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Notes on some English Alabaster Carvings
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2012
Extract
Most of the carvings herein to be described came into their late owners' hands from private collections, and—as unfortunately is generally the case in similar circumstances—in almost every instance unaccompanied by records of their earlier histories. All but three of them—the Crucifixion, the Ascension, and the one with two saints—came lately from Paris.
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- Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1921
References
page 222 note 1 Catalogue, Alabaster Exhibition, pl. i.
page 222 note 2 Cf. Mrs.Jameson, , Hist. of our Lord, 1865, vol. ii, pp. 100seqq.Google Scholar On the table at Compiègne referred to in footnote 4 just below, Christ is similarly shown; on the fragment of a table given (no. 14) in the Catalogue, Alabaster Exhibition, He is shown wearing His robe in accordance with the accounts of SS. Matthew and Mark.
page 222 note 3 Cf. Jameson, , op. cit., vol. ii, p. 111Google Scholar.
page 222 note 4 Cf. Biver, P., Arch. Jour., vol. lxvii (1910), pp. 81seq.Google Scholar; also, Cat., Alab. Exhib., no. 14.
page 222 note 5 Compare the dragon within the crown of Maximian, in the Society's Martyrdom of St. Katharine, Cat. Alab. Exhib., no. 63; the monster's head similarly placed on the table of the same subject formerly belonging to the Architectural Association and now in the Victoria and Albert Museum (ibid., no. 43, and Arch. Jour., lxvii, opp. p. 90); and the ‘demon’ within Diocletian's crown, in a Martyrdom of St. Erasmus (Cat., no. 23). A supernatural monster appears, on the turban of the evil Dacianus, in a table of the St. George series at La Celle (cf. Biver, , op. cit., pl. x and p. 74Google Scholar). The convention, as indicative of great wickedness, was perhaps derived from the mystery-plays.
page 223 note 1 Compare Jameson, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 218.
page 223 note 2 It is probably not mere chance that has caused the Virgin to be placed at the right of the body and St. John at the left, for that is precisely the disposition given them in the usual conventionalized representations of the Crucifixion. On the symbolism connected with this, see Mâle, E., Religious Art in France of the 13th Century, 1913, pp. 190seqq.Google Scholar
page 223 note 3 One of the midwives, in representations of the Nativity, is commonly shown on a reduced scale (cf. Proc. Soc. Ant., xxxii, 129); and other examples of reduced figures appear in a Martyrdom of St. Eramus (Cat. Alab. Exhib., no. 52), in the Christ bearing the Cross of the reredos at Saint-Avit-les-Guespières (Biver, , op. cit., pl. vGoogle Scholar), and—even apart from those in which angels or donors appear—on many other alabaster panels.
page 224 note 1 For various illustrations of this, see Millet, Gabriel, Recherches sur l'Iconographie de l'Évangile, Paris, 1916, chap, ixGoogle Scholar (‘La Descente de Croix’), and cf. especially remarks on pp. 469, 472, 473. Cf., also, Dalton, O. M., Cat. Ivory Carvings … British Museum, 1909, nos. 282 and 268Google Scholar; and Vöge, W., Königliche Museen zu Berlin, Die Elfenbeinbildwerke, 1902, pl. 29Google Scholar.
page 224 note 2 There seems a possibility that in some cases at least it has been due to a misconception on the part of a carver copying a kneeling figure shown—as was not infrequently the case—in a sort of perspective on a relief.
page 224 note 3 Cf. Prior, and Gardner, , Medieval Figure-Sculpture in England, 1912, fig. 117Google Scholar.
page 224 note 4 Ibid., fig. 52.
page 224 note 5 Dalton, op. cit., no. 243.
page 225 note 1 Proc. Soc. Ant., xxix, p. 90.
page 225 note 2 For a note on the marks to be found on the backs of some alabaster carvings, see Maclagan, E., Burlington Magazine, vol. xxxvi, pp. 64. seq.Google Scholar
page 225 note 3 Bouillet, A., Bull. monumental, 1901, p. 62Google Scholar.
page 225 note 4 A support of a similar kind is to be seen in some Early Christian representations of the scene; cf. de Fleury, Rohault, L'Évangile, 1874, vol. ii, pl. lxxxiii and pp. 238seq.Google Scholar
page 226 note 1 Cat., Alab. Exhib., nos. 3 and 8, and pl. iv; Prior, and Gardner, , op. cit., fig. 551Google Scholar; Biver, , op. cit., p. 86Google Scholar; Maclagan, , op. cit., pl. i.Google ScholarCf. Dewald, E. T., ‘Iconography of the Ascension’, Amer. Jour. Archaeol., 1915, pp. 315seqqGoogle Scholar.
page 227 note 1 In the reredos in the church of Saint-Michel, at Bordeaux; cf. Biver, , op. cit., p. 85 and pl. xviiiGoogle Scholar.
page 227 note 2 Dewald, op. cit., passim.
page 227 note 3 Ibid., p. 351.
page 227 note 4 Now on loan at the V. and A. Museum.
page 227 note 5 It is, of course, a regular accompaniment of the Virgin Mary on ‘Assumption’ tables.
page 228 note 1 Cf., however, note on last figure of St. Christopher.
page note 2 There is a statue of St. Christopher at one end of the reredos at La Celle (Eure) (cf. Biver, , op. cit., p. 77Google Scholar and pl. viii), and an image-panel of him in a Virgin set at Châteaulaudren (cf. Cat.. Alab. Exhib., p. 47). Of the present four images, three came recently from Paris, without prior history attached; the smallest was acquired in England.
page 229 note 1 Cf. Mrs.Collier's, ‘St. Christopher … in English Churches’, Arch. Jour., 1904. p. 137Google Scholar.
page 229 note 2 Two other exceptionally large alabaster figures, at the Cluny Museum, may here be recorded: an Assumption of the B.V.M., which is considerably larger than the present figure; and a St. Ursula, which is (I think) a little larger.
page 230 note 1 To be seen also on a table showing St. Armel (Cat., Alab. Exhib., no. 66), whose general treatment suggests that it and the present image came from the same workshop.
page 231 note 1 This suggests that, despite its seemingly unsuitable form, the image has formed part of a reredos; cf. Deposition table, supra, and various other tables similarly bearing numerals.
page 231 note 2 Cf. footnote 2, p. 228, supra.