Issue 95

July/August 2007

Contents

news

Compassion revealed in Quaker finds

Did comb dress Celtic beard or horse's mane?

Consultation continues over future of Scotland's heritage

Popular Scottish hillfort is probably Pictish

In Brief & Phase 2

features

Archaeology: The Blair Years – How did we do?
Enough of politics, here's the real legacy of the last decade

In Holy Union - Gothic ivories reunited
Mark Redknap describes his eureka moment

Building a New World - Digging up Jamestown
Geoff Egan says the Virginia colony can tell us about Britain

on the web

Recommended websites
Virtual landscapes and research on Hadrian's Wall

letters

Views and responses

CBA correspondent

Campaigns, comment and communications from the CBA
Mike Heyworth on education and training in archaeology

ISSN 1357-4442

Editor Mike Pitts

features

In Holy Union - Gothic ivories reunited

Preparing for a new exhibition in Wales, Mark Redknap realised that a medieval carved ivory panel in Cardiff had once been joined to its other half in Liverpool: he had found a rare complete Gothic diptych.

How often have we gazed upon incomplete objects, and speculated about their form and fate? Every now and again missing elements, long thought lost in obscurity, are rediscovered – from Roman stonework to medieval enamelled crosses – and parts can be reunited. One such eureka moment occurred while I was examining a carved ivory panel as part of the preparation for a new archaeology exhibition on early medieval Wales, at Amgueddfa Cymru –National Museum Cardiff.

The panel, the right half of a diptych made in Paris about 1340/60, depicts Christ on the Cross flanked by Mary, and John as a young man. Gothic ivory carvings such as this were produced in a rich profusion of forms, from caskets, mirror cases, combs and statuettes to diptychs and triptychs – two- and three-panel images intended to engage the medieval viewer in meditation of Christ's life and suffering. During the 13th and 14th centuries, Paris became a prolific centre for the manufacture of such devotional objects from ivory, dominating the market.

According to museum records, our panel was found during the demolition of "the old well-house" at Llandaf in 1836, and purchased by the Cardiff Museum (precursor of National Museum Wales) from the estate of Cardiff antiquary John Storrie in 1901.

Medieval ivories from secular contexts are not unknown from Wales, and include tabula (a race game board) and chess pieces from various castle sites, and a small shield from Caerleon. A figurative ivory with possible devotional significance has been excavated from Dolforwyn Castle, while a carved ivory diptych from Valle Crucis Abbey was reported in Archaeologia Cambrensis (the Welsh archaeological journal) for 1866. However in Wales as in England, many objects of private devotion failed to survive the iconoclasts of the 16th and 17th centuries. For over 100 years, the Llandaf panel has been considered a rare survivor of such work with a Welsh provenance.

While scouring catalogues during research for a forthcoming museum publication, I realised that the decorative details, dimensions, condition and hinge positions of the Llandaf piece corresponded very closely to a left-hand ivory panel showing the Virgin and child flanked by SS Peter and Paul, now in the collections of National Museums Liverpool. The architectural canopies of each panel are the same, with identical three Gothic trefoiled arches, surmounted by triangular gables with crockets and finials. The style of execution of the figures, the drapery folds, the details of the canopy and border also correspond. The Crucifixion on the right panel provides a visual counterpoint to the Virgin Mary on the left: the subtle s-curve of the Virgin opposing the s-shape of Christ's torso.

Liaison with Pauline Rushton of National Museums Liverpool and Paul Williamson of the V&A Museum, and further detailed observation confirmed that the two panels had once belonged together.

The latest technology has now been used to create an accurate replica of the Liverpool piece for long-term display in Cardiff, alongside its partner. A great advantage of this replication method is that it involves no contact with the original artefact surface and, therefore, no risk to the object whatsoever.

Joseph Parsons of Conservation Technologies – part of National Museums Liverpool based in the National Conservation Centre – laser-scanned the original panel to create an accurate 3d digital record, capturing some 20,000 points per second. This "point cloud" was then processed to produce the computer model as a "polygon mesh" (like a fine wire framework made up of several million polygons) in the correct format for machining. The replica panel was then cut out of a small block of a polyurethane resin modelboard using computer-controlled (CNC) machining – in which the data from the computer model generated by laser scanning are used to control the path of the machine tool. The replica panel was then finished by hand and patinated in the studio.

This "marriage" requires further thought. The right panel is said to have been found in Llandaf in 1836, as we saw. The left panel was acquired by the then Liverpool Museum in 1953 from the estate of Mr Philip Nelson, who purchased it from the dealer Charles Angell of 34 Milsom Street, Bath, in 1934.

Llandaf, whose focal point remains the cathedral rebuilt by Bishop Urban (1107–34) and his successors, abounded in wells. Two of the better known examples are St Teilo's holy well (Ffynnon Deilo), and the "DairyWell" in the grounds of Llandaf Court, a house used as the Bishop's Palace from 1869 to 1940. The latter became, for a time, the resting place for a late 10th or 11th century cross shaft and head, first noted set into its end wall in 1870. The 13th century fortified Bishop's Palace lies to the south-east of the cathedral: one wonders whether this ever formed one of the locations at which the diptych engaged its medieval viewer in the meditation of Christ's life and suffering.

During the 15th century, the palace passed to the Mathew family of Radyr, as the bishop's residence moved to Mathern Palace near Chepstow. Were the two ivory panels concealed in antiquity within the wall of a well-house at Llandaf with devotional intent, to be found together in 1836, and then split up to satisfy the 19th century demand for ivories to be displayed as objets d'art in collectors' cabinets? Had they become separated during the 16th century, passing into the hands of Catholic families, one ending up concealed within a well-house? Could the oft-cited Llandaf provenance, first recorded in 1901, have been invented? Can further light be shed on their earliest histories?

Mark Redknap is curator of medieval and later archaeology, Amgueddfa Cymru – National Museum Wales. Origins: In Search of Early Medieval Wales, opens at the museum in Cardiff on December 7.

CBA web:

British Archaeology

CBA Briefing

Fieldwork
Conferences
Noticeboard
Courses & lectures
CBA Network
Grants & awards

CBA homepage