Corinium Museum- Medieval Objects

[poliphilo]

1. Head of a girl or angel



2. Another head- almost certainly by the same master-craftsman



3. Angel- showing traces of the original paint

Comments

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

They have loads of character. The first two look a bit like one of the guys of The Fast Show and the last one - well, what funny clothes for an angel - looks a bit like Grace Jones to me.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I love them.

You're right about Grace Jones. It makes me wonder if the African cast of the features is intentional. I'm calling it an angel because that's how it's labelled in the Museum, but the more I look at it the less likely that seems.

[veronica-milvus.livejournal.com]

Close cropped hair and quite a broad nose - I think the sculptor had met an Ethiop or Nubian at some stage. I wonder which one of them did the travelling?

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There was a TV programme the other day where they were doing a forensic examination of a skeleton from the cemetery of an English medieval monastery. Its owner turned out to have originated in North Africa. It seems quite a few Africans may have come into England in the retinue of returning crusaders.

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

I think what looks like close-cropped hair is a veil. You can see the edges of it coming down on either side. In which case, she's a woman, not an angel. Androgynous as they were in the iconography, they were never shown in woman's clothing.

The face remains intriguingly non-European. And full of character.

Nine

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I believe you're right.

Perhaps she was originally a bystander at some crowded Biblical scene- an Adoration of the Magi or a Crucifixion or something like that.

[sovay]

Head of a girl or angel

These are beautiful. Especially the way she smiles out of the dark.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks. They are considerable works of art.

We have lost so much....

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Oh, those are lovely!

Nine

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

A reminder of how much we lost when successive waves of iconoclasts went tearing through our ecclesiastical heritage.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Oooh... Lovely!

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Fragments of great, lost works of art.

I think we seriously undervalue medieval painting and sculpture.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

The Reformation has a lot to answer for.

The loss of the church's musical heritage also doesn't bear thinking about...

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I used to think the Reformation had made a clean sweep of medieval art, but there's still a lot around if you're prepared to go looking for it. I was at Howden Minster last year- an unsung, big church in rural Yorkshire- and it has a remarkable collection of unbroken medieval statues.