Celtic art developed separately from other
"classical" cultures, such as Rome and Greece. The importation of objects from
the Mediterranean gave the Celts contact with their art but the Celtic style was
unaffected. Constant contact with eastern and northern neighbors of similar societal
structure induced and "Orientalising" of Celtic art, (e.g. the use of the
Scythian/Thraco-Cimmerian animal style). Elements of Etruscan art were also absorbed, but
where ever the Celts took styles from they immediately altered them in such a way as to
make them purely Celtic. There was no period in which the foreign style was used and
developed, the style was Celticised immediately. The pottery of the Celts is never
decorated with figurative scenes (as in Greece for example) but always with textural
designs and multi-colors. Their metalwork is highly sculptural, rejecting the Greek
methods of integrating of form and surface. The Celts never looked to the classical
societies as the center of art work, considering their own developed style and tradition
to be equal.
