Lough Erne Shrine Illustrations
These beautiful illustrations come from the collection of Françoise Henry. Henry was born in Paris and studied at the École du Louvre under the great celticist, Henri Hubert. Her first major publication Les Tumulus du Départment de la Côte-d’Or was a comprehensive study of Iron Age burials. She studied Carolingian and medieval art with Emile Mâle and Henri Focillon and it was her interest in medieval art that led her to Ireland and University College Dublin.
Henry's career began in UCD as an exchange lecturer in the Department of French in 1934. By the 1940s she was lecturing in Archaeology and European Art, working on a study of Irish antiquities and accumulating a large collection of illustrations of Irish art, mainly in the form of photographic negatives and prints. Some years later Dr Henry became Director of Studies in Archaeology and the History of European Painting. The nucleus of what is now the History of Art Department in University College Dublin is to be found in the Purser-Griffith lecture series on European painting which she began in 1934.
She published a number of works on early Irish art which combined her brilliant knowledge of manuscripts, sculpture and metalwork in brilliant synthesis. The images below are taken from a large number relating to the Emly, Moymusk, Roscommon, Shannon and Lough Erne Shrines. To see more, please click into the UCD Digital Library here.
UCDA P182/101. Notes and pictures relating to the Emly, Moymusk, Roscommon, Shannon and Lough Erne Shrines.
1: The “Lough Erne Shrine” outer and inner case (4/5) 2: Shrine from Melhus, Norway (1/1) 3: Shrine from Andenne, Belgium (1/1).