Reference

Date 2001

Event ID 577852

Category Documentary Reference

Type Reference

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/577852

RCAHMS; Early Medieval Sculpture in the West Highlands and Islands

(Iona 82) ST JOHN'S CROSS. Abbey Museum, W end, and ring-fragment in store. This ringed cross stood in a composite base (no.96) W of 'St Columba's Shrine', where the broken shaft was drawn by Lhuyd in 1699. The name was first recorded by Johnson in 1773, but may be ancient. Fragments of the head were identified by H D Graham but neither he nor J Romilly Allen associated it with the shaft. The cross was reconstructed in situ by R A S Macalister in 1927, but fell in 1951 and again in 1957. A concrete replica was installed in the original base in 1970, and following conservation the cross was returned to Iona in 1990.

The cross, which was composed of four main sections and four ring-quadrants all linked by mortice-and-tenon joints, measured about 5.3m by 2.17m in span. The arms are double-curved, with slightly concave ends and 0.52m semicircular armpits, and the ring is 1.25m in diameter. The shaft and the upper arms are of greenish chlorite-schist, probably from the Loch Sween area, but the finial of the top arm and the only surviving ring-fragment are of silver-grey mica-schist from the Ross of Mull. This discrepancy, with damage on the butt and the awkward relation of stone-joints to ornament, suggest that the cross was originally ringless with a single joint at the centre of the head. Following an early fall, the ring-quadrants were introduced to stabilise the head, and local stone was used to replace damaged areas in the top arm and the now-lost lower arm.

Both faces are framed by half-round mouldings, and on the W face of the shaft inner borders of fine-line interlace enclose the three lower panels of ornament. A fourth panel, and the three larger ones on the E face, resemble the cross-head in having no inner margin. The dominant ornament is spiral-work linking bird's-nest and other bosses of varying size, including the cruciform groupings with saltire infilling seen on St Oran's Cross. In the lowest panel of the E face this motif is combined with two roundels formed by snakes, some with fierce biting jaws attacking others with lizard-like forequarters. Other forms of snake-and-boss ornament are seen on both faces of the shaft and arms. The lowest panel on the W face is a rich cruciform design, and the central shaft-panel of the E face is a low-relief diaper with interlace and key-patterns. At the centre of the E face of the cross-head is a 0.31m boss covered in interlace, within a circle of spiral-linked bosses, and in the W face is a shallow 0.28m recess, perhaps designed for a metal boss, in a circle of spiral roundels. The arms and the top E shaft-panel also contain prominent bosses, some of bird's-nest type, placed centrally in their panels rather than on the line of the ring, but in the W shaft-panel there is a 0.19m recess like that above. The constrictions of the arms are filled with interlace in which are grouped small zoomorphic figures. Above the end-moulding of the top arm is a damaged finial which on the E face shows two confronted beasts and on the W face appears to include two wrestling figures.

(96) Until 1957 the shaft of St John's Cross (no.82) stood in a complex box-like base with four corner-posts linked by side-slabs and supporting a composite cover-slab, and two concealed socket-stones. A new W cover-slab was added in 1970 to support the replica cross, and new side-slabs were fitted between the corner-posts. The two socket-stones were removed to the Nunnery. The upper of them is an irregular slab, 1.97m by 1.44m and 0.25m thick, with a 1.15m incised circle on the upper face, perhaps for intended use as a millstone. A notch housed the SW corner-post and grooves were cut for the lower edges of the side-slabs. The central socket measures 0.49m by 0.24m. The rectangular lower socket-stone measures 1.07m by 0.84m by 0.15m, and the socket measures 0.48m by 0.23m. The corner-posts, which are about 1m in height, were grooved and rebated to receive the lost side-slabs. The original E cover-slab, 1.55m by 0.54m, butted against the cross-shaft, which occupied a rebate cut into the lost W slab. The two were held together by metal cramps whose shallow recesses are visible.

I Fisher 2001.