Professor Malcolm Thurlby on the Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture
Professor Malcolm Thurlby
Once upon a time, a young lad named Malcolm was being benignly guided through the A-Level study of chemistry, physics and biology. Then one day, he happened across a picture of the south door of Kilpeck Church, dating from about 1134.
The south door of Kilpeck, with some Carleton students in for scale.
From that moment on, young Malcolm knew what he wanted to do with his life. He would become a leading expert on the architecture and sculpture of Romanesque England. And he would write the book on the Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture, to which the Kilpeck sculpture belongs. And while he was at it, he would become a leading expert on the architecture of 19th-century Canada, too. And to share the wealth, he would be a Professor of Visual Arts at Toronto’s York University for nearly 40 years.
In conjunction with my course ARTH 2202: Architecture and Art of the Middle Ages, Malcolm Thurlby chatted with me by Zoom about the Herefordshire School. You may want to check out more images of the Kilpeck sculpture at the Corpus of Romanesque Sculpture in Britain and Ireland.
You can get Malcolm Thurlby’s book, The Herefordshire School of Romanesque Sculpture, here.
The music in this podcast is performed by Melos Choir and Period Instruments of Kingston, Ontario, from their CD A Star in the East.
A few other works that Malcolm mentions:
Shobdon, Tympanum
Castle Frome, Font
Shobdon, Harrowing of Hell
Peter Coffman, Supervisor, History & Theory of Architecture program