Some unusual Medieval English Alabaster Carvings

W. L. Hildburgh

doi:10.1017/S0003581500057590

Some unusual Medieval English Alabaster Carvings

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2012

W. L. Hildburgh

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The present notes, with their accompanying photographs, have for their purpose the placing on record of some English alabaster carvings which either differ in style, in noteworthy details, or in iconography from pieces previously illustrated or described, or supply fresh examples of some uncommon technique or unusual subject. The objects have not hitherto, so far as I know, been published.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , January 1928 , pp. 54 - 68

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581500057590 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1928

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References

^{page 54 note 1} Cf. Nelson, P., ‘Earliest Type of English Alabaster Panel Carvings’, in Archaeol. Journ., lxxvi (1919), 85Google Scholarseq. and pl. 1.

^{page 54 note 2} Dr. Nelson has suggested that it was made about 1390.

^{page 54 note 3} Cf. Nelson, , ‘English Alabasters of the Embattled Type’, in Archaeol. Journ., lxxv (1918), 316Google Scholar and pl. III

^{page 54 note 4} Cf. Nelson, ‘Earliest Type ….’, pl. I ; Illustrated Cat. Exhibition English Medieval Alabaster Work, London, 1913, 26 seq. and pl. iii ; Prior, and Gardner, , Medieval Figure-Sculpture in England, Cambridge, 1912, 472Google Scholar.

^{page 55 note 1} Cf. Ant. Journ., i, 231 ; Ill. Cat. cit., 42 seq.; Prior and Gardner, op. cit., 49

^{page 55 note 2} Cf. Biver, , ‘Some Examples of English Alabaster Tables in France’, in Archaeol. Journ., lxvii (1910Google Scholar); Nelson, ‘The Woodwork of English Alabaster Retables’, in Trans. Hist. Soc. Lanes, and Ches., 1920.

^{page 55 note 3} ‘Notes on some English Alabaster Carvings’, in Ant. Journ., iv (1924), 374Google Scholarseq.. and pl. LI.

^{page 55 note 4} There seems to have been a belief to this effect; cf. de Segange, L. Du Broc, Les saints patrons des corporations …, Paris, 1887Google Scholar, ii, 61.

^{page 55 note 5} John, xx, 14, 15.

^{page 56 note 1} A Harleian manuscript (2013 ; cf. The Chester Plays [Shakespeare Soc], London, 1843–7, ii, 214) has, however, stage directions as to the scene which say, ‘Then cometh Jesus with a robe about hym, and a crosse staffe in his hande’.

^{page 56 note 2} Cf. Ill. Cat. cit., 21 ; Ant. Journ., iii (1923), 35 seqq.; ibid., iv, 379; ibid., v, 5; 8, etc.

^{page 56 note 3} Cf. Ant. Journ., iii, 35.

^{page 57 note 1} Cf. Proc. Soc. Ant., xxxi (1919), 58Google Scholar and fig. 2; Hildburgh, , ‘A n Alabaster Table of the Annunciation with the Crucifix’, in Archaeologia, lxxiv (1925), 206Google Scholar and pl. XLVI.

^{page 57 note 2} Cf. ‘An Alabaster Table of the Annunciation with the Crucifix’, 203 seqq. and pl. XLV.

^{page 57 note 3} In a Passion triptych in its original frame, formerly in Hólar Church and now in the Reykjavik Museum ; cf. Nelson, , ‘English Medieval Alabaster Carvings in Iceland and Denmark’, in Archaeol. Journ., lxxvii (1920), 195Google Scholar and pl. 11.

^{page 57 note 4} In the altar-piece from Hólar Church; cf. loc. cit.

^{page 57 note 5} Cf. ‘… the Annunciation with the Crucifix’, 205 and pl. XLVI ; P. Clemen, Die Kunstdenkmāler der Rheinprovina, ii, ‘Kreis Rees’, 46.

^{page 57 note 6} In the Virgin set at San Benedetto a Settimo, near Pisa; cf. Papini, R., ‘Polittici d'Alabastro’, in L'Arte, xiii (1910), fig. 2Google Scholar.

^{page 57 note 7} Cf. Hildburgb, ‘Notes on some English Medieval Alabaster Carvings’, in Ant. Journ., iii, 35 seq.

^{page 58 note 1} London, 1864, 299 seqq.

^{page 58 note 2} Cf. his pp. 311, 322 seq.

^{page 58 note 3} Cf. Destrée, J., ‘Sculptures en albâtre de Nottingham’, in Ann. Soc. d'Archéol. de Bruxelles, xxiii (1909), fig. IIGoogle Scholar.

^{page 58 note 4} Cf. ‘… Embattled Type’, 325 seq. and pl. xiv.

^{page 58 note 5} Ibid., he. cit. Ill. Cat. cit., pl. iv; Prior and Gardner, op. cit., 479.

^{page 58 note 6} Angels, but three instead of the four here, are similarly engaged in the earlier Crucifixion described and shown in Nelson's ‘Earliest Type … ’, 92 seq. and pl. vii.

^{page 59 note 1} e. g. those in the Marienkirche at Danzig (cf. Nelson, ‘… Embattled Type ’, 328 and pls. XVIII–XXII inc.), and in the British Museum (cf. ibid., 331 and pl. XXIII) ; others might be cited.

^{page 59 note 2} In addition to the present one, a fragmentary one which is, Dr. Nelson tells me, in the Rouen Museum.

^{page 59 note 3} It has previously been figured, with a brief accompanying note, in Nelson's, ‘Some Unpublished English Medieval Alabaster Carvings’, in Archaeol. Journ., lxxvii (1920), 213CrossRef Google Scholar and pl. 1.

^{page 60 note 1} Cf. pl. 1036, and x, 86.

^{page 60 note 2} Cf. i, 515, 516; iii, 590; v, 454, 455. Most of these are of the Italian Renaissance; one is Spanish ; one is Swiss. All are later than the alabaster.

^{page 60 note 3} Cf. i, 515, 516

^{page 60 note 4} e. g. a Della Robbia of the early sixteenth century; one by Andrea del Sarto; and one by Fabritius.

^{page 60 note 5} Cf. Biver, op. cit., 71 seqq. and pl. viii.

^{page 60 note 6} Ibid., 75.

^{page 60 note 7} Cf. Hildburgh, , ‘Some English Alabasters in Spain’, in Proc. Soc. Ant., xxix (1917), 75Google Scholarseq.

^{page 60 note 8} Cf. ibid., ‘Discussion ’, 94.

^{page 61 note 1} Cf. Hope, W. H. St. John, ‘On the sculptured alabaster tablets called Saint John's Heads’, in Archaeologia, lii (1890)Google Scholar, 669 seqq. It should, however, be noted that all the tables there pictured seem to be of later dates than the present Naming.

^{page 61 note 2} As noted above, a female figure is similarly situated on the Madrid Nativity of the Blessed Virgin.

^{page 61 note 3} It is known that in earlier times uncarved English alabaster was exported to France; cf. Bilson, J., ‘A French Purchase of English Alabaster in 1414’, in Archaeol. Journ., lxiv (1907), 31Google Scholarseqq.

^{page 62 note 1} Cf. Nelson, ‘… Embattled Type’.

^{page 62 note 2} Ibid., pls. 111 (Annunciation) and iv (two Nativities of our Lord).

^{page 62 note 3} Although there are twenty merlons and twenty-one pendent pieces, the last pendent piece is so placed that two-thirds of it are almost invisible from the front.

^{page 63 note 1} Cf. Hope, op. cit.

^{page 63 note 2} Cf. ibid., 674.

^{page 63 note 3} Ibid., 703 seq., pl. xxvi. The head on this table appears to be about 5 in. long.

^{page 63 note 4} The more usual treatment consisted of smooth protuberances upon which were painted the details of the eyes.

^{page 63 note 5} Cf. Hope, op. cit., 688 and pl. xxiii.

^{page 63 note 6} This is a good, but not conclusive, reason for taking the work also to be English; cf. p. 61, foot-note 3, supra.

^{page 64 note 1} Cf. Prior and Gardner, op. cit., fig. 788.

^{page 64 note 2} Ibid., fig. 797.

^{page 64 note 3} Ibid., fig. 560 ; Ill. Cat. cit., pl. XXI.

^{page 64 note 4} Cf. Nelson, ‘Some Unpublished … Alabaster Carvings’, pl. x. Compare, also, her seated figure in an Adoration of the Virgin shown on pl. VI of the same paper.

^{page 64 note 5} Cf. Nelson, , ‘Some Fifteenth Century English Alabaster Panels’, in Archaeol. Journ., lxxvi (1919)Google Scholar, pl. VI.

^{page 64 note 6} Cf. Prior and Gardner, op. cit., fig. 514.

^{page 64 note 7} Cf. F. Bond, Dedications and Patron Saints of English Churches, 1914, 9. The Chapel was completed in 1512.

^{page 64 note 8} Cf. Prior and Gardner, op. cit., fig. 793.

^{page 64 note 9} Ibid., fig. 801.

^{page 65 note 1} I have to thank Dr. Nelson for bringing this to my notice. It is shown by E. Mâle in L'Art religieux du XII^e siècle en France, Paris, 1921, fig. 108 (on p. 129, where are given also some brief remarks on it).

^{page 65 note 2} Cf. Gudiol, J., ‘San Cucufate del Vallés’, in Museum (Barcelona), ii (1912), p. 459Google Scholar (with picture of complete altar-piece on p. 445). A separate edition of this was published for the Sociedad de Atracción de Forasteros, Syndicat d'Iniciative, Barcelona, under the title of Sant Cugat del Vallés; the photographs above cited are on pp. 13 and 27.

^{page 65 note 3} He published his first edition about 1483.

^{page 65 note 4} For an example, see p. 60, supra.

^{page 66 note 1} Cf. Proc. Soc. Ant., xxxii (1920), 121Google Scholarseqq.; Ant. Journ., iii (1923), 25Google Scholarseq. ; ‘… Alabaster Carvings in Iceland and Denmark’, pl. v, etc.

^{page 66 note 2} Long hair in England seems to have been a characteristic sign of only two of the saints commonly depicted ; i. e. the Magdalene and St. Agnes. Cf. Bond, op. cit., 301.

^{page 66 note 3} e. g. one in the Naples Museum (cf. Ill. Cat. cit., pl. 1; Papini, op. cit., fig. 4 ) ; one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (cf. Ill. Cat. cit., pl. IV ; Prior and Gardner, op. cit., fig. 551); one in the Victoria and Albert Museum (no. 2416–1856; cf. V. & A. Museum's A Picture Book of English Alabaster Carvings, 1925, pl. 14); etc. See also foot-notes 4 and 5, infra.

^{page 66 note 4} e. g. one in the altar-piece at Chatelus-Malvaleix (cf. Nelson, ‘Some unusual English Alabaster Panels’, in Trans. Hist. Soc. Lanes, and Ches., 1917, pl. 1); one from Hólar Church, in Reykjavik Museum (cf. Nelson, ‘… Alabaster Carvings in Iceland and Denmark’, pl. 11) ; a fragment at Cambridge (cf. Ill. Cat. cit., pl. xvi; Prior and Gardner, cp. cit., fig. 554); one in the Cloisters Branch of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; two in my own collection ; etc.

^{page 66 note 5} Cf. Nelson, ‘… Embattled Type’, pi. xvii and p. 327.

^{page 67 note 1} Cf. Nelson, ‘… Iceland and Denmark’, pl. v.

^{page 67 note 2} Luke, vii, 38, 44; John, xii, 3, xi, 2. On the common medieval identification of Mary Magdalene with Mary the sister of Martha, cf. Butler's Lives, 1854, vii, 220, foot-note.

^{page 67 note 3} Of representations of St. Antony of Padua it is said that the figure wears always the Franciscan habit and cord; and that sometimes a book (as emblem of learning) is held, sometimes a flaming heart (as emblem of fervent piety), and sometimes there is a flame in the hand or upon the breast. The saint is, however, much more commonly represented—and especially so in modern art—holding the Infant Christ.

^{page 67 note 4} He was canonized in 1232. Bond's Dedications … of English Churches does not mention any English churches dedicated in his honour.

^{page 67 note 5} The term ‘fiacre’, as applied to a Paris hackney-carriage, is due to the business of letting hackney-carriages having been first begun in that city in a house known, because of an image of the saint over its gateway, as the ‘Hotel de Saint Fiacre’. Cf. Smith and Wace, Diet. Christian Biography, 1880, s.v. ‘Fiacrius’.

^{page 67 note 6} Smith and Wace, loc. cit.

^{page 68 note 1} Cf. J. M. Mackinlay, Ancient Church Dedications in Scotland: Non-Scriptural Dedications, Edinburgh, 1914, 334. Bond, Dedications … of English Churches, cites no dedication in honour of St. Fiacre.

^{page 68 note 2} Du Broc de Segange, op. cit., under Aug. 30 says: ‘Jardiniers, Fleuristes, Bouquetiers, Maraîchers, Treillageurs, Epingliers, Aiguilliers, Emballeurs, Layetiers, Chaudronniers, Potiers d'étain, Bonnetiers, Tuiliers.’

^{page 68 note 3} Cf. ibid., loc. cit.

^{page 68 note 4} Cf. ‘A Datable English Alabaster Altar-piece at Santiago de Compostela’, in Ant. Journ. vi (1926), 304Google Scholar.

^{page 68 note 5} A pilgrim's badge of the fourteenth century, with the inscription ‘Hoc est sigillum beati Fiacrii’, found in France, is figured in C. Roach Smith's Collectanea Antiqua, ii, pl. xvi; cf. ibid., 43 seq.

^{page 68 note 6} Reproduced by courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

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