{Celtic Art: The Sacred Head [continued]}[19th February 1991]

 [Redbook8:271][19910219:1155j]{Celtic Art: The Sacred Head [continued]}[19th February 1991]

19910219.1155

[continued]

‘One characteristic of the [second or “Waldalgesheim” style of La Tène art],* which was carried over into much later work, is a particular sleight of hand, by means of which designs that appear asymmetric in fact depend on the reversing and transposing of symmetric elements, to form a whole which partakes of both. The subtlety with which compass-work is disguised, and the linear twinings and convolutions that are made to appear organic and floral, which turn out when examined to be abstract and inorganic, all belong to a particular Celtic species of ambiguity.’

**

*[Square brackets per ms]

**– ibid [Encylopaedia of Visual Art 2]: 217

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