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SERPENTINE
$50.00
Limited Edition Giclee
7" x 9.5" Actual Image Size
Copyright 2009 Michael Carroll
Please note:
the images shown here are scanned while the actual giclee prints feature crisp
detail and brilliant color.
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Since
prehistoric times, the serpent or snake has always been an object of
fascination and dread, both worshipped as a god and feared as the
embodiment of evil. In nearly all ancient religions the snake
appears in either role, and is found in the iconography of sacred art
from Africa to Greece to Rome to the Middle East to the
Americas. The serpent appears as an important religious motif in
the Bible, most notably in Genesis as the tempter of Adam and Eve at
the Tree of Life in Eden. It was also venerated as a god of
healing in both Greek and Roman religion, surviving into modern times
as the traditional symbol of medicine, the snake coiled around
a winged staff.
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In
Celtic culture the serpent was a common religious and artistic
symbol, with strong fertility associations. The serpent
was particularly linked to the Celtic stag-horned god Cernunnos,
who is pictured with ram-horned snakes on the famous
Gunderstrup Caldron. As a cult symbol, the serpent was
naturally viewed as a dangerous icon of the old religion by
Christian missionaries who arrived in Ireland in the fourth
century. The legend that Saint Patrick banished the
snakes from the island is in fact true, even though there
never were any snakes in Ireland to begin with: a thinly
veiled reference to Patrick's amazing feat of peacefully
converting the Irish to Christianity and defeating the old
gods.
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serpent would not be completely forgotten, continuing as an
artistic motif for stonecarvers, jewelers and native
artists. In the Christian monasteries, the serpent would
now serve the new religion as an important decorative element
in the great illuminated gospel books of Kells, Durrow and
Lindisfarne.
Celtic artist
Michael Carroll's SERPENTINE is executed in high Book of Kells
style, using fine brushes and goose quill pens on calfskin
vellum. Michael's designs are not copied from the
ancients but are brand-new works, created with the same tools
and techniques used by Irish monks of the eighth century.
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detail |
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detail
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SERPENTINE
depicts a group of four serpents tightly interwoven into a ball of
interlacing knotwork ornament. Each animal grasps a tail in its
mouth, from which a tongue emerges to entwine around its neighbor's.
The frame surrounding the central panel is made up of spiral
decoration which also extends though the border, connecting to the
spiral lunettes at the sides and snake head interlace at top and
bottom. Traditional key patterns, one of the most ancient
elements of Celtic art, fill the four stair-step corner panels.
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artist Michael Carroll's SERPENTINE is now available as a fine art giclee print released by the artist
in a limited edition of 300. The artwork is professionally converted
into a digital image to exactly match the original vellum page.
Each individual print is inspected and then hand numbered and
signed by the artist.
They are accompanied by a description and a signed certificate of
authenticity. Each giclee is
printed on heavyweight 100% cotton archival paper using highly
lightfast pigmented inks rated to last 80 to 100 years.
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Limited Edition
Giclee of 300
Numbered and signed by the artist
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