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VIII.—On Two Medieval Bronze Bowls in the British Museum

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2011

O. M. Dalton
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Extract

Bronze bowls engraved in the interior with figure subjects during the Romanesque period are relatively numerous. But those with associated scenes or consecutive stories are few, and it is to this class that the two examples described in this paper belong, one having scenes derived from a Christian legend, the other subjects from classical mythology. The first, found in London, was formerly in the collection of Mr. W. Ransom of Hitchin; the second, brought up from the bed of the Severn very nearly a century ago, was presented by Sir James Agg Gardner, M.P., in 1920. We may begin with the example containing the Christian legend, the story of St. Thomas the Apostle.

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Research Article
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Archaeologia , Volume 72 , 1922 , pp. 133 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1922

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References

page 133 note 1 The process by which the decoration was produced is generally considered to be engraving or punching by means of metal tools, and in what follows all bowls of the class will, for convenience, be described asengraved. But it will be seen that a recent theory supposes the lines not to havebeen incised but bitten by acid (p. 158). The theory is, however, strenuously contested, and this affords an additional reason for retaining the usual adjective.

page 133 note 2 It was presented to the Museum by Mr. F. Ransom in 1915. It has been considerably damaged, and is in places restored near theedge; but though parts of the inscription have been lost, the figure subjects remain intact. It is believed to have been found in the Thames.

page 133 note 3 Diameter 13 in.: depth, 3½ in.

page 133 note 4 Discovered with a number of other medieval objects (a crozier, candlesticks, etc.) in a basement under the medieval part of the monastery near the Church of the Nativity, now occupied by the Franciscans. For information with regard to this find, made in the second half of the nineteenthcentury, I am indebted to that well-known archeologist the R. P. Vincent, of the École Biblique de St.-Etienne, Jerusalem. For further information, and forexcellent photographs of the Bethlehem bowls, I have to thank the R. P. Orfali, of the Bethlehem monastery, who was so good as to bring the photographs personally to London during a recent visit to England. The Bethlehem bowls (cf. pl. xxxv) will be published by M. Camille Enlart in one of the volumes of his Manuel d'archéologie française, and perhaps in his L'Art des Croisés: they were described by him at a meeting of the Société nationale des Antiquaires français on 15th November 1922.Google Scholar They will be permanently exhibited in the Museum now being organized by the Franciscans.

page 136 note 1 The bowl at the Louvre is of the larger type, in this corresponding to our example. The style is also closely similar. But differences in the method of execution suggest that it is not by the same hand; thelines are often slightly zigzagged or waved, while those on our bowl are not so treated. The subjects in the Louvre bowl are partly reproduced in fig. 2, and are from photographs kindly sent by our Honorary Fellow M. J. J. Marquet de Vasselot, who described the bowl in the Bulletin de la Société des Antiquaires de France, 1906, pp. 394–400,Google Scholar though without illustration.

page 136 note 2 The story as represented at a later time during the Gothic period, in sculpture, on stained glass and elsewhere, is probably based on the Golden Legend. In glass it occurs in the choir windows of Chartres, Bourges, and Tours; in sculpture, it is best seen on the tympanum of the north portal at Semur ( Male, E., L'Art religieux dn XIIIe siècleen France, pp. 354–5,Google Scholar and at Poitiers ( Mâle, , L'Art rel. du XIIe siècle, p. 301)Google Scholar.

page 136 note 3 The Greek version was first completely published by Bonnet, M. (Supplementum Codicis Apocryphi 1: Ada Thomae, Leipzig, 1903),Google Scholar and has been translated by Hennecke, E., Neutestatnentliche Apokryphen, 1904, pp. 480 ff.Google Scholar The Syrian version is perhaps earlier and was certainly not written after the fourth century ( Wright, W., Apocryphal Acts, 1871Google Scholar; Burkitt, F. C., Journ. Theological Studies, p. 280). Some have held that the ‘Acts’ of this apostle were first composed towards the middle of the third century in Edessa, in which city the body of St. Thomas is said to have been finally buried; in any case the Acta are strongly influenced by Syrian Gnostic ideas. Before the collection and publication ofthese Acts, which recount the apostle's journey to India and martyrdom there, earlier unwritten tradition, current in the time of Origen, made Thomas preach in Parthia, and die a natural death in Edessa. The Liber de Miraculis Beati Thomae Apostoli, mentioned above as the oldest Latin source, is published by Bonnet in the same volume as the Greek Acta, as also is the later Passio Sancti Thomae Apostoli, described by Bonnet, as opusculum mixtum ex actorum quibusdam fragmentis aliisque narratiunculis et commentatiunculis satis ineptis. The version in the Golden Legend derives many episodes from the Passio. Internal evidence assigns the Acta of St. Thomas to the School of Bardesanes. In spite of extensive Catholic revision, they form one of the most interesting monuments of Syriac Gnosticism. The Parthian and Indian missions of St.Thomas rest upon less sure foundations than his connexion with Edessa (cf. F. C. Burkitt, as above, i, 280, ii, 94, and his article in the Encylopaedia Britannica). But the visit of the apostle to Parthia and India is possible. Gondopharnes, the first of the ‘Indian kings’ to whom he is said to have come, is an historical ruler who represented the Parthian power in Seistan and Kandahar, the Kabul Valley and North Western India; his reign began in A.D. 19, and hadnot ended in A.D. 45. The identity of ‘Misdaeus’ (Mazdai), the secondking visited, under whom St. Thomas suffered martyrdom, is less certain; he may possibly have been Abdagases, viceroy of Gondopharnes in Seistan. SeeGoogle ScholarRapson, E. J., The Cambridge History of India, vol. i, 1922, pp. 576–80Google Scholar.

page 137 note 1 The legends on the bowl in the Louvre, and on the Bethlehem example with the same subjects are as follows. Round the upperpart:

Fulget apostolicis hec pelvis compta triumphis

Adtestans Thomam fidei meruisse coronam

Collum pro Domino flectentem sanguine fuso.

Round the central medallion, which represents the saint's entombment:

Cum fletu plebis dodore carer(e) dolentis

Corpus apostolicum ducitur ad tumulum.

In the above the abbreviations have been supplied and irregularities corrected.

page 138 note 1 Greek Acta, § 6 (Bonnet, p. 7).Google Scholar The incident is repeated in the De Miraculis, the Passio, and the Golden Legend.

page 138 note 2 Contra Faustum, xxii, ch. 79 (in Migne, , Pair. Lat., xlii, col. 452).Google Scholar St. Augustine traced the unchristian tendencies to Manichean influence.

page 138 note 3 The dates are not mentioned either in the Greek Acta or in the De Miraculis, but occur in the Passio andthe Golden Legend.

page 139 note 1 Greek Acta, 17 (ed. Bonnet, , p. 14 f.)Google Scholar; De Miraculis (Bonnet, p. 102)Google Scholar; Passio (ed. Bonnet, , p. 140)Google Scholar; Golden Legend. How the Saint escapes the difficulty when the king returns and finds nothing done may be read in all the sources.

page 139 note 2 Passio (ed. Bonnet, , pp. 143–5).Google Scholar The episode is repeated in the Golden Legend.

page 139 note 3 In the corresponding scene on the Bethlehem bowl they both wear obvious crowns; the descending light is replaced by a large bird flying down. On the second Bethlehem bowl, however, just such a starry segment as that of the present scene, but with an angel emerging from it, marks the subject of the saint's decapitation.

page 140 note 1 Baptism by immersion in large tub—or vase—like fonts—is represented in the art of the twelfth century. See below, p. 154.

page 140 note 2 For the final events at the court of Misdaeus, see the Greek, Acta (Bonnet, pp. 55 ff.),Google Scholar the De Miraculis (ibid., pp. 104 ff.), the Passio (ibid., pp. 147 ff.), and the Golden Legend. On the Louvre basin, and its parallel at Bethlehem, the decapitation of the saint with a sword is shown.

page 140 note 3 The introduction of these words should be noted in connexion with the group of engraved bowls with the Virtues and Vices, where the figure of Charity is especially prominent (cf. p. 150 below).

page 140 note 4 The name is given for brevity in reference; it is derived from the figure in the centre of the bowl. The diameter of the bowlis 10¾ in., its depth 1⅞ in. It was first acquired by the keeper ofthe Ferry House, Haw Passage. It next belonged to Mr. James Ballinger, landlord of the Haw Bridge Inn, after whose death it was sold, its last possessor being SirJames Agg Gardner. The Scylla bowl was brought by Mr. Jer. Hawkins, from the finder, Ben Jones. At the sale of Mr. Hawkins's effects after his death, it was purchased by a Cheltenham bookseller named Williams, from whom it was acquiredby Mr. Lawrence. Both bowls have been exhibited at meetings of the Society, and briefly described in Proceedings, the Scylla bowl by Mr. W. L. Lawrence, F.S.A., in 1860, when the Director, Mr. (afterwards Sir) A. W. Franks gave the description (2nd Series, i, p. 235); the Cadmus bowl, again by Mr. Lawrence, in 1873, when it was already in possession of Mr. (afterwards Sir James) Agg Gardner (ibid., v, p. 444), a short account being given by Mr. Knight Watson. Brief and unscientific descriptions had appeared in 1824 and 1825 in the Gentleman's Magazine, XCIV, ii, p. 164; xcv, i, pp. 417 and 605. No illustration was published in Proceedings ofeither bowl; hitherto the only published representations have been a small and poor woodcut of the Scylla bowl in theGoogle ScholarMonthly Magazine, 1825, p. 218,Google Scholar and a larger lithograph of the same object, issued in the year of the discovery by Clark & Co., of Birchin Lane, Cornhill, and engraved by F. Whishaw. Engravings of both bowls were made by W. Macarty, apparently at South Kensington, in thesecond half of the nineteenth century, but they do not seem to have been published: the copper plates are in the possession of the Society of Antiquaries. The Cadmus bowl is described at length in a curious MS. note-book of a Mr. Wilks, written in 1827. The description is partly based on an article by Mr. Counsel, G. W. in the Gloucester Journal of 19th July 1824,Google Scholar but includes diverse interpretations by various learned antiquaries of the day. The note-book is in the British Museum.

page 143 note 1 Zürich, 1828, ii, no. 4311. The inscription is described as that of a bronze vessel: vasis aerei figurati reperti in alvco fluminis Sabrinae in Britannia. Cf. also Bulletin des Sciences historiques, Nov. 1827, p. 370Google Scholar.

page 143 note 2 For other examples of this subject cf. pp. 152-3. An early medieval bronze bowl in the British Museum, presented by Mr. SodenSmith in 1884, is very rudely engraved with a similar scene.

page 144 note 1 Geryon was regarded as a king (see below, p.148, n. 3).

page 145 note 1 Prou, M., Gazette archcologique, 1886, pp. 38 ff.,Google Scholar and pl. v; Molinier, E., Histoire des arts appliqués à l'industrie, IV, L'Orfèvrerie, pp. 172.Google Scholar The scenes with their inscriptions are as follows: Chiron teaching the young Achilles: Heroum laudes cantant Chiron et Achilles. Thetis, dreading the conscription of Achilles for the Trojan war, carries him off in a car drawn by gryphons to King Lycomedes: Ecce soporantem Thetis deportat Achillem. Thetis introduces Achilles, dressed as a girl, to Lycomedes and his daughters: Hanc tibicomendo germanam rector Achillis. Ulysses sent to detect Achilles, discovers him by a trick: Artibus Ulixis dum proditus esset Achilles. Lycomedes begsAchilles to remain, but he follows the signal for departure: Discindit vestes quia toto in pectore Troia est. Before leaving he confesses his love for Deidamia, and asks her hand: Te rogo pro venia cum supplice Deidamia. Lastly, in the centre of the bowl, the sailing of Achilles for Troy: Abripitur terris in otho stidente (notho stridente) propinquis.

page 145 note 2 The curiously ugly profiles of several women; the convention used to represent the eyes; the treatment of hands; the type of the dragons drawing the car of Achilles; the ‘mushroom’ tree near Chiron, etc.

page 145 note 3 Wormstall, A., in Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst, x, p. 249, 250.Google Scholar A. Kisa, ibid., xviii, 1905, p. 368. Not having seen the bowl for a long time, I cannot say whether it is characterized by the same style.

page 146 note 1 Priscian, Boethius, and the early scholia to Virgil and Statius maintained the tradition, and in the later middle agesour own Chaucer drew upon such sources. For the survival of classical studies in the middle ages see Sandys, J. E., A History of Classical Scholarship, Cambridge, 1903, ch. xxxii:Google Scholar ‘The survival of the Latin classics’; O. Gruppe, Geschichte der classischen Mythologie, supplement to Roscher's Lexikon; Bode, G. H., Scriptores rerum mythicarum Latini tres, Romae nuper repertae, 1834Google Scholar; Manitius, M., Geschichte der christlich-lateinischen Poesie bis zurMitte des 8. Jahr-hunderts, 1891,Google Scholar and Gesch. der lateinischen Litteratur des Mittelalters in Müller's, IvanHandbuch der klassischen Altertumswissenschaft, ix, 1911Google Scholar; Piper, F., Mythologie der christlichen Kunst, 1847Google Scholar; Ampère, , Hist. litt. de la France avant le XIIe siécle, iii, ch. xxii, p. 457.Google ScholarDernedde, R., Ueber die den altfranzüsischen Dichtern bekannten epischen Stoffe aus dem Altertum, 1887,Google Scholar is chiefly concerned with the Gothic period.

page 146 note 2 He seems to have been at one time banished from the schools, except in the form of a book of excerpts. The middle ages probably had Commentaries on the Metamorphoses (Gruppe, as above, p. 2). Herbertde Losinga, bishop of Norwich (d. 1119), had a dream warning him to renounce the reading and imitation of Ovid (Sandys, p. 595). But in the twelfth century the Metamorphoses became a school book, and an acquaintance with Ovid a necessity for the cultured. His works, indeed, were treated almost as a kind of pagan bible (Gruppe, p. 16).

page 146 note 3 To John of Salisbury the Aeneid was an illustration of practical philosophy. In the same way, Bernard Sylvester of Tours (c. 1150) saw in the Aeneid an allegory of human life, Aeneas representing the human soul. Bernard was able to read the whole Platonic philosophyinto the classical myths (Gruppe, p. 15). The Ars Amoris of Ovid was moralized for the reading of nuns (Sandys, as above, p. 615). Sandys also draws attention to the fact that Dante in his Convito, regards Ovid as susceptible of allegorical interpretation (ii, I; iv, 25, 27, 28).

page 146 note 4 Bode, as above. The ninth century was a great period for mythography. Theodulf the Visigoth (d. 821), Dunchad and Johannes Scotus, two Irishmen, and Remigius of Auxerre, their pupil, are all of this age, and all see a secret meaning in the old mythological stories. The Third Vatican Mytho-grapher, sometimes called Albericus, also wrote a work styled Poetarius, or Libellus de imaginibus deorum.

page 147 note 1 They seem to refer especially to MS. illumination (we may recall the mythological detail in the Hortus Deliciarum of Herrade of Landsperg), but the existence of such objects as these bowls shows thatthe stories were illustrated in other media. Cf. also Piper, F., Mythologie der christlichen Kunst, 1847, pp. 26, 33, 242.Google Scholar The frequency of pagan motives on mosaic pavements of the Romanesque period in Italy has long been remarked ( Müntz, E., Études iconographiques et archeologiques sur lesmosaïques chrétienncs de l'ltalie, 1874-1884, nos. III and IV)Google Scholar; it is in curious contrast with the usage in the case of surviving mural mosaic, which is nearly always religious. At Pavia, we have Theseus slaying the Minotaur, balanced by David slaying Goliath, both scenes accompanied by Leonine hexameters.Theseus was a favourite subject, occurring in other churches, and was clearly employed in a moralizing sense. In the cathedral of Pesaro we see the rape of Helen.Several of the Italian mosaics are illustrated by Weerth, E. Aus'm, Der Mosaikboden in S. Gereon zu Cöln, Bonn, 1873,Google Scholar and byVenturi, , Storia dell' arte italiana, iii, pp. 420 ff.,Google Scholar figs. 396 ff., but the German instances given by Aus'm Weerth show that suchsubjects were popular north of the Alps. The field of Romanesque sculpture yieldsexamples enough of classical figures: to quote but one instance, Hercules with the Nemean lion is seen in relief on the cathedral of Borgo San Donnino; minor sculpture on ivory should also repay examination from this point of view. Among examples in textile fabrics, we may notice Hercules killing the dragon on the gold-embroidered mantle of the Emperor Henry II in Bamberg Cathedral, with its legend: Hercules serpentem occidit aurea mala servantem. On this mantle, dating fromthe early eleventh century, are also the signs of the Zodiac and several constellations, some of which, e.g. Andromeda, are rendered by classical types ( Bock, , Kleinodien des heiligen römichen Reichs, pl. xli)Google Scholar.

page 147 note 2 As above, p. 14.

page 147 note 3 Sandys, as above, p. 613.

page 147 note 4 For instance the popular Fabulae of Hyginus, to whom allusion has already been made.

page 148 note 1 In mind as well as body: constat enim Heraclem fuisse philosophum (Servius). Atlas is said to have taught the hero astronomy; hence his labours correspond to the twelve zodiacal signs. The Labours are related in the twelfth book of the Metamorphoses, and, of course, by all the mythographers.

page 148 note 2 Fulgentius refined on this simple idea by declaring that the three Hesperides, Hesperis, Medusa, and Phaethusa, signified respectively intellectus, memoria, and facundia.

page 148 note 3 We detect, in connexion with the immissosstrangulat angues of the scene in which the infant Hercules strangles the serpents, the phraseology already borrowed of the First Vatican Mythographer: angues immissos ei novercalibus odiis (nos. 50, 148). The story of Deianira andthe shirt of Nessus is given by the same writer, no. 58. With reference to the appearance of Geryon as a king whose crown is taken from him, we may recall the fact that the Second Vatican Mythographer describes Geryon as King of the Balearic Isles (no. 152).

page 148 note 4 Fabula, cclxxvii, where it is said ofthe introduction of letters: Mercurius in Aegyptum primus detulisse dicitur, Cadmus in Graeciam. Cf. Staveren, A. von, Auctores mythographi Latini, 1742, p. 398.Google Scholar Cadmus is mentioned in the Metamorphoses for other reasons than his introduction of letters into Greece.

page 148 note 5 Scylla, and Nisus, , Vatican I, no. 3Google Scholar; Ganymede, ibid., no. 184, and Vat. III; the eagle is described as armiger Iovis, as on the bowl; Eurydice, , Vat. I, no. 76,Google Scholar II, no. 44, III; Triptolemus, , Vat. II, no. 98,Google Scholar I, no. 8, where winged ‘serpents’ are mentioned.

page 149 note 1 Collection Lanna (by Leisching, J.), ii, 1911, no. 1236Google Scholar; Kunstgewerbe-Verein, Kölnischer: XXL Jahresbericht des Kunstgcwerbe-Museums tier Stadt Köln für 1912, pp. 14 ff.Google Scholar; Frimmel, Th. von, Uebcr eine Bronzeschüssel, etc.: Mittheilungen der k.k. Central-Commission für Erforschung …und Erhaltung von Baudenkmalen, new series, xii, 1886, pp. 11 ff.Google Scholar; Clemen, P., Die romanische Monumentalmalerei in den Rhcinlanden,1916, p. 152.Google Scholar In the case of this bowl, the general character rather leads us to suspect a similarity in style to the Achilles bowl at Paris and to the Severn examples. The identical character of the verses can be more easily judged: Votis natus erit qui Deus ipse sacravit, Ecce parit sterilis sic urgent iussa Tonanlis. Brachia Samsonis domuerunt ora leonis. Hic alienigenae Samson copulatur amicae, and four other verses of like construction.

page 149 note 2 Aldenkirchen, , Dreiliturgische Schüssel des Mittelalters, in Bonner Jahrbücher, lxxv, 1883, pp. 54 ff.Google Scholar; Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst, 1905, p. 367Google Scholar.

page 149 note 3 Bonner Jahrbücher, as above; Zeitschrift, as above p. 366.

page 149 note 4 Aldenkirchen, A J., BonnerJahrbücher, lxxv, 1883, p. 54,Google Scholar pl. iv; Béthune, J. B., Revue de l' Art chrétien, iv, ser. iv, p. 325, 1886.Google ScholarClemen, P., Kunstdenkmäler der Rheinprovinz, i, p. 385Google Scholar; Kraus, F. X., Die christlichen Inschriften der Rheinlande, pt. ii; 1894, no. 630Google Scholar; Kisa, A., Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst, xviii, 1905, p. 294Google Scholar.

page 150 note 1 Wormstall, A., Zeitschriftfür christliche Kunst, x, 239 ff.Google Scholar Inscriptions on the bowl are based upon Cicero, Boethius, and Priscian.

page 150 note 2 Ed. Straub and Keller, pl. xi bis; abundant inscriptions accompany the figures. The general arrangement, as in pls. xxii and xxiii, suggests that of a rose window, but the central subject surrounded by a ring of medallions or radiating compartments, has also recalled to one authority the disposition seen on the gilded glass disc of Early Christian times foundat Cologne, and now in the British Museum (Guide to Early Christian and Byzantine Antiquities, 2nd ed., fig. 91); he supposes that the makers of the bowls may have copied some such an antique original, and thinks that we may have here an argument in favour of Cologne as a place of origin. It is true that a resemblance exists; but some such disposition is imposed by the very form of the object tobe decorated, and we need not push the argument too far. Some bowls have a symmetrical arrangement of lobes surrounding a central medallion, or there may be two successive circles of lobes, lending the design a resemblance to an expanded flower; the lobed paten in the Guelf Treasure, associated with the name of St. Bernwardt of Hildesheim, may be recalled in this connexion ( Neumann, W. A., Der Reliquienschatz des Hauses Braunschweig-Lüneburg, 1891, p. 294,Google Scholar no. 65). The old radial disposition, with an arcade surrounding a central circle, survived the middle ages, and is found even on carpets ( Prokop, A., Der Teppichschatz im Besitze des Mährischen Gewerbe-Museums in Brünn in Mittheilungen der k. k. Central-Commission, etc., new series, xiii, Vienna, 1887, p. vi,Google Scholar and fig.).

page 150 note 3 Die gravierten Metallschüsseln des XII. Jahrhunderis in Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst, XVIII, 1905, pp. 227,Google Scholar 294, 365; Schwedeler-Meyer, E., Die Darstellungen von Tugenden und Lasternan cinem gravierten Bronzebecken des XII. Jahrhunderis, in Mittheilungen der Gesellschaft für Erhaltung der geschichtlichen Denkmäler in Elsass, Strassburg, 1897Google Scholar.

page 150 note 4 As in the elaborate bowl at Aix-la-Chapelle (Kisa, p. 227). A good example in the British Museum, said to have come from Ghent, has the Vices only, as seated female figures holding up discs (?) in both hands; each is in a medallion with surrounding legend giving the name of three vices.Another bowl in the same collection has a central seated figure with four others round the sides in medallions; there are no inscriptions. This bowl was excavatedat a depth of 10 ft. while digging the foundations of the London and Westminster Bank in Lothbury, City of London, about 1838, together with another bronze bowl, also in the Museum, with very rough figures of lions (?) under areades round the sides (Smith, C. Roach, Archaeologia, xxix, 1842, p. 368, pl. xxxix)Google Scholar.

page 151 note 1 Drexler, K., Der Verduner Altar, Vienna, 1913, pl. xviii.Google Scholar The symbolism may perhaps relate to the food and drink which are among the first gifts of charity, rather than the elements of the Eucharist. In a bowl at Berlin, engraved with the Virtues and Vices, the centre is occupied by Humility, holding up a book in each hand (W. Vöge, vol. iv of the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum catalogues; Die deutschen Bildwerke, etc., 1910, no. 464,Google Scholar and pl. iii).

page 151 note 2 P. 37.

page 151 note 3 Proceedings, 2nd ser., i, p. 237.

page 151 note 4 It is interesting to note the occurrence of a spout on the edge of the ‘Wisdom’ bowl at Xanten (Kisa, p. 294; Aldenkirchen, , Bonner Jahrbücher, Heft 75, 1883, p. 54)Google Scholar.

page 151 note 5 Perhaps first in monasteries (Schwedeler-Meyer, as above, p. 220).

page 151 note 6 It has been already noted that the central figure in many Virtue and Vice bowls often holds disc-like objects in her raised hands, by some conjectured to represent wafers.

page 151 note 7 Kisa, pp. 297 ff.

page 151 note 8 These bowls, one found at Halle, the other near Fellin in Livonia, have in their centres embossed silver medallions representing an emperor, crowned and wearing a mantle fastened on one shoulder. On either side of the head are the letters of the name Otto; the surrounding legend (incomplete in one example) is: Hiervsalem Visio pacis. Four repoussé silverbands with floral scrolls radiate in each case from the centre medallion, the ground between them being engraved with ornament. See Sauerlandt, M., Hallischer Kalender, 1914, andGoogle ScholarMenadier, J., Deutsche Münzen, iii, 1895, for the Halle example, and, for that fromGoogle ScholarFellin, , Bruiningk, H. von, Sitzungsberichte der Gesellschaft für Geschichte und Altertumskunde der Ostseeprovinzen Russlands, Riga, 1903, pp. 108,Google Scholar 159. Cf. also Sallet, A. von, Zeitschrift für Numismatik, xv, 1887, p. 23.Google Scholar Von Bruiningk notes that the inscription represents the first words of the dedication hymn: Urbs beata Hierusalem dicta pacis visio, or (from the time of Urban VIII) Coelestis urbs Ierusalem beata pacis visio. He believes the bowl to date from the time of Otto the Great (936-73); and the style of the ornamentmakes this very probable. For information with regard to these two bowls I am indebted to the kindness of Professor Adolf Goldschmidt.

page 152 note 1 The instances are very numerous. A good example is seen in the engraved portable altar by Roger of Helmershausen, dated 1118 (Falke, and Frauberger, , Deutsche Schmelsarbeiten, pl. xi).Google Scholar We may note examples in English MSS., especially in the Psalter painted at St. Swithun's, Winchester, about the middle of the twelfth century (British Museum, Nero. C. 4, pp. 4, 7, 9, 18, 19, 23-24), and the great Bible of the same originand approximately the same date now in the Chapter Library at Winchester. Among German examples we may mention the Admont Bible of about 1130, belonging to the Salzburg school (Swarzenski, G., Salzburger Malerei, pl. xxix,Google Scholar fig. 99, xxxii, fig. no); the Pericopes of St. Erentrud in a similar style (ibid., pl. liv, fig. 169, lv, fig. 172). In Regensburg MSS. we see it ina Pericope book of the early twelfth century at Munich (Swarzenski, , Regensburger Buchmalerei, pl. xxiv, fig. 60)Google Scholar.

page 153 note 1 It has even earlier affinities; cf. the type in the Bamberg Apocalypse of about A. D. IOOO (Wolfling, , Die Bamberger Apocalypse, 1918, pl. xxvii,Google Scholar though here the monster has front legs).

page 153 note 2 No. 374-1871. The ‘tree’ has no mushroom top but plant-like leaves and stems. For a similar scene cf. Piper, F., Mythologie der christlichen Kunst, 1847, p. 67.Google Scholar Ivory carvings and enamels of the twelfth century, notably those produced on the Meuse and Rhine, provide various details for comparison with the bronze bowls; for the secular subjects we may specially note the enamelled plaques formerly in the Llangattock collection, now in the collection Martin Le Roy (Vasselot, J. J. Marquet de, Catalogue, i, nos. 9Google Scholar and 10; Mitchell, H. P., Burlington Magazine, July 1919, pp. 34 ff.)Google Scholar.

page 153 note 3 The armour is closely similar in the great Bible in the Chapter Library at Winchester, already cited, probably written in thepriory of St. Swithun in reign of Henry II and dating from c. 1150-60. (Photographs in the Victoria and Albert and British Museums, MS. Facs. 39; Palaeographical Soc., 2nd ser, ii, pls. clxvi, clxvii; Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of Illuminated MSS., 1908, no. 106,Google Scholar pl. lxxviii). The scene in this MS. in which David attacks the bear (MS. Facs.39, p. 14) has analogies with those on the Cadmus bowl in which Hercules attacks the dragon and Geryon, the club being of the same form.

page 153 note 4 e. g. in the Bamberg Apocalypse (Wölfling, as above, pls. li and lii).

page 153 note 5 Swarzenski, , Sazburger Buchmalerei, pl. li, fig. 157,Google Scholar lvii, fig. 181, lviii, fig. 183, etc. This three-lobed type also continued into the second half of the century.

page 154 note 1 The baptismal scene in the Cappenberg.bowl shows immersion of this kind, as does the scene on one side of the portable altarby Roger of Helmershausen, dated 1118 (Falke and Frauberger, as above, pl. xii). For examples in MSS. see Swarzenski, , Salzburger Malerei, pl. xlix,Google Scholar figs. 150, 151, reproducing miniatures in the Erlangen, or Gumpert, Bible. Cf. Male, E., L' Art religicux du XIIe siècleen France, p. 125Google Scholar.

page 154 note 2 The use of capitals and uncials together began in MSS. as early as Carolingian times.

page 154 note 3 Rosenberg, M. in Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst, 1890, pp. 366 ff.Google Scholar; A. Kisa, as above, p. 373; O. von Falke in Lehnert's, Illustrierte Kunstgeschichte, i, p.278.Google Scholar The bowl remained in the monastery of Cappenberg until its dissolution in 1803, when, after changing hands more than once, it was purchased by the Grand Duchess of Saxe-Weimar on the advice of no less a person than Goethe.

page 154 note 4 The legend runs:

Cesar Et Avgvstvs Hec Ottoni Fredericvs

Mvnera Patrino Contvlit Ille D(E)O.

(Rosenberg, as above, p. 367).

page 155 note 1 The accepted date is about 1166.

page 155 note 2 Possibly the Myrrha bowl at Frankfort (p. 145) and the Samson bowl at Cologne (p. 149) may come from the same place of origin; without careful reproductions it is impossible to make comparisons.

page 155 note 3 Collection Martin Le Roy, vol. i, by Vasselot, J. J. Marquet de, no. 1,Google Scholar pl. i; the altar came from Ipplendorf.

page 155 note 4 These twelfth-century portable altars are reproduced in the plates of von Falke and Frauberger's Dcutsche Schmelzarbeiten des Mittelalters, 1904, pls. x-xiv, xxvii,Google Scholar xxviii, xxxi, lxxvii, etc. As noticed above (p. 153, n. 2), the enamels associated with the engraved work themselves offer comparative material, since they are reserved in the metal and their interior lines are engraved.

page 156 note 1 Though it is conceivable that such bowls might have been made in Palestine under the kingdom of Jerusalem, it is more likely that they were importations from Europe, like the objects with which they are said to have been found.

page 156 note 2 These men and their pupils worked in variouscities: Verdun, Dinant, Namur, Huy, Liège, Aix-la-Chapelle, Cologne; any or all of these towns might well have produced such objects as engraved bowls.

page 156 note 3 In his recent work, L'Art religieux du XIIe siècle en France, 1922,Google Scholar M. Émile Mâle brings out a probable initiative of Suger in such a direction through the connexion of masters like Godefroid de Claire with St. Denis (p. 138).

page 157 note 1 Histoire des arts industriels: L'Orfèvrerie religieuse et civile, ch. v. M. Molinier saw an affinity between the well-known crozier-head in the Bargello at Florence, signed by Frater Willemus, and the engraved bowls. The crozier is ascribed to the North-East ofFrance, where there was a penetration of German and Flemish influence. Like a contemporary casket in the Cathedral of Troyes, the crozier bears the Virtues and Vices (Molinier, as above, p. 171).

page 157 note 2 Kisa, as above, p. 368. The district of Aix is said to possess ores suitable for making bronze alloys (ibid., p.470).

page 157 note 3 Ibid., p. 366. We have seen that the Cappenberg bowl has been conjecturally attributed to Cologne.

page 157 note 4 The bowl with the story of Myrrha at Frankfort is stated to contain twenty per cent, of zinc, and consequently to be made of brass (Zeitschrift für christliche Kunst, x, p. 250Google Scholar; Kisa, ibid., xviii, P. 368).

page 157 note 5 Kisa, as above, pp. 295, 297.

page 157 note 6 Cf.Leisching, J., Jahresbericht des Kunstgewerbeimuseums der Stadt Cöln, xxi, 1912, p. 16.Google Scholar The bowls with Virtues and Vices seem to form the latest group, examples of whichwere still made in the thirteenth century.

page 158 note 1 Mr. Mitchell has usefully reminded us of this in connexion with the remarkable ivory recently discovered at St. Albans and now in the British Museum (Burlington Magazine, October, 1922, p. 176)Google Scholar.

page 158 note 2 It may be observed that the lines upon the St. Thomas bowl, when examined under a powerful microscope, showed the same characteristics as those upon the bowls from the Severn.

page 159 note 1 Written at Paderborn in Germany about A. D. 1100 by a monk whose real name was probably Roger of Helmershausen, himself a great worker in metal, cf. above, p. 156. It may be admitted that the absence of such mention is an important point.

page 189 note 2 The fact that the St. Ursula bowl in the Suermondt Museum at Aix-ta-Chapelle has been reproduced in several examples in the nineteenth century (Beissel, S., Gefälschte Kunswerke, p. 86, 1909),Google Scholar does not in any way weaken this conviction. In the case of the St. Ursula bowl, we have exact imitations of a known original.

page 159 note 3 We have already seen that both bowls were locally sold to persons not in affluent circumstances; it was not until years after the discovery that they were acquired by well-to-do purchasers. A specialist ofsuch enterprise as the hypothesis of falsification demands would have managed hisbusiness affairs with more astuteness.

page 160 note 1 The bowls are thought by some to have been gilded, and some have supposed that the engraved lines may have been filled with adark substance, so as to stand out effectively against the gilded ground.