Depicting St David

Dr Martin Crampin, author of this delightful book, is our leading authority on ecclesiastical art. He was initially involved with the pioneering Stained Glass in Wales Project, which ran from 2009 until 2011 at the University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies. The project resulted in a searchable website and a magnificent volume entitled Stained Glass in Wales, which was published in 2014. The website in total features 7,000 images from over 500 churches in Wales and includes images from 2,700 windows. Depicting St David concentrates on a selection of 165 images of St David, mainly from stained glass, but other media such as sculpture (mainly in reredos) are also included. Many images of David in carved and painted figures once adorned the walls of our medieval churches, but only a few of these survived the ravages of the English Civil War and the Reformation. However, some were successfully restored during the Gothic revival in the nineteenth century, reflecting the renewed interest in providing images of saints for churches. It appears that the main catalyst for this development was provided by newly built Roman Catholic churches, which blossomed after the Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829. One of the earliest was the figure of David in stained glass made for the Catholic Church of St Mary, Newport in 1840. It is believed that the earliest image of David in an Anglican church can be found at the Church of St Teilo, Merthyr Mawr, Bridgend which dates from 1855. The author notes that for much of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century David is mainly depicted as a bearded bishop or archbishop robed and mitred, featuring a book in hand and, as alluded to in Rhygyfarch’s Life of St David, with a white dove on his shoulder, which had settled there when he preached at Llanddewibrefi. The author very skilfully presents his selection of 165 full-colour depictions largely in chronological order, contextualising the images with the relevant text and providing valuable information on both the artists and manufacturers. The new firm of Celtic Studios established in Swansea in 1948 seems initially to have followed the traditional depiction, but later commissions show a tendency to depict the saint more as a journeying holy man, rather than a ruling bishop, reflecting the growing evidence of Celtic scholars that David and his ilk lived a simple monastic life, free from traditional hierarchical ecclesiastical structures. However, the traditional image of David as a bishop, with mitre and crosier, was still favoured by some contemporary artists such as Colwyn Morris, while Janet Hardy at the Church of St Lawrence, Marros, Pembrokeshire appears to have combined both depictions successfully. The book includes a useful index to the text and plates and, for those who wish to delve further into the subject, an appended bibliography provides additional reading. The author and publishers are to be commended for popularising a complex subject in such a concise and attractive publication. -- Richard E. Huws @ www.gwales.com