From 13 to 21 February the 37 replica Stirling Heads I spent five years hand carving will go on display. This will be your only chance to view the heads in their natural state, a few weeks later each of the metre-wide oak medallions will be fixed to the ceiling of the Castle’s Royal Palace. Then, and this part still makes me feel a little apprehensive, they will be painted in bright colours. As a 21st-century craftsman I feel that natural oak is something of great beauty. The project, however, is all about authenticity – returning the palace to how it looked in the middle of the 16th-century. Back then they loved colour, lots of it and the more vivid the better.
Tests on some heads that survived have produced paint fragments so we know that they probably were painted. It would be interesting to know how the original craftsmen felt about this project, and what the relationship was between them and the other artists and craftsmen involved. They had carefully given form to dozens of kings, queens, emperors and mythical heroes, carving their subjects from huge blank circles of wood. Then, finally finished, nobles and foreign ambassadors could gasp in wonder at the crowd of colourful faces staring down at them.
What I noticed was that the Renaissance craftsmen took great care to carve all the features themselves rather than leaving them for painters to add on. That suggests pride in the job. It seems unlikely that the originals would have been gathered together before painting and put on public show. I'm delighted that this is being done with my work and that I'm around to hold workshops showing you how I made them.
It will be wonderful to see them all together, and to share the sight with visitors. It will be an important moment for me in personal and professional terms. Afterwards I’m sure there will be some pangs as they are taken from the hall to fulfil their part in Historic Scotland’s project to turn the palace into a fabulous new visitor attraction. Consequently hundreds of thousands of people a year will pass through the King’s Presence Hall and admire the heads – looking just as James V would have wanted. I feel I have to say that I have been privileged to be part of this and to have left such a wonderful legacy.
By John Donaldson, wood carver.
● The exhibition of the 37 heads runs from 13 to 21 February and is included in the standard castle ticket price.
● View a video of John at work
● Enter our Stirling Heads competition