Accession number
HCM 034
Date made
15th century AD
Materials
Mineral; Alabaster
Collection
Dimensions (cm)
Provenance
File of material relating to an alabaster carving of the head of Saint John the Baptist on a plate. Includes photocopy of object description sheet including sketch of object (date unspecified). Reference to Craggaunowen Castle, county Clare, and object was probably displayed there; photocopy of photograph of object (date unspecified); photocopy of paper by John Hunt, Senior, and Peter Harbison entitled 'Medieval English Alabaster in Ireland' published in 'Studies' (winter, 1976). Refers to the present object; letter (28 November 1995) from Mary Kearns (address withheld), to Mairead Dunlevy, Director, Hunt Museum, requesting information on the carving; reply (30 November 1995) making object available for study; letter (26 November 1998) from Patricia Collins, art curator, The Burrell Collection, Glasgow Museums, to a docent (name withheld), Hunt Museum, enclosing information on alabaster Saint Johns heads in her collection. Includes description of an alabaster and wood panel of the head of Saint John the Baptist purchased from John Hunt, Senior, on 8 August 1938. This Burrell object is dated to fifteenth-century Nottingham; photocopy of extract from an issue of the 'North Munster Antiquarian Journal' entitled 'Studia in Memoriam John Hunt' (volume XX, 1978). Extract present here comprises reprint of essays written by John Hunt, Senior, and published in 'The Ireland Times' newspaper. One mentions the Nottingham series of alabaster carvings; photocopy of extract from publication by Elizabeth Bradford Smith et al entitled 'Medieval Art in America Patterns of Collecting 1800-1940 (Palmer Museum of Art, The Pennsylvania State University, c. 1996) which contains description and image of alabaster carving which also dates from fifteenth-century Nottingham and scene shows the coronation of the Virgin; photocopy of extract from 'The Burrell Collection Gallery Edition' with image of a fifteenth-century English painted and gilded and alabaster head of Saint John; printout from website (17 February 2005) of Boydell and Brewer Limited comprising brief review of 'Alabaster Images of Medieval England' (Boydell Press, 2003) by Francis Cheetham; printout from website (17 February 2005) comprising article by Dennis Cox entitled 'The Conservation of Alabaster'; printout from website (17 February 2005) comprising review of 'Arms, Armour and Alabaster round Nottingham' by George Fellows (1907); photocopy from 'The Other Clare' (volume 21, 1997) containing paper by Mary Kearns entitled 'The Abandoned Canopy and the Alabaster Influence'; photocopy of extract from 'Stories in Stone: The Medieval Roof Carvings of Norwich Cathedral' by Martial Rose and Julia Hedgecoe (Herbert Press, 1977); printout from website (17 February 2005) comprising article published in issue of 'Time' magazine (dated 2 December 1946) entitled 'The Forgotten Alabastermen'; paper by Patricia Donnellan, docent, Hunt Museum (29 March 2005) entitled 'Head of St John the Baptist on a Charger.' Notes that hair on the figures head should be compared with that in the Burrell Collection and one in a museum in Lisbon.
Category
Technique
Copyright Attribution
Plaque | Mineral,Alabaster | 15th century AD | The Hunt Collection | PD
