ABSTRACT

Analysing ancient art offers views into the visual worlds of its makers. The cusps and swirls typical of European Celtic Art have been interpreted as abstractions of faces and creatures inspired by earlier, more naturalistic art. Yet as 21st-century visual communicators used to ‘reading’ abstract emoji, we may be over-interpreting this aspect at the cost of other, still hidden dimensions. While humans share inalienable universals across space and culture, such as recognizing friendly or hostile faces, persons who lack facial recognition are diagnosed with autistic spectrum condition. However, their condition enables them to recognize embedded figures easily within crowded images or to focus on pattern instead of faces. My initial assessment indicates that some imagery of European Celtic Art would be compatible with an autistic idiom, similar as suggested for Palaeolithic art. This paper investigates these different ways of seeing European Celtic Art and opens new pathways for future research.

摘要

通过分析古代艺术，可以了解其创作者的视觉世界。欧洲凯尔特人艺术的典型风口和漩涡已被解释为受较早的自然主义艺术启发的面孔和生物的抽象。然而，随着21世纪视觉传播者习惯于“阅读”抽象表情符号，我们可能会以其他仍然隐蔽的维度为代价来过度解释这一方面。尽管人类在空间和文化中拥有不可分割的共性，例如识别友好或敌对的面孔，但缺乏面部识别的人被诊断出患有自闭症。但是，它们的条件使他们可以轻松地在拥挤的图像中识别嵌入的图形，或者专注于图案而不是面部。我的初步评估表明，欧洲凯尔特人艺术的某些图像将与自闭症成语兼容，与旧石器时代艺术的建议相似。本文研究了看待欧洲凯尔特人艺术的这些不同方式，并为未来的研究开辟了新的途径。