Graveslab, Kilvemnon, Co. Tipperary
Co. Tipperary |
Tombs & Memorials
In Kilvemnon graveyard, lying just south of where the wall of the old church once stood, there is a limestone slab that rewards a close look.
It is a substantial piece of stone, nearly 1.8 metres long, with edges that run straight before being chamfered, or cut at an angle, towards the base. What sets it apart is the density of imagery carved across its face in false relief, a technique where the background is cut away to leave the design standing proud rather than incised into the surface.
The central motif is a cross whose arms end in trefoil heads, the three-lobed form associated with the Trinity in medieval Christian iconography. A crown of thorns sits behind the cross head, and below it a three-bar knop interrupts the ribbed shaft before it meets a curving calvary mount, the stepped or mounded base traditionally representing Golgotha. Around this central image the carver placed further symbolic detail: a sun on the left side of the upper field and, on the right, a moon rendered with a human face. These celestial figures appear frequently in late medieval Passion imagery, drawn from the gospel accounts of the crucifixion in which the sun darkened and, by extension, the moon was associated with the event. Two rectangular panels flank the cross shaft, and a plain border runs around the whole slab. There is no inscription, and the lower edge has suffered some breakage. The overall decorative scheme points to a late medieval date, placing the slab roughly within the period from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century.
The graveyard at Kilvemnon is the kind of place where the slab sits quietly among other stones with little to announce its age or the care that went into its making. The absence of any identifying text means whoever it once marked has been anonymous for centuries, leaving only the imagery to speak.