Art history notes for 5th year Art - For Friday 1st March

Friday 1st March.

Please take down the notes below 
on the fibula into your notes into your hardback copies.  Then I want you to finish the 2017 Q. 2 (below) into your essay copies. You already have the notes on the broighter collar. 
Please do a sketch of the fibula at the end of your notes. 



Everyone already has this question taken down into their copies from before midterm break. I want this essay then handed into class on Monday. 



2017 Q.2 HL.

2. Name, describe and discuss the two artefacts illustrated on the accompanying sheet. In your answer refer to form, function, materials and the techniques used in their production and decoration. and Briefly describe and discuss the periods in which these artefacts were made. Illustrate your answer. 

 

The Fibula.

 

The gold dress fastener  found in Clones, Co. Monaghan, dates from the 8th century B.C. and is decorated with many small circular shapes engraved into it.  It is pure gold and weighs over 1000 grammes it probably was used for ceremonial occasions.

It can be seen in the National Museum of Ireland and belongs to the Dowris phase of the Late Bronze Age at circa 700 B. C.  It has a length of 21.5 centimetres.
It functioned as a double button meant to slip through two holes in a garment such as a cloak.  The largeness and elaborate decoration on the surface probably meant it was only worn infrequently.
The connecting bow tapers from the centre toward each end, and the ends join the bell-shaped terminals asymmetrically.  Three small hatched triangles lie along the crest of the bow.  Three bands of parallel lines, separated by bands with diagonal hatching, run around the bases of the bow.  A hatched chevron design runs around the margins of this band of decoration, both above and below.
The exterior surfaces of the terminals are magnificently decorated with small pits surrounded by concentric engraved circles, scattered freehand and occasionally touching one another.
A triangular area between the end of the bow and the inner edge of the terminal has been left undecorated, and a similar interruption of decoration appears on the underside of the bow.
The rims of the terminals carry three ridges, both inside and outside.  A ring of hatched triangles rises from the highest inner ridge.
This type of fastener is an Irish adaptation of a northern European clothespin, in which two conjoined circular plates are furnished with a fastening pin; pins are absent in the Irish form.  Many of these fasteners (all except two are in gold) have been found in Ireland, where they have a wide distribution; such ornaments were also exported to Britain.  Also known as a fibula or fibulae.



If finished the above please take down the following. Ask students to finish taking these notes down for homework:

Hair Lock rings seem to be a uniquely Irish invention.  They may have been used as hair ornaments.  Structurally, they are the most advanced work of the bronze age goldsmiths in Ireland.  A pair of lock rings from Gorteenreagh in Co. Clare were made from the fine gold wires soldered together into a double cone shape with a narrow opening down one side.  A plait of hair could be slipped through this opening into a tube at the centre, which could then be turned out of line to hold the hair in place.