Crook from Clonmacnoise
The crozier of Clonmacnoise ( English Crozier of Clonmacnoise , Irish Bachall Chluain Mhic Nóis ) is a bronze crook that is associated with the monastery of Clonmacnoise in County Offaly in Ireland . Crafted in the Hiberno-Norman style, the staff was created in the late 11th century and fashioned in the 15th century. It is now kept in the National Museum of Ireland under inventory number R2988 and is one of the eight most important exhibits in the museum.
Provenance
The circumstances in which the staff was found are unknown, but it is known that the staff was associated with the abbots of the Clonmacnoise monastery at an early date. The discovery of a similarly decorated staff in the monastery supports this ascription. The crook was in the possession of the Dublin Town Major and art collector Henry Charles Sirr (1764-1841), whose collection was acquired in 1844 by the Royal Irish Academy . The Irish National Museum was founded in 1890 and the collection was then transferred there.
A replica of Clonmacnoise's crook from the early 20th century is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York .
description
The crook consists of a staff and a bronze crook sitting on it . Overall, it is 97.1 cm high.
The stick is made of wood and covered with two tubular bronze sheets, which are held together by three decorated sleeves.
The upper and lower sleeves consist of geometric fields filled with cord patterns, the cord patterns are made with silver and copper stripes. The fields are filled with braided and palmette patterns that were gilded and enamelled, with the enamel being lost. The middle sleeve has a smooth surface that shows a loosely woven pattern made with niello and silver. The upper case is bordered at the bottom by a cast ring on which four cat-like creatures can be seen. Blue glass beads are set in the eyes, the joints and the tails were inlaid with silver. The tails of the animals each end with another animal head.
The lower end of the rod is closed with a ferrule with a cast ring that holds the bronze sheets together at the bottom. As with comparable crooks, the seam of the metal sheets was probably covered by a strip on which there were inscriptions.
The bend, cast from one piece, is decorated on both sides with snake-like creatures that are intertwined. They are decorated with silver stripes set in niello. The eight-shaped entanglement of the animals and their curved upper jaws correspond to the Scandinavian Ringerike style of the late 11th century, the lack of floral elements and the regular distribution of the animals indicate the later Urnes style .
On the shaft of the Krümme two animals with intertwined mustaches inlaid with niello can be seen, which are adorned with silver zigzag decorations and silver balls. An openwork comb made of dog-like creatures is inserted into a slot, each of which grabs the rear of the dog in front with their mouths.
The end piece shows a bishop dressed in a miter who kills a monster with his crook. It is surmounted by a bearded head, the long hair of which frames the bishop's figure on the sides. This small sculpture at the end of the crook is made in Gothic style and is dated to the 15th century as a reworking of the crook.
classification
In the early Irish Church, with over forty known examples, wooden crooks represent the largest group of reliquary items. In the early Middle Ages, short crooks were in use across Europe, but were gradually replaced by longer ones. Only in Ireland did they remain in use until the late Middle Ages, with most of them being refurbished and decorated in the 11th and 12th centuries. The use of silver and niello on smooth subsoil is a typical feature of a small group of finds from the southern Midlands , where Clonmacnoise is also located.
literature
- Frank Mitchell: Treasures of early Irish art, 1500 BC to 1500 AC Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 1977, ISBN 0-8709-9164-7 , pp. 185-186.
- Raghnall Ó Floinn: The crook of Clonmacnoise . In: Hansgeorg Stiegeler, Hansgerd Hellenkemper (ed.): Irish art from three millennia - Thesaurus Hiberniae . Von Zabern, Mainz 1983, ISBN 3-8053-0736-5 , pp. 165-166.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ 8 Major Pieces at the National Museum of Ireland.
- ↑ Inventory number 08.23.34