It’s been a busy week, but here’s a wild illustration I found searching for images of Celtic hunters. It’s called Ancient Celtic Warriors on a Foray Encounter a Couple Out Hunting.*

I also found some illustrations of Picts, who most historians seem to think were Celtic, though I guess some people think they may have been Germanic. They lived in what is now Scotland through the Early Middle Ages.

I learned that the Picts got their name in the 3rd century CE from invading Romans who called them Picti, which means painted. It’s generally assumed that they were named for their tattoos.

I also learned the words exonym and endonym. An exonym is a non-native name given to something by an outsider, like Picti. An endonym is an indigenous name. We often use them in the context of place names: Florence is an exonym for Firenze. But it also applies to people: Navajo is an exonym for Diné.

Sometimes, as in the case of the Picts, exonyms become endonyms. People aren’t really sure what the Picts originally called themselves before the Romans came along but by the 7th century they’d adopted the name for themselves.

I don’t think anyone really knows what Pictish tattoos looked like either, but I love these exonymic Renaissance theories.

The day after I found these images, and totally unrelated to them, I came across this 19th c. study by Gustave Moreau on the great instagram account @mepaintsme.**

So much to see, so much to learn. Endless parallels to draw. See you next Monday.

* I did my best, but I couldn’t find credits for a lot of these images. I hate sharing uncredited illustrations but the internet and art history in general are rife with them.

** MEPAINTSME, it turns out, is also a substack. It looks good. I just subscribed. As for Instagram, I am still there, though not very much.