Iona Abbey - The Carvings (i)

[endlessrarities]

Back to Iona now, and the start of a series of posts on stone carving and sculpture.

My first example is a sedilia located in the chancel.  It appears to be contemporary with the c.1500 rebuild of the abbey.

The tomb effigy in the foreground is extremely well preserved, too.

Iona Abbey has recovered well from past neglect.  It was allegedly wrecked by a Protestant mob during the Reformation (that's mobs for you!) and by the 1700s, it had fallen into ruins. 

Tomorrow, I'll give you a closer look at some of the carved capitals... 

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

I had to look up sedilia. So I guess those three arched areas used to have seats in them? I was going to ask if they were fireplaces!

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

Nice cushioned seats so the clergy could rest their weary buttocks upon it during mass...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Now I'm laughing, imagining someone in the scullery department getting confused in the same way I did and lighting fires under those cushioned seats.

[roaming.livejournal.com]

oooh, loverly. Can't wait!

[annietopia.livejournal.com]

Oh how neat! The effigy got my attention first. Will you share more pictures of it?

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

I can't!!

This was before my blogging days, when I had no excuse to exhaustively photograph every minute detail of something.

I'll just have to make a return trip some day, won't I:-)