Wooden devotional sculpture in Ireland, 1100-1800
Open Access
- Author:
- Cochran Anderson , Jennifer Kay
- Graduate Program:
- Art History
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- September 24, 2012
- Committee Members:
- Elizabeth Bradford Smith, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Elizabeth Bradford Smith, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Brian A Curran, Committee Member
Benjamin Thomas Hudson, Committee Member
Charlotte Marie Houghton, Committee Member - Keywords:
- wood
devotion
sculpture
carving
medieval
Ireland
Gothic
Romanesque
middle ages
art history - Abstract:
- Wooden devotional sculptures have been at the center of ardent popular devotions in Ireland for many centuries. Like their continental counterparts, these wooden figures act as lesser mirrors of the immaterial archetypes of the saints which they depict; however in Ireland, an increased numinosity is imparted to many of the surviving statues, resulting from their turbulent histories, miraculous survival, and the folk traditions which surround them. Although the earliest extant figures appear to date to the thirteenth century, the sculptures are rooted in pre-Christian figurative traditions which stretch back several thousand years. This dissertation consists of a catalogue raisonne of all known wooden devotional sculpture in Ireland, including first-hand visual descriptions and reconstructions of the individual figures’ histories. The opening chapters explore the means by which Christian wooden devotional sculpture may have been introduced to Ireland, the figures’ indigenous and continental contexts, implications for Irish spirituality, a discussion of the function, stylistic developments and geographical distribution of known sculptures as well as the continued use and importation of wooden devotional sculpture throughout the Suppression era and beyond. Twenty-five pre-Dissolution wooden devotional sculptures are currently known to survive in Ireland with a wide geographic distribution across most of the island. When surviving figures from the Suppression era are included, the number of extant wooden devotional sculptures in Ireland rises to forty-three. If one also includes lost wooden devotional sculptures for which we have textual evidence, the total documented wooden devotional figures in Ireland rises to seventy-five. It is likely that there were once many more. Many of the wooden devotional sculptures in Ireland were believed to be miraculous. At the Dissolution, these objects were seen as analogous to pagan idols and were targeted for destruction. This not only speaks of the genre’s power within Irish society, but may have inadvertently increased that power by making the surviving figures seem more precious and their endurance miraculous. Figures continued to be imported and commissioned though out the entire Suppression era. They illustrate both the internationalism of the medieval and early modern eras, as well as the continuity of localized devotion and folk-practices.