Was the Anglo-Saxon an Artist

Observers of British national idiosyncrasies will have noted that many of our countrymen fall unconsciously into the pose of the ancient Romans, who affected to despise the practice of the fine arts, and deemed it more dignified to pay the foreigner, the ' hungry Greekling ' of Juvenal, to produce for them whatever in this line might be desired.These people ignore the possibility of any effective artistic operations on the part of the British born.With others of our fellow-citizens the same peculiarity shows itself in a different form.They do not despise the practice of the fine arts, but on the contrary glorify it, while at the same time they refuse to credit their countrymen, past or present, with any special ability in this department, or if they are driven to admit ability they confine it to the Celtic element in our population.It is with both parties almost an article of faith that anything conspicuously good in art that is found in Britain must in some way or another have come from abroad.If the masterpiece in question be a portable object it has been ferried across the sea, while if it be a fixed monument it is the work of some imported artist.This is especially the case in regard to the Anglo-Saxon region and period.The truth is that in the popular estimation the Anglo-Saxon is credited with a racial character of a rather stolid and heavy order, and it is easy to believe that he would not make a good artist.Hence it is that those who, whether as a matter of secret self-satisfaction or of open regret, depreciate the national ability in art, have credited the foreigner at one time or another with all the good artistic work of Anglo-Saxon England.The noble early stone-carving of Northumbria, ascribed by many to the seventh century, is put down to supposed foreign workmen

Anglo saxon · Archaeology · Art · Classics · Historical Art and Culture Studies · Historical Influence and Diplomacy · History · Scottish History and National Identity