Under angels’ wings: St Martin’s Cross, the Book of Kells, and Iona’s viewscape

Abstract

Focusing on the image of the Virgin and Child flanked by angels, this article demonstrates how the built and natural environment that surrounds St Martin’s cross completes its iconographic programme. It takes as its departing point Thomas Clancy’s observation that the angels’ outstretched wings recall the ark of the covenant as described in Exodus, which leads to a new interpretation of the Chi-Rho page from the Book of Kells through a consideration of St Martin’s Cross, the mosaic depicting the ark of the covenant in the oratory at Germigny-des-Prés, and Bede’s commentaries.  The second part of the article then turns to the image’s position on the cross and the natural and built environment, arguing that these factors along with the rest of the iconographic programme are derived from Psalm 17 and Psalm 18. These psalms played a prominent role in exegetical and liturgical celebrations of the Virgin as the bride of Christ and the tabernacle in the sun. The third part of the article considers whether the ground in which the cross stood, and the human remains and relics of Iona’s saints and monks, might also contribute to the cross’s iconographic programme.