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Arinbjork's Cross Slab

Date made: ?1906

Artist: Kermode, Philip Moore Callow

Description: This pen and ink drawing is by Philip Moore Callow Kermode, the first curator of the Manx Museum. He drew life-size pictures of all of the known stone crosses in the early 1900s creating an important, and beautiful, record of these internationally significant monuments.

There are fabulous beasts shown on this Philip Moore Callow Kermode drawing of a Manx Cross. On this side, birds, a stag, coiled snakes, wolves, a bear, a dog, a goat, a ram, an ox and a boar all gather around a Christian cross. Some of the animals (the birds and the snakes) are symbolic. The others may have been hunted. On one edge, there are words carved in runes, the alphabet of the Vikings. They tell us that 'Sandulf the black erected this cross in memory of Arinbiaurk his wife'.

Below the host of animals and the cross is, just maybe, Arinbiaurk (or Arinbjork) herself, wearing flowing robes and riding a horse, about to embark on a hunt.
Found in Andreas churchyard, the intricate stone cross was carved in the AD 900s. Whether it was a memorial to, or the grave-stone of, a beloved wife, we cannot say.

Measurements: artwork: 154 cm x 44 cm

Object name: drawing

Collection: Art Collection

ID number: 2006-0295/131

Subject tags : #MM100ARTOFPEOPLE

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