Ian Howard RSA
Title: Cernunnos
Date: 2009
Bronze, H 19.5cms x D 4 x W 23
Cernunnos [L, the horned one]. An important god of the Continental Celts, a lord of nature, animals, fruit, grain, and prosperity. There is evidence for Cernunnos' widespread worship; he is, for example, portrayed on the Gundestrup Cauldron, one of the most celebrated works of early Celtic religious art, which was uncovered in a peat bog near the village of Gundestrup, Jutland peninsula, Denmark in 1880, More than thirty other representations survive, dispersed from what is today Romania to Ireland. There are convincing traces of him in the literary traditions of both Wales and Ireland; and in later illuminated manuscripts, figures evoking Cernunnos are symbolic of devilish and anti-Christian forces. The Breton pseudo-saint Korneli, a patron of horned creatures, also shows traces of Cernunnos. In Gaulish representation he has a ram-headed servant and Julius Caesar identified him with the Roman god Dis Pater.
Biography
Professor Ian Howard, MA (Hons) RSA Dr hc is Principal of Edinburgh College of Art. Ian Howard was educated at the University of Edinburgh and Edinburgh College of Art. He was formerly Dean of Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, University of Dundee and, prior to that, a Professor in the School of Fine Art there. He was a leading force behind the internationally significant Dundee Contemporary Arts.
He has been a member of the Faculty of Fine Art at the British School at Rome, and a visiting professor at many art and design institutions worldwide. In 2007 he was given an Honorary Doctorate by the University of Edinburgh, and was also elected Treasurer of the Royal Scottish Academy.
Professor Howard is an academician of the Royal Scottish Academy, a painter and printmaker of international standing, and winner of the Chicago Prize 2000. His work is in numerous public and private collections. |
