Rosemarkie Cross Slab · Groam House Museum

Pictish sculpture, for many people, means sculpture displaying uniquely Pictish symbols. As yet, no example of the earlier type of Pictish monument – the boulder-stones incised with Pictish symbols – has been found at Rosemarkie. However, the Collection has one of the finest examples of the later type – shaped and dressed slabs carved in relief with crosses, the Pictish symbols, and all the ornamental patterns found decorating works of art elsewhere in the British Isles, in the period from the seventh to the ninth century. We do not know the meaning of the symbols, but obviously, they were making a public statement in a context that could include the Christian cross. Not all Pictish sculpture displays the symbols, for sculpture functioned in other ways. The greater part of the Groam House Collection has no symbols, but it is as ‘Pictish’ as its great symbol bearing cross-slab.

The symbol-bearing cross-slab at Rosemarkie is in many respects typical for its date, which on the basis of the nature of its decoration, can be placed towards the end of the eighth century. Like other slabs of this period its symbols are large, extending over its entire breadth. Three are decorated with all-over patterns, quite different from the simple, concentric circles and mushroom-shapes of the symbols on the earlier incised monuments. The height of the slab and the decorative panels on the narrow edges are also common at this time. On the other hand, there are unique aspects of the slab which give it a special place in Pictish art history. The treatment of the front of the cross is very unusual. Most of its surface is covered with amazingly fine ornament, regular interlace on the upper half and arrangements of animal ornament on the lower. In the midst of this flat, understated complexity is set a panel containing an equal-armed cross. It is placed within the upper half of the slab, and although it occupies a comparatively small area, the viewer is compelled to look at it. There is nothing like this elsewhere in Pictish art.

When the slab was complete the upper half of the back of the slab displayed three crescent symbols and their associated V-shaped rods. Only the tips of the uppermost crescent and the angle of its V-rod survive. The Rosemarkie slab is the only Pictish monument that displays three versions of the same symbol. Theories about the meaning of the Pictish symbols have to take its unique evidence into account.

The other symbols are the double disc, with its reversed Z-shaped rod, and the mirror and comb. Although the basic outline of the symbols was fixed the sculptor could show his ingenuity by varying their decoration. On this side of the slab the Rosemarkie sculptor again shows how aware he was of the effectiveness of contrasting textures. The open interlace of the lowest crescent is followed by the tight, knobbly spiral work of the double disc, which in turn contrasts with the flat, all-over key-pattern for the decoration of the crescent above. Trademarks of the Rosemarkie sculptor are the way that he creates ambiguitiesrosemarkie cross slab - double disc & z-rod and splits linear forms so that the two strands created can add to the intricacy of his designs. The tips of the lower crescent are formed out of animal headed interlace that is used to decorate its interior. All three V-rods have their diagonals split to create knots at the apex. Animal bodies are split to vary the ornament in one of the panels on a narrow edge. The diagonal section of the Z-rod also serves to define segments of the discs. These clever idiosyncrasies show that the Rosemarkie sculptor was a master of his art.

Below the symbols one would expect to find, on the grounds of the arrangements on many other slabs, a typically Pictish hunting scene. The absence of the hunt is made significant by the nature of what takes its place. Here a second cross, with equal but slender arms with stepped terminals, is set in a deep border. The background has finely meshed interlace catching the arms of the cross, but worked clear of the stud-like boss placed in each corner of the panel. To modern eyes a Pictish hunting scene is very attractive, but if one is familiar with other art of the period, the substitute, this cross, must be rated as one of the wonders of Pictish art. Its design compares directly to some of the greatest works of art of this period; the cross-pages of the illuminated Gospel-books and the cruciform, studded decoration on metalwork shrines. Neither of these forms of art has survived in Pictland but it is a justifiable inference that the Rosemarkie sculptor was deliberately copying from such a source in the presence of his community. It seems then that this particular Pictish monument was produced in a primarily ecclesiastical context and that the imagery of the hunt had no place in its function.