List of Crucifixion Plaques

Angel form the Rinnegan Plaque, late 7th or early 8th century

The following is a complete list of the nine known Early Medieval Irish Crucifixion plaques . Eight are extant and one is known from a 19th century watercolour reproduction. Four have an established provenance, the others are grouped based on figurative similarities to these known examples, leading to the suggestion that the individual groups were produced by single workshops.

The Crucifixion plaques are a rare example of figurative in early Irish art, and their iconography and form seems to be influenced by earlier illuminated manuscripts and stone sculpture. ^[1]

The Rinnegan Plaque is dated to c. 700 AD and is 21 cm (8.3 in) in height, making it much larger and pre-dating the other examples by over three centuries, and is the finest of the group. Based on their artistic style and iconography, archaeologists dated the other plaques to within the late 10th and early 12th centuries. The other plaques are square-shaped and of a similar size (c. 9 cm (3.5 in) x 9 cm (3.5 in)), and made of cast bronze or copper alloy. ^[2] They are all made using openwork with the exception of the Lismore Plaque.

The plaques

In 1980, the archaeologist Peter Harbison identified the then known six plaques as a distinct type. He divided them into the Clonmacnoise (in County Offaly and Dungannon, County Tyrone groups, based on their find-spots, iconography and form, including the pose of the figures and decoration of the borders. ^[3] Harbison believes that, except for the c. 700 AD Rinnegan plaque, they all dated to c. 1100 AD. ^[4]

Since Harbison's publication, the Dungannon Plaque is now localised to Tynan, County Armagh, near the find-spot of a recently found plaque from Anketell, County Monaghan, while another example is now thought to originate from Lismore, County Waterford. Based on these findings, the archaeologist Griffin Murray further divided the plaques into the "Tynan", "Clonmacnoise", "Klllalon" (or "Kells") groups and "others" (i.e. those unlocalised either by find-spot or style and the very early and geographically distinct Rinnegan Plaque). ^[5]

Work	Title	Date	Find spot	Material	Height	Harbison number	Murray Grouping	Current location
	Rinnegan Crucifixion Plaque	c. 700AD [6]	Rinnagan, near Athlone, County Westmeath	Bronze	21 cm (8.3 in)	n/a	n/a	National Museum of Ireland (NMI), Dublin
	Clonmacnoise Crucifixion Plaque	10th century [7]	Clonmacnoise monastery, County Offaly	Bronze, gilt openwork, repoussé [8]	8.0 cm (3.1 in)	2 [9]	Clonmacnoise [10]	NMI
	Lismore Crucifixion Plaque	c. 1090—1113 [11]	Lismore, County Waterford	brass [12]	7.6 cm (3.0 in)	4 [13]	Killalon [14]	NMI
	Tynan Crucifixion Plaque	c. 1100 [15]	Tynan, County Armagh	Bronze [16]	8.2 cm (3.2 in)		Tynan [10]	NMI
	Anketell Crucifixion Plaque	c. 1110 [17]	Emyvale, County Monaghan	gunmetal [12]	8.0 cm (3.1 in)	5 [18]	Tynan [10]	NMI
	Killaloe Crucifixion Plaque	11th century [19]	Killaloe, County Clare	leaded gunmetal [12]	7.3 cm (2.9 in)	3 [20]	Killalon [10]	NMI
	Academy Crucifixion Plaque	?	Unlocalised [21]	brass [12]	7.2 cm (2.8 in)		Killalon [10]	NMI
	Kells Crucifixion Plaque	11th or 12th century	Kells, County Meath	brass [12]	8.2 cm (3.2 in)	6 [22]	Killalon [14]	British Museum, London [23]
	Mayo Crucifixion Plaque	?	County Mayo	?	8.5 cm (3.3 in)? [24]	1 [25]	Clonmacnoise [10]	Lost [26]

References

1. Johnson (1998), p. 95
2. Johnson (1998), p. 96
3. Murray (2014), p. 286
4. Harbison (1980), pp. 24–38
5. Murray (2014), pp. 287–289
6. Ó Floinn; Wallace (2002), p. 212
7. Moss (2014), p. 272
8. Johnson (1998), p. 98
9. Harbison (1980), pp. 26–29
10. Murray, p. 292
11. Murray (2014), pp. 300–301
12. Murray (2014), p. 301
13. Harbison (1980), pp. 29–30
14. Murray, pp 295–296
15. Hamlin; Haworth (1982), pp. 112, 115
16. Johnson (1998), p. 101
17. Murray (2014), p. 292
18. Harbison (1980), pp. 30–31
19. Harbison (1980), p. 28
20. Harbison (1980), pp. 28–29
21. Murray (2014), pp. 297, 308–309
22. Harbison (1980), p. 32
23. "Plaque, 1983,0701.1". British Museum. Retrieved 4 May 2025
24. Harbison (1980), p. 24
25. Harbison (1980), pp. 26–27
26. Harbison (1980), pp. 24, 34

Sources

• de Paor, Máire. "An Openwork Crucifixion Plaque from Clonmacnoise". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, volume 84, no. 1, 1954. JSTOR   25509155 ISSN   0035-9106
• Harbison, Peter. "The Bronze Crucifixion Plaque said to be from St John's (Rinnegan), near Athlone". ̄Journal of Irish Archaeology volume 11, 1984. JSTOR   30001578
• Harbison, Peter. The Crucifixion in Irish Art. Dublin: Columba Press, 2000. ISBN   978-1-8560-7278-6
• Hamlin, Ann; Haworth, R. G. "A Crucifixion Plaque Reprovenanced". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, volume 112, 1982. JSTOR   25508821 ISSN   0035-9106
• Harbison, Peter. "A lost crucifixion plaque of Clonmacnoise type found in County Mayo". ̄In: Murtagh, Harman. Irish Midland Studies: Essays in Commemoration of N.W. English. Athlone: Journal of the Old Athlone Society, 1980. ISBN   0-9503-4281-5 ISSN   0790-0155
• Johnson, Ruth. "Irish Crucifixion Plaques: Viking Age or Romanesque?". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, volume 128, 1998. JSTOR   25549845
• MacDermott, Máire. "An Openwork Crucifixion Plaque from Clonmacnoise". The Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland, volume 84, No. 1, 1954. JSTOR   25509155 ISSN   0035-9106
• Moss, Rachel. Medieval c. 400—c. 1600 . "Art and Architecture of Ireland" series. London: Yale University Press, 2014. ISBN   978-0-3001-7919-4
• Murray, Griffin. "Irish crucifixion plaques: a reassessment. In: Mullins, Juliet; Ni Ghradaigh, Jenifer (eds): Envisioning Christ on the Cross: Ireland and the Early Medieval West. Dublin: eds J. Mullins, J. Ní Ghrádaigh and R. Hawtree, 2014. ISBN   978-1-8468-2387-9
• Murray, Griffin. "The provenance of an Irish Crucifixion plaque". Archaeology Ireland, volume 26, number 4, issue 102, 2012