Thursday 17 May 2012

Reask Cross Stone Sketch


Last week I got a chance to pop into UCC and see their 'Stone Corridor' which is lined with Ogham and Carved stones, its been 3 years since I visited and its looking nicely tweaked since then. The stones look like they were from the Bronze age up to the early medieval, fantastic exhibiton, well worth a look if you get a chance.

The above was a "cross inscribed memorial" from Reask in Kerry, was probably from the early middle ages around 7th/9th AD and was found in a river near an early Christian site, it was written in the plague in UCC that the five crosses/X's may represent the five wounds of christ. I liked the swirly designs but I particularly loved how they adapted the design to suit the rock, rather than the opposite, they certainly had the capability of flattening its surface to carve onto if they wanted to but obviously it was important to them to keep its natural shape, perhaps using this natural shape to add to the design, man and nature working together to create the final art.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Your art never fails to amaze me!

JG O'Donoghue said...

Thank you Melanie, glad you liked the sketch!