plaque
- Museum number
- 1921,0608.1
- Description
-
Decorative openwork plaque; walrus ivory. The right-hand of a decorative plaque, pierced, and intended to be back by gilt bronze or gold. A male figure in a short tunic enmeshed in a foliate scroll, the lower border of egg-and-dart. Losses and damage at the left.
- Production date
- 1120-1130 (circa)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 58 millimetres
-
Width: 60 millimetres
- Curator's comments
- Text from Zarnecki et al, 1984, cat. no. 189, see bibliography:
'The right hand-end of a decorative panel of pierced ivory, almost certainly originally backed by colour, or, more probably, by gilt-bronze or gold. The figure of a man in a short tunic is enmeshed in a foliate scroll, with a border of egg-and-dart ornament at the base. It is close in style to the tau-cross crosier in the Victoria and Albert Museum, but the larger flowers and the more emphatic linear treatment of both the tendrils and the figure suggest a date just a little earlier, and perhaps closer to the Anglo-Norman tradition. There is certainly no sign of a stylistic link with any manuscript attributable to St Albans, in spite of its having been found there, but rather with initials in Canterbury manuscripts, the Gloucester Candlestick and with the cloister capitals at Norwick.'
See also:
Beckwith, 1972, nos. 58
Norwich, 1980, p. 9
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2013 28 Nov - 2018 01 Dec, Norwich Castle Museum, Norman Connections LT loan
1984 5 Apr-8 Jul, London, Hayward Gallery, English Romanesque Art 1066-1200
- Acquisition date
- 1921
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1921,0608.1