Nottingham alabaster
Nottingham alabaster is a term used to refer to the English sculpture industry, mostly of relatively small religious carvings, which flourished from the fourteenth century until the early sixteenth century.
Throughout the period of their production Nottingham alabaster images were hugely popular in Europe and were exported in large quantities, some ending up as far afield as Iceland, Croatia and Poland. But by far the greatest export market for these images was in France, where even today some churches retain in situ their English alabaster altarpieces, unlike England, where survivals are extremely rare. The sculptures were normally brightly painted, sometimes all over, sometimes partially, but much of the paint has often been lost, and many pieces have had the rest completely removed by dealers, collectors or museums in the past. Most alabaster altarpieces and religious carvings other than
History
The alabaster used in the industry was quarried largely in the area around South Derbyshire near Tutbury and Chellaston. The craftsmen were known by various names such as alabastermen, kervers, marblers, and image-makers.
The tomb of
Alabaster religious images in English churches may have survived the
From the middle of the sixteenth century, workshops focused instead on sculpting alabaster tombs or church monuments, which were not affected by Protestant aniconism. Indeed, these were becoming larger and more elaborate, and were now taken up by the richer merchant classes as well as the nobility and gentry. Vertical monuments placed against walls generally replaced the older recumbent effigies. There is an elaborate relief panel of Apollo and the Muses, of about 1580, which is probably English, in the Victoria and Albert Museum.[2]
The industry survived on a smaller scale supplying church monuments, increasingly produced by academically trained sculptors, until the falling price of marble and exhaustion of most English quarries made alabaster increasingly rare as a material for English sculptors by the late 18th century.
Spain had the next largest medieval alabaster industry, whose pieces are not always easily distinguished from English work, but pieces were also produced in France, the Low Countries and elsewhere in Europe.
Forms
The sculpture industry evolved to produce two main forms, panels and statues. Thin panels carved in
Many statues were smaller than this, but there are a number of larger ones. An example of a much larger statue, three feet high and free-standing but flat-backed, is
Most surviving examples have lost much of their paintwork, but the colouring of the carvings was an integral part of the production. Colouring was usually very vivid, with robes being painted in scarlets and blues, hair and accoutrements such as crowns and sceptres were often gilded, and landscapes were decorated with distinctive daisy patterns often against a dark-green ground. Moulded and gilded gesso was also used to give extra richness to the carvings which would need to be brightly coloured, as mostly they would only be seen at a distance by candlelight.
The subjects of the sculptors were the usual content of altarpieces, most often scenes from the
Bosom of Abraham Trinities
A rare iconography apparently unique to English alabaster is the "Bosom of Abraham Trinity", where in a composition of the "Throne of Mercy" type, a group of tiny figures are seen in a napkin held or supported between the hands of God the Father.[4] There are five examples of free-standing statues known, in the Burrell Collection Museum in Glasgow, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston[5] and elsewhere, and nine panels. The theme combines elements of the Western Virgin of Mercy and the Russian Pokrov icons, though these are not necessarily direct influences, and was probably associated with the dedication of All Saints.
Scenes from the life of Thomas Beckett
There are panels showing scenes from the life of Thomas Beckett:
- The consecration of Thomas Becket as Archbishop
- St. Thomas meeting the Pope at Sens in 1164
- St. Thomas landing at Sandwich
- The Martyrdom of St. Thomas
-
St Thomas Becketenthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury from a Nottingham alabaster in the Victoria & Albert Museum
-
St. Thomas meeting the Pope at Sens
-
The Martyrdom of St. Thomas from the British Museum
-
The Martyrdom of St. Thomas
Other panels and statues
-
Polychromed Crucifixion, English late 15th century,National Museum in Warsaw
-
The Spanish were the other main medieval carvers of alabaster inmedieval Europe. This Trinityis either English or Spanish
-
An unusually refined statue of Saint George and the Dragon
Surviving examples
The alabaster sculptors were so successful that it developed into an important export trade. Work is still to be found in churches and museums across Europe, and appears in such far flung locations as Croatia, Iceland and Poland.[6]
The
Some pieces, such as the Nailloux Altarpiece remain in situ in continental churches. There are complete altarpieces with a series of scenes in the museum of the Cathedral in Santiago de Compostela, and in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples.
An exceptionally large Virgin & Child (36 in high) known as
Notes
- ISBN 0-7139-9281-6
- ^ Apollo and the Muses, V&A[permanent dead link]
- ^ V&A Head of John the Baptist[permanent dead link]
- ^ Nigel Ramsay in: Jonathan Alexander & Paul Binski (eds), Age of Chivalry, Art in Plantagenet England, 1200–1400, p. 514-515, Royal Academy/Weidenfeld & Nicolson, London 1987
- ^ Ramsey op cit; Boston image[permanent dead link]
- ^ Out of the Land of Ice and Fire: Icelandic Immigrants in the Midlands During the Fifteenth Century, Scott C. Lomax, Midland History, 2023
- ISBN 0-86012-358-8
Sources
- The Records of the Borough of Nottingham, Nottingham, Thomas Forman & Sons, 1914
- Medieval English Alabaster Carvings in the Castle Museum Nottingham, Francis Cheetham, City of Nottingham art Galleries and Museums Committee, 1973
- English Mediaeval Alabasters: With a catalogue of the collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, ISBN 978-0-7148-8014-3
- The Alabaster Men: Sacred Images From Medieval England, Francis Cheetham, Daniel Katz Ltd 2001
- The Alabaster Images of Medieval England (Museum of London Medieval Finds (1150–1450), ISBN 978-1-84383-028-3
- English Medieval Alabasters: With a Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum, ISBN 978-1-84383-009-2
- Die englischen Alabastermadonnen des Späten Mittelalters, Karin Land, Düsseldorf University Press 2011, ISBN 978-3-940671-57-8