The red dots around Celtic illuminated manuscript art?
I’ve not been able to find out what the red dots around the characters means–does anyone know?
I’m going through an art book on the Book of Kells, all Celtic medieval manuscript art, and want to do a project on it, but would like to know if the red dots have specific meaning. Some illuminated ‘letters’ have them, most do not. Individual animal art has them, but not when they’re part of a full page illustration.
Does anyone know what the ‘rules’ are for the outlining dots on the figures?
Here’s a top page illustration outlined with the red, it’s a little faint to see, and usually the red outline of dots goes on figures much smaller than this, but it’s an example.
http://www.jonsullivan.com/images/ireland/it-kells-bg.jpg
Here’s a better example with a hound and a rabbit..
http://www.greyhoundrescue.co.uk/img/bkofkells.jpg
That’s mean everything is joint together
Book Of Kells interactive DVD ROM overview