Deposition (Walrus Ivory)
oil on canvas
18 x 12 cm
size in frame: 22 x 16 cm
Framed by me in my Norfolk studio
This is an oil sketch of a beautiful 12th-century walrus ivory carving that has been in the news a lot this year. The carving had for 40 years (until 2022), been on long-term loan to the V&A in London, but it was sold by its owners to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for c. £2m, prompting the UK to place a temporary export bar on it.
The 18cm-high sculpture was probably carved in York more than 800 years ago and shows Joseph of Arimathea tenderly lifting Jesus Christ’s body from the cross. The V&A said the deposition carving ranked alongside two nationally important 12th-century Romanesque objects in its collection: the Gloucester candlestick, regarded as a masterpiece of English metalwork, and the Becket casket, a reliquary enamelled with the murder of St Thomas Becket.
The V&A announced in February that it would seek to raise the funds, and then in July, it announced that after successful fundraising, the sculpture would stay in the UK museum.
In my work, I regularly return to images of the Deposition, in the early stages of a project, whatever medium that project might be in. This oil sketch was made when I was in the research phase of my current project Miniature.
oil on canvas
18 x 12 cm
size in frame: 22 x 16 cm
Framed by me in my Norfolk studio
This is an oil sketch of a beautiful 12th-century walrus ivory carving that has been in the news a lot this year. The carving had for 40 years (until 2022), been on long-term loan to the V&A in London, but it was sold by its owners to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for c. £2m, prompting the UK to place a temporary export bar on it.
The 18cm-high sculpture was probably carved in York more than 800 years ago and shows Joseph of Arimathea tenderly lifting Jesus Christ’s body from the cross. The V&A said the deposition carving ranked alongside two nationally important 12th-century Romanesque objects in its collection: the Gloucester candlestick, regarded as a masterpiece of English metalwork, and the Becket casket, a reliquary enamelled with the murder of St Thomas Becket.
The V&A announced in February that it would seek to raise the funds, and then in July, it announced that after successful fundraising, the sculpture would stay in the UK museum.
In my work, I regularly return to images of the Deposition, in the early stages of a project, whatever medium that project might be in. This oil sketch was made when I was in the research phase of my current project Miniature.
oil on canvas
18 x 12 cm
size in frame: 22 x 16 cm
Framed by me in my Norfolk studio
This is an oil sketch of a beautiful 12th-century walrus ivory carving that has been in the news a lot this year. The carving had for 40 years (until 2022), been on long-term loan to the V&A in London, but it was sold by its owners to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York for c. £2m, prompting the UK to place a temporary export bar on it.
The 18cm-high sculpture was probably carved in York more than 800 years ago and shows Joseph of Arimathea tenderly lifting Jesus Christ’s body from the cross. The V&A said the deposition carving ranked alongside two nationally important 12th-century Romanesque objects in its collection: the Gloucester candlestick, regarded as a masterpiece of English metalwork, and the Becket casket, a reliquary enamelled with the murder of St Thomas Becket.
The V&A announced in February that it would seek to raise the funds, and then in July, it announced that after successful fundraising, the sculpture would stay in the UK museum.
In my work, I regularly return to images of the Deposition, in the early stages of a project, whatever medium that project might be in. This oil sketch was made when I was in the research phase of my current project Miniature.
