3 - The Art of the Church in Ninth-Century Anglo- Saxon England: The Case of the Newent Cross

Summary

The depiction of the Old Testament on the stone sculptures of Anglo-Saxon England has, on the whole, been largely ignored by scholars, with Jane Hawkes, along with her supervisor Richard Bailey and thesis advisor Jim Lang, being among the notable few to discuss this topic. This scholarly lacuna is, in part, due to the extraordinarily limited survival of such imagery in the corpus of Anglo-Saxon sculpture, with only eleven likely Old Testament scenes surviving from the pre-Viking period. Furthermore, over half of these scenes survive on just two sculptures: one in Masham (North Yorkshire), and the other in Newent (Gloucestershire). There is not a large amount of material to study, and some of what remains is in rather poor condition. Although Bailey, Lang, and Hawkes have all offered iconographic readings of the sadly degraded Masham scenes, similar studies of the iconography surviving on the ninth-century cross shaft at Newent are notably lacking in the scholarship to date.

Discovered buried in the churchyard in 1907, the cross at Newent is the most complete ninth-century Anglo-Saxon sculpture related to the Old Testament to have survived. Its burial, relatively late discovery, and subsequent placement inside the porch of the church mean it has been very well preserved. As the cross head had been sticking out of the ground, the carvings on this section are sadly worn, almost to the point of complete obliteration. Thankfully, the shaft remains virtually untouched. The scenes carved on all four sides of this shaft can be clearly identified, and include: the Fall of Adam and Eve; David slaying Goliath; Abraham sacrificing Isaac; and a final panel depicting two stylised quadrupeds, two birds, and a centrally stemmed plant (Fig. 3.1). Each panel contains an extremely dense iconographic programme; when taken together, they form a rich whole steeped in a deep understanding of the writings of the early Church Fathers and contemporary early medieval exegesis. All the Old Testament scenes clearly demonstrate familiarity with early Christian and continental exemplars, which were probably used as models. This essay will examine one of these scenes – the Sacrifice of Isaac – to demonstrate the multivalent meanings potentially lying behind the construction of the Newent Cross, though more scholarly attention is needed to fully appreciate the significance of this monument.