Highlights of the British Collection: East Oxford Archaeology

Object Biographies : Small Stone Head of an Angel

by Nina Curtis

Notes

1. The Official King James Bible online,  Exodus, XX, vv. 4-5.  Viewed on 7 June, 2014.  http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1611-Bible/book.php?book=Exodus&chapter=20&verse=4

2.  Accession record, no. 1912.1.c, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1912.

3.  W.J. Arkell, Oxford Stone (Faber and Faber, 1947), p. 22.

4.  A corbel is a structural, solid piece of stone built into the fabric of a wall, but with part of it protruding from the wall (often in a bracket-like manner).  It is designed to carry or support the weight of something resting on or overlying it, and was extensively used in medieval architecture and often decoratively carved. Angels were frequently depicted in corbels, and the illustration below is of an angel corbel from France, late 15th century.  Viewed 7 June 2014.  

5.  Bob Trubshaw, 'Mawming and Mooning: towards an understanding of medieval carvings and their carvers', p. 44.  (Draft for discussion only, version 0.30, April 2014), on Heart of Albion Press website: http://www.hoap.co.uk/ .  Viewed on 7 Juorg.au/collegium/notes/the%20medieval%20palette.pdf  

6.  Rachel Grimmer, 'The medieval palette: medieval pigments and their modern equivalents', on Society for Creative Anachronism website.  Viewed on 7 June,  2014.  http://www.sca.hedral treasury to the London Mint, where they were melted down, and this was mirrored throughout much of the country.                                                             J.R. Benton, The Art of the Middle Ages (Thames and Hudson, 2002), p. 204

7.   Richard Marks, Image and Devotion in Late Medieval England (Sutton Publishing, 2004), pp. 255-275.

8.  The destruction of religious objects took place on a huge scale.  For example from Wells Cathedral alone 24 carts were require to carry the contents of the catne 2014   http://www.hoap.co.uk/mawming_and_mooning.pdf  

9.  The Official King James Bible online,  Deuteronomy, XXVII, v. 15.  Viewed on 7 June, 2014.  http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1611-Bible/book.php?book=Deuteronomy&chapter=27&verse=15

July 2014