ROMSEY ABBEY, Church Lane, ROMSEY, Hampshire. SO51 8EP
As Chris Gollon’s national touring exhibition ‘Incarnation, Mary and Women from the Bible’ travelled to English cathedrals (2014 – 2016), it came to Romsey Abbey in autumn 2016. Gollon was taken both by the Abbey and the history of its famous abbess, St Ethelflaeda. As a site-specific work for two stone recesses, he decided to create dramatic diptych of St Ethelflaeda, Abbess of Romsey at the time of the first millennium. Gollon’s diptych looks at the legend recounted of St Ethelflaeda, the moment her candle blows out and she is able to continue reading the Bible only by the Divine light emanating from her hand. The diptych subtly gives the impression of St Ethelflaeda re-entering the Abbey, imbued with light.
In 2018, the Diptych was purchased via IAP Fine Art from the Chris Gollon Estate. It now hangs permanently in Romsey Abbey as an aid to worship and for the public and congregation to enjoy. Chris Gollon painted 5 studies for the final work, now part of the Chris Gollon Estate.
“I’ve really come to love Chris Gollon’s work and the expressive ways that he represents the human form with exaggeration creating a greater realism”, The Very Revd Catherine Ogle, Dean of Winchester.
An ISBN-numbered full-colour catalogue giving details of the diptych, the 5 studies for the final work, as well as texts by novelist Sara Maitland and leading critics is available to purchase in the Abbey bookshop, or here: St Ethelflaeda catalogue.