The other day I attended online a lunchtime lecture at the Society of Antiquaries about the recent work to stabilise the St Etheldreda panels which are amongst the Society’s treasures.
The St Etheldreda Panels
Image: Instagram
Painted about 1455 for the shrine of St Etheldreda in Ely Cathedral the two panels are a virtually unique survival of such works from before the waves of iconoclasm of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
These panels survived because someone in Ely used them as cupboard doors until an antiquarian discovered them in the late eighteenth century. He acquired them and eventually bequeathed them to the Society of Antiquaries in the early nineteenth century.
Since then they have had several restorations. This latest project was designed to make them secure to travel to display in Norwich in an exhibition at the Sainsbury Centre. The work did not involve a full cleaning and restoration, but as the speakers explain in the presentation, the panels are now in a fit state for that if it is decided upon at a future date.
The set of talks about the paintings and the project can be viewed online at https://www.youtube.com/live/4e0draY5JDk?si=ZNpF3CImknPsMVFm
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