10 “In our arts we find our bliss”

Posted by on Sep 14, 2014 in Ireland | 7 comments Sometime before the end of the ninth century, an Irish monk wrote a poem comparing the art of writing to the art of a cat—Pangur Bán—catching a mouse: I and Pangur Bán, my cat, ‘Tis a like task we are at; Hunting mice is his delight, Hunting words I sit all night. The poem celebrates artistry, not just for the results it produces, but also for the satisfaction and meaning, even transcendence, creation affords the artist. After noting the many parallels between catching a mouse and “Turning darkness into light” through writing, the poet concludes So in peace our tasks we ply, Pangur Bán, my cat, and I; In our arts we find our bliss, I have mine and he has his. When I study the stone carvings at Jerpoint Abbey in Thomastown, Co. Kilkenny—a place I am drawn to visit again and again—I am reminded of this layered definition of craftsmanship with its humane insight and its tone of wry humor. The artists who created the knights and ladies, saints and bishops, and other creatures at Jerpoint surely found their “bliss” in this work. Jerpoint is a Cistercian monastery founded in the twelfth century with continued building over the next several centuries until the 1540s, when wealthy monastic settlements in Britain and Ireland were attacked by Henry VIII’s forces in his efforts to consolidate power in his new church. In the care of the government since 1880, the abbey has been extensively restored and is one of the best examples of its kind in Ireland. Still surrounded by countryside as it has always been, the abbey is a reminder that with their religious communities, churches, artisans, lay dependents, and educational centers, monasteries were the towns of medieval Ireland. Carvings of religious and secular figures, real and mythical animals, and patterned borders decorate the tombs, walls, arches, and the colonnade in the reconstructed cloister. The sheer number and exuberance of the carvings at Jerpoint and their placement throughout the buildings tell us something about the nature of religious belief in this multigenerational community and also about the artistry of the carvers. Even today, six or seven hundred years later, their skill, vision, humanity, and love of their work are evident in every line. Take this row of saints carved on a tomb, for example: St. Catherine with her wheel, Michael the Archangel carrying a soul to heaven, and St....
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