Virgin and Child surrounded by Angels (Folio 7V)

This is one of the earliest surviving portraits of the Virgin and Child in Western Art. It is said to have been influenced by Oriental and Egyptian art - the pose of the Virgin is stiff and formal and lacks naturalism.

As with all the great portrait pages from the Book of Kells, the design is contained in a rectangular double border which gives the artist room to weave intricate interlace patterns. A recurring motif in Kells is a group of onlookers, such as the figures seen on the lower right-hand side of the page. They function as a visual prompt to guide the reader's eye to the facing page, which in this case is the Gospel of St Matthew.