Accession Number1981/2.168.5
TitleThe Head of Blessed Oliver Plunkett, Ireland
Artist(s)Alen MacWeeneyObject Creation Date1965-1966, printed 1979Medium & Supportgelatin silver print on paperDimensions 19 13/16 in x 15 15/16 in (50.4 cm x 40.5 cm)
Credit LineGift of Carl W. MelcherSubject matterThis photograph shows a view of a Catholic reliquary in a church’s shrine. Encased in an ornate glass box, a gaunt, mummified head sits, its mouth slightly open, eyes closed and sunken in their sockets. While obviously inanimate—its emaciated flesh dried and leathery—it also appears to be resting in repose, its expression lending it an uncannily life-like aura. The case in which it sits is ornamented with gilded columns and trim, its top angled upwards like a church’s roof, an ornate curcifix adorning its peak. At the base of the case, engraved on a gilt banner in elegant script reads the latin words, “Beato Olivero Sacrum.” The photograph’s composition is highly symmetrical, and composed of multiple rectangular, concentrically framing shapes which encase one another, stopping at the saint’s head in the lower center of the image. The head belongs to that of an Irish Catholic Archbishop named Oliver Plunkett who was executed by the English in 1681 by being hanged, drawn and quartered. Plunkett’s remains were exhumed two years later, they were moved to Germany and his head was brought to Rome. Two hundred and forty years after his death, his head was returned to Ireland, where it has rested in it’s reliquary in St. Peter’s Church in the city of Drogheda. Plunkett was canonized as a Catholic saint in 1975.
Physical DescriptionThis photograph shows a view of an ornate Catholic reliquary. The reliquary houses a mummified head.
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Keywords
Ireland
Irish
Roman Catholicism
body-part reliquaries
chapels (rooms or structures)
death
executions (personal life events)
head
heads (animal components)
interiors
martyrs
modern and contemporary art
reliquaries
shrines (structures)