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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2012
The primary purpose of the following desultory notes is to place on record a number of pieces of English medieval alabaster work, some of unusual type or form, others resembling examples more or less familiar, which have lately come to my notice.
page 24 note 1 e.g. the column of the idol, in a St. Katharine table (cf. Catalogue, Lond., 1913, of the Society's Alabaster Exhibition, no. 60; Prior, and Gardner, , Medieval Figure-Sculpture in England, 1912, fig. 574)Google Scholar; or the columns supporting the First and Second Persons of the Trinity in a Coronation of our Lady (cf. Cat. cit., no. 38; Prior and Gardner, op. cit., fig. 536f).
page 24 note 2 Cf. Cat. cit., no. 71 [15]. A portion of a seated figure of St. Anne teaching the Virgin (now missing) to read, of a very different type, found at Kersey, Suffolk (cf. Cat. cit., no. 81), is interesting for comparison.
page 24 note 3 This object appears also in English stained glass; cf. the Education of the Virgin given as frontispiece in Bond's, F.Dedications … English Churches, Oxford, 1914Google Scholar.
page 25 note 1 Cf. Proc. Soc. Ant. xxix. 78 seq.
page 25 note 2 Cf. ibid., xxxii, 121 seq.
page 25 note 3 Cf. ibid., loc. cit. and fig. 4.
page 26 note 1 A headless figure of a bishop, much resembling this one but about twice its size, was shown at the Alabaster Exhibition (cf. Cat. cit., no. 82); at that exhibition were also (no. 80) a complete figure of a standing bishop, 37½ in. high, and a headless figure (no. 86; not illustrated in Cat.), 13¾ in. high, of a seated bishop.
page 27 note 1 Cf. MrsJameson, , Sacred and Legendary Art, Lond., 1857, i, 113; andGoogle ScholarPerry, M. P., ‘On the Psychostasis in Christian Art’, in Burlington Mag. xxii, 208 seq. and pl. ii (J.), on the occurrence of wingless St. MichaelsGoogle Scholar.
page 27 note 2 Cf. Cat. cit., 42. What seems clearly to be a representation of such tights appears in a wall painting, at South Leigh, of St. Michael weighing souls (cf. Bond, op. cit., 35), in which is shown also a tiara similar to the one of the present image but surmounted by a cross; feathers, and a tiara like that of the painting cited, appear in the St. Michael of the Ranworth rood-screen (cf. ibid., 37). A heavily feathered St. Michael in a posture very similar to the posture in the present image is on the rood-screen at Ashton, Devon (cf. ibid., 213). In representations of the weighing of the soul after death, ‘In England especially, though not exclusively, a feathered St. Michael is depicted, resembling in design the angelic beings … upon ecclesiastical vestments of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries’ (Perry, , op. cit., 103)Google Scholar. On an alabaster table of the Trinity in the Victoria and Albert Museum (no. 471–1907), of the same general type as the Trinity tables cited infra, the two angels holding the chalices below the hands are shown covered with feathers carved as they are carved here.
page 28 note 1 Cf., for example, an image at Westminster (Bond, , op. cit., 151)Google Scholar.
page 28 note 2 In the Palace at Norwich is a table showing the nine choirs of angels, upon which the archangels are represented by a ‘feathered figure, diademed … a heater shaped shield upon the right arm’; cf. Nelson, P.. ‘Some Further Examples of English Medieval Alabaster Tables’, in Archaeol. Jour. Ixxiv, 115 and pl. xGoogle Scholar.
page 28 note 3 A German figure of St. Michael, of wood, in the Schnütgen Collection at Cologne, has a shield bearing a relief of the Psychostasis, instead of the more usual cross.
page 28 note 4 Cf. Maclagan, E., ‘An English Alabaster Altarpiece …’, in Burlington Mag. xxxvi, 54, 64 seqGoogle Scholar.
page 28 note 5 For a number of examples, see Nelson, , ‘Some Examples of English Medieval Alabaster Work’, in Archaeol. Jour., lxxi, pls. iii, ivGoogle Scholar; ‘Some Further Examples …’, pl. iv; and ‘Some Unusual English Alabaster Panels’, in Trans. Hist. Soc. Lanes, and Cheshire, 1917, pls. i, iiGoogle Scholar; Bouillet, A., in Bulletin Monumental, lxv (1901), pl. facing p. 48Google Scholar; Maclagan, , op. cit., 53, pl. iGoogle Scholar; Hildburgh, , in Proc. Soc. Ant., xxviii, 63 seqq., and xxxii, 126Google Scholar.
page 28 note 6 For notes on representations of this type in which the Holy Ghost is not figured, see Didron, M., Christian Iconography, i, Lond., 1851, 503 seq., 507 seqGoogle Scholar.
page 28 note 1 God the Father and the Son.
page 28 note 2 The adoration of the Kings.
page 28 note 3 The Betrayal.
page 28 note 4 The Resurrection.
page 29 note 1 This arrangement is so like one used by early Romanesque sculptors, and employed in French art until well into the thirteenth century for symbolizing paradise, that I think that not improbably we have in one the origin of the other (cf. Mâle, E., Religious Art in France of the Thirteenth Century, 1913, 384 seq.)Google Scholar.
page 29 note 2 No. 901–1905. Another ‘Trinity’, in the same museum, in which six souls are held, has been figured by Nelson, , Archaeol Jour., 1914, pi. iii (cf. 164)Google Scholar.
page 29 note 3 Haupt, R. and Weysser, F., Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler … Lauenburg, Ratzeburg, 1890, 64 seqGoogle Scholar.
page 29 note 4 Loc. cit.
page 29 note 5 Cf. Maclagan, , op. cit., 64 (figs. 4, 5), 65Google Scholar.
page 29 note 6 Nelson figures (‘Some Unusual … Panels’, pl. i) a Trinity so used.
page 29 note 7 Cf. Cat. cit., nos. 22, 28; Nelson, ‘Some Examples … Alabaster Work’, pls. i, ii, and 161 seq., and ‘Some Further Examples …’, pl. xiii, and 121; Hildburgh, , Proc. Soc. Ant., xxxi, 60Google Scholar and fig. 5, and xxxii, 128 seq.; Kehrer, H., Die heiligen drei Könige in Literatur und Kunst, Leipzig, 1909, ii, 218Google Scholar; Haupt, and Weysser, , op. cit., 65Google Scholar; Maclagan, 53 and pl. i, etc.
page 30 note 1 Cf. Proc. Soc. Ant., xxxii, 129; Biver, , ‘Some Examples of English Alabaster Tables in France’, in Archaeol. Jour., lxvii, pl. 1Google Scholar. They occur also on some Adorations which, I believe, have not been published.
page 30 note 2 Cf. Cat. cit., fig. I; Prior, and Gardner, , op. cit., fig. 539Google Scholar.
page 30 note 3 Cf. Cat. cit., pp. 26 seqq.; Prior, and Gardner, , op. cit., 470 seqqGoogle Scholar.
page 30 note 4 Cf. Mâle, , ‘Les rois mages et le drame liturgique’, in Gaz. des Beaux-Arts, 1910, 262. A considerable number of examples showing the ancient type have been illustrated byGoogle ScholarKehrer, , op. cit., ii, figs. 12, 14, 16, 21, 27, 28, 30, 34, etc., etcGoogle Scholar.
page 30 note 5 Cf. Clemen, P., Die Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz, Kreis Bergheim, Düsseldorf, 1899, pl. facing p. 48, and pp. 49 seqq.Google Scholar; Kehrer, , op. cit., 217 seqqGoogle Scholar. Clemen's photograph of this leads one to suspect ‘restorations’ and some minor changes as a result of them; the principal personages have not, I think, been materially altered, but I am not satisfied with the ass's rope, the suppression of Joseph's staff (what I take to be part of the original staff is visible in the picture), the giving of pupils to the eyes, and some other things.
page 30 note 6 Cf. Cat. cit., no. 4.
page 31 note 1 Cf. Ludoiff, A., Die Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler des Kreises Paderborn, Münster i. W., 1899, pi. xliv and 98Google Scholar.
page 31 note 2 Cf. The Towneley Mysteries (Surtees Soc), Lond., 1836, 132Google Scholar; The Coventry Mysteries (Ludus Coventriae) (Shakespeare Soc), Lond., 1841, 162 seq.Google Scholar; The Chester Plays (Shakespeare Soc), Lond., 1843-1847, i, 164Google Scholar seq. In this connexion I may mention that I have throughout called the Kings ‘First’, ‘Second’, and ‘Third’, instead of referring to them by name, because, although in the several English plays in which they appear the same three names are used, they are applied variously; cf. Towneley Mysteries, 122 seq.; Coventry Mysteries, 162 seq.; Chester Plays, 171.
page 31 note 3 Cf. Chester Plays, i, 164: ‘And myrre … To anoynte hym.’
page 31 note 4 Cf. Cat. cit., 29 seqq.; Prior, and Gardner, , op. cit., 475 seqq.Google Scholar; Nelson, , ‘English Alabasters of the Embattled Type’, in Archaeol. Jour., 1918, 310 seqqGoogle Scholar.
page 31 note 5 Cf. Nelson, ‘… Embattled Type’, pls. xviii-xxii and 328 seqq.
page 32 note 1 Cf. Kehrer, , op. cit., fig. 258Google Scholar.
page 32 note 2 Cf. Proc. Soc. Ant., xxix, 84.
page 32 note 3 Cf. Nelson, ‘… Embattled Type’, pl. vi and p. 318; an illustration of the Danzig table to which he there refers appears in the Archaeol. Jour, for 1919.
page 32 note 4 Cf. Kehrer, , op. cit., figs. 178, 179, 180, 181Google Scholar (and pp. 160 seqq.), 63; and Mâle, ‘Les rois mages …’, 262 seqq., 265.
page 32 note 5 Cf. Kehrer, , op. cit., figs. 54, 58, 60Google Scholar.
page 32 note 6 Cf. ibid., figs. 186, 187, 188, 181, 183, 184.
page 32 note 7 Cf. ibid., 129 seqq., ‘Der franzosische Schauspieltypus’.
page 32 note 8 Ibid., 130 seqq., with fig. 142; cf. also Male, , op. cit., 261Google Scholar.
page 33 note 1 Op. cit., 264. Compare this with the arrival of the kings in The Towneley Mysteries: ‘Here knele alle the thre kynges downe’ (131); and ‘Here ryse they alle up’ (132).
page 33 note 2 Cf. Kehrer, , op. cit., fig. 13Google Scholar.
page 33 note 3 Ibid., figs. 19, 20; cf. also figs. 24, 26.
page 33 note 4 Ibid., fig. 33 and p. 50.
page 33 note 5 Ibid., fig. 50.
page 33 note 6 Kehrer, Compare, op. cit., 217 seqq., ‘Der Typus mit der liegenden Madonna’Google Scholar.
page 34 note 1 i, 167.
page 34 note 2 For some other examples, see Cat. cit., nos. 5, 20, and pl. i; Nelson, ‘… Embattled Type’, pl. xii and 324; Biver, , op. cit., pl. iii, no. 3; many others, of the same type, could be cited. Cf. also Proc. Soc. Ant., xxxii, 119 seqGoogle Scholar.
page 34 note 3 Compare the shield of the soldier in a Resurrection table figured by Nelson, ‘…Embattled Type’, pl. vii, 2.
page 35 note 1 The inner side of this, upon the tables, sometimes (as here) shows traces of having been painted red, thus suggesting the representation of a robe rather than of a winding-sheet. The Harleian manuscript of the Chester Plays contains stage directions concerning the appearance of Jesus to Mary Magdalene which say (cf. Ibid., ii, 214), ‘Then cometh Jesus with a robe about hym, and a crosse staffe in his hande.’ Cf. also W. Meyer (who deals with the influence on the Resurrection, in art, of the French and German mystery plays which developed in the twelfth century), ‘Wie ist die Auferstehung Christi dargestellt worden?’ in Nachrichten d. Königl. Gesellsch. Wissenschaften zu Göttingen (Philolog.-Hist. Klasse), 1903, 240, 243 (text and foot-note).
page 35 note 2 Chester Plays, ii, 87 seqq. Some tables, too, have three only; cf. Cat. cit., fig. 7 and no. 2.
page 35 note 3 Cf. 343.
page 35 note 4 Cf. 258 seq., 264 seqq.
page 35 note 5 ‘Le renouvellement de l'art par les “Mysteres”’ in Gaz. des Beaux-Arts, 1904, 296Google Scholar.
page 35 note 6 ii, 89.
page 35 note 7 Ibid., 93.
page 36 note 1 The stepping upon a soldier occurs on the Norwich Cathedral painted retable. It appears to be rare, if occurring at all, in Continental representations of the Resurrection.
page 36 note 2 Ibid., 91.
page 36 note 3 Ibid., loc. cit.
page 36 note 4 Another example of it appears in the retable at Chatelus-Malvaleix; cf. Nelson, ‘Some Unusual … Panels’, pl. i.
page 36 note 5 Cf. Cat. cit., pl. i, and figs. 5, 7, 9, 19, and no. 2 (or Prior, and Gardner, , op. cit., figs. 535, 543, 545, 547, 565, 584)Google Scholar; Biver, , op. cit., pl. xxiGoogle Scholar; Proc. Soc. Ant., xxix, fig. 9, etc.