English, Nottingham, circa 1450

The present carving is the only recorded English alabaster carving that depicts the martyrdom of Saint Dorothy (op. cit. Cheetham 2003). The virgin martyr saint was persecuted because of her devotion to Christ, and on her way to her execution a young man mockingly asked her to send him fruits and flowers from the garden of paradise, where she insisted she would be going after her death. An angel in the guise of a young child then appeared and presented the man with a basket of exotic fruits and blooming flowers.

This carving depicts the moment after Dorothy is martyred, when the executioner's sword is still raised and her head, with its flowing locks of hair and a garland, rests on the floor below her body. Next to the slain figure stands the angel, who presents a basket of fruits and flowers to the crowd of men who stand behind her.

While the majority of carved English alabaster panels formed parts of altarpieces depicting the lives of Christ and the Virgin, a greater diversity of subject matter was explored after the first decades of the 15th century and panels depicting saints were produced both as parts of narrative altarpieces and as individual devotional images.