Nottingham alabaster

Alabaster, a mineral composed of gypsum and various impurities, is much softer and easier to work than marble and a good material for mass production, though not suitable for outdoor use.

Carvings were made as single figures, assemblies for tomb monuments, including full length effigies, but the most common survivals are panels, up to about 20 inches or 50 cm high, from sets for altarpieces, which could be transported relatively easily, and fitted into a locally-made architectural surround of stone or wood on arrival at their destination.

Throughout the period of their production Nottingham alabaster images were hugely popular in Europe and were exported in large quantities, some ending up as far afield as Iceland, Croatia and Poland.

But by far the greatest export market for these images was in France, where even today some churches retain in situ their English alabaster altarpieces, unlike England, where survivals are extremely rare.

An example of a much larger statue, three feet high and free-standing but flat-backed, is Our Lady of Westminster, now in London but found by the art trade in France.

The discovery in 1863 of a headless but stylistically almost identical alabaster image, buried in the churchyard of All Saints, Broughton, Craven, suggests that, as was apparently usually the case, the statue was a standard model repeated several times by the workshop, and probably produced for stock rather than upon receipt of a particular commission.

Colouring was usually very vivid, with robes being painted in scarlets and blues, hair and accoutrements such as crowns and sceptres were often gilded, and landscapes were decorated with distinctive daisy patterns often against a dark-green ground.

There is a subject apparently unique to English alabasters, the Bosom of Abraham Trinity, a variant of the Throne of Mercy which is more often found, and with the Madonna and Child, is often a larger free-standing statue – such as the Westminster example.

A rare iconography apparently unique to English alabaster is the "Bosom of Abraham Trinity", where in a composition of the "Throne of Mercy" type, a group of tiny figures are seen in a napkin held or supported between the hands of God the Father.

The theme combines elements of the Western Virgin of Mercy and the Russian Pokrov icons, though these are not necessarily direct influences, and was probably associated with the dedication of All Saints.

This image still carries numerous traces of its original polychromy, such as the characteristic "daisy pattern" against a dark green ground on the base, red and blue in the garment folds and gilding on the crown and mantle fastenings.