SCULPTURE
SCULPTURE
Apart from cross-inscribed stones that may have
started as early as the seventh century in Ireland, sculp-
ture should be seen to begin with High Crosses and
related monuments. With the exception of the crosses
in the Barrow Valley, including the tall cross at Moone,
which has wonderfully graphic stylized figures in flat
false relief, the ninth- and tenth-century High Crosses
often have squat figures carved in high false relief
which are more naturalistically represented than in
Celtic art, suggesting that they copy sculpture in a clas-
sical tradition, probably influenced by the Carolingian
empire, with stucco having been suggested as a pos-
sible medium of transmission. A gap in the eleventh
century is followed by a style of cross with Christ
triumphant standing out in high relief (partially in the
style of the Volto Santo in Lucca), often accompanied
by an Episcopal figure also in high relief.
At the same time, architectural sculpture emerged
on Romanesque churches, particularly on doorways
and chancel arches, though occasionally also on win-
dows. Often of a high quality, inspired probably by
English and French models, the sculpture includes
bearded masks and capitals, well modeled in relief,
sometimes semi-naturalistic, at other times (e.g.,
Tuam) wonderfully stylized. Often the carved orna-
ment is geometric, more a superficial veneer than an
integral part of the architecture it ornaments. Through
the so-called School of the West, the style continued
confidently in Connacht until about 1230. By that time,
the rest of the country had adopted a Gothic style, with
the early-thirteenth century plant ornament on the cap-
itals at Corcomroe being prematurely naturalistic
before stiff-leaf foliage becomes the norm by the mid-
dle of the century. The spread of Anglo-Norman
hegemony through much of the country between 1169
and 1235 introduced a new trend, particularly notice-
able in tomb-sculpture.
Starting around 1200, we find effigies of ecclesias-
tics, knights, and civilians, carved in high relief, and
dependent on inspiration from England, from whence
many masons must have come to create them and
ornament Gothic churches such as St. Patrick’s Cathedral
in Dublin. The carving of such effigies continued into
the seventeenth century, but those of the fifteenth and
sixteenth centuries rested on tomb chests ornamented
with Weepers under arcades—at first in Meath, and
later practiced by the Ormond and O’Tunney schools
in the Kilkenny area. North Leinster also had well-
carved baptismal fonts and wayside crosses in the later
medieval period. But the West, too, had a strong tra-
dition of later Gothic sculpture (e.g., Strade) and, in
Clare, panels in Ennis imitate English alabasters, and
stone figures of the Pieta copied wooden models
imported into Ireland at the time. But, even in the
thirteenth century local sculptors had been carving
their own versions of Romanesque Madonnas, and
continued to carve statues of varying quality for
ornamenting churches. These are doubtless rare sur-
vivals of impressive woodcarving schools, whose
quality can be measured on the only Irish wooden
misericords that fortunately survive in St. Mary’s
Cathedral in Limerick.
PETER HARBISONReferences and Further Reading
Garton, Tessa. “Masks and monsters: Some recurring themes
in Irish Romanesque sculpture.” In From Ireland Coming:
Irish Art from the Early Christian to the Late Gothic Period
andIits European Context. Edited by Colum Hourihane.
Princeton, 2001, 121–140.
Harbison, Peter. The High Crosses of Ireland. 3 vols. Bonn,
1992.
Hunt, John. “The Limerick Cathedral misericords.” Ireland of
the Welcomes. September-October 1971, 12–16.
Hunt, John. Irish Medieval Figure Sculpture. 2 vols. London/
Dublin, 1974.
King, Heather. “Late medieval Irish crosses and their Euro-
pean background.” From Ireland Coming: Irish Art from
the Early Christian to the Late Gothic Period and Its
European Context. Edited by Colum Hourihane. Princeton,
2001.
MacLeod, Catriona. “Some mediaeval wooden figure sculptures
in Ireland.” Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of
Ireland. 76, 1946, 155–170.
MacLeod, Catriona. “Some late mediaeval wood sculptures in
Ireland.” Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of
Ireland. 77, 1947, 53–62.
McNab, Susanne. “Celtic antecedents to the treatment of the
human figure in early Irish art.” In From Ireland Coming:
Irish Art from the early Christian to the Late Gothic Period
and Its European Context. Edited by Colum Hourihane.
Princeton, 2001, 161–82.O’Brien/Butler tomb (1626) from St. Mary’s Church, Inisceal-
tra, Co. Clare. © Department of the Environment, Heritage and
Local Government, Dublin.