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IX. The Carved Stones at Breedon on the Hill, Leicestershire, and their position in the history of English Art

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2011

A.W. Clapham
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Extract

The series of carved and sculptured stones built into the walls of the church of Breedon on the Hill, Leicestershire, has long attracted attention, not only by reason of the unusual excellence and delicacy of the carving but also from the remarkable forms that the carving itself assumes. The fact that, in spite of some timid opposition in the past, the theory that these carvings are the work of late twelfth-century craftsmen has hitherto held the field, is sufficient excuse for my bringing the subject before the Society, believing as I do that an entirely wrong date has been assigned. The alternative date—the latter part of the eighth century—which I shall put forward, will, if established, at once place the series in a foremost position in the history of English art, and supply an entirely new chapter in its development.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 77 , 1928 , pp. 219 - 240
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1928

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References

page 219 note 1 Royal Commission on Historical Monuments, Hunts, p. 97 and pl. 58.

page 225 note 1 Antiquaries Journal, iii, p. 118.

page 226 note 1 This stone is now preserved in the Saxon Chapel, but was found on the site of the parish church; it no doubt formed the jamb or reveal of a doorway. See Brit. Arch. Assoc. Journ., xxxiii, 215.

page 226 note 2 E. Millar, The Lindisfarne Gospels, pl. xxx.

page 226 note 3 Romilly Allen, Early Christian Monuments of Scotland, 418, and G. F. Browne, Theodore and Wilfrith, p. 255.

page 226 note 4 Archaeologia, lxxiv, pl. liii.

page 226 note 5 Collingwood, W. G., ‘Anglian and Anglo-Danish Sculpture in the North Riding’ in Yorkshire Arch. Journ., xix, p. 372 with fig.Google Scholar

page 226 note 6 Haverfield and Greenwell, Catalogue of the Sculptured and Inscribed Stones in the Cathedral Library at Durham, p. 96.

page 226 note 7 e. g. at Gosforth (Cumberland). A late survival in the manuscripts is to be found in the tenth century Aldhelm's ‘De Virginitate’ at Lambeth (Westwood, Miniatures and Ornaments of Anglo-Saxon and Irish Manuscripts, pl. 31).

page 226 note 8 e.g. the fonts at Edgmond and Lilleshall, Shropshire, see Cranage, Churches of Shropshire, ii.

page 227 note 1 For the three pavements at Lydney Park see W. H. Bathurst, Roman Antiquities at Lydney Park, Gloucestershire, pis. v, xiv, and xvii. Other British mosaics with the same motive occur at Horkstow (Lines.), Frampton (Dorset), Withington (Gloucestershire), all figured in Lysons, Reliquiae Britannico-Romanae, at Scampton (Lines.) and elsewhere.

page 227 note 2 Reproduced in Bordier and Charton, Histoire de France, i, p. 134.

page 227 note 3 Reproduced in C. Cecchelli, S. Agnese f. le Mura.

page 227 note 4 See Forschungen in Salona, Vienna, 1917, i, p. 78; a mosaic of similar character has been found in a fifth-century church at Hemmaberg, see Deutsches Arch. Institut, Romanisch-Germanische Kommission, xv (1923–4), p. 236Google Scholar.

page 227 note 5 See Deschamps, Paul, ‘Un Motif de Décoration Carolingíenne et ses transformations à l'époque Romane’ in Bull. Mon. (1921), p. 255 and (1925), p. 95Google Scholar; Stückelberg in Revue Charlemagne (1911), No. 2, pp. 90–2, and Mem. de la Soc. nat. des Antiq. de France, ser. 8, ii (1912), p. 241.

page 227 note 6 Italian examples are reproduced in C. Martin, L'Art Roman en Italie, i, pls. 31 (Piacenza), 46 (Modena), 71 (Ferrara).

page 227 note 7 See E. H. Zimmermann, Vorkarolingische Miniaturen, pl. 283.

page 228 note 1 Reproduced in G. Forrest Browne, Theodore and Wilfrith, p. 112, and W. G. Collingwood ‘Anglian and Anglo-Danish Sculpture in the W. Riding’ in Yorks. Arch. Journ. Precisely the same design but with a double strand is to be seen on the superb Peacock slab from S. Salvatore Brescia, dated 753 by Cattaneo.

page 228 note 2 See Baldwin Brown, The Ruthwell and Bewcastle Crosses, pl. xii.

page 229 note 1 J. Brøndsted, Early English Ornament, English translation, 1924.

page 229 note 2 Reproduced in Brøndsted, op. cit., fig. 59, p. 68 (photograph), and Collingwood, Yorks. Arch. Journ. (drawing).

page 229 note 3 Compare the cross-shafts of Stamfordham (narrow face), the Spital Cross at Hexham (narrow face), Simonsburn (narrow face), all figured in Arch. Aeliana, 4th ser., i; Eyam, figured in Brøndsted, op. cit., fig. 58, p. 67; Bradbourne, figured in Arch. Journ., xlv, p. 8; Wycliffe, figured in Yorks. Arch. Journ., xix, p. 412, &c.

page 229 note 4 Arch. Aeliana, 4th Ser. i, p. 83.

page 230 note 1 Mon. Piot, xv, reproduced in G. Diehl, Manuel d'Art Byzantin, i, p. 269, and H. Glück, Christliche Kunst des Ostens.

page 231 note 1 Zimmermann, op. cit., pl. 270.

page 231 note 2 Ibid., pl. 245.

page 231 note 3 Yorkshire Arch. Journ., xix, p. 300, with fig.

page 231 note 4 Reproduced in Brown, Baldwin, Anglo-Saxon Architecture (2nd ed.), fig. 115, p. 275.Google Scholar

page 231 note 5 William of Malmesbury, Gesta Pontificum (Rolls Ser.), p. 365.

page 231 note 6 Reproduced in the Antiquary, N.S., vii (1911), p. 374.

page 231 note 7 Royal Comm. on Hist. Mons. (Scotland) Dumfries-shire, p. 101.

page 232 note 1 A. Boinet, La Miniature Carolingienne, pl. xxxiv.

page 232 note 2 Reproduced in Brøndsted, op. cit., p. 37.

page 233 note 1 Brøndsted, op. cit., pp. 141 and 218.

page 234 note 1 Zimmermann, op. cit, pl. 283, &c. The author assigns the Stockholm codex to the third quarter of the eighth century. The historical particulars given above are inscribed on the MS. itself; the will of the donor has also survived, proving that he was a contemporary of King Alfred and Archbishop Ethelred. The absolute evidence thus proves that the MS. is at least as old as the middle of the ninth century, and perhaps much older. See Birch, Cart. Saxon., nos. 554 and 634.

page 234 note 2 Ibid., pl. 319. Assigned by Zimmermann to South England and to circa 770.

page 234 note 3 Reproduced in Brøndsted, Early English Ornament, p. 151.

page 234 note 4 The Greek blessing also appears in late eighth and ninth-century Carolingian MSS., sometimes in conjunction with the Latin form, e. g. Trier Gospels, c. 775 (Zimmermann, op. cit., pls. 272, 273, and 275); Godescalc Gospels, 781–3 (A. Boinet, La Miniature Carolingienne, pls. 3 and 4); Lorsch Gospels, first quarter, ninth century (ibid., pl. 16); Gospels of Prum, mid ninth century (ibid., pl. 36); Bible of Moutier Grandval, mid ninth century (ibid., pl. 44), &c. After the end of the ninth century the Greek form seems to have been abandoned in France (see numerous examples of the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth centuries, all showing the Latin form, in P. Lauer, Les Enluminures Romanes des Manuscrits de la Bibliothèque Nationale, 1927, the publications of the Soc. Française de Manuscrits à peintures, &c.), but survived somewhat longer in Germany, e. g. the early tenth-century Gospels in the Stadtarchiv, Cologne (H. Ehl, Die Ottonische Kölner Buchmalerei, pl. 10); the Gospel-book of Archbishop Gero of Cologne (969–76), copied from the Lorsch Gospels (A. Schmidt, Die Miniaturen des Gerokodex, pl. 9); and two Ratisbon MSS. of the beginning of the eleventh century, the Sacramentary of Henry II and the Pericopenbuch (G. Swarzenski, Die Regensburger Buchmalerei, pls. 8 and 25). These last are the latest examples I have found north of the Alps, and the use of the form in Germany may have been influenced by the close connexion with Italy under the Saxon Emperors.

page 235 note 1 St. Cuthbert's coffin, of 698, is fully described and figured in Haverfield and Greenwell, Catalogue of Sculptured Stones in the Durham Library. St. John is similarly shown, with a draped hand holding a book, in Bishop More's Book of Prayers at Cambridge, assigned by Westwood to the eighth century. See Westwood, op. cit., pl. 24. The same convention is preserved in the figures of Confessors and Virgins in Ethelwold's Benedictional.

page 235 note 2 Cf. The Rule of St. Benedict, chap. 55, and the rules of Pachomius in Sozomen's Eccl. Hist., chap. 14. It may be noted that Gunnar and Hagen are represented cowled on the Franks casket.

page 235 note 3 A figure of very similar technique to the two at Breedon is built into the S. porch at Castor.

page 236 note 1 Antiquaries Journal, iv, p. 421.

page 236 note 2 The conical caps worn by the figures, especially that on the right are exactly parallel in Cott. Claud. B. iv (Ælfric's Paraphrase of the Old Testament), in the drawing of the execution of Pharaoh's chief baker, and in other drawings in the same MS.

page 237 note 1 All these, except the fret, are illustrated in Zimmermann, op. cit. For the fret see Belsheim, J., Codex Aureus (Christiania, 1878)Google Scholar, pl. 11.

page 237 note 2 A nearly contemporary Carolingian MS., the Lorsch Gospels, assigned to the first quarter of the ninth century, provides parallels to five of these details–the fret, pelta, interlace, Greek blessing, and vine-scroll—with the significant addition of the acanthus, and lends additional weight to the evidence of the rather earlier English MS. See A. Boinet, La Miniature Carolingtenne, 1913. pls. xv–xxii.