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St Vigeans 12 Description of stone
Event ID 1030849
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Early Medieval Carved Stones Project
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1030849
St Vigeans 12 (St Vigianus), Angus, cross-slab fragments
Measurements: H 0.76m, W 0.30m, D 0.12m
Stone type: sandstone
Place of discovery: NO c 6384 4289
St Vigeans Present location: in St Vigeans Museum (HES).
Evidence for discovery: found in 1872 during restoration of the church tower re-used at the top of the tower. Subsequently it was re-used again in the interior west wall of the nave, with face A outermost. It was taken into St Vigeans Museum in 1960, and its relationship to VIG024 was recognised in 2008.
Present condition: at some point the fragment was broken into two, and there is severe damage to both carved faces. Only the right-hand edge of face A is relatively intact.
Description
Both broad faces of this tapering slab are carved in relief with the same form of cross, outlined by roll moulding, showing squared terminals, rounded armpits and a domed pedestal base to the shaft. On face A the cross is filled with knotwork using median-incised cords, with an inner panel to the pedestal which contains five bosses. Flanking the shaft are panels of diagonal key-pattern, which expand into the armpits as spirals. The fragment St Vigeans 24 appears to be part of this slab, providing part of the upper arm and an elegant creature with a horse’s head to the left of the upper arm.
On face C the cross is filled with variations on the theme of diagonal key pattern, except the centre of the cross-head, which contains knotwork, and the inner panel of the pedestal, which appears to contain rounded knots. The panel to the left of the shaft contains three scrolls of a simple foliated vine, and, although the right-hand panel is defaced, a trilobate leaf survives in the armpit to suggest that there was once a similar design to the right of the shaft. Face C of the small fragment St Vigeans 24 places a foliated scroll to the right of the upper arm.
With VIG024 the full height of the slab becomes 0.93m.
Date range: eighth or ninth century.
Primary references: ECMS pt 3, 272; Geddes 2017, no VIG012.
Desk-based information compiled by A Ritchie 2017.
