Cistercian Abbey, Jerpoint, Co Kilkenny, exterior - cloister, pier - figural carving - Stalley, Roger (My University, 2010)
Cistercian Abbey, Jerpoint, Co Kilkenny.
Photograph by Roger Stalley. View of the cloister showing 'dumb-bell' pier with water-holding base and figural carving. The 'dumb-bell' pier, here with round pseudo-colonnettes, later became a standard feature of Irish cloister designs. The foreground pier depicts an ecclesiastical figure, an abbot or bishop, arrayed in liturgical vestments, bearing a crosier in his left hand and his right hand raised in blessing. Beneath his feet, between the bases of the piers, is a carved grotesque and the left corner of the base shows foliate carving. The background pier shows a stiff-leaf carved capital.
Keywords: pier base; water-holding base; colonette; dumb-bell pier; cloister walk; stiff-leaf foliage; foliate capital; foliate ornament; crosier; grotesque carving; liturgical vestments; figural carving; Architecture, Medieval--Ireland; Architecture, Gothic--Ireland; Ecclesiastical architecture; Cistercian architecture; Architecture--Ireland--Kilkenny (County); Gothic capitals (Architecture); Bases (Architecture); Monasteries--Ireland; Decoration and ornament, Architectural; Foliation (Architecture and decoration); Gothic capitals (Architecture); Sculpture, Medieval--Ireland; Capitals (Architecture); Cloisters (Architecture); Grotesque in architecture; Late Medieval; Late Gothic