Sunday, November 20, 2011

Chi Rho Iota Page from The book of Kells (Blog 4)

This is Chi Rho Iota from The Book of Kells. The Greek Letters (XPI) abbreviated for the word Christ. So this piece is about Christ's first appearance in the gospel. There are word written in the bottom right, and it starts with Matthew 1:18 saying, "Now the Birth of Jesus the Messiah took place in this way." 

What I love about this piece is how detailed and tedious it is. There is so much going on, that your eyes get lost on what you are seeing. Round and organic shapes are popular in this piece. And also  groups of three (3) are shown quite often. Like in the letter "P" there are large circles with three medium circles in them. Then three smaller circles in the medium circles. It's just amazing to see that.

I also see some Celtic knotting in the "P" and the backwards "L". So this piece had to have been done in either Ireland or Scotland, because of those Celtic knots. 

Below the huge "P" looks like a smaller "P" and there seems to be a human head. I dont know what its there, thats kinda creepy. But for all I know it can be the artist putting in his signature with a picture of his face. I don't know. 

I really enjoyed learning and looking at this piece during class and for this blog. I seem to find something new every time I see this piece.    

5 comments:

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  2. I really liked the intricacy of this piece. Every single nook and cranny seems to be filled with some tiny detail or another. Its also pretty interesting how they incorporated small bits of meaning into some parts of the illustration.

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  3. This is definitely a meditative piece - I think one could look at it for days and still keep uncovering small details. It reminds me of some current drawings that I have seen in which the illustrator continues to add to the piece until it takes on a life of its own.

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  4. I like the colors and style of this picture, but man, it gives me a headache! I really do like the hidden pictures within the background, and I think I kind of want to investigate this piece more.

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  5. Thank you for the post. I will definitely comeback. iota

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