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A family of sculptors who helped to shape Callan
HAVE you ever wondered what lies behind the railings of the church in the main street of Callan? Or wondered about the Augustinian Friary, the Abbey in the Meadow, beside the KCAT building by the river?
Would you like to know more about the building of those churches – who paid for them, who did the building work and who cut the stone for the elaborate traceried windows? Would you like to know more about Callan at the time?
Would you like to learn about the sculptors whose grave slabs and altar tombs and other carved work lie all around us in medieval churches and graveyards – in the two churches in Callan, in Jerpoint, Kells, Newtown, Kilree, Sheestown, Thomastown, Burnchurch, St Canice's Cathedral, St John's, St Mary's and St Patrick's in Kilkenny to name but a few in Co Kilkenny?
Where did the stone come from? How was it transported to the building site? Did a workshop of stonecarvers consist of a master and apprentices? Did they work onsite? Were they well paid? Were they paid by piece work or by the hour? In what sense were they literate? Did some do the lettering and others the figures (gisants or effigies) and the saints around the sides? Were they specialists or did they do also do building work? (Probably). What happened if the master died suddenly – did the atelier collapse?
As medieval masons were itinerant – they travelled to where the work was – there is plenty of stone farther afield, some of it carved by Ossory men. Can we identify individual craftsmen from their masons' marks, e.g. in Holycross Abbey? There was a remarkable flowering of building and sculptural work in the 15th and 16th centuries all over the country. There has long been much interest in the stone carving of this area in particular as Kilkenny has the greatest number of 16th-century funeral monuments of any county.
Did you know that Callan was home to a great workshop of sculptors in the 1500s whose work – regarded as the finest in the country – has left an enduring mark on the churches and funeral monuments of not only Callan but as far away as Kilcooley Abbey, Co Tipperary, Abbeyleix Co Laois and – one scholar says – Devenish, Co Fermanagh?
Both metaphorically and literally, they have left their mark as the O'Tunneys are among the first artists to sign their work.
We know of at least four O'Tunney sculptors from their signed tombs – Rory, Patrick, William and James – and can thereby get a little closer to them than to other medieval sculptors whose work will probably remain anonymous. But can we isolate characteristic/ archetypal motifs of particular hands so that we can airily say "That's Rory."
About 13 signed funeral monuments are known, one in Callan St Mary's and there is much speculation and no agreement in attributing other work to them. This is where it gets really interesting!
Little enough is known about the O'Tunney family – they crop up as office-holders in Kilkenny Irishtown in the 1500s. Fascinatingly a man who was robbed of cows in 1578 was one Donagh Tonne, Mason, of Mallardstown (near Callan). The only other artist family of the time who also signed their work is the Kerins, whose work is also represented in Callan in St Mary's, maybe by as many as five monuments, as well as from Newtown (near Callan) to New Ross and from Kilree, Kells to Kilkenny city. The Kerins may also have been from Callan and there is undoubtedly a connection between the two workshops. The O'Tunneys also featured in a Nationwide programme this year.
Turbulent time
The 16th century was a turbulent time in the (medieval, bigger than today) Co Kilkenny and in the Lordship of Ormond. Pity the stonecarvers negotiating the political, social and religious tensions, especially in times of high stress such as when the earl of Ormond was at loggerheads with the Dublin administration or indeed when war broke out.
The gentry families' fortunes tended to rise and fall with those of the Earl. Their funeral monuments provide a fascinating barometer of their wealth, tastes and religious affiliations and indeed of the course of the entire Reformation in these parts.
It is no surprise that Callan was the centre of at least one thriving school of carving as it was the most important town in the county after Kilkenny Hightown. Those buried in St Mary's in Callan's main street – Tobins, Comerfords, Butlers, Graces, Whites, Archers, Troys, O'Neills, Forristals, Merrys, Shees, Haydens – were the shakers and movers of the time – people like Fulk Comerford, who entertained the Lord Deputy to dinner in his house in Callan in 1569.
All these subjects and more will be touched on in the seminar run by the Callan Heritage Society on July 30 and 31 and August 1 in Callan. Entitled 'The Living Tradition of Stone Sculpture in Callan: The O'Tunneys, the men, the work and the times', the conference will visit some of the monuments and churches in Callan, Jerpoint and Kilkenny; presentations will range from the macro to the micro, from a talk on the Ormond Lordship 1450-1550 which will detail the political, social and religious context to a paper on the specific work of Rory O'Tunney. The entire medieval heritage of Callan, and Rory O'Tunney's work in particular, was important to Tony O'Malley (one of) Callan's great artists and there will be a presentation on that, and a highlight of the conference will be the performance of 15th and 16th-century choral music – by Taverner and others – in St Mary's church.
The full brochure can be viewed at www.heritagecouncil.ie/fileadmin/user_upload/Events/Archaeology/Callan_Brochure.pdf. The Heritage Council has provided some sponsorship for the conference, which will be opened by the Cathaoirleach of Kilkenny County Council, Cllr Catherine Connery.
Proud tradition
Callan has a long and proud tradition of stone carving if one considers prehistoric Knockroe, the many mainly 9th-century high crosses in this area, the O'Tunneys, Kerins and others in medieval times through to the O'Sheas in the 19th and 20th centuries whose work is – like the O'Tunneys – regarded as the finest in Ireland. The O'Shea workshop stood where SuperValu is today. Today the town has many sculptors and masons in the area carrying on the tradition. Maybe it's all the lime in the water we're drinking that does it!
For enquiries and booking forms, email rosemarypryan@gmail.com. Participants can book in advance by posting the form along with payment to Rosemary Ryan, Callan Heritage Society, Tuitestown, Dunnamaggin, Co Kilkenny. It is also possible to attend part of the seminar.
"We will go on till we become just a memory for another generation, and perhaps they will think of us occasionally – maybe honour us with a little study." - Seamus Murphy
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Weather for Kilkenny
Tuesday 07 February 2012
Today
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Temperature: 4 C to 8 C
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