Tracery Figures
detail from The Crucifixion with Medieval Fragments

Photo © Martin Crampin larger image

second half of the fifteenth century, restored in 1891 Three-light window with Christ on the cross in the central light, with sun and moon and bones below. The arcading over the scene is repeated at either side, but encloses a jumble of fragments containing the remains of several figures (including, in the right-hand light, part of John the Baptist). Below is a kneeling nun, and facing, a coat of arms. The tracery lights contain four figures, two of which are angels. technique: stained glass Church of St Mary, Llanllugan, Powys east wall of the chancel A date of 1453 was identified in the window, although it is no longer clearly visible. The window contains surviving pieces of a number of former windows, which may not all have been made at the same time. The figure of Christ itself may be a composite. Similarities between the two medieval figures in the tracery (the angels are of the nineteenth century) with figures at Gresford suggest a date of about 1500. The Garter arms are probably those of Richard, Duke of York (1411-1460), the father of the future Yorkist kings Edward IV and Richard III, and lord of Cydewain. He must be identified as the donor for at least some of these surviving fragments, dating them to the middle of the fifteenth century. The figure of the kneeling nun is perhaps of a convent superior, rather than a donor.  (ObjectID=3764 ImageID=6534) Original File Name=Llanllugan_DSC1484A.jpg

This artwork is indexed under the following main subject(s):
for other works containing these subjects please click on the links.

• Crucified Christ suffering (with crown of thorns)  [Matthew 27:33-58; Mark 15:22-45; Luke 23:33-52; John 19:17-38]
• the apostle John the Evangelist 

Martin Crampin, Stained Glass from Welsh Churches (Talybont: Y Lolfa, 2014), pp. 30, 32, 35, 52.

Peter Lord, The Visual Culture of Wales: Medieval Vision (Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2003), pp. 166-7.

Mostyn Lewis, Stained Glass in North Wales up to 1850 (Altrincham: John Sherratt and Son Ltd, 1970), pp. 68-9.

D. R. Thomas, The History of the Diocese of St Asaph (Oswestry: Caxton Press, 1908-1913), vol. I, p. 486.

Madeleine Gray and John Morgan-Guy, ''A better and frugal life': Llanllugan and the Cistercian women's houses in Wales' Archaeologia Cambrensis, vol. 154 (2005), 100-107.

'Report of the Eighty-sixth Annual Meeting held at Newtown August 29 to September 2 1932' Archaeologia Cambrensis, vol. 87 (Part 2) (1932), 460-1.

Richard Haslam, The Buildings of Wales: Powys (Harmondsworth/Cardiff: 1979), p. 146.

Photo © Martin Crampin