Medieval - National Museum Cardiff
AD 1070s-1530s
Wales in 1350 was a very different country from Wales in 1050. By 1550, it had changed dramatically again.
More written sources survive from this period than ever before. They tell us about the events that transformed Medieval Wales. Archaeology reveals what history may not.
The objects on display offer glimpses of day-to-day life. Some reflect current issues, such as the impact of war and the display of faith. Others show changes in fashion and standards of living …and increasing influences, once again, from Continental Europe.
The Llandaf Diptych was made from elephant ivory in Paris about AD 1340/60. Diptychs and triptychs (two and three panel images) were intended to engage the medieval viewer in meditation of Christ’s life and suffering.
Paris became a prolific centre for manufacturing such devotional objects.
The right hand panel was found during the demolition of ‘the old well-house’ in Llandaf in 1836, while the left is now in the collections of National Museums Liverpool.
When the original is not on loan, a laser-cut resin copy of the left panel is on display.
