051
