What is recorded here

Break the Crucifixion in two and you can still see Mary’s hands clasped above the wound in the stone. That is what the surviving fragment gives back: a woman caught at the moment of loss, her mantle folded like water, while Christ and John wait in the missing piece. The tomb was never complete when it entered the depot, yet the cut line does not erase the scene. It forces the viewer to finish what the carver began.

In the OPW store, Kilkenny (Kilkenny depot stone carving number: KD010). Portion of an end slab of a limestone chest tomb (L 0.18m; H 0.23m; T 0.13m), carved in false relief. The upper dexter portion of a Crucifixion panel, depicting the head and torso of Our Lady. She is wearing a mantle or brat which falls in stylized folds over her head and is clasped together at her chest. Her clasped hands are just visible above the break in the stone. The panel has a flat raised border (Wth 0.03m). The lower sinister portion (KD009) with Christ on the cross in the centre and St John on the sinister side is also in the Kilkenny depot. It is similar to an end slab (TS061-025150-) from St Patrick’s Cathedral, Cashel, Co. Tipperary which Hunt (1974, vol. 1, 223) describes as, ‘a late degenerate production closely connected with the O’Tunney workshop’. (Hunt 1974, vol. 1, 223 no. 229a; vol. 2, plate 301). Stylistically this dates to the late 16th century. See attached: KK019-026375-_01 (photograph by Chris Corlett) KK019-026375-_02 Both fragments (KK019-026374- and KK019-026375-) (photograph by Chris Corlett) Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 25 January 2023

Medieval chest tomb, 14th–15th century. The fragment is significant as an example of carved Christian funerary art from the Late Middle Ages in Ireland.

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