#mcmanus gallery

[azvolrien]

We visited the McManus Gallery as well, as while I've been there before, Mum hadn't. I've posted photos of these Pictish stones before - I went there on my 2021 road trip - but I think my new camera made for a slightly better picture quality.

In order, these are Aberlemno 4, the Strathmartine Castle stone, two views of the Tealing cross-slab fragment, and two sides of the Benvie stone.

[azvolrien]

A selection of other, non-Pict-related artefacts from the McManus. Dundee, historically, was famous for ‘the three Js’ - Jute, Jam and Journalism - stemming from the large number of textile mills, a marmalade factory, and D.C. Thomson & Co., to whom we owe such long-standing cultural institutions as The Beano. Only the last one still operates in the city.

It’s also the original home of DMA Design, later known as Rockstar North. So that’s Jute, Jam, Journalism and Jrand Theft Auto.

[azvolrien]

So, I have in fact set off on that Pictish Stone Road Trip I mentioned a while back! I’ve just completed the second day of my little tour and am now comfortably ensconced in an Aberdeen hotel, which frankly looks a bit like a prison from the outside but is actually very nice. The wi-fi in the previous hotel wasn’t very good, however, so I’m just now starting to upload any photos. Which, as this photoset implies, will not all be of Pictish stones.

The first stop on my road trip was the McManus Gallery in Dundee, the city’s biggest museum and art gallery. Officially it’s just called ‘the mcmanus’ (all lower-case) since a big refurbishment a few years ago but I don’t think anyone actually calls it that. This is one of its most striking exhibits, the skeleton of the Tay Whale, and the story behind it is rather sad.

Once upon a time, Dundee was one of the big names in the whaling industry. The shipyards there were well-known for their whaling vessels, which included the ill-fated Terra Nova of Scott-of-the-Antarctic fame, but the city didn’t limit itself to just building the ships. One December day in 1883, a humpback whale swam up the Firth of Tay and some of the winter-bored whalers in port decided to hunt it, because I guess that was just kind of what you did when you saw a humpback whale in 1883. While they successfully harpooned the whale, after a long struggle the harpoon lines broke and the whale escaped into the North Sea. Where, we must presume, it slowly and painfully died of blood loss, infection, shock or some other complication stemming from having large chunks of sharp metal lodged in its flesh, for its carcass was found floating off Stonehaven a week later. The poor whale was towed back to land and transported to Dundee, where - once it stank too much for people to want to come and see it - it was publicly dissected by one John Struthers, an anatomy professor from the University of Aberdeen.

Then, to add insult to injury, William Topaz McGonagall wrote a poem about it.

[azvolrien]

Right, on to the first batch of Pictish stones! The McManus has a small but quite respectable collection of them. These ones, in order, are:

Aberlemno 4, with the horseshoe and the Pictish Beast. The rest of the Aberlemno Stones (Aberlemno 1-3 and 5) are still in situ in the village of that name. More on them later, possibly tomorrow.

The Strathmartine Castle Stone, with the Crescent-and-V-Rod and another similar but perhaps slightly more intricate Beast.

The two faces of the Benvie Stone, one side with a cross and the other with two horsemen.

Two sides of the Tealing Cross-Fragment, one with a symbol the learnèd ones call a ‘fish monster’ and one with a fragment of another Beast.

The Strathmartine Churchyard recumbent stone, with two snakes.

A two-part replica of the Monifieth crescent. The original was lost.

[shadowofday]

Brass Bannister, McManus Gallery, Dundee.

[helenkellock]