Amalie M. Keefe
On Tuesday 8th November a group of Year 9 students went on a trip to the Laing Art gallery to see the Lindisfarne gospels after completing a five-part art project inspired by the gospels.
History of the Gospels
The gospels themselves are ancient manuscripts dating back to Anglo-Saxon times, and depict the Christian teachings of Saint Cuthbert. There are five-hundred and sixteen pages full of intricate pictures and writings, all handwritten in Latin by a monk named Eadfrith, taking from around five to ten years to write. They were made with two-hundred and fifty nine leaves of vellum, calf skin, and illustrate the four gospels of the bible by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, the life of Jesus Christ and portray other messages of hope and good news.
The gospels were written on the holy island of Lindisfarne, a small island off the north east coast of Northumbria which is now Northumberland. Irish monks moved and settled there in 635 AD to set up a Christian monastery by request of King Oswald of Northumbria. The gospels were written in 700 AD, two years after Eadfrith became bishop, and after he died stayed on the island. Viking attacks on the island started in 793 AD, Lindisfarne had many expensive treasures and relics and was an easy target for Viking Longships, they stole precious and expensive items, enslaved many monks and killed others who stood in their way. Eventually, in 875 AD the monks fled taking Saint Cuthberts treasured relics and the Gospels with them. Whilst sailing to safety it was said that the gospels went overboard and were lost in the Irish sea, but days later were found unscathed, washed up on the shore.
Years later in the 17th century the Lindisfarne gospels were owned by Sir Robert Cotton, who later donated them to the British Museum. This year the gospels are back in the North East, having been given to the Laing Art Gallery until December the 3rd, for people from all over the North East to visit as well as the other precious artefacts from the time period.
The Trip
In the Art project, we looked at lettering, and how it was used in the making of the gospels. An artist named Emma Tominey worked alongside us to create stop-motion animations about hope; each of us using a different letter of the alphabet. Emma then created zines; magazines which depict a person’s artwork; which held all of our work inside. After five weeks, we finally got to see the real gospels in the Laing Art Gallery.
The trip meant that we could see the gospels first hand, and learn much more about them. Shown around by a guide at the Laing, we viewed not only the Lindisfarne gospels but also stone ruins from Holy Island, priceless artefacts such as gold brooches and bowls, the Macdurn Gospels of Ireland - much smaller but beautifully detailed gospels similar to the ones from Lindisfarne - and finally a whole other exhibit of paintings, drawings and sculptures from all ages linking to spirituality and hope.
And finally, we watched a video made by artist Jeremy Deller named ‘The Deliverers’ which presents the delivery of the gospels from the British Library to Newcastle.
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