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The Abbey, Clare Island: A PortraitAuthor(s): Chris CorlettSource: Archaeology Ireland, Vol. 19, No. 3 (Autumn, 2005), p. 25Published by: Wordwell Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20559079
Accessed: 30/08/2010 18:00
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TheAbbey;
Clare Island
?aportrait
Picture, if you will, a medieval stone church, once on the edge of
the known world, still standing today despite suffering the full force
of Atlantic storms for hundreds of years. This is not the context in
which one would expect to find the remains of Ireland's finest surviving
medieval wall paintings.Nor are such sophisticated and accomplished
paintings somethingwe would tend to associate with the O'Malleys, who
founded this church?a family conventionally paintedas treacherous
pirateson land and sea.
Followingon from the original
scientific survey of Clare Island
(1909-11), the Royal Irish Academy have returned inmore recent years
to carry out what has become known as the New Survey of Clare Island.
Several volumes of results have been published, and the latest volume,
No. 4, is dedicated exclusivelyto a
variety of aspects of the medieval
church known as the Abbey*.
The volume is divided into two main sections, with aconcluding
paper by Roger Stalley placing the site in itsGothic context. The first
section is devoted to a historical and architectural analysis of the building
and the graveyard, supplied by Conleth Manning, Paul Gosling, Ian
Cantwell, Fergus Gillespie and Miche?l ? Com?in. The second part isdedicated to the wall paintings,
in terms of both their conservation and
their iconography, and issupplied by Christoph Oldenbourg, Karena
Morton and Ann Buckley.
There can be no doubt that these paintingsare the jewel
in the crown
of the Clare Island Survey.In a
country where this kind of artwork is such
a rare survival, the Clare Island paintingsare a national treasure. Indeed,
theyare a treasure trove of images and iconography, and Ann Buckley
pays special attention to the musical instruments depicted, includinga
unique and fascinating ?mage of a medieval church organ. At first glance,
warriors on horseback, dragons and griffins would appear inappropriate
to an ecclesiastical context such as a medieval church, but Karena
Morton discusses these imagesin terms of Christian iconography that
helpsto
explain this apparent paradox.
In general, there is a well-balanced series of papers, in terms of the
general description of the site and the more detailed accounts of the
results of the conservation and the images themselves. There are
plenty of illustrations,but I ould be critical of the quality of the
reproduction of many of the photographs of the wall paintings, which
areunnecessarily dark, making both the detail and colour tones
unclear.
Having had the privilege of seeingat first hand the conservation
works, Icanappreciate
the tedious nature of the process involved and
the stamina requiredover several years to see such a
project through
tocompletion?the
term 'watching paint dry' doesn't even come
close to capturing the painstaking process. However, the investment
of all this effort has helpedto preserve one of the wonders of
medieval Ireland, and there can be nodoubting the incredible value
of that investment. The attention to detail that the conservators have
lavished on these wall paintings, in terms of stabilising, conserving
and recording them, is afitting tribute to the artists who deliberated,
composed and executed their designs. Of course, we are also
indebted to the original patron(s) of these artists, and the more
recently inspiredchoice to see them restored. We can now all share in
the spoilsof this O'Malley
treasure.
Chris Corlett
*New Survey of Clare Island Volume 4: The Abbey. Edited by Conleth
Manning, Paul Gosling and JohnWaddell. Published by the Royal
IrishAcademy 2005. ISBN 1 904890 059.
Archaeology Ireland Autumn 2005 25