Behind the scenes at the museum

York's Museum Gardens today.  Reminds one of Seurat.

Another superb spring day in York.  We spent half of it on the excellent Bedern Glaziers Studio tour, learning the intricacies of ancient stained glass restoration, and half of it exploring the ruins of Saint Mary's Abbey, the museum gardens, the Yorkshire museum, and Saint Olav's Church on Marygate.

St Dunstan at St Olav's, c 1410.

At Saint Olav's we had a good look at the current East window, painted probably by John Thornton, master painter of the Minster Great East Window, panels of which we got to see in the conservation studios earlier.  One of the saints in the St Olav window is Saint Dunstan, the most popular English saint up until the martyrdom of Saint Thomas of Canterbury.  Saint Dunstan was also archbishop of Canterbury, 200 years before Saint Thomas.  In his early life, while a hermit at Glastonbury, he was said to have encountered the devil, and to have taken the devil's nose in a pair of tongs (Dunstan was an artist and metalworker).  So Saint Dunstan is often depicted with the tongs of his metalworking trade.  In this glass, according to  Pevsner, St Dunstan carries "tongs and devil's nose."  After you get over that, you can look at the superb painting of the head of the saint, which bears the tell-tale bulbous nose, an attribute of many of John Thornton's heads.  St Dunstan's feast day is May 19, the final day of the current course.  We'll be celebrating!