{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O350028"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O350028/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AC4721/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AC4721/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AC4721","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU0108","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O350028/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O350028","accessionNumber":"A.120-1946","objectType":"Relief","titles":[{"title":"Relief","type":""}],"summaryDescription":"There is some debate about whether the first panel in this series illustrates an incident from the life of St Edmund or alternatively that of St Radegund. \r\n\r\nSt Edmund was a King of East Anglia who was venerated as a martyr soon after his death at the hands of Danish Vikings in 869AD. However it is unclear where the scene relates to his legend. \r\n\r\nAlternatively the image could relate to an event in the life of St Radegund, Queen to King Clothaire. She entered a nunnery with her husbands consent however he changed his mind and when he set out to recover her, she fled into the fields accompanied by two other nuns hiding behind oats which miraculously ripened. However this possibility does not explain the figure of a king who is shown looking over a stage backcloth at the top of the image.","physicalDescription":"The panel shows a harvest scene with soldiers aproaching from the right, and further soldiers seizing a crowned figure at the top.\r\nThe top left-hand corner of the panel has been broken off and replaced with a new piece of alabaster. There is some slight damage at the top right-hand corner. The right-hand corner of the base is chipped. A large area of green paint and the daisy pattern typical of many English alabasters of the period remain on the panel. The soldiers all have darkened faces. Gilding remains on the upper part. There are traces of gesso knobs and fleur-de-lis on the upper part of the panel.\r\nthe back fof the panel has four holes, three plugged with lead. It is marked with four sloping parallel lines. The bottom has been cut away.\r\n","artistMakerPerson":[{"name":{"text":"Unknown","id":"A1848"},"association":{"text":"","id":""},"note":""}],"artistMakerOrganisations":[],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"gesso","id":"AAT14952"}],"techniques":[{"text":"gilt","id":"AAT53789"},{"text":"painted","id":"x30138"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Upper part has gilt backing with traces of gesso","categories":[{"text":"Reliefs","id":"THES49035"},{"text":"Christianity","id":"THES48978"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"SCP","id":"THES48600"},"images":["2006AC4721","2017JU0108"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"009","id":"THES333519"},"free":"","case":"","shelf":"","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"panel","id":"x47676"}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""},{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"England","id":"x28826"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1470-1500","earliest":"1465-01-01","latest":"1500-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[{"object":{"text":"A.120A-1946","id":"O1812384"},"association":"Group"},{"object":{"text":"A.120B-1946","id":"O1812385"},"association":"Group"}],"creditLine":"Given by Dr Hildburgh F.S.A.","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"15.5","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""},{"dimension":"Width","value":"10.5","unit":"in","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"In the possession of F. H. Crisp; by 1923, in the possession of Philip Nelson (acquired from Crisp); by 1926, in the possession of Walter Leo Hildburgh (acquired from Nelson); on loan to the museum since 1926, and given by Walter Leo Hildburgh in 1946. \r\nIt is possible that this panel shows scenes from the Life of St Edmund, a ninth-century king of East Anglia. The panel is of the same size and format, and has the same distinctive undulating background and traces of gilded fleur-de-lys in the background as two other panels in the V&A which share the same provenance; they show the Martyrdom of St Edmund and the scene of how St Edmund's severed head is re-attached to his body (A.120A-1946 and A.120B-1946). Because of these similarities, it has been repeatedly suggested that all three panels once belonged to the same altarpiece.\nThe long-haired, bearded and crowned figure at the top of the panel, arms crossed over his chest, is usually identified as St Edmund (i.e. Cheetham 1984, Park in Boldrick/Feeke 2002, Williamson 2010). The king is flanked by two soldiers, their faces darkened to 'indicate the pagan gloom of their souls' (Williamson 2010, p. 88). They have been identified as the Danes who have come to capture Edmund, a devout Christian. Below this scene, a flower-patterned cloth not only introduces a sense of theatre and stage to the carving, but also acts as a divide between the upper scene and that rendered below. Here, on the left a peasant carries wheat cut from the fields; behind him, a woman stands between tall-grown wheat and several sheaves, turning towards a group of three further soldiers approaching her. This part of the panel and especially the sickle rendered atop the woman's head, have been subject to significant scholary debate. It has been suggested that the panel might be related to the Life of of St Radegund, a sixth-century French saint. While fleeing the attentions of her husband, King Clotaire, Radegund caused a cornfield to miraculously ripen. She instructed a peasant to tell her pursuers that she had passed when it was being sown, thus leading them to abandon the chase. However, this cannot be the subject here as a king is being captured (Park in Boldrick/Feeke 2002). It has also been suggested that the panel shows Eustace, son of King Stephen, spoiling the corn in fileds belonging to the abbey of St Edmund's Bury in 1153 while St Edmund looks on (Cheetham 1984)\r\n\n","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Scenes from the Life of St Edmund (?), carved, painted and gilt alabaster, England, ca. 1470-1500","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Illustrated catalogue of the Exhibition of English Medieval Alabaster Work. </i>Exh. Cat. London, Society of Antiquaries. London: Society of Antiquaries, 1913, cat. no 25, pl. XIV (here described as \"Scene from the Life of St Nothburg\")."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"<i>Exhibition of English Mediaeval Art. </i>Exh. Cat, London, Victoria and Albert Museum. London: V&A, Published by Authority of the Board of Education, 1930, cat. no 589."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Nelson, Philip. 'An English Fifteenth Century Alabaster Reredos of Saint Edmund', <i>Transactions of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire</i> 75 (1923): 208-12."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Hildburgh, Walter L. 'Folk-Life Recorded in Medieval English Alabaster Carvings', <i>Folklore</i> 60 (1949): 249-65, here pp. 260-61."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Cheetham, Francis. <i>English Medieval Alabasters. With a Catalogue of the Collection in the Victoria and Albert Museum</i>. London: Phaidon, 1984, p. 96, cat. no 25."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Boldrick, Stacy, and Feeke, Stephen (eds.). <i>Wonder: Painted Sculpture from Medieval England</i>. Exh. Cat., Leeds, Henry Moore Institute. Leeds: Henry Moore Institute, 2002, pp. 73-74, cat. no 9 (David Park)."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Williamson, Paul (ed.). <i>Object of Devotion: Medieval  English Alabaster Sculpture from the Victoria and Albert Museum</i>. Exh. Cat., Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida and five other institutions.  Alexandria, VA: Art Services International, 2010, p. 88, cat. no. 8."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Brantley, Jessica. 'Visual Cultures of the Word in Medieval English Alabasters', in <i>Reassessing Alabaster Sculpture in Medieval England</i>, ed. Jessica Brantley, Stephen Perkinson and Elizabeth C. Teviotdale. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2020, pp. 99-139, here 104-107, figs. 4.4a and 4.4b."},{"reference":{"text":"","id":""},"details":"","free":"Sanok, Catherine. 'English Saints in Alabaster and Aureate Verse', in <i>Reassessing  Alabaster Sculpture in Medieval England</i>, ed. Jessica Brantley, Stephen Perkinson and Elizabeth C. Teviotdale. Berlin/Boston: De Gruyter, 2020, pp. 141-67, figs. 5.4 to 5.6."}],"production":"","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[{"text":"Edmund (Saint Edmund the Martyr, King of East Anglia)","id":"N506"}],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"sickle","id":"x34976"},{"text":"oats","id":"x43316"},{"text":"basket","id":"AAT194498"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["A.120-1946"],"accessionNumberNum":"120","accessionNumberPrefix":"A","accessionYear":1946,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE","Relief [1]","Relief [2]","Relief [3]"],"assets":["2019LN4837","2019LN4499","2019LN4237","2019LT4445","2019LT4433","2019LU2660","2019LW6603","2019LW5591"],"recordModificationDate":"2026-01-01","recordCreationDate":"2009-06-24","availableToBook":true}}