- IRIS H 1- Richard Ccenrde LiOn l Hemy 2 “from Fontevrand 3 Eliz^cflngnjleme do 4 John do. 5 Richard l? 1 do 6 Berengana do 7 Eleanor of Gmenne do 8. Fountain Sum Hetslerbach 9. Kdpe&duorvwThBas-rehefcjverfrom Chichester supported ]y Ramsey corbelling. 10. Boorw^fiumMivencewithAugsbuighBoor 11. Portion of Cloister from S John. lateran Rome with Gelnhausen arcade over 12 Doorway with Hildesheim. doors. 13. Shabden doorwith B as- relief over from I Chichester supported byRomsey corbelling 14. Shobden Chancd Arch 15 Shobden Door. 16 Chancel arch fiomTuam.Cathedral. 17. do pierfrom Rahan Church 18 Eastern Triplet from. Team. 19. ■ Freshfoid Church door with. Round window over from Rahan Church. 20. .CTOSsSom Dtmnamoga.il. 21.. do do. Eilkercan 22. do. do. Rilcrispe™ 23 Docs' from Ramsey 24 'Winchester Foot 25 EnMey Church font 26. _BirtanDoor THE MEDIAEVAL COUET IN THE CRYSTAL RALACE. DESCRIBED BY M. DIGBY WYATT and J. B. WARING. CRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY; AND BRADBURY & EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON. 1854. CONTENTS. Page. GENERAL REMARKS ......... 7 HISTORY OP MEDIAEVAL ART.11 SECTIONAL—STYLES. 18 THE POLYCHROMATIC DECORATION.25 EXTERIOR OP THE MEDIAEVAL COURT ...... 36 ENGLISH MEDIAEVAL COURT. 41 THE LINCOLN AND WELLS SCULPTURES.68 GERMAN MEDIAEVAL COURT. 87 THE GALLERY.. . .100 FRENCH AND ITALIAN MEDIEVAL COURT. 110 COURT OP CHRISTIAN-ART MONUMENTS 120 Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2018 with funding from Getty Research Institute https://archive.org/details/mediaevalcourtinOOwyat THE MEDLEVAL COURT Ha ye been designed and arranged by Mr. M. Digby Wyatt, with Mr. Charles Fowler, junr., as principal superintendent, and Mr. Eobert Dudley as superintendent of the restorations and monuments, and principal draughtsman. Many excellent drawings were also made for this Court by Mr. E. J. Withers and Mr. Irvine. The casts from Nuremberg are by Fleischman and Son. Those from Mayence by the Earon Launitz, of Frankfort. The national Art-collection has been formed by Mr. Wyatt. The entire construction (with the exception of the rough carcase, which was put up by Messrs. Fox, Henderson, & Co.), has been entrusted to Mr. Cundy, of Pimlico ; some of the principal restorations—such as the Arderne tomb, the Eoyal effigies, &c.—to Mr. Edward Eichardson, of London. The Cantilupe, Percy tombs, &c., and the Walsingham font, to Mr. Phyffers, of London. The cast of the Beauchamp monument has been made by Messrs. Cookes & Mears, of Warwick. The Tewkesbury bosses, &c., by Mr. Collins, of Tewkesbury. The casts from Hereford are] by Mr. W. Jennings; from Worcester, by Mr. J. Stevens; from Lich¬ field by Mr. Gr. Caldwell, under the kind superintendence of Mr. T. Johnson, architects of Lichfield; from Lincoln by Mr. Clarke ; from Wells by Mr. Durham ; ‘from Hawton and Southwell by Mr. Fambrini; from Walsingham, York, Beverley, &c., by Mr. Key worth, of Hull; from Salisbury, Bath, and VI THE MEDLEY AL COURT. Bristol, by Mr. Gr. Howitt ; from Canterbury, by Mr. Brucciani; tbe remainder being done principally by Mr. Cnndy, by whose able body of artist-workmen the whole of the casts (with the exception of those above-specified, and of the Bohun tomb, which was restored by Mr. Jennings), have been fitted, placed, and brought to their present condition. The painting has been executed with great energy, and in an extraordinary short space of time by Mr. Bulmer, ot London and Shrewsbury, from designs by Mr. Wyatt, worked out and constantly superintended in execution by Mr. B. P. Pullan, who has also painted some of the decorations. The angels of the fa<^ade have been painted by Mr. Bulmer himself. The stained glass has been presented by Messrs. Hardman & Co., of Birmingham. The Bochester and Lichfield doors and several of the monuments have been painted and illuminated by Mr. Coulton, of London. The encaustic pavement of the Cloister has been presented to the Crystal Palace Company by Messrs. Maw & Co. of Benthall, Shropshire. The greater number of the Prench casts have been executed by M. Malzieux, of Paris. Mr. Boule, as foreman of the works, and Mr. Constance as timekeeper, have done good service. THE MEDIEVAL COURT. GENERAL REMARKS. We have already had occasion in the Handbook of the Byzantine Court, to notice the developement of the Roman¬ esque style, and the changes which during the Romanesque period were continually in progress, especially in England and the North of France—changes which, at the close of Continual the twelfth century, had already paved the way for the progress in introduction of a new system. It would obviously during the exceed the scope of the present publication to trace the ^q™e^ e - variations in style, which, year by year, and step by step, riod - converted the Byzantine and Romanesque art into that which is generally understood as the Pointed style ; we shall therefore confine our attention to that crisis in the twelfth century when the pointed arch made its appear- pointed arch ance in Europe. It was this peculiar feature which formed key-note the key-note of the Pointed style, and to its adoption and Pointed the system of construction necessitated by it, are to be style - ascribed all the main features of the Pointed system of architecture. Whether pointed vaulted roofs were first made to coin¬ cide with the outlines of pointed arched windows or vice versa , is immaterial, the great fact remains unaltered, of the introduction of a novel outline and of a system of construction calculated to harmonise with it; whilst all Co-esta- thrusts were perpendicular, and more or less equally mony of har " spread, walls were thick, and buttresses small; but with outline and the use of pointed vaulting, common sense showed that nic ‘ where the greatest thrust was, there also was required the greatest resistance; thus buttresses became more import- The import¬ ant, and the resistance to the thrust was aided by a tressesf bUt " THE MEDLZEVAL COURT. able. super-imposed pyramidal mass, called a pinnacle, whilst the interspaces were comparatively thin, and became gradually pierced almost through their whole extent by windows, a very simple fact, which soon led also to a still bolder application of the same principle, in the form of Flying but- flying buttresses. The high roof was a necessary conse- Hio . h ' quence of the pointed vault ; the demands of construction pitched roof, and the nature of northern climates had brought it into very frequent use, even before the Gothic style, with which it was immediately combined, had been reduced to a system. With these successful novelties of mechanical Artistic feel- skill arose an artistic feeling no less remarkable ; and detaiis neW whilst all the main parts of architecture took a pointed form, so did a change of the same character occur in the minor details, and it is an. interesting fact, that the first application of the pointed bowtell moulding is found simultaneously with the appearance of the Pointed style. With this rise of a new style of architecture was combined Old style of the want of a system of ornament suited to it.; the old longer suit- Byzantine conventionalities were felt to be no longer suitable, and gradually disappeared ; to have continued their use would have been to patch a new garment with worn-out shreds—but where could this ornament be found ? Greece and Pome had not yet revealed their antique treasures ; no adventurous artists could tell of “ Araby or Ind,” and no books existed in which every conceivable style of ornament under the sun was explained and illustrated—the newest still the best, as at the present day. They had but one resource, viz., Nature; it was with them—or Byzantium—or nature ; they chose the latter, and by degrees, for old prejudices are not easily got rid of, the mediaeval artists originated a style of sculptural ornament, in which nature was represented with a truth, a variety, and frequently with a grace which has never been surpassed. A beautiful example of Early English foliage is shown in the accompanying wood-cut. The earliest buildings of the Pointed style, compara¬ tively simple,- of excellent proportions, grand in the mass, and characterised by great breadth of light and shadow, are decidedly the noblest monuments of its power over the more solemn feelings of man ; ornament is applied with Recourse bad to na ture. Its success. The early pointed style com¬ paratively simple, grand. GENERAL REMARKS. 9 a judicious subordination to the principal features, and to the technicalities of construction ; while the statues are of A Gap from Wells Cathedral. massive simplicity, in consonance with the general cha- Character^ racter of the building. In the fourteenth century a visible work, change is at work ; the sculptor becomes of nearly equal Change in importance with the architect ; the style exhibits a more ce ntury. ornamental character, and the whole mass is more studi¬ ously beautiful. Never in Ancient Greece was art more Art areli- a religion than it was at this period in our northern lands. glon ' Allowing for the difference of creed and style, the spirit which informed the souls of the artists was identical ; they were devoted to their art and to nature—a devotion which, be the creed what it may, must ever turn to the works of that first great Artist, the universal and perfect Creator of all that which the artist religiously loves, and more or less successfully imitates. Already we perceive that passionate Love of love of nature which has time out of mind characterised among the the Northern races, vented on the unfavourable material ^rthern of stone, which under the sculptor’s hand seems to live and wave in graceful vitality. Nor was it with nature 10 THE MEDIAEVAL COURT. State of society, its results on the artist. Invention of printing, discovery of New World, their ten¬ dency. Fables, &c., illustrated. Revolution in the 16th century. Manual abi¬ lity, excessive ornament. Fancy over¬ worked. Its result. alone that the artist held converse. The state of society was snch as to allow little vent for man’s innermost thoughts ; mind was pent up ; the artist held most inti¬ mate converse with himself, and he used a building as a book on which to express in powerful language his own peculiar disposition, his hopes, his sentiments, his thoughts, and his experience. The art of printing prac¬ tised in the first half of the fifteenth century, combined with the discovery of a new and strange world in the latter part of the same century, were calculated to produce that wildness and exuberance of fancy which characterises the more sculptural buildings of the fifteenth and six¬ teenth centuries, during which period, if architecture became more wonderful from the variety and richness of its decoration, a great falling-off is to be remarked from the severe and simple principles of the Early period ; for which cleverness of construction, ability of hand, and a boundless play of fancy, offer no just compensation. We have indubitable proof that the apparently grotesque carvings of the style are frequently illustrations of fables, legends, and romances, as well as the individual expres¬ sion of the artist’s thoughts, and the illustrations of his creed; but in the sixteenth century an intellectual, spiritual, and political revolution was spreading widely in all countries, and led to a restless fermentation of thought, productive of the strangest fancies. Manual dexterity was also in its perfection ; and this power of hand, this capability of moulding stone like wax, combined with the natural exaltation of the mind consequent on the recep¬ tion of bold and novel ideas, together with the loss of that great principle of simplicity which is the basis of all truly noble art, induced a passionate and unrestrained love of variety and ornament, which the mind, over-worked and exhausted, was evidently unable to have sustained for a much longer period. The unnatural tension pro¬ duced as natural a reaction, and men fell willingly into another style, which freed the fretted imagination from exertion, and gave it, in the Renaissance style, a ground¬ work of despotic orders and time-honoured laws of pro¬ portion, on which to rest. HISTORY OF MEDIAEVAL ART. 11 HISTORY. Among those who preferred theory to investigation the The sup- Pointed or Gothic style was for some time regarded as of Gothic ar- having sprung, like Minerva, from the head of Jove, fully chitecture. formed and armed, at once, and without gestation ; and its supposed sudden origin produced various hypotheses, more or less wild and amusing. We do not now speak so much of the origin as of the Its actual developement of Pointed architecture, the exact history of ment°from which is still incomplete, but we are sufficiently well Roman- assured that its progress was founded on the preceding dels! 6 m ° monuments of the Romanesque style, moulded by the minds and hands of native artists, combined with at least combined one feature of Eastern architecture, viz., the pointed arch, pointed 6 The systematic adoption by the Normans of the Sara- arch - cenic pointed arch in Sicily, during the twelfth century The pointed (the cathedral of Cefalu having been founded by King ^ pt ' Roger in 1132) ; the constant intercourse of the Sicilian Normans in Normans with their French brethren ; the fact of the the^SarT^ earliest examples of its application occurring both in cens - France and England shortly after the above date, and under the influence of the Norman race ; all tend to point out Sicily as the locality from which the pointed arch was immediately derived, but certainly not the The pointed Pointed style, which is marked by a character unknown, eve^notT" and even opposed to any Saracenic or Oriental buildings, Saracenic, nor yet bearing much resemblance to the peculiar system adopted by the Sicilian Normans. Although it is true that some buildings exist in Oriental countries, Asia Minor, Armenia, &c., which bear a marked Gothic character, the supposed antiquity of such works has been ably investigated by Texier and other modern writers, and it appears certain that they were erected subsequently to the rise of the Pointed style in Europe. Many such anomalous coincidences of style in localities widely separated both geographically and intellectually, are to be traced to the singular migrations of the various members of that body of Freemasons whose eccentricities in the middle ages appear no less mysterious than do their craft-secrets, if any such exist, in the present-day. 12 THE MEDIAEVAL COURT. The Free¬ masons, their origin. their im¬ portance in the 12th century; It is at tliis point, therefore, that we may best notice the history of the society of Freemasons as Section of the Mosque of Erzeroum, Armenia. inseparably connected with the rise and progress of Pointed architecture. Sprung originally from the wandering masons of Coma in Lombardy, who visited town after town where their services were required, this confederation of “ Magistri Comacini” did, in time, as work failed in their own country, visit other lands. Houses, or lodges, were established for their reception or aid, much as at the present day exist among the German travelling appren¬ tices, only that in a great measure, monasteries were their head quarters and homes. As their expertness became known, their assistance was more widely sought, and few buildings of importance arose in the twelfth century which they had not assisted in constructing. The clergy were wealthy, the nobles generous, and the people zealous, so much so, that Hugues, Bishop of Rouen, writing in the year 1145, informs us that the inhabitants of Chartres were generally employed in carting materials for the con¬ struction of the cathedral at their own expense ; but skilled workmen were scarce, and it was from this society of masons that the principal workmen were obtained. HISTOEY OF MEDI2EYAL AET. 13 It was in many respects a powerful corporation, con¬ taining in its ranks men of all nations, who, in the monastery, in the city, and even at times encamped, gipsy-like, on the hill side, gave an ornamental impress to the commonest, as well as to the grandest, works of art. Endowed and privileged by the popes, this endowed by powerful monopoly was everywhere, in its grade, respected. the Popes * The organisation of the society was well arranged, and would appear to have been well obeyed ; each man did what he could do best, and consequently all was done well. “They derived,” says Mr. Hope, “their science nature of from the same school, obeyed in their designs the dictates system ; of the same hierarchy, were directed in their constructions by the same principles of propriety and taste, kept up with each other in the most distant parts to which they might be sent, the most constant correspondence, and rendered every minute improvement the property of the whole body and a new conquest of the art. ” Wren, in they are his “Parentalia,” remarks, “that those who have seen wrenf by the account in records of the charge of the fabrics of some of our cathedrals, near 400 years ago, cannot but have a great esteem for their economy, and admire how soon they erected such lofty structures.” At the close of the thirteenth century, Erwin von Stein- growing bach, the architect of Strasburg Cathedral, was elected German head of the Freemasons in Germany, and was granted Freemasons; extensive privileges by the Emperor and the Pope ; in the fifteenth century, Masonic Lodges existed in Alsace and Germany, which appear to have been regular schools of architecture and sculpture. In 1452, Dotzinger, of g^ool^'of Strasburg, formed all the scattered German lodges into architec- a national association ; and in 1459, a general council ture * was held at Patisbon, where the rules of the society were definitely arranged, and the architects to Strasburg Cathe¬ dral chosen as perpetual Grand Masters. The extent and reputation of this German association was very great, but as the power of the Freemasons rose with the rise of Pointed architecture, so with its fall, they fell, and little fall of the now remains of them but a name. Society. The earliest complete examples of Pointed architecture Earliest are to be found in the north of France and in England. Pohned. eS ° f From the former—owing probably to its geographical architecture 14 THE MEDIEVAL COUET. in France and Eng¬ land. The style radiates from Northern France. The Transi¬ tion period. Early examples of the style in France, at Chartres, Paris, Laon, Rouen, and other towns. Rheims. Amiens. Beauvais. Sainte Cha- pelle, Paris. Examples in Normandy: at Rouen. position—the style radiated as from a centre, meeting with more or less opposition in its course, so that, w hil st successfully established and rapidly progressing in some districts, it hardly penetrated into others, and when the Cathedrals of Chartres, Rheims, and Salisbury were mainly built, the Florid Romanesque style still retained its footing in most districts south of the Loire, in entire Italy, and even along the borders of the Rhine. The close of the twelfth century is marked in England and France by a Transition period, which extended to the commencement of the thirteenth century; among the numerous examples of which may be selected the Church of Pontigny, in France, built after the year 1150, and the circular portion of the Temple Church, London, built in 1188. The earliest examples of the true Pointed style in France are the Cathedral of Chartres, commenced in the twelfth century, and completed in 1260—(of course, in all the buildings here selected, we allude only to the main portions)—the Cathedral of Paris founded in 1163, but not completed till the middle of the fourteenth century ; the Cathedral of Laon, commenced in the eleventh and chiefly built in the beginning of the thirteenth century, a peculiarly interesting example ; the Choir of Rouen Cathedral (1212-1280) ; the Cathedral of Dijon (1252- 1334) ; the Cathedral of Mortain, in Normandy, of the commencement of the thirteenth century ; the cathedrals of Senlis and Auxerre, and the Cathedral of Rheims, begun in 1211 and completed in about twenty years, by the architect Robert de Coucy ; a magnificent and nearly complete example of the early French style ; the Cathe¬ dral of Amiens, its worthy rival, built by Robert de Lusarches and the de Cormonts between the years 1220- 1269 ; the beautiful Choir of Beauvais Cathedral, by Eudes de Montreuil (thirteenth century), and the Sainte Chapelle at Paris, built by Pierre de Montereau about the year 1245, one of the most elegant existing examples of the Early period. In Normandy, the Pointed style continued to be developed with a lightness, variety of decoration, and boldness of conception, peculiar to the district ; the churches of Rouen are in this respect singularly inter- HISTORY OF MEDLEYAL ART. 15 esting. The north tower of the Cathedral is of the first period, the nave is a beautiful example of the second period, of the style ; its facade is a wonderfully rich monument of the third period; the south tower was built between the years 1485-1507, and the porch somewhat later. St. Ouen, St. Vincent, St. Eloi, St. Patrice, and St. Maclou, are all interesting examples of the Pointed style in its various phases. In the south of France, buildings in the Pointed style in are not so frequent. The cathedrals of Narbonne (1272- France. 1332) and of Alby (1282-1512) may be cited as fine examples. The cathedrals of Bordeaux and Bayonne are noble works of the later period, and the cathedrals of Rodez and Mende, in Languedoc, possess fine towers of the latest period (sixteenth century). Besides these may be noticed the Cathedral of Brou, in Burgundy (1511- 1531), the facades of Toul and of Tours, and the great Cathedral of Orleans, built at a very late period (1601- 1790) in a sort of late Gothic, not devoid of grandeur. This is the last and an isolated instance of the Gothic style, at so late a period in France. The earliest and finest complete Gothic building in Examples! iu England is the Cathedral of Salisbury (1220-1258). chronologi- The older parts of Lichfield and Wells Cathedrals (nave ranged " 1 and transept) are also of the thirteenth century ; the transepts of York Minster (1227-1260), and various portions of Ely, Winchester, Chichester (the tower com¬ pleted in 1244), the Chapter-house of Oxford, and the nave and transepts of Westminster Abbey, commenced in 1245. Advancing to the Decorated period, we may select the nave of York Minster (1291-1330), the greater part of Exeter Cathedral (1280-1370), a great part of Lichfield Cathedral (fourteenth century), the Lady Chapel and Chapter-house of Wells, and the Cloisters of Norwich, a very beautiful example commenced a.d. 1297. The Choir of York Minster (1361-1405) and the magnifi¬ cent facade (1402) ; and passing to the Perpendicular of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, we proceed from the nave of Winchester Cathedral (1367-1405), St. Mary’s Church, Oxford, fifteenth century, the spire of St. Michael’s Church, Coventry (1432), St. George’s Chapel, Windsor (second half of the fifteenth century), 16 THE MEDIAEVAL COURT. Roman¬ esque. Earliest examples of Pointed King’s College, Cambridge (1441-1530), Christ Church College, Oxford (1529), to Henry VII. ’s Chapel, West¬ minster (1502-1510), and Bath Abbey Church (1495- 1609). Of a still later period which has received the significant title of the “Debased,” are many of our University buildings, such as the Chapel of St. Peter’s College, Cambridge (1632) ; the chapels of Brasenose, Wadham, and Oriel, Oxford ; Passenham Church, North¬ amptonshire (1623) ; Stanton Harold Church, Leicester¬ shire (1653) ; and finally the Church of St. Neots, Hun¬ tingdonshire, rebuilt, says Mr. Bloxam, “in a kind of debased Gothic and mixed Homan style, a.d. 1687.” The Pointed In Germany, the Pointed style was introduced some¬ what later what later than in France and England. The Transition inSanceTof P er ^ 0( ^ marked by such examples as the Church of transition Ruffach, in Alsace, portions of the Church of Our Lady at Treves (1227-1244), and the Church of St. Elizabeth at Marburg (1235-1283). The earliest and most complete example of the true Pointed style is to be found in parts of Cologne Cathedral, at' C Cologne!' e founded in 1249 ; the Church of Altenburg, near Cologne, founded in 1255, but not completed till the year 1379. The most beautiful early example of all, is Oppenheim. the Church of St. Catharine, at Oppenheim (1262-1317). Continuing our list, is the Church of Wimpfen im Thale (1262-1278) ; the Cathedral of Strasburg, the nave com¬ pleted in the year 1275, and the facade commenced in 1277, but not completed till the fourteenth century, the upper portions of this cathedral are of the fifteenth century ; the beautiful Church of St. Stephen, Vienna (thirteenth and fourteenth centuries) ; the Cathedral of Prague, commenced by Matthew of Arras in 1343, and finished in 1385 ; the Cathedral of Ulm, founded in 1377, but still incomplete; the churches of Weissenburg (enlarged in 1327) ; of Our Lady at Nuremberg (1355- 1361) ; the choirs of St. Sebald’s Church (1361-1377) and of the Church of St. Laurence, both at Nuremberg (1403-1477); the Church of Our Lady at Ingolstadt, founded in 1425, and that of Wimpfen am Berge, founded in 1494. Other examples of the late Gothic period are the Church of St. Martin, at Landshut, Bavaria (1432-1478) ; the Cathedral of Freiberg (after 1484) ; the nave of Strasburg. Subsequent works placed chro¬ nologically. HISTORY OF MEDIAEVAL ART. 17 Merseburg Cathedral (about 1500), the Church of St. Mary, at Zwickau (1453-1536), and that of Our Lady, at Halle (1529).* Want of space prevents our observing, however briefly, the interesting Gothic buildings of Spain, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian lands ; and we confine our neces¬ sarily imperfect notices to the only other country repre¬ sented in this collection. Among the purest early Gothic buildings in Italy are The Pointed the two great shrines of St. Benedict, at Subiaco, and triutaly 611 " of San Francesco at Assisi, built by Germans at the beginning of the thirteenth century. The cathedrals of Siena (thirteenth century) and of Orvieto, commenced in 1290, the Campo Santo completed in 1283, and the beautiful little church of La Spina, at Pisa, both by Giovanni Pisano. At Florence are some buildings presenting a remarkable phase of the Gothic style, Santa Maria Novella (interior) 1279, Santa Croce (1294), the Cathedral, founded in 1296, with the adjoining noble Campanile by Giotto of the fourteenth century, and Or San Michele (1284). Santa Maria sopra Minerva, At Naples Borne (about 1370), the fine portal of San Giovanni em i^iy h ' Pappacoda at Naples, the west facade of Palermo Cathedral (1352-59), the entrance doorway of Santa Maria della Catena, in the same city, the door of the Hospital of Agrigentum, the Cathedral of Messina (about 1350), and Santa Maria della Scala (1347), also at Messina. In the north, are the Cathedral of Milan, founded at in Northern the close of the fourteenth century; portions of the Italy * Certosa, near Pavia, of the same period ; the Church of San Francesco, Pavia, and the Cathedral of Como (1396), the Churches of St. John and St. Paul (1246-1430), and Santa Maria dei Frari, commenced in 1250, both at Venice (attributed to Niccolo Pisano), and Sant’ Anastasia, Verona, besides various interesting examples at Genoa. German artists were employed in many of these build- German ings, but, with a few exceptions, they are in a style very employed different to the pure examples of Pointed architecture in the transalpine countries. * For most of these examples we are indebted to Professor Kiigler’s excellent “Handbook.” 0 18 THE MEDIAEVAL COUET. Three pe¬ riods of the Pointed style in England. Correspond¬ ing periods in France. Character¬ istics of buildings in the first or Early Eng¬ lish period. Flying but- Windows. Hose windows. Columns. SECTIONAL—STYLES. The Pointed style of England has been divided into three periods :—the first, termed the Early English, which may be said to include the entire thirteenth century ; the Decorated, which flourished principally during the fourteenth century ; and the Perpendicular, or the style of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Nearly corre¬ sponding to these as regards time, but presenting many important differences of style, are the three periods in France, called by French antiquaries, C£ Style ogival primitif ” or u primaire “ Style secondaire” or “ Rayon- nantand the “ Style tertiaire” or “ Flamboyant.” During the first period, in both countries, the plan and arrangement of the large churches, although founded on the vaulted Romanesque basilica, underwent important modifications, especially in the disposition of the choir and apsis, which became much elongated, the latter being starred, as it were, with chapels, the end one often pro¬ jecting extremely beyond all the others ; the buttresses became strongly marked features, and the bold innovation of flying buttresses was introduced, which, springing from each side, sustained the entire mass of the masonry. The windows, which early in the style were of one light, became double and triple, the spaces between them being gradually diminished till a column alone remains. At a later period, the three lights were contained within one dominant arch, the head being filled in with circular and foliated figures, as seen in the niches on each side of the Tintern door, which forms the principal entrance to the Mediaeval Court. Rose windows, or Wheels of Fortune—so called from statues found at times round their outlines, showing the course of life—received a beautiful developement, with radiating columns and a border of foliated geometrical figures. The columns, elongated and clustered, form a marked feature, a circular shaft with circular projections round it being common ; the whole mass is frequently divided in the central part by a ring or band ; the capitals are almost SECTIONAL—STYLES. 19 always bell-shaped, and are designed in a style very different to the old Byzantine system. Doorways are formed with clustered and boldly cut Doorways, mouldings, amongst the ornaments of which, that known as the “ dog tooth,” or simple notching of a square edge, is the most common ; sometimes they are divided in the •centre by a clustered shaft, supporting foliated arches within a larger single arch. When porches occur, they Porches, are large and deep, with high-pitched vaulted roofs, and when applied to the west fronts of cathedrals frequently exhibit three finely moulded openings corresponding to the usual three doors, the central one being generally the largest. The two principal towers adjoined the west Towers, front ; from the centre of the transept rose another of noble amplitude, and at Chartres, Blieims, Ac., towers •corresponding to the west front are to be found on the north and south fa 9 ades ; but in few cases, if in any, have these magnificent designs been completed. Arcades, trilobed, and simply pointed, are frequent ; Arcades, they occur chiefly in the triforium and parapets, the base lines of the latter being marked at intervals with very projecting stone water-spouts, called “gurgoyles.” Gurgoyles. Crockets or projecting knobs are to be remarked on Crockets, the angle lines of the pinnacles, Ac. ; originally very plain, and often mere hooks, they gradually formed a rich and very peculiar ornament. Another very striking Ornamental change is to be remarked in the sculpture of the scul P ture > thirteenth century, which was founded on an imitation of nature, and the 4 ‘mural flora” of the Pointed style founded on presents an interesting and varied study. M. de Caumont, nature™ 6 from whom we borrow the expression “mural flora,” observes, that a rigorous copy of nature is not always to be seen, the extent of such imitation resting on the judgment of the sculptor. M. Saubinet gives us a list of the flowers, fruits, List of Ac., on the Cathedral of Rheims, amounting to above aTmieims' twenty different species ; amongst the most usual are Cathedral; the vine, the ivy, laurel, oak, and ranunculus ; a notable increase of statues, very superior to the Romanesque examples, is to be observed on doorways, in niches, Ac. Internally, the vaulted roof of pointed form gives a Vaulted roof complete character to the whole view, with which every ofiuterior - 20 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. Statuary work—its character. feature combines harmoniously. The vaulting of the nave and side aisles generally presents the same section, being quadripartite and pointed ; the groins are moulded, and the points of intersection are ornamented with boldly cut bosses. Statue ot a Lady from Itkeims Cathedral. The figure sculpture of this period in France and England is of a very peculiar and severe character, eminently ideal. Occasionally, as in the bas-reliefs of SECTIONAL—STYLES. 21 JSTotre Dame in Paris, in the wonderful Last Judgment at Ltheims, and in as much as can be made out of the remains of the same subject at Wells and Lincoln, the style rises into the epic. There is a total absence of man¬ nerism, and every variety of subject is represented by exaggerating general attributes. Statues of ladies are all Ladies, serenity and gracefulness, with vertical or sweeping folds to their draperies, and with a composed serious disposition of the limbs, of which the adjoining woodcut forms a graceful illustration. Knights are all vivacity and action, clenching their Knights, swords, tossing about arms and legs, and starting up and •out from slab and niche. Ecclesiastics, on the contrary, Ecclesiastics, seem as rigid, cold, and hard as the materials out of which they are carved. Whilst such was the case in Eranoe and England, in Italy, under the Pisani, sculpture The antique .grew to be dramatic and picturesque, the conventionalities thePisanu of the antique were revived, and with the study of abstract beauty, came the loss of much freshness and individuality. As we advance towards the second or “ Decorated ” The Deco- period in architecture, a range of side chapels is often second^ found, and the principal chapel of the apse, called the P^od^ .Lady Chapel, receives a still greater projection. A de- racteristics. viation of the axis of the choir from that of the nave becomes general; this side inclination of the choir is believed to have been symbolic of the drooping head of the Saviour on the cross. The form of the arch in New form of the fourteenth century is described on an equilateral f^reased triangle, instead of on an acute angled triangle, as here- develope- tofore, an example of which, enclosing a picturesque features developement of foliation, is to be remarked in the already in. arcade from Guisborough, introduced in the fagade in the Mediaeval Court. The buttresses, flying but¬ tresses and pinnacles, are still more developed and orna¬ mented ; the windows become larger, and often occupy an entire bay, the heads being filled in with geometrical tracery, and the rose windows become exceedingly orna¬ mental features, especially over the central entrance of the chief fagade. All the other points, before mentioned as characteristic of the style, obtain still greater develope- ment during this period. 22 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. Increased application of sculpture; ■various changes. Graceful composition more an object with the sculptor. Peculiari¬ ties of portraiture. Nature better imitated in foliage, &c. The Third, or Perpen¬ dicular Period : character¬ istic forms of arches; ■various important changes. The general character of the doors, porches, (be., underwent a change in harmony with the other parts,, consisting principally in a greater use of sculpture, suck as statues carried round the arch, &c., and the intro¬ duction of high angular pediments oyer the arches, the upper spaces of which are frequently pierced witk tracery, or filled in with sculpture. The towers and spires become more varied in form, the latter having generally crocketted angles, and not unfrequently open- worked sides ; their situation is more arbitrary, and in England the great angle buttress is not uncommon. The vaulting of the roofs, though essentially the same in principle, obtains a greater amount of ornament, and has more numerous vaulting cells. It is to this epock of the style that some of the grandest monuments in Europe belong. The changes which took place in architecture during the Decorated, or “secondaire” period, were not more marked than were those which obtained in sculpture. Lines of graceful composition received attention, rather than individual character. "What was considered to be. a becoming sway or twist in the body was given to every figure alike, and portraiture was attempted rather by copying features, than embodying the mental or external characteristics of the person represented. If, however > sculpture lost in power it gained in nature ; and as the exquisite foliage of the vine and ivy, copied directly from the plants, differed from the earlier conventionalities of leafage, so did the refined and lovely faces, draperies,, and attitudes, of figures, such as the Chichester Lady Abbess, or Queen Eleanor, or FTino Pisano’s Virgin, differ from the grand, but cramped and unnatural,, characteristics of the sculptures of Wells and Chartres. The style of the third period exhibits still greater changes. The equilateral arch becomes discarded for the obtuse pointed arch ; other common forms are the ogee arch, or arch (( en accolade,” the four-centred Tudor arch, of which numerous varieties are to be found, and in. France the three-centred or Burgundian arch ; the buttresses are ornamented with pinnacles attached to the face, and often placed above niches ; the columns, and clustered piers are more and more cut up into SECTIONAL—STYLES. 23 minute parts of many thin mouldings, not unfrequently entirely devoid of capitals, and continuing uninter¬ ruptedly throughout the arch, and sometimes carried on to form the ribs of the vaulted roof ; the plinths have a great elevation, and the practice of interpenetration in the base mouldings is common. The mouldings them¬ selves are characterised by angular and prismatic forms combined with undulating curves. The windows are Peculiar decorated with tracery of a perpendicular or vertical England 1 nature, in England usually straight, in France, curved, and France, and of a flame-like character, which has led to the term “Flamboyant,” as applied to the architecture of the latter country, and to that of “Perpendicular” as descriptive of that of the former. The vaulted roofs become of a much more complicated Intricate nature ; numerous groined ribs diverge at different roofed angles, covering the body of the roof with a sort of net-work ; the “ Fan ” tracery of this period is the peculiar glory of the English school, and is unparalleled either as regards construction or richness of decoration ; its beauties are known to most of our readers by the roof of Henry VIPs chapel at Westminster. The towers are of great variety, and the spires are often pierced all the way up with elaborate ornaments, producing a marvellous lightness of effect. The statues are marked now altogether with affecta- Character o tion, and great attention is paid to detail, whilst the ^® r £ tatuary heads evince an increasing power of expressing the passions, amounting frequently to caricature : the orna- and orna¬ ment still imitates vegetable nature, but in a certain ment - mannered, angular manner, the execution, however, leaving little to be desired ; at the close of this period the whole mass of the building had every available space, from the vaulted roof down to the doors, filled in with shallow cut panel ornament. At the close of Paneling, the fifteenth and commencement of the sixteenth century ; the greater part of Europe was overrun with this essen- General tially ornamental style of sculptural architecture, in remai regarding the monuments of which—in spite of numerous faults—we cannot but be astonished at the admirable variety and character of its ornamental sculpture, and the ungrudging spirit which produced it. As a system THE MEDIAEVAL COUET. of Pointed architecture, however, we have clear evidences at this period of a lamentable falling off from the grand and simple models both of architecture and sculpture of the first period ; models, which, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were very generally regarded only as monuments of barbarous times, and ignorant races. COLOURED DECORATION. 25 THE POLYCHROMATIC DECORATION Of the middle ages is one of the subjects connected with the history of art which most loudly demands thorough illustration, both pictorial and literary, throw¬ ing, as its details unquestionably do, such valuable light upon the religious, social, and artistic condition of the various countries in which its chief monuments were produced. As we have seen in our notice of Polychromy in the Hand-book to the Byzantine Court, it was through Greece that the first great effort was made to establish a system of embellishment in accordance with Christian architecture ; and so long as mosaic continued to be employed as the chief technical process, Byzantine types were alone pursued. With the introduction of fresco and tempera—comparatively new modes of execution— into Italy, new schools of art were formed ; and the same independence of soul which led the Pisans, Florentines, and Siennese to create new social and municipal institu¬ tions, called to life the genius of men, such as Giotto, Memmi, Giunta da Pisa, Orcagna, and others, by whom the great movement for freedom to drink deeply at the ever-springing wells of nature and of truth, was carried forward with fiery energy, and to a noble end. The first-named of these artists, the immortal Giotto was an artist of the highest order. One great charm in his works is the feeling for the poetry of devotion, which seems to run through them all. He was an intimate friend of Dante, and it was, probably, from the author of the ‘ ‘ Divina Commedia ” that he drew those inspira¬ tions, which made him so intellectual a painter. His life is interesting in every respect. It may be scarcely neces¬ sary to recal the old legend, that Cimabue found him drawing by the road-side, took him to his home, had him taught, and reared him as his pupil and adopted child. The first works of Giotto were executed at Flo¬ rence, and they^subsequently procured him employment Illustrations much needed. First effort made by Greeks. Fresco and tempera in Italy. Giotto, Memmi, &c. pioneers of an artistic revolution. Giotto, a friend of Dante. His first works at Florence. 26 .THE MEDIEVAL COURT. His works at Rome; at Padua; at Assisi, Life of St. Francis. Legend of Santa Clnara. at Rome. In that Capital of the World, he designed many works which time has destroyed ; but one most interesting relic of his early labours remains in the “ ISTavicella,” that is, the church represented under the traditional allegory of a ship. This curious mosaic is now fixed in the vestibule of St. Peter’s. He then went to Padua, where he executed the paintings in the chapel of the Arena, representing the Lif e of our Saviour, and the Life of the Virgin. The figures in the Life of the Virgin are particularly beautiful ; especially a “ Sposalizio,” which possesses extreme grace, and is much admired. It is, indeed, thought that our own Flaxman has derived much of his “naif” beauty from the study of that series of frescoes. The chapel was built for Enrico Scrovegno, one of the race of half soldiers half freebooters, who had taken possession of the old Arena, and fortified it in the same manner that the Orsini, and Frangipani, and others, appropriated the old monuments of Rome, and fortified them as strongholds. The fame of these works caused Giotto to be summoned to Assisi, to paint frescoes in the church of St. Francis, then recently built. He has there given us, beneath Cimabue’s ceilings and other subjects, a series of subjects from the Life of St. Francis—one of those mediaeval melodramas (if the term may be used), in the form of biography, which furnish the most interesting and beautiful subjects a. painter can desire. The curtain rises on the youth of St. Francis, and, as the plot thickens, his strange hallu¬ cination—his quarrel with his father in the market-place on account of his passion for poverty—his giving his cloak to a poor person on the wayside—his institution of the order—his appearance before the Pope—his ecstasy —his stigmatization, follow in succession, until the catastrophe is reached, in the Death of the Saint. The most touching subject of all, and the most beautiful as a work of art, is one of the closing scenes, which represents the body of the saint carried past the convent of Santa Chiara—a lady who had given up rank, wealth, and friends, to tread reverentially in his footsteps. She and her nuns are represented as having come forth to greet the dead body on its way to its last earthly place of repose ; and the expression of love, and grief, and COLOURED DECORATION. delicacy, ■with which they seem to regard the body, and to be overpowered by the mournful event, has scarcely ever been equalled in the works of artists of a much later period, and of far greater mechanical power. Giotto, after many wanderings to Naples, Avignon, and other places, returned to Florence, where he designed and executed the beautiful Campanile, and many other works, which will always redound to his fame. It is interesting to notice, how the architect, the painter, and the sculptor, became united in the person of Giotto, who, while in his later days he showed the same talent for painting which had marked his prime, yet even when advanced in years, attained the highest reputation in the sister arts. The pupils of Giotto were extremely numerous, and other schools, besides those of Florence, felt the effects of his influence, which is, indeed, to be clearly traced in many of the works by the masters who have embellished the Campo Santo at Pisa. The architecture of the Church of St. Francis at Assisi is, as we have already stated, of the first specimens of the introduction of the ££ Tedesco,” or German element, into Italy. It was designed by Giacomo di Lapo, the father of Arnolfo di Lapo, who preceded Brunelleschi in the charge of the Cathedral at Florence. Among other interesting remains of semi-German art in Italy, the Monastery of San Benedetto, at Subiaco, deserves to be mentioned. It appears as though the Benedictines, excited by the influence and example of the Franciscans, endeavoured, like the latter, to call in art to increase the influence of their order, and therefore built a chapel in honour of the “sagro speco 33 of Saint Benedict, and ornamented it with beautiful decorations. The whole of the upper, lower, and middle Churches is covered with paintings. The principal picture, a repre¬ sentation of the Crucifixion, is particularly interesting, as it is one of the earliest and best representations of that subject ; besides this, there are also delineations of many of the curious traditions preserved in such works as those of Jacopus de Voragine, and others, on the Lives of the Saints, and in the apocryphal Gospels. The only clue now to be obtained to the identity of most of these frescoes, is the name of “Stemmatico,” written Giotto returns to Florence: the Campa¬ nile, &.C., by him : numerous pupils. His influ¬ ence at Pisa. The Church, of Assisi. Arnolfo di Lapo. San Bene¬ detto at Subiaco. Interesting paintings. Stemmatico, a painter. 28 THE MEDIEVAL COUET. upon one of them, which indicates that an artist of that name was employed. It is curious that so little should be known of one of the most interesting monu¬ ments of that period. Campo The extraordinary interest which attaches to the Campo Santo, Pisa. g an t 0 a t Pisa, as one of the nurseries of painting before it could well stand erect, justifies a brief recurrence to the treasures it contains. On the walls of that extra¬ ordinary cemetery are embodied, in pictorial form, many of the most interesting subjects which can affect mortality. The Last The Last Judgment , by Orcagna, which served Michael by^Orcagna. Angelo as a model for certain portions of the great work which has rendered him immortal, exhibits the most wonderful energy in giving tangible form to the Dantesque The influ- conception of the subject. Throughout Italy, remains mosaic work mosaic style are to be traced in the fresco paintings, on frescoes, and nowhere are they more manifest than on the walls of the Campo Santo at Pisa. The adoption in fresco of bands of ornaments of flat and simple geometrical figures, which did not interfere with the curved lines of the composition, and which gave a “mosso,” or movement to the groups, (just as architecture introduced in an historical composition gives life and vitality to the deli¬ cately modelled surfaces), was in every respect satis¬ factory ; since they served to agreeably connect the large pictures with the architectural features of the, walls and vaults, upon which they were painted. The gold of the mosaics, which was at first retained by the fresco painters, began to disappear ; its use being principally confined to the delineation of the nimbus or circle that surrounds the heads of the Saints—executed in a sort of raised and stamped plaster—and to different ornaments about their persons ; as a gold key in the hand of St. Peter, &c. «>thic deco- Throughout Italy there remain numerous indications Italy 1 m °f Gothic decoration, similar to that at Subiaco, many of which are due to masters whose names have not been recorded, and whose “ lives have been written in water.” In all these works there is much grace, and, in some, the An influence old connection with Byzantium is evident; as, for Byzantium, instance, in the patterns worked on the hems of the gar¬ ments worn by priests, and in many other details of costume. In later times, we find the School of Sienna COLOURED DECORATION. 29 numbering among its great men Taddeo, and Domenico The Bartoli Bartoli, who decorated the Palazzo Publico in a very pietrTcaval- beautiful style ; also Pietro Cavallini, who is said to liu i- have come to England ; a report, the truth of which has, however, been disproved. The family of Cosmati The Cosmati executed those peculiar and admirable Gothic works at Rome ‘ which are to be seen at Rome. In many of the tombs and “ ciboria ” executed by them, we find united an adherence to mosaic for some of the ornaments, with the adoption of fresco for other portions of the same ; the two processes being thus shown in juxtaposition both as to place and time. Many doorways, and other parts of Churches show the manner in which the external External architecture of Italy was polychromatised. In some, in Italy: mosaics of different marbles are employed, while the further aid of colour is combined to bring various materials into harmony, and to unite parts which would otherwise remain in discord. At Naples, the Stefani took the lead in rivalling the Flo- Naples 11 rentine Masters ; and subsequently, under other masters, many paintings in the manner of Giotto were executed. It would not be right to pass over the wonderful works of Fra Angelico da Fiesole, a Dominican monk, who Fra Ange- decorated the Convent of San Marco, at Florence in a ilarityofhis style, the peculiarity of which is that of a delicate model- style, ling of surface with so little chiaro scuro, as to maintain a general effect of flatness, and an extreme refinement of, as his name imports, “ Angelic ” expression. The defi¬ nition of form which he obtained, without resorting to that extreme scale of light and shade, which becomes decidedly objectionable, when it is desired to keep the wall painted on unobtrusive in appearance, makes his works a valuable study to whoever would revive mural painting satisfactorily. His cheerful general colour was, no doubt, influenced by the works of Gentile da Fabriano, Gentile da an artist who not only used the most brilliant colours FabnauG - but was too often addicted to a redundancy of gold ornament. There is a work by him, the Worship of the Magi, in which he has taken every opportunity to load the figures with gold ornaments ; its great harmony, however, neutralizes its gaudiness, and renders it brilliant, and pleasing. 30 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. The study of Art in Me¬ dieval Italy a business. Masters and pupils. Two forms of painting in England, their nature. Remains of Chapter¬ house, West¬ minster. Description of a “ Ma- jesty.” Profane sub- jects. It is a singular fact in the social history of Italy during the middle ages, that the acquring the knowledge of painting was not simply the study of an art, but it was also the hard, dry learning of a business, to which the scholar was duly apprenticed ; each master taking as many pupils, to increase his profits, as the rules of his particular guild would permit. The earliest rules of these guilds define, among other privileges, the number which the masters in certain grades might undertake to instruct. One author (Cennini) has described the exact practice ; the pupils were to begin as boys, and to serve a thirteen years’ apprenticeship ; six of which were to be given to the manufacture of colours ; to preparing the plastering, and laying it on the walls for fresco painting ; to preparing the panels, and the white of egg menstruum for tempera painting, (fee. ; the remaining seven years were to be devoted to the study of the art ; and then the whole life—to the practice. Mediaeval painting as practised in this country assumed, as in other parts of Europe, two forms of existence—- those of the mural or architectonic painting, and of the tabular or panel-picture. The former (as far as our means of observation have extended) never with us reached a very high state of perfection. Although con¬ stantly employed, continually described in the records of the period, and honoured with the most ample regal and ecclesiastical patronage, no examples that have descended to our days are worthy of the title of works of real Art. Here and there—as in the Virgin and Child at the Bishop’s chapel at Chichester, and one or two of the heads in the paintings on the walls of the Chapter House, West¬ minster—some yearning after the ideality of the early Italian school is to be traced ; but in general the large paintings appear only as magnified manuscript embellish¬ ments, with the faults of drawing rendered more apparent by the increased size of the transcript. The subjects of such pictures were very various :—one probably of the most frequent recurrence was the representation of the Second Person of the Trinity sitting on a throne, and generally holding a globe in his hand, around him being disposed the four Evangelists. This arrangement was called a “ Majesty.” Of profane histories—the fall of COLOURED DECORATION. 1 Troy, the story of Antioch, the life of Alexander the Great, were objects of particular predilection : while to legendary illustration and saintly and biblical por¬ traiture the records during the reigns of Henry III. and the Edwards contain constant references. One curious circumstance connected with the English The prevail- Polychromy of the thirteenth century, is the propensity of exhibited in all the royal records of the period, to use green as a preponderating colour. This fact was first, we believe, pointed out by the late lamented Mr. Hudson Turner, in his notices of “Domestic Architecture in Eng¬ land.” He tells us (page 87, vol. i.) that “almost all the chambers of Henry III. were painted of a green colour, scintillated or starred with gold, on which ground subjects were sometimes painted in compartments or circles ; as the history of the Old and New Testament, passages from the Lives of the Saints, figures of the Evan¬ gelists, and occasionally scenes taken from the favourite romances of the time.” Mr. Turner supports his asser¬ tion by a copious citation of records, amongst the most instances quaint of which are the directions issued by the king in fj^dson the 17th year of his reign, “to cause, that the chapel of Turner, our chamber (at the Palace at Kennington) be painted with histories, so that the field shall be of a green colour, stencilled with gold stars,” &c. Of the practice of using green to a great extent in the latter part of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, we have abundant existing evidence, but since time has obliterated almost every trace of the polychromy of the thirteenth and early part of the fourteenth centuries, it remained for the student of cotemporary documents to establish as positive fact, that which the artist, without his aid, could only have traced as an imminent probability. The art of painting in the Middle Ages was very rarely Mediaeval indeed applied to any but a specific use—and each picture had^fpeci- was generally painted for a fixed locality and purpose. fic purpose. Hence, a great source of the comparative excellence of these works. We accordingly find in England that the tabular or wooden picture was applied to but three distinct Notice of uses. The first was that of the “tabula,” “ retablement,” pictures or tavola—a variety of the triptych, but formed in one piece without doors—a picture painted on panel and 32 THE MEDLEYAL COUET. they are mentioned at an early period: in the 9th century. A “retable’ 1 discovered at Norwich its date: description of it: of pure Italian art. Other uses of the reta¬ ble or panel picture. Few exam¬ ples existing in England. placed above the altar, after the manner of a modem altar-piece. These tabulae are referred to at a very early- period ; and from their small size and portability Mr. Blackburne presumes that they generally preceded the use of mural painting for altar and general decoration. Mention of these “tables” occurs from the ninth century to the Reformation ; but, from the comparative ease with which they may have been destroyed and defaced, scarcely any have come down to our days. By far the most interesting, if not the only proper “retable” which we now possess is the beautiful one discovered at Nor¬ wich—a work it is thought of the end of Edward the Third’s, or the beginning of Richard the Second’s reign. It consists of five compartments—representing, in suc¬ cession, the Flagellation, the bearing the Cross, the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and the Ascension. It bears upon its face the feeling and character of pure Italian (Siennese) Art of the School of Simone Memmi ; and the grace and refinement of the heads and extre¬ mities, the elegance of the grouping, and the close adherence to the local traditional mode of representing each subject, stamp it as unmistakably Italian in origin.^ The second use to which the panel picture was applied, was that of a commemorative tablet ; either recording some particular local legend or fact, or presented as an ex voto donation to some particular church—as is now constantly the practice on the continent—to mark the sense of gratitude entertained by the donor for favours, past, and perhaps the slightest possible glance at benefits prospective. Of these paintings we possess now scarcely any remains ; but their abundance in Germany, and Flanders, from whence much of our pictorial art was derived, and the constant reference made to, and descrip¬ tions given of them, in inventories and other docu¬ ments, demonstrate the universality of their employment —and enable us to arrive at some shrewd conjecture as to their probable value as works of Art and their great importance as illustrations of early manners and customs. There seems every reason to conjecture that paintings * This painting has been carefully figured by Mr. Wyatt, and illustrated by Mr. Albert Way in the Journal of the Archaeological Institute. COLOURED DECORATION. 33 of this description were almost entirely executed by English mostly by artists ; and that their good and bad qualities were for artists*- 1 the most part exactly coincident with those of the cotem¬ porary manuscript illuminations and paintings on glass produced by natives of this country. In this class we may perhaps also include the saintly portrait so constantly found on the lower pannels of rood screens—more parti¬ cularly in the county of Norfolk : many of which appear examples in to be Flemisn, executed with considerable spirit, and Norfolk, much in the manner of the paintings of the same period Flemish 7 of unquestionably Flemish origin both in the character of artists - the heads and the angular drawing of the draperies and extremities. We come, then, to the third class—that to which Antepeudia, probably the highest order of ability procurable was frontals • applied—the embellishment of the precious altar frontals or antependia. According to the usage of the Church of Rome, four or five of these moveable facings should be provided for each altar — so that a fitting exterior should be preserved harmonising with the nature of the sacred office to be performed. Of course, those of the high altar were the most elaborate ; and arguing from continental examples yet extant, no decoration appears their ex- to have been too costly, and no material too rich, to ^ r e e “f nch * lavish on these frontals. The precious “ paliotto ” at Venice, the golden casing of San Ambrogio at Milan, various ex- the silver and enamelled antependia of the altars of San Giovanni Batista at Florence, and San Giacomo at Pistoia, most fully demonstrate this assumption—and there is no reason for doubting that, in this respect at least, wealthy England endeavoured to place herself on a par with her continental cotemporaries. The one specimen which we possess coming within the An altar category of “precious frontals” is that very beautiful production now placed in the south processional path of Abbey, Westminster Abbey, under the protection of plate-glass and vergers—having been redeemed from a very close alliance with some waxwork figures of unenviable notoriety. It is about eleven feet long and three feet high. “ The descripti°n groundwork,” says Sir Charles Eastlake, “ is oak : over the joinings and on the surface of some mouldings strips of parchment were glued. On this framework, covered D 34 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. character of its work¬ manship, not English, but Italian; its probable date. Orcagna’s altar frontal at Florence. The West¬ minster one in similar style. Document¬ ary evidence. William of Florence, painter to Henry III. Possibly his work. with a gesso [size and whiting] ground, various ornamental compartments and architectural enrichments are executed in relief. The larger compartments were adorned with paintings ; consisting of remarkably well designed and carefully executed single figures and subjects, with a gold mosaic ground.”—Now, it may be well to observe here that neither the practice of stamping ornaments and gilding, nor that of the employment of mosaic, were natural to this country. They are essentially Italian ; and though perhaps they may occur in one or two in¬ stances, where the rest of the work appears to be English, still the rarity of such examples only tends to prove that they never formed an essential element in English Art, as they did in Italian. Another curious fact is, that such processes occur in England only at periods corresponding almost exactly with the recorded fact of the employment of Italian workmen in this country. The date which Sir Charles Eastlake ascribes to this beautiful work of art is the close of the thirteenth, or commencement of the fourteenth century ; the period during which flourished in Italy, Giotto, Giovanni Pisano, and Pietro Cavallini, the skilful mosaic worker. Who that has examined in detail Orcagna’s beautiful shrine at Or’ San Michele, at Florence, the altar frontal of which may be seen in the French and Italian Mediaeval Court, or studied the ancient pictures preserved in the Academy there, can fail to be struck with the exact similarity which this production bears, in its minutest parts, to the early Florentine processes ? Happily, documentary evidence is not wanting to corroborate this view of the matter. In the Close Rolls of the 44th of Henry III. (1260) is to be found a mandate from the king com¬ manding the Sheriff of Surrey to cause that “immediately the pictures and frontal of the Altar of the Great Chapel at Guildford be made as we have instructed William of Florence , our painter .” This same monk, William, is referred to again as Master of the Works at Guildford, in the year 1268. Now, it is perfectly within the bounds of possibility that this very altar front may have been formed by this very artist ; and it is at least pro¬ bable that, if not by himself, it may have been executed by a pupil. Supposing it granted that this man may COLOURED DECORATION. 35 have produced this one work—other Italian ecclesiastics (and we know that in the last three years of his popedom Gregory IX. appointed at least 300 Italians to English benefices) may have executed many more ; and their labours may perhaps account for the notable differences which we have been endeavouring to establish between the common decorative painting, and such very beautiful productions as the Norwich retable and the Westminster antependium. It is a painful conclusion to be obliged to consider that the rude and unartistic, although perhaps very neatly finished, paintings were English—while, for the majority of more graceful embodiments of form and feeling, we were, in the middle ages, under the greatest obligation to foreigners. Number of Italians pro¬ moted to English be ¬ nefices. The com¬ moner paint¬ ings proba¬ bly English; the finer works pro¬ bably by foreigners. l> 2 36 THE MEDIAEVAL COURT. Statues from Langen. N uremberg. Cologne. Winchester. Nuremberg. Langen. Wells. Tomb of Longespde, fmmSalis- bury; Ins costume. Colour. EXTERIOR OF THE MEDIAEVAL COURT FACING THE NAVE. The three first statuettes in front of the German Mediaeval Court, on the left hand as we face the court, are St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. John, from the Church of Langen in Germany. Farther on is a statue of the Virgin, from the Academy at Nuremberg, by Veit Stoss, and the colossal statue of St. Peter, from Cologne Cathedral^ both works of very high merit. On the left; are, first, a bust of Christ from Winchester Cathedral, and a head also of Our Saviour, by the cele¬ brated sculptor Veit Stoss, from Nuremberg. Beyond these is a statue of the Virgin, from the Church of Langen; and the remaining figures are from Wells Cathedral : the first being supposed to represent an abbess of Romsey, the outermost seated figure, a king of England, and the second colossal seated figure, a bishop, from the series on the great west fa§ade (13th century). The tomb nearest the front of the English Mediaeval Court, to the left (facing it), is that of William Longespee, Earl of Salisbury, from Salisbury Cathedral. He is clad in a complete suit of chain armour, with a flat topped head-piece, leaving his eyes and nose only ex¬ posed. His surcoat reaches to his knees, a band thrown over his right shoulder sustains his long straight sword, and a girdle, with a pendant end, confines his surcoat over the loins ; he wears short spurs, like nails; his head rests on a cushion, and his shield is charged with leopards or lioncelles, rampant. The edge of the slab is orna¬ mented with early English trefoil foliage. The material is stone. Stothard, in his “ Monumental Effigies,” gives the following colours : chain armour of a golden colour, surcoat blue, shield blue, embossed with gold leopards, belt and cushion crimson, scabbard and spur-straps black. EXTERIOR-FACING THE NATE. 37 This nobleman was son of Henry II. and Fair Rosa- Incidents in mund ; he was one of the witnesses to the Magna Charta, hls hfc ' and was at the siege of Damietta, in 1224 ; he is believed to have been the first person buried in the new cathedral after its translation from Old Sarum. Next to Longespee is the recumbent effigy of Henry Effigy of III., from Westminster Abbey ; both the statue and the froirTwcst-’ slab on which it rests are of brass, and they were once minster, richly gilt. The king is arrayed in a dalmatic or super¬ tunic, the coverings of the feet are diapered, or gilt, in a running pattern; the lion at the feet is gone, as well as the canopy which surrounded the head ; the brass table is ornamented with lozenge shapes, each enclosing a lion passant gardant ; round three of its sides was the following inscription : ‘ 1 Ici gist Henri trois Rey de inscription. Engletere Seygnevr de Hirlande e due de Aqvitaine le fiz le rey Johan jadis rey de Engletere aki deu face merci.” “Here lies Henry III., King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Aquitaine, son of King John, formerly king of England, to whom may God be gracious. Amen.” Walpole supposes this to have been the first brass statue cast in England, and on his authority, also, Pietro Cavallini is usually mentioned as the artist of the Pietro t'a- tomb and effigy ; but it would appear, on examination of A allmi - the records of Henry III. ’s reign (Hudson Turner, Domest. Archte. p. 88) that among the numerous artificers men¬ tioned, only two are certainly foreigners, John of St. John of St. Omer, and Master William the Florentine, Cavallini’s and William name not occurring at all. The caster of the brass figure ^ e Floreu ' for Henry’s infant daughter Catharine, was William of William of Gloucester, and it seems certain that the statue of Henry Hemy^s'a- himself was not executed till after the death of his tue, when daughter-in-law, Eleanor, Queen of Edward I., who died exccu ~ in 1290; for in the account of her executors, published by the Roxburghe Club, we find one William Torel William engaged on the effigies of a king and queen. That Torel * this king was Henry, seems to be satisfactorily proved by the Records of the Exchequer, in which payment is ordered for building a house “ in which the statues of Queen Eleanor and King Henry are being made.”' (a.d. 1289.) However certain the proof may be of the statue having 38 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. Italian handicraft incontrover- tibly evi¬ dent. Statue from Wells. Bishop Poore from Salisbury. Effigy de¬ scribed. Old Sarum. New Salis¬ bury. Mr. Britton’s opinion on the effigy. Philippa from West¬ minster Abbey. been cast by William Torel, the similarity of whose name to Torelli we have already remarked, still, the peculiar style of the tomb itself would seem incontrovertibly to exhibit the handiwork of Italian artists. Beyond this is a statue from the west front of Wells Cathedral, an excellent example of Early English sculp¬ ture. The first monument on the left hand, facing the nave, is that of Bishop Poer, or Poore, from Salisbury Cathe¬ dral. The effigy is in three-quarter relief, and reposes beneath a cinquefoil arch. The bishop is represented in full canonicals, but of a very plain character, and bearded. He is in the usual conventional attitude of benediction, and holds a staff, his head rests on a cushion, and his feet on a dragon ; round the edge of the slab is foliaged ornament in the early English style. The material is Purbeck marble. It would appear that the original church of Old Sarum was within the precincts of the castle, and that a mortal feud existed between the priests and the garrison. Holinshed says that “the soldiers of the castle and the chanons of Old Sarum fell at oddes, inso-much that after open brawles, they felle at last to sad blows,” and that “ at last the castellanes, espieing their time, gate between the cleargie and the toun, and so coiled them as they turned homewards, that they feared any more to gang about their bounds for the year.” For this reason Bishop Poore sent special messengers to Pome, and Pope Honorius, in consideration of the risk to the holy men, the scarcity of water, and the strength of the high winds, sanctioned their removal to the present cathedral of Hew Saresbyri, as Leland calls it, which was founded in 1220. Richard Poore was translated to the see of Durham in 1225, and died in the year 1237. Mr. Britton says, in his “History of Wiltshire,” that the fact of this being Poore’s monument is doubtful, since “it is well ascertained that the remains of this prelate were deposited in the cathedral at Durham.” The effigy beyond this monument is that of Philippa, wife of Edward III., from Westminster Abbey. EXTERIOR—FACING THE NAVE. 39 The recumbent effigy of the Queen is in alabaster, as was also the beautiful canopy which once surrounded it. She is habited in a stiff boddice, buttoned down Costume, the front, an under tunic and a mantle fastened over her bosom. Her sleeves are buttoned to the wrist, and reach over part of the hands. Her neck and face are bare, and her ears exposed ; her head-dress is charac¬ teristic of the fashion in her time, and projects exceedingly on each side, being braided, or reticulated, both at the top and sides. A small girdle or cord is fastened over her hips, and her feet rest on a lion and a dog. The folds of her drapery are remarkably fine. The statue was originally richly painted and gilt. This queen was daughter of William of Bavaria, Earl of Hainault, and was noted for her fidelity and heroism ; she died in the year 1369. Djrteofher Beyond this are two other statues from the facade statues from of Wells Cathedral, from the same series as the former Monuments 01ieS. # of North- The tombs in the centre are those of Bishops Kilkenny KUkenny, and North wold, both from Ely Cathedral. That of Bishop Kilkenny, on the right as we face the nave, is a fine example of Early English sculpture in three-quarter relief. The bishop is represented in the usual act of benedic¬ tion, and with his pastoral staff; he is clothed in full pontificals. His head, although not in full relief, is shown resting on a cushion, and is surmounted by a trefoiled arch, with a crocketed gable, and a censer¬ bearing angel on each side of it. Along the edges of the slab are placed fully-detached columns, supporting pinnacles, the shafts of the columns being joined at intervals to the slab by boldly-worked pieces of Early English foliage. The monument on the left is a very interesting example of an effigied tomb in the last half of the thirteenth century. The bishop rests beneath a cinquefoil canopy, in full pontificals, his right hand raised in benediction, and in his left an open book and a crozier,f the staff * A more detailed account of this remarkable series of statues, will be found in the description of the interior of the Court. + A crozier properly means only a staff with a cross to it (an archbishop’s). 40 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. Martyrdom of King Edmund. Nortliwold’s death. of which pierces a lion and a dragon placed beneath his feet, typical of his victory over the devil. The base of the slab is ornamented with sculpture, representing the martyrdom of King Edmund by the Danes, a.d. 870, and doubtless alludes to the fact of Northwold having been formerly abbot of St. Edmundsbury, where the king was shot to death by arrows. By the angle on the side of the Danes, the devil is shown crouching and inciting them to their cruelty, whilst, on the side of the martyr, are attendant angels, waiting to receive his soul. On each side of the slab are three figures in niches. On one side three women, the uppermost of which with crown and pastoral-staff, is probably intended for St. Etheldreda, the first abbess of Ely. On the other, three men, the two uppermost with pastoral staffs. At top, on each side of his head, are angels with censers, and above, the soul of the bishop, symbolised by the figure of a new-born child, is being conveyed to heaven by angels. Head of the “ Viei'ge du Trumeau.” Korthwold was consecrated Bishop of Ely in the year 1229 (14th Henry III.), and died in 1254. During EXTERIOR—FACING THE NAYE. 41 his bishopric the present choir of Ely Cathedral was completed (1250). The busts and statues on the right hand in front of the French Mediaeval Court, as we face the nave, are from the Cathedral of Chartres, in the north of France. (13th century.) The outermost statue is from the facade of Wells Cathedral. The busts on the opposite side are those of Henry II. of France (1547—1559), and of Bayard ; Diana of Poitiers, and Louis XII., and one of Henry III. of France. A notice of these busts will be given in the handbook to the Renaissance Courts. The statue beyond those busts is that of the Virgin, Statue from known as the Vierge du Trumeau, from the Cathedral of rarL\ Damc ’ Notre Dame, Paris, an excellent example of French mediaeval sculpture. ENGLISH MEDIEVAL COURT. The central entrance of the Mediaeval Court towards Fafadc of the nave, is formed by the doorway of the west front f r0 m Tin- of Tintern Abbey, Monmouthshire, a beautiful example tern Abbe y» of the Decorated style of Pointed architecture, which flourished from the close of the thirteenth to the close of the fourteenth century. The rest of the facjade is from Guisborough Abbey, borough 3 " Yorkshire ; also in the Decorated style. Abbey. On each side of the Tintern entrance are two statues ; fron^Weils those on the left, are from the west front of Wells described. Cathedral (1213-1239). The proportions are long, the drapery is simple and well arranged, and the faces are characterised by much sweetness of expression ; the heads are crowned with trefoiled coronals ; those on the right, (one of which has a hood, and a mantle fastened over the bosom with a fibula or brooch,) were lately discovered by Mr. G. G. Scott, at Westminster Abbey. They are all fine examples of the Early English period, when sculpture was beginning to be freed from conventional trammels, and the imitation of nature was progressing from the elongated and peculiar style of the old Byzantine school. Tintern Abbey was originally founded by Walter de FRONT ELEVATION TOWARDS NAVE. ENGLISH MEDIAEVAL COURT. 43 Clare, for the order of Cistercian monks, in the year Notice of 1131 ; bnt the abbey church from which this doorway is ^ugh 0 " taken, was not founded till a later period by Roger Abbey. Bigod, Earl of Norfolk, the first mass being performed in the choir a.d. 1268. Other portions of this beautiful building are of still later date. Guisborough Abbey was founded by Robert de Brus, Notice of Lord of Skelton, a.d. 1129, and richly endowed for the monks of the Augustinian order ; but the present building is evidently of much later date. In the year 1375, Edward III. granted a licence to the prior and canons, to fortify and embattle their convent; and the style of the present building indicates the early part of that century or the close of the preceding one. Passing under the Tintern arch, we enter the cloister, The cloister. Westminster figures. Wells figures. Entrance of the Fafade of the English Mediaeval Court, towards the Nave. the interior arches of which are also from Guisborough Abbey. The cloister was a covered ambulatory, always attached Dcscii^tion to the monastery, and arranged round the sides of a 44 THE MEDIAEVAL COURT. Its paintings and encaus¬ tic tiles. Some clois¬ ters used as cemeteries quadrangular area called “the cloister garth.” Large monasteries were frequently provided with two or more of these courts, besides the “ claustrum regulare ”: the sides of the cloister were always open, and were termed “the panes,” and the covered way an “ alley” or “ ambulatory.” Its painting, and its pavement with encaustic tile, in the Crystal Palace reproduction, is on good authority, since Piers Ploughman describes his “ cloystre ” as being not only “ peynt and pourtreyd well clene ” but “and y-paved with poynttyl (point-tile), ich poynt after other.” The cloisters attached to monasteries and cathedrals served as the burial-ground for the ecclesiastics ; occasion- ENGLISH MEDLEVAL COURT. 45 ally earth was brought for them from the Holy Land, or from other spots of peculiar sanctity, and in such cases to be buried within the cloister precincts became an envied privilege, obtained occasionally only by distin¬ guished personages. It is some such cloister, that we may suppose the An ideal Mediaeval Court to have been, with the monuments of the present e “ mighty dead” deposited within its pale. The great cloister - Rochester doorway, through which is seen the font, may be the entrance to the abbey, or cathedral, and the other doorways, those leading to the chapter- house, refectory, or dormitories, of a monastic establish¬ ment. Within the cloister, on the left, is the entrance door- Prince > way of Prince Arthur’s chantry chapel, from Worcester chapel, 8 Cathedral. A very beautiful and elaborate monument in Worcester the Perpendicular style, executed in the year 1504, containing the tomb of the young prince. In the base of the doorway we observe the intersecting its door- and surface-lost mouldings of the late Gothic period. The bribed! two crowned kings on each side, one with a sceptre and globe, and the other with a sword and a church, are exceedingly well executed, the drapery and heads being particularly worthy of remark. The moulding round the arch and sides is ornamented with the wreathed band peculiar to the style, and on the transverse band is seen the Tudor rose, or a rose within a rose—typical of the union of the Houses of York and Lancaster—the Prince of Wales’s feathers, the fleur de lys, Ac. The uppermost arch is of the kind called Tudor or Burgundian, with an ogee arch beneath it ; the pierced tracery above is con¬ tinued in the original along the entire facade of the chapel. Arthur Tudor, Prince of Wales, was the eldest son Notice of of Henry VII. At the age of fifteen he was married to life. Prmce s Catherine, daughter of the celebrated Ferdinand of Spain, and died five months afterwards at Ludlow Castle, in the year 1502. In Leland’s “Collectanea” (vol. v. p. 373) is a very interesting and quaint relation of how the “sorrowfull heavy tidings” of the misfortune were received by the king and queen, who Avere then at Greenwich palace. 46 THE MEDLEYAL COURT. Altar -screen from Win¬ chester, , described. On entering the court from this side of the cloister, the first monument is composed, in its upper portion, by a compartment from the altar-screen of Winchester Cathedral, in the Perpendicular style ; on the plinth to the right is the date 1510, and the initials “ J. R” The Winchester screen, now sadly mutilated, was executed during the bishopric of Fox, to whom the ENGLISH MEDIAEVAL COURT. 47 cathedral owes so much of its beauty. It was elaborately carved, and richly ornamented with statues and colour. The central figure of Christ is now entirely broken ; marks indicating the form of the head still remain, however, and agree remarkably with the proportions of a beautiful head of the Saviour, found by Mr. Wyatt at Winchester, which we have already noticed on the exterior of the Court. On the cill, over the two panels beneath, is an inscription A group unfortunately too much defaced to be decyphered. Within ^! c t | 1 im the the arch is a wood carving of the marriage of the Virgin ; an excellent group of the late Gothic period, the costumes are interesting, and the drapery well managed. Joseph’s feet are furnished with a pair of curious wooden pattens. The panels beneath are from the Burghersh monument The Burg- in Lincoln Cathedral. The spandrils are filled in with monument armorial bearings, and in each compartment is a mourner, ^^ o]n . well designed and executed. The monuments of the its date,’ bishop, who died in 1340, and of his brother, Lord Burghersh, raised in the year 1356, are both of them remarkable as conveying their family name and alliances, the sovereign they served, and the nobles with whom they were connected, by means of armorial bearings ; and pccu- thus showing how rapid was the spread of that practice liarity ' from its introduction in the thirteenth century. The double canopy over the Winchester screen is from Canopy from the Church of St. Mary, at Beverley, in Yorkshire ; the y^sha-e principal portions of which belong to the Transition Deco¬ rated period—circa, 1400. The two statues beneath are from the tomb of Aymer de Valence, at Westminster, supported on corbels from Bath Abbey church. The from well-known and splendid monument at Westminster, from minster, which the statues are taken, was raised to the memory of Aymer de Valence, third son of the Earl of Pembroke ; he was murdered in France, a. d. 1323. Between the Tomb of Winchester compartment and the oriel is placed an elegant valence* 16 niche from Beverley Minster, in the Decorated style. The beautiful oriel window farther on, is that known John as John O’Gaunt’s at Lincoln, which formerly belonged to a large mansion in the lower town, and is now pre- from Liu- served, through the generosity of the late Lord Brownlow, coln ’ in the castle-yard at Lincoln. 48 THE MEDIAEVAL COURT. notice of his life. Meaning of an “oriel:” and of a bay- window. Pugin, in his 11 Specimens,” ascribes it to about the year 1390, whilst a writer in the “ Archaeological Jour¬ nal ” states that it was probably built by Joan Beaufort, daughter of John O’Gaunt, who died at Lincoln, a. d. 1440. The style indicates the former date as most probably the correct one. John O’Gaunt, so called from Ghent, the place of his birth, was the fourth son of Edward III., and was born in 1345. Of an active, hearty nature, he was the true model of an Englishman ; we have no space to recount his various adventures and romantic marriage with Constance, daughter of Pedro the Cruel, King of Spain. About the year 1390 he held court at Lincoln, of which province he was made Earl on the death of Henry de Lacy, and, being then a widower, espoused dame Catherine Swinford at Lincoln, a. d. 1396, in a romantic and honourable manner quite in keeping with his past life. John O’Gaunt, “ time-honoured Lancaster,” was father of Henry Bolingbroke, afterwards Henry IV., and died in the year 1399 ; his name is familiar to us all through Shakspeare’s noble drama of “ Richard II.” The oriel window was not known until the early part of the fourteenth century. “ The oriel ” is mentioned in many early writers, but would seem always to indicate a recess or closet of some sort, and is indifferently applied to a penthouse, a porch, a detached gate-house, a loft, and a gallery for minstrels ; its application to a window is of more modern date (vid. Archseol. vol. xxiii.), and Skelton’s “ Oxonia Antiqua” (vol. ii. p. 144). It was the only window from which a view of the outside of the building could be obtained, the others being raised too far off the ground. The general term of “ Bay, or Bow-window ” is incor¬ rectly applied to all projecting windows. A bay window properly signifies one which commences at the ground and occupies the entire “ bay,” or compartment of a building ; an interesting description of the use of a “baye” window occurs in Walpole’s Anecdotes of Painting (edit. Wornum), p. 134. Statues from Beneath each side of the window is a statue from Chapel VIL ' S Henry VII.’s Chapel, Westminster. St. Paul, and St. West- ’ Bartholomew with a knife, typical of his martyrdom. The minster. ENGLISH MEDLEYAL COURT. statuary work of this chapel was executed in the early part of the sixteenth century, and is highly praised by Flaxman in his “ Academy Lectures ” (1821). Throughout the whole of these sculptures, a Germrn manner is peculiarly discernible, more especially shown in the draperies. For the sake of comparison, we have engraved a beautiful figure, which illustrates the best period of German Gothic sculpture ; the circumstances German influence. 50 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. Easter sepulchre from Lincoln ; probable date. Description of an Easter sepulchre. Curious record. connected with tlie influence of which on cotemporary art, is of great importance not only in England, but throughout the rest of the continent, in the history of the late Pointed style in its movement towards an alto¬ gether new school of art. The figures beneath are from the Easter sepulchre, in Lincoln Cathedral. The three sleeping soldiers are clothed in chain mail, over which are long surcoats, the folds of which are exceedingly well managed. The expression of complete languor in all the figures is rendered with great effect, and the ornamental foliage spreading over their shoulders is particularly good. The costume indicates the latter half of the thirteenth century as the period of their execution. The Easter sepulchre was a recess more or less orna¬ mented, used in the Roman catholic church for the commemoration of Christ’s entombment and resurrection ; some few rich examples still exist in England, as at Hawton, Nottinghamshire, Navenby and Heckington, Lincolnshire, Patrington, Yorkshire, etc. ; these are in stone, with the sleeping guards beneath, and over them a recess, typical of the sepulchre, in which is seen the person of the Saviour rising from the grave, with attendant angels, the whole being surmounted by elaborate tracery, diapering of the side buttresses is a characteristic of the Decorated period. The term ‘ ‘ diaper ” has been derived origin of the by some writers from d’Ypres, on account of its resem- term diaper ' blance to a species of ornamented cloth made in that Flemish town ; but Du Cange derives it from the Italian word “ Diaspro,” jasper, and this would appear to be the most likely origin of the word, since it is known in France as “ diapre. ” The centre door is a fine example of the late Deco- The Roches- rated style from the chapter-house of Rochester Cathedral, ter door ’ and is said to have been erected by John de Shepey, Bishop of Rochester, about the year 1352. The two lowest figures on each side represent the described ; Church, symbolised by a prelate in full pontificals, supporting a church with one arm, and armed with the pastoral staff, the crook of the true shepherd. The Synagogue is typified by a female, blinded by a bandage over her eyes, with a fallen crown, a broken staff, and the tables of the old law reversed. The four figures above them, seated before lecterns, and holding scrolls, may possibly represent the evangelists ; but they are without the usual symbols, and are generally supposed to be Gundulph, Ernulph, Laurence de St. Martin, and Hamo de Hethe—the two first being celebrated, the one as the founder and first bishop of the cathedral, and the other as the compiler of the “ Registrum Roffense.” The other two were bishops in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, Hethe being the immediate predecessor of John de Shepey, by whom the doorway was built. Above them, on each side, are angels, or youths with wings, 58 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. half hidden in flames, who appear to cry out to a soul, represented by a small human figure in glory, beneath a centre canopy. It has been suggested that these may signify human beings in purgatory, and the central figure MAK.TIN .5*- A View through the Rochester Door into Gallery. curious detail. Polychromy of the door. be intended for Christ risen from the dead. The nume¬ rous grotesque and fanciful heads of the inner hollow moulding, the demons’ heads contained in quatrefoils beneath the Church and the Synagogue, and the foliage running in and out of circles on the external angle are exceedingly curious. The polychromy of this monument ENGLISH MEDLEYAL COURT. 59 has been restored after a very careful study of numerous monuments of the same period throughout the country, and more especially in Norfolk. (See Blackburne and Carter’s works upon the subject.) As a testimony that its richness is by no means overdone ; a cast taken from the best preserved monument of the kind which it has been possible to meet with, has been fixed upon the wall immediately at the back of the doorway. This cast, taken from the tomb of Bishop Beckington, at Wells Cathedral, has been coloured and gilt on the spot in precise fac-simile of the original, in which every colour remains perfectly clearly expressed. The very beautiful niche beyond is from Beverley Niche from Minster ; it is in the Decorated style, and in general Minsterf design resembles its pendant on the other side of the door. The sculpture of the two supporting capitals or corbels represents, on the left, two monks praying before a small cur}ous statue of the Virgin and Child on an altar ; the Devil in sculptures, the centre sits cross-legged and apparently bound. On the right are seen two ecclesiastics trampling a figure into the mouth of hell, represented in the usual conven¬ tional manner, by the open, dentated jaws of an enormous dragon or monster. Beyond this is a large and beautiful niche in the Decorated style, from the Cathedral of Ely. The arch cathedral projects at the head, and is picturesquely foliated. Above descnbed - it is a finely draped figure of an archbishop, with one hand raised in the act of benediction, and the other hold¬ ing a cross. The finial is remarkable as being formed by a graceful female figure, with gloves on her hands. The figures on the left compartment represent an ecclesiastic kneeling at prayer, with attendant acolyths, and on the left, priests accompanying and preceding a reliquary or shrine ; some of them bear tapers in their hands. The diapered background is characteristic of the Decorated style (14th century), at which period the niche had obtained great prominence in architectural designs, being considerably recessed, often hexagonal, regularly vaulted with ribs and bosses under the head of the canopy, which projected exceedingly, and formed, with the niche, a small building of itself, on which was dis¬ played all the power of the sculptor. 60 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. Tlie word “ niche ” of modern origin. Monument of Hum¬ phrey de Bohun from Hereford; costume. Plate armour, when estab¬ lished. Figures in the open¬ work. Mr. Britton’s observations on the effigy. Statues from Armagh Cathedral. Tlie word “niche” is of comparatively modern origin, the recess thus called was known during the middle ages as a Tabernacle, Meason (Maison), Habitacle, and Hovel, or Housing. The fine monument beyond this is from Hereford Cathedral, and is usually ascribed to Humphrey de Bohun, Earl of Hereford. It is a fine example of an altar tomb in the early Perpendicular style. On the lowest portion the knight is represented in complete plate armour, with the exception of a piece of chain mail, pendent a short way over the shoulders ; his helmet is conical, the face left open, and the hands are joined in the act of prayer. The arms are furnished with “ brassarts,” or connecting pieces at the elbow, and the “gussets,” or knee-pieces, are chamfered. From a girdle round his loins hangs a sword, and his dagger, the “ misericorde,” by which the stricken-down foe was so frequently dispatched in battle, depends in front. By the side of his feet is a large hound. It was during the reign of Richard II. (1377-1389), that the era of plate, instead of chain armour may be said to have been esta¬ blished ; and it is to the close of that monarch’s reign that the present effigy may be ascribed. Over the effigy is another recess vaulted and ribbed, surmounted by an open screen, in which are seated two figures, one possibly the widow of the deceased, but more probably the Virgin Mary, pleading, with hands joined in prayer, to the Saviour, who bears a globe and cross in one hand, the other being raised in the act of benediction. Mr. Britton, in his description of Hereford Cathedral, says, “ there is probably some error in ascribing these effigies to the Bohuns, for on referring to the account of that family in Dugdale’s baronetage, I do not find that either of them was buried here, or had any immediate connexion with the cathedral.” There were eight or nine Humphrey de Bohuns, and Mr. Gough, in his “ Sepul¬ chral Monuments,” says that the arms indicate a Bohun, but not an Earl of Hereford. In the next composition, the two statues nearest the ground are from Armagh Cathedral : the faces are fine and the drapery well managed ; they would seem by their style to belong to the close of the fifteenth or ENGLISH MEDIEVAL COURT. 61 commencement of the sixteenth century. The figure on the left with the pilgrim’s scrip, and a cap with the scallop shell, may be intended for St. James the Great (of Compostella). In the middle portion is a sitting figure of a king, AKingfiom from the west front of Lincoln Cathedral, one of the set cath°dial, raised by the treasurer Welbourne, about the year 1377. The niche above is a rich example of the Decorated a niche style, from Southwell Minster, Lincolnshire. The appli- Southwell cation of the ivy leaf as an ornament, on the bell of the left Minster, hand capital, is particularly good, and affords a pleasing example of the manner in which the Gothic sculptors pressed nature into their service ; there is no feature in the Nature Gothic style more remarkable or graceful than the con- ^Gothic siant and truthful application of plants, flowers, leaves, sculptors, and other natural subjects as ornamental adjuncts. The fourteenth century, during which the Decorated style flourished, was distinguished by the excellence of its Favourite natural ornamentation, in which the oak, the vine, the folia S e - Cap of a Vaulting Shaft from the Choir of Worcester Cathedral. maple, and the ivy, were especial favourites ; the leaves were copied generally very much as they are found 62 THE MEDLEYAL COURT. Angularity of late work. Mary Mag¬ dalen, from Oxford. Pedestal from Henry VII.’s Cliapel. A notice of the chapel. A niche from Bever¬ ley Minster. Sculpture from Wells. in nature ; and in the case of the capitals were applied as though they were attached in some manner to the bell, and not as though they grew out of the bell, which is a characteristic mark of the Early English period ; as may be seen on reference to the subjoined sketch of an Early English capital. At a later period, the foliage presents more conven¬ tional features and a larger admixture of animals, shields, to Caedmon’s metrical paraphrase of Scripture history, supposed to have been written about the year 1000 (pi. 74, 89, 91. Archseol. vol. xxiv). Another in¬ stance is to be seen in a pontifical at Rouen of about the same date, or even earlier (Archseol. vol. xxv. pi. 30). At Woking Church, Surrey, and at Compton, Bucks, are also specimens of Norman hinges, but they are not 66 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. Early English ; Decorated; Perpendi¬ cular. Statues from Armagh Cathedral ; St. Andrew; St. George ; his armour described. Bishop Bubwith’s monument, from Wells. frequent, the curves are few, rather stiff, and there is little foliated work. In the Early English style, the hinges are often orna¬ mented with elaborate and graceful scroll-work, nearly covering the door, sometimes enriched with leaves on the curves, and animals’ heads ; the nail heads also were more ornamental, and the main bands were stamped or worked with various minute patterns. During the Decorated period, the same elaborate application of iron¬ work is to be found, and it becomes more an essential condition to the strength of the door than a mere orna¬ ment. In the Perpendicular style, or from the fifteenth, century onwards, the application of ornamental iron hinges gradually declined, and wooden panels more or less ornamented form the principal features of the door. The statues on the lower portion of the next monument are from Armagh Cathedral; the treatment of their hair and general character seem to intimate that influence from the German school of late Gothic sculpture, to which we have already alluded. The figure on the right, bare-footed and carrying the cross, is St. Andrew j the drapery is remarkably fine. The other figure repre¬ sents St. George in a complete suit of plate armour ; he wears a conical-formed helmet or “salade” open at the face, and falling over his shoulders and back in one piece ; the fingers of his gauntlets are separated, and the joints armed with gads or gadlings, a species of projecting knobs, sometimes of great use in combat, as appears from the advantage gained by Sir Thomas de la Marche over John de Visconti, in a trial by combat held before Edward III. at Westminster, in which the former disabled his antagonist by dashing his armed knuckles in his face. His spear has an ornamental head, his sword is long and straight, and his feet terminate in the pointed toes or “ sollerets ” characteristic of the fifteenth century. The open-worked screen above them is from the monu¬ ment of Bishop Bubwith, in Wells Cathedral; a very beauti¬ ful example of the Perpendicular style. Nicholas Bubwith, Bishop of Wells, died in 1424, and endowed by will a chantry chapel, with a priest to pray for the repose of his soul. On the upper part are seen two angels with. ENGLISH MEDIAEVAL COURT. 67 crowns on their heads, surmounted by a cross, and in ecclesiastical costume, bearing shields, one charged with a cross fleuri, and the other with the letters J. H. S., very ingeniously interlaced ; the cresting above is very elaborate. The spandrels underneath, containing the Royal arms Spandrels supported by angels, are from Henry VII. ’s Chapel, ^°™ g Henr y Westminster. Chapel. Under the Cloister Arcade, forming the entry to the French and Italian Mediaeval Court, is the doorway of Doorway Bishop West’s chapel in Ely Cathedral, a remarkably rich of Bishop and interesting example of the Perpendicular style. The Ely . Tudor rose is a prominent ornament in the filling in of the spandrels, and on the transverse head above the arch is written, “ Gracia Dei, sum id quod sum. Anno Domini, date; 1534.” “ By God’s goodness, I am what I am.” The influence of the Renaissance style is to be remarked influence of in the elaborate ornament of the hollowed projection sance^ eiiaiS * above; the sides being filled in with human figures holding shields, their bodies terminating in thistle-foliage carved in the Antique taste, whilst in the centre is a complete bit of Renaissance design, surmounted by an angel holding a scroll, in the foliage on each side of which are two men in the peculiar puffed and slashed costume of the time of Henry VIII. All the ornament is very small in its masses and delicate in detail, and the plinth is characterised by the intersecting and surface-lost mouldings peculiar to the late Gothic period. The other face of the doorway is similar to this, but opposite somewhat bolder in its style. The angels in the spandrels ^ o c ® r ^ f ay ame bear scrolls wuth beaded borders ; the same motto, but without a date, is over the entrance ; the figures in the angles of the projecting hollow have the same sort of foliated terminations as on the other side, and the dragons fighting are very marked figures ; the entire style of ornament affording an interesting example of those gradual steps by which the Renaissance style, first applied to the ornamental features, made progress towards a more complete ascendancy. The spandrels in the outer face of the Cloister porches, Spandrels towards the Court, are from Bath Abbey Church, and Abbey ath f 2 '68 very late Gothic. Probable -date. 'Criticism of Professor Cockerell. THE MEDIEVAL COURT. show the peculiar style of ornamental foliage found generally in that cathedral, which is one of the most interesting in England as an evidence of the state of Gothic architecture in the first half of the sixteenth century, having been mainly built between the years 1495 and 1570. Above the band of quatrefoils which separates the lower from the upper portion of the walls of the Court, may be seen a very important series of illustrations of mediaeval design in— THE LINCOLN AND WELLS SCULPTURES. The series of spandrel figures are from the choir— usually called the Angel choir—of Lincoln Cathedral, the date of which is probably about the year 1280, at which period the choir was lengthened and reworked. These allegorical figures exhibit little trace of the lankiness and stiffness of preceding works. All the freedom and naturalness ”—writes Professor Cockerell, to whom is due the merit of having been the first justly to appre¬ ciate and describe these sculptures — <£ attributed sub¬ sequently to Giotto, who was but an infant when they were done, are here anticipated, and strike us in every instance.” The greater part of our observations upon this subject have been based upon the accomplished Professor’s valuable work on the Iconography of Wells Cathedral, Lincoln Cathedral, Ac. (Parker. 1851.) In the Presbyterium, or Angels’ choir, “ consisting of five bays, a cycle of thirty subjects, illustrative of the gradual unfolding of Divine revelation, is displayed with most admired learning and taste, and may not only challenge, in these respects, the works of sculpture or painting of any country in the thirteenth or succeeding century, but will possibly be found to establish a priority of merit in the English school hitherto but little suspected.” * * Without expressing any decided opinion, which it would he unwise to do on so difficult a question, we would simply, in the present narrow limits, refer the visitor to the examples of Mediaeval Sculpture in the French Court, as affording an interesting com¬ parison between contemporary works in England and France. THE LINCOLN AND WELLS SCULPTURES. 69 We insert here an engraving of a French statue (thirteenth century) which may serve as a comparison with the sculptures at Lincoln, of the same period. The Professor believes the Lincoln sculptures to have Probably been ordered by the celebrated Bishop Grosstete or Great- Bishop Grosstete* Statue of an Angel, from Itheims Cathedral. head, author of the u Chateau d’Amour ” and the “ Pricke of Conscience ” (allegorical religious works), who died in 1254, two years only before the commencement of this work ; or, by a mind hardly less learned and cultivated. The first in the series, commencing on the north wall The series over John o’Gaunt’s window, is an angel seated on clouds, ^fthe^rpro- having in his hand a scroll of small extent, compared per order, with the succeeding ones, and issuing from the angle of the Presbyterium, thus signifying the comparative obscurity of the early promises to Abraham and the Patriarchs, as to the coming of the Messiah. 70 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. No. 2 is David crowned and sitting on his throne, his harp in his hand ; the Patriarch has extended wings, as showing his Divine relationship and angelic mission. No. 3. An angel holding a more developed scroll as containing the prophecies of David, and more especially the Promise, “The Lord hath sworn in truth unto David, of the fruit of thy body will I set upon thy throne.” No. 4. An angel sounds a trumpet energetically as “ proclaiming the name of the Lord,” “ the fame of David into all lands,” “in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed,” stands upon her lap, with his right hand on her bosom, as confessing the source of his human existence, while with his left he draws her veil and exhibits to mankind, her, whom “all generations shall henceforth call blessed., 57 Above, a young angel ministers incense, and at her feet, for the last time, appears the monster serpent, accord¬ ing to the prediction that ‘ 1 her seed' should bruise his head. 55 Nos. 16, 17, and 18. Express most epigraphically the one great sacrifice—the passion of our Lord and the atone¬ ment—its occasion, the fall of our first parents, The THE LINCOLN AND WELLS SCULPTURES. 3 first angel holds the crown of thorns ; the second, an indignant cherub, with a flaming sword, drives the guilty pair from paradise ; the third holds up the spear and sponge enveloped in a napkin ; which may possibly allude The Suda- to that called the “ Sudarium.”* rmm ‘ In Nos. 19, 20, and 21, we have the subjects of the Resurrection and the Judgment. In the first the Saviour crowned with thorns points to the wound in his side, while a ministering angel holds up a small figure, sym¬ bolical of prayer, the hands of which are raised in prayer, as before in No. 14. In the second, an angel holds the balance ; the weightier righteous fall into his lap, while the lighter ‘ e found wanting” are scattered from the ascending cup and fall to the ground. In the third, the angel with incense propitiates the Saviour. (See Rev. viii. 3.) In the next bay we have the doctrine of rewards ; the crowns of life held by the central angel No. 23, while No. 22, reading in a scroll, a palm branch in his right, significant of martyrdom, refers to Rev. xx. 4, and No. 24 seeks anxiously in the Book of Life for those whose names are not “found written” according to Rev. xx. 11—15. The following bay is devoted to praise. Nos. 25, 26, play on the dulcimer and viol, while 27, holding a scroll in his left, and a palm branch in the right, proclaims “the everlasting gospel to every nation, kindred and tongue,” according to Rev. xiv. 6. No. 28. An angel playing on a harp refers to Rev. xiv. 1, “ harping -with their harps.” No. 29. (Rev. xii. 1). An angel holds up the sun in Tli&stin and his left and the moon in his right hand, and a scroll descending from it ; between the horns of the moon is a meaning;, female head, the former seeming to represent Christ, c ’ % * A napkin with which Christ wiped the perspiration from his face, on his way to crucifixion, and which was miraculously impressed with his features. According to the Roman Catholic Church, this napkin was presented by St. Veronica to our Saviour, while upon the “via Crucis,” or passage to the Cross. The original relic, which is said to be treasured at St. Peter’s at Rome, was regarded as an object of very peculiar sanctity throughout the middle ages, and was universally known as the “Vemicle.” 74 THE MEDIAEVAL COURT. Evidences of their author¬ ship. Extract from Records. English sculptors ; English architects and pain¬ ters ; other suggestions; the Free Masons of all nations. the sun of righteousness, the latter his reflection, the Church, the sacred depository of doctrine. The terminating angel, .No. 30, holds in his hand a scroll, part of which only is unfolded, according to Rev. ’ xxii. 10, “I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.” Such is the learned Professor’s explanation of this remarkable series of sculptures, whose allegorical meaning he thus translates, and whose artistic merit he thinks “vies most advantageously” with the best works of Cimabue, the Pisani, Giotto, or Orcagna ; and he con¬ tinues to remark, “ that if we do not possess direct, we possess circumstantial evidences of their English origin, of such weight as cannot easily be controverted ; and these we owe to the researches of the Rev. J. Hunter (Archseol. vol. xxix), who, from the publications of the Record Commission, has recovered the names of nine sculptors, four architects, and two painters, who were employed shortly after this epoch in those crosses to Queen Eleanor, which have always been regarded among the most elegant mediaeval productions of these arts. The names Mr. Hunter has given us are Richard de Stowe, John de Battle, Dymenge de Legeri, Michael de Canterbury, Richard and Roger de Crundale, William de Ireland, Alexander de Abyndon, Master William Torrel, (sculptors) ; William de Hoo, William de Suffolk, Roger de Newmarsh, (architects) ; Walter de Durham, John de Bristol, (painters). Only two names in this catalogue, the third and the ninth, appear to be foreign ; and it is gratifying to vindicate, through such evidences as these discoveries reveal, the genius of our English ancestors, as conspicuous in that century in art and science as in chivalry and learning, in which they have been pre-eminent in all times.’’—-(Cockerell’s Sculptures of Wells Cathedral, &c. p. 90). Without absolutely contravening the Professor’s opinion, we would venture to submit a few points, which at least invalidate the conclusiveness of the evidence upon which his opinion is based. Firstly, we know that the Free Masons, who were the best sculptors of the period, and who were almost universally employed, were of all nations. In the Last THE LINCOLN AND WELLS SCULPTURES. 75 Judgment executed on the portals of Kheims Cathedral in the thirteenth century, are a series of angels designed in an excellent style of art, from which we select the following Angels, from the Last Judgment, at Rheims Cathedral. for illustration, between which and the Lincoln angels an interesting comparison may be instituted. Secondly, we know that all the best benefices were French and held by Frenchmen and Italians, and the accounts °f palates in cathedrals show how powerful an influence these culti- England, vated ecclesiastics exercised over Art, and the works under their charge. Thirdly, we have the recorded fact that the chief william of master of works of King Henry III. was William of Fiorence. Florence. Fourthly, we can judge from the tomb of King Henry Ill.’s Henry III., which is unquestionably (from its mosaics) Italian, how superior foreign artists were to English at the period. And, fifthly, the fact of the men being known as Uncertainty Richard of Stowe, or John of Battle, proves nothing, since of surnames, these very men may have been foreigners; their names— surnames being unknown—being given them only as 76 THE MEDLZEYAL COURT. Bosses from Tewkesbury and Lincoln. Tewkesbury Abbey. Lincoln cloisters. A notice of bosses; Description of the bosses. from Salis¬ bury; Tewkesbury and Lincoln bosses. indicating the place at which they had worked, or from which they were impressed into the Royal service. Each complete arch of the Court itself contains two bosses from Tewkesbury Abbey Church (the two lowest), and one from the cloisters of Lincoln Cathedral. Tewkesbury Abbey Church was built or restored by Robert Fitz Haimon, who was buried there in 1107. The church was not consecrated until the year 1121. Robert of Gloucester speaks of him as ‘ ‘ Syre Roberd le fyz (fils) Hay in, that let vorst arere The Abbey of Tewkesbury and monckes brogte there.” The cloisters of Lincoln Cathedral were built about the year 1280, the bosses forming a portion of the wooden roof which covers them. Bosses were not used until the period of stone-vaulted roofs, during the later period of the Norman style. It would appear that the vault was frequently painted blue, to represent the vault of heaven, the place of the Deity being assigned to the altar end, and the bosses represent¬ ing regular grades of the celestial host, increasing in importance as they approached the Divine throne. The bosses of the four half spandrels to the left on entering the Court from the Nave are all from the collec¬ tion of the late Mr. Cottingham, and are as follows :—- In the first half spandrel the head of a Bishop. 2. A virgin encircled with a rayed glory. 3 and 4. Two foliated bosses—the last being a good example of the Early English period. On the north wall the first half spandrel contains an angel harping, from Salisbury Cathedral. That over John o’Gaunt’s window is from Salisbury Cathedral. The first boss in the arch which commences on the left of the wall opposite the entrance from the Nave, represents a throned figure with the hands raised and the palms turned outwards, probably God in the act of creation, though without the usual divine attributes. No. 2. Christ crowned and holding a globe, with, one hand raised in benediction towards the Virgin, who- is also crowned, and has her hands raised in prayer or intercession. The upper Lincoln boss represents two seated figures,, THE LINCOLN AND WELLS SCULPTURES, tlie one on the right holding up the face of him to the left by the chin ; subject unknown. Second arch. No. 1. The twelve Apostles and the Virgin in the centre. The Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove, is seen descending upon them. No. 2. A similar group, surmounted by clouds, in which drapery is shown ; probably a representation of the last ascent of Christ into heaven. The Lincoln boss is formed by the seated figure of a female saint. Third arch. Nos. 1 and 2. Angels bearing the emblems of the Crucifixion ; to the left, a scourge and a cross, to the right a crown and a sponge. Lincoln boss. Seated figures of Christ and the Virgin Mary. Boss from the Cloisters of Lincoln Cathedral. Fourth arch. Nos. 1 and 2. Angels with the scourge and the spear, emblems of Christ’s death. 78 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. Spandrels from Stone Church, Kent, and West¬ minster. Bosses from Salisbury Chapter- house. Continua¬ tion of Tewkesbury and Lincoln bosses. Lincoln boss. A seated figure, apparently the Deity or the Saviour, with one hand raised in the act of benediction. Fifth arch. Two angels, with censers. Lincoln boss. A figure apparently killing a pig, symbolic of destroying the lusts of the flesh, or, perhaps, a representation of December, that month being usually indicated in the same manner. Sixth arch. Two angels, one playing a sort of cithern with a point, the other with a harp. Lincoln boss. A very graceful figure of the Virgin and Child, crowned. None of these figures have the nimbus, the absence of which renders it difficult to ascer¬ tain with certainty many of the subjects. The two half spandrels are filled in with scroll-work from Stone * Church, Kent (No. 1), and Westminster (No. 2), and the four half spandrels at the cloister angle are filled in with very interesting examples of Early English work from the Chapter-house of Salisbury Cathedral. No. 1. Noah sending forth the dove from the Ark, to see if the waters had decreased. No. 2. Abraham entertaining the angels. No. 3. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. No. 4. Lot’s wife turned info a pillar of salt. The first complete arch on the wall over the cloister continues the series of the Tewkesbury and Lincoln bosses-. No. 1. The offering of the Magi. No. 2. The Last Supper. The lower figure Waiting at the table appears to be Judas Iscariot. Lincoln boss. A seated Winged figure, apparently an angel at the sepulchre. Second arch. No. 1. The entry of Christ into Jeru¬ salem on an ass’s back. No. 2. An angel with cymbals. Lincoln boss. A seated female figure, apparently the Virgin, receiving the Annunciation. Third arch. No. 1. Christ with the cross, attended * This beautiful little church was erected circa 1270, at the close of Henry III.’s reign and the beginning of Edward I. It is ex¬ cellently illustrated in Mr. Caveler’s valuable work on Giothic Architecture, and in the publication of the Topographical Society. THE LINCOLN AND WELLS SCULPTURES. 79 by ministering angels, rises from the grave. Small sleep¬ ing figures of the watchers are seen below him. No. 2. An angel playing on a harp ; the cover of the harp is shown surrounding the lower portion of it. Lincoln boss. A female head. Fourth arch. No. 1. An angel holding two figures, whose backs are turned to him. Subject unknown. No. 2. An ornamental boss. Lincoln boss. A figure seated in the clouds, typical of heaven, dressed in full pontificals, and bearing a pastoral staff. The large statues beneath the upper range of niches are Colossal from the west front of Wells Cathedral, and represent from principally Royal personages connected with English Cathedral; history. The west front of that cathedral is covered with a very remarkable series of statues illustrative of the various bishops of the diocese and the kings under whom they held office, combined with Scriptural subjects. It is to Bishop Jocelyn Trotman (1206-1242), that England is their date; indebted for this splendid example of sculptural art in the thirteenth century ; and it is a gratifying fact, that he was one of the few native Englishmen raised to that dignity. We have not space enough to enter into details respecting the bishop and his great work at Wells Cathe¬ dral, for which, we refer the visitor to Professor Cockerell’s by whom work already quoted. We append a drawing from the descnbed - sculpture of Rheims Cathedral, as an example of French art, executed about the same period. It is difficult to identify with any certainty the examples here exhibited, with the drawings given in Mr. Cockerell’s work, but, as nearly as we can make them out, they appear to be as follows :—The first on the left—entering from statue of the centre of the cloister—“ an elegant statue, her right Ethelhilda > hand in her necklace, and her left holding her garment, may have been Ethelhilda, Edward the elder’s daughter, a lay sister.” The next one in the angle may be Ethelred II., an of Ethel- unfortunate monarch of the Anglo-Saxon line who died red 1L ’ in Normandy, a.d. 1016. In the next angle, is a statue which may probably be of Birinus intended to represent Birinus, the apostle of the south ( blsbop ^» 80 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. of Etliel- bert; and west of England, who in the year 635 converted Kinegils, king of Wessex, and his court ; “ he holds,” Statue, from the Portal of Rheims Cathedral. says Mr. Cockerell, 411 in his hands, the corporalia ” as the credentials of his mission, and sufficient evidence to us of his identity. The next in the angle of the wall, a little to the right of Bishop Alcock’s niche, appears to be Ethelbert, THE LINCOLN AND WELLS SCULPTURES. 81 who reigned six years, in constant warfare with the Danes, a.d. 860. The two centre ones, over each side of the Rochester two unap- door, are^difficult of identification ; they appear, from their propnated ’ costume, to be representations of religious characters. The two figures from Rheims Cathedral, in the accom¬ panying wood-cut, illustrate the style of somewhat similar subjects at the same period in France. Statues, from tlie Portal of Rheims Cathedral. The statue in the angle beyond these, is probably that of Edmund of Edwy, “the ill-fated son of Edmund, who fell a sacri¬ fice to the disputes of the married and the monastic orders, both in reputation and in life, after three years’ reign only,” a.d. 958. In the angle over the cloister, is a crowned female of Adelicia; figure; this “masterpiece of the sculptor of Wells, for grace and dignity, can be no other than Adelicia, the second wife of Henry ; the fair maid of Brabant, 4 the maid withouten vice,’ the theme of the troubadours, and the admiration of all.” In 1138, she was married to William de Albini, “ of the strong arm,” but impelled by a religious sentiment, she deserted her family and husband and retired to the nunnery of Affligham, near Alost, in Flanders, where she died, a.d. 1151. The remaining angle is occupied by “ a prince with ofCurthose. a 82 THE MEDIAEVAL COURT. Brackets from the octagon of Ely Cathe¬ dral ; their date and subject. Life of Eth- eldreda; Second mar¬ riage of Etheldreda; her first marriage; Miracle of the water; a cap on the side of his head, his left hand raised to his neck-strap in the conventional attitude, and with his right lifting his cloak and discovering his leg, booted with a short hose of remarkable form ; displaying, beyond all equivocation, and with (more than) the accustomed clearness of demonstration, the unfortunate prince Robert Curthose, Duke of Normandy.” The six brackets supporting the six angle statues are very interesting examples of sculptural art in the fourteenth century, taken from the celebrated octagon of Ely Cathedral, designed by the sub-prior, Alan de Walsingham, in 1321, and completed in 1343. They represent passages in the life of St. Etheldreda, daughter of Anna, king of East Anglia, and Hereswitha, his queen, born in Suffolk, circa 630. At a very early age she resolved to devote herself to the service of God and to remain a virgin ; this she succeeded in through many difficulties, being twice married, once through her parents’ authority and another time through the influ¬ ence of her uncle Ethelwold ; she finally founded a con¬ ventual establishment in the Island of Ely, of which she became abbess, and ended her days there. The first bracket on the left, on entering from the centre of the cloister, shows a bishop who gives her in marriage to a young man, whilst, to the right of the same, she bends over the figure of a man lying extended on a couch. This probably represents her second marriage to Egfrid, son of Oswy, king of Northumberland, having previously guarded her personal sanctity by a private agreement. The sick man on the right may be intended for her uncle Ethelwold, to whom, by this act of self-sacrifice, she gives fresh life, and by whom she was almost compelled into this marriage. The next beyond this, represents a crowned figure, probably her father, giving her in marriage to Tonbert, her first husband, a young nobleman, by whose death, three years afterwards, she came into possession of the Isle of Ely. The priest by the side of the king holds up his hand in the act of benediction ; bridesmaids and bridesmen accompany the young pair. In the next, she is seen seated on a rock surrounded ENGLISH MEDIEVAL COURT. 8! with water, at the edge of which are shown men on horseback. It would appear, that, disgusted with court life, the saintly Etheldreda or Audry, retired to Colding- ham Abbey. Egfrid, her husband, determined, however, to regain her by force ; apprised of his design, she fled, but would have fallen into his hands, had not a large body of water suddenly surrounded her and protected her for some days ; which miracle convinced Egfrid of her sanctity, and he gave up the pursuit. She is shown praying, with her attendants by her side. In the next angle, she is seen escorted by angels, and to a mafe^ preceded by a kneeling monk, who loosens the fetters from factor, and the legs of a figure lying with hands joined in entreaty f re e; im beneath a porch or in prison. This illustrates a miracle which occurred five centuries after her death, when a noted malefactor and usurer was imprisoned at London, and was to have suffered death ; but, praying fervently to St. Etheldreda and St. Benedict, his patron saints, they both visited him ; and Benedict, at the command of Etheldreda freed his limbs from their bonds. He told his guards of the divine agency by which he had escaped from his fetters; it soon spread abroad, and Queen Matilda, seeing the will of Heaven thus manifested, gave him his liberty. These fetters, the now reformed usurer took back as a trophy to Ely. In the next she is represented seated on a throne, sheisinsti- or chair, as abbess of her new convent ; on the left the abbess • bishop is seen giving into her hands the insignia of her office, and on the left, the bishop—probably Wilfred— presents the staff of her office to her with one hand, and raises the other over her in benediction. The attend¬ ant clergy bear various articles necessary to the ceremony of institution, and on the right are the nuns of her establishment. In the next angle, beneath Robert Curthose, she is her death, shown dying on a couch, a bishop, whom Hr. Miln er calls “the Priest Hunna,” prays over her, and her relatives and friends mournfully await her approaching death. On the right she is shown in the coffin, surrounded by her friends and followers. * * The descriptions of these eorbels in Bentham’s, Ely’s, and Carter’s Ancient Sculpture, are curiously inaccurate. Q 2 84 THE MEDLEYAL COURT. Heads from various cathedrals; parapet from St. Ste¬ phen’s Chapel, Westmin¬ ster; Monuments in the court. Queen Eleanor from West¬ minster : her cos¬ tume ; inscription. Richard de Coverdale and William Torrel, artists; Thomas de Leghtone. Two of the very fine and expressive heads immediately beneath these brackets, are from the reredos of Bristol Cathedral : the third, near the Bohun Monument, is from Gloucester Cathedral; two are from the collection of Mr. Cottingham, and the remaining one is from West¬ minster Abbey. The pierced parapet at the top of the cloister is from St. Stephen’s Chapel, Westminster. On the floor of the Mediaeval Court are ranged some of the most interesting and finest monumental effigies in England. To the left, on entering from the cloister arcade, is that of Queen Eleanor, first wife of Edward I. The tomb is of Petworth marble, covered with a slab of copper gilt, on which lies her statue cast in metal (latten or laton, a species of bronze). Each side of the tomb is divided into six compartments containing the arms, alternately placed, of England ; three lions passant gardant—of Castile and Leon ; first and fourth, a castle ; second and third, a lion rampant—and of Ponthieu, of which earldom she was heiress ; three bendlets with a bordure. The statue itself, evidently a portrait, is admirably executed. The Queen is represented crowned, with unconfined flowing hair ; she wears a long plain tunic, the neck exposed, and a mantle without the usual band fastening over the bosom ; her hands are bare, her feet rest on two lions, and her head on two cushions. Round the edge was placed the following inscription :— Ici gist Alianor jadis Reyne de Engletere, rey Edeward fiz ler . . . . Puntif (Ponthieu ?), del alme deli Dieu par sa pite eyt (aie) merci. Amen.” cular attention for the excellence of their natural foliage, symbolic monsters, Ac., and are peculiarly good specimens of early French Gothic work. The canopies above are from the later portion of the same choir (fourteenth century). 112 Chapel of St. Stephen, N otreDame, Paris. Sainte Cha- pelle, Paris; Chartres; Paris. Christ teaching, from Char¬ tres. Nino Pisano. Paris. THE MEDIAEVAL COURT. Over the first arches is a group of four medallions, from the chapel of St. Stephen, Notre Dame, Paris. Above them is Stephen, the Protomartyr, from the same chapel. Passing beneath the centre arches, the same arrange¬ ment of the arches from Notre Dame is continued. The first statues above on the left side are two seated figures from St. Stephen’s chapel, Notre Dame, Paris, on corbels, from the oratory of Louis XI., in the Sainte Chapelle, Paris, built in 1245 by Pierre de Montereau. Over the arch of the adjoining door is a beautiful statue of the Yirgin and Child, the gable being topped by a cruciform nimbus from Chartres Cathedral. On the right side of the door near the ground, are two very fine kneeling figures from Chartres Cathedral, surmounted by a bas- relief from the choir of Notre Dame, Paris, the descrip¬ tion of which—the series being continued into the gallery—we defer to the end. The corbels above the canopies are from the oratory of Louis XI. in the Sainte Chapelle ; supporting small seated figures, the one of Benevolence or Pity (nearest Nave) being from Chartres Cathedral, and the other from St. Stephen’s chapel in Notre Dame, Paris. On the opposite side—commencing at the gallery end—the ground range of arches is from the later series of the Notre Dame choir, within which are three adoring angels from the Sainte Chapelle, Paris. Above these is one of the bas-reliefs from the choir of Notre Dame, surmounted by canopies from the later series of the same choir. The statue of Christ teaching, is from Chartres Cathedral. He has the cruciform nimbus, the drapery is good, and it is an interesting example of early French Gothic sculpture. The half-figure of the Virgin and Child, over the door, is by Nino Pisano, from the small church of La Spina, Pisa. Nino was the son of the celebrated Andrea Pisano ; the time of his death is unknown, but his last work bears the date 1370. The lower arch beyond the door is from the early portion of the choir of Notre Dame, Paris, surmounted by one of the bas-reliefs from the choir of Notre Dame (described, as above stated, with the entire series) ; the canopies above are from the later portion of the same choir. FRENCH. AND ITALIAN MEDIAEVAL COURT. 113 The peculiarities of foliage at Notre Dame, interesting as examples of early French Gothic work, are in some measure illustrated by the accompanying wood-cut. The small statue of the Virgin is from Amiens Cathe¬ dral (1220—1288.) Beneath the window is the infant Christ in a cradle, from Chartres Cathedral. Passing the Certosa window is one of the early arches from the choir of Notre Dame, within which is a boss with the Coronation of the Virgin, from Vezelay Church, Burgundy, remarkable for its excel¬ lent grouping and drapery ; the bas-relief above is from Notre Dame, representing the Assumption of the Virgin, a work of great merit, surmounted by canopies from the later portion of Notre Dame choir, above which are two figures with their canopies from Chartres Cathedral. The jambs of the last door contain twelve seated figures from the chapel of St. Stephen, Notre Dame, Paris; the upper portion is crowned with rich canopies, called the Amiens. Excellent group from Vezelay Church. Various remarkable examples of French sculpture. 114 THE MEDLEYAL COURT. Iron-work from Notre Dame, Paris. Extract from the Abb6 Sauval. Evidently wrought iron. Eemarkable sculptures from the hoir of New Jerusalem canopies, from Chartres Cathedral; and, lastly, comes the magnificent iron-work of the south door, west front of Notre Dame, at Paris. Sauval, in his “ Antiquities of Paris,” says that these hinges were executed by Biscornette, a famous smith of the sixteenth century ; but their style points to a much earlier period (probably the early part of the thirteenth century), though they may have been restored by him. “ The iron of the doors,” he says, “ has been admirably bent (roule) by Biscornette. The sculpture, the birds, and the ornaments, are marvellous ; they are made of wrought iron, the invention of Biscornette, which died with him. He melted (fondoit) the iron with an almost incredible industry, rendering it flexible and tractable, and gave it all the forms and scrolls (enroulements) he wished, with a e douceur et une gentilesse ’ which surprised and astonished all the ironworkers. Gaegart, ‘ serrurier du Hoi,’ broke off some pieces of the hinges in order to discover the secret; but confessed that he got nothing for his pains and experiments, and had great difficulty to use even that little ; these gates have been made 120 years, and are yet admired by all smiths. The wonder is that none of the trade have ever been able to tell precisely the mode of manufacture ; some say it is cast (fondu) and filed up, others that it is wrought with the hammer, others that it is ‘ fer moulef which they call ( fer de barreau,’ the most skilful of them think that it is cast iron without any soldering. However, the secret^ died with Biscornette, for nobody ever saw him work.” It is traditionally reported that Biscornette entered into a compact with the doer of all evil to aid him in these beautiful hinges. Our own opinion is that they are of wrought iron, that they were executed in the latter part of the thirteenth century, and that all that Biscornette ever did to them, was, most probably, to repair them ; and we may add that M. Boulanger, in the year 1844, made hinges for the church of La Madeleine at Yezelay, of quite as fine a character and at an expense little exceeding what cast-iron hinges would have cost. The sculptures in relief from the choir of Notre Dame at Paris deserve particular attention as fine examples of art in the early Gothic era, in which the influence of FRENCH AND ITALIAN MEDIAEVAL COURT. 115 the Great Nicolo Pisano, as illustrated by the accom- Notre panying sketch, may be doubtless perceived ; an influence Paris.’ which we believe to have had more effect on the style of Gothic sculpture, than is usually attributed to it. * St. Peter giving the keys to St. Dominick. (From the Tomb of St. Dominick at Bologna ; by Nicolo Pisano ) They are probably of the thirteenth century ; but we may remark here, that reliable information as to the Cathedral of Paris is scarce ; the voluminous iC Car- tulaire,” or records of Notre Dame, published in 1850 by M. Guerard, containing hardly any notices of its constructional history. The first of the series commences in the gallery at the Earlierseries entrance to the French Mediaeval Court on the lower described> range; the subject being the Meeting of Mary and Elizabeth ; beyond which is the Angel appearing to the Shepherds—not injudiciously represented on a small scale, as an adjunct only to the actual history. 3. The Nativity. 4. The Adoration of the Magi or Kin gs ; the * In Galignani’s “Guide to Paris” they are ascribed to the year 1352 ; this date most probably applies only to the later series. 116 THE MEDIAEVAL COUET. Later series. Virgin is throned and crowned, and above the infant Christ is seen the guiding star and angel. 5. The Massacre of the Innocents, with Herod on the left, in whose ear the devil is seen whispering. 6. The Flight into Egypt, very well conceived, and interesting as a proof how closely the conventional treatment of sacred subjects was followed down to the sixteenth century ; the small shrine containing two children, apparently on an altar, may be intended for a way-side chapel. Returning to the entrance, the first subject on the upper range is No. 7. The Circumcision. 8. Christ with the Doctors ; the drapery of the Virgin is peculiarly well arranged. 9. John baptising Christ; the Saviour is here first represented with a nimbus or glory round his head—the meaning and history of which has already been noticed in the Handbook of the Byzantine Court. 10. The Marriage at Cana, and the miracle of converting water into wine ; the hand of the Saviour is raised in the act of benediction. 11. Christ’s Entry into Jerusalem. 12. The Last Supper. (This will be found in the French Mediaeval Court itself, as well as the following.) 13. Christ washing the Disciples’ Feet. 14. The Agony in the’ Garden ; and, close to them, the Saviour praying to the Deity, whose head is encircled by a nimbus and sur¬ rounded with clouds, one hand being extended in bene¬ diction. The other series, of somewhat later date, commences on the other side of the central doorway, with Christ appearing to MaryMagdalen after his resurrection from the dead. The composition and drapery of the figures deserve.- great praise. The Saviour bears a spade, in allusion to John xx. 15, “ She supposing him to be the gardener , saith unto him,” &c. 2. The traditional sub¬ ject of Christ blessing the holy Women, or the three Marys—remarkable* for the excellence of its grouping. 3. Christ discoursing with Peter. (John xxi. 15, &c.) 4. Christ appears to Cleophas and another disciple as they journey to Emmaus. (Luke xxiv. 13, &c.) A little farther on he is seen at table with them—and “he took bread and blessed it, and brake, and gave to them, and their eyes were opened and they knew him, and he vanished out of their sight.” (Luke xxiv. 30, 31.) FRENCH AND ITALIAN MEDIAEVAL COURT. 11 5. Christ appears for the third time to his Disciples, “ and taketh bread and giveth them, and fish likewise.” (John xxi. 13). 6. The Incredulity of St. Thomas ; the composition and expression of the principal figures are of great merit. 7. Christ sending forth his Disciples to preach. (This is placed in the French Mediaeval Court.) 8 The Miraculous Draught of Fishes. (John Statue of an Apostle, from a drawing by Professor Hautmann of Munich, xxi. 4 to 9.) Simon Peter hearing that it was the 118 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. Lord, who stood on the shore, “girt his fisher’s coat unto him (for he was naked), and did cast himself into the sea, and the other disciples came in a little ship.” 9. The last subject would appear to illustrate passages of St. Luke (xxiv. 45 to 49), where the Saviour appears to his disciples, and explains the nature of his mission to them. The excellent arrangement of drapery evinced in this .series, was a marked feature in the best Gothic style throughout Europe. The illustration on the preceding page serves to demonstrate the success with which it was treated by the German sculptors. Statues on Looking towards the Nave, the statues placed on the Court. ° f ground are, St. Peter and a Madonna and Child, from Statues by the Church of La Spina at Pisa, by Nino Pisano. The from Pisa^° Madonna is crowned, and carries the infant Christ, clothed, and almost upright, on her left arm; the Head of the statue of the Virgin, by Nino Pisano, from the Church of La Spina at Pisa. drapery, attitude, and hands are very beautifully de¬ signed. St. Peter holds in his right hand a book, in his left a key ; his drapery also is excellent ; the influence of the German Gothic sculptors on the style of these statues is very marked. Nino flourished about the middle of the fourteenth century. FRENCH AND ITALIAN MEDIAEVAL COURT. 119 The statue in the centre of the court is by Giovanni by Giovanni Pisano, and from its holding a pair of scales would seem Pisano; to represent Justice. The eight small figures beneath typify the Virtues and Sciences ; the inscriptions are illegible, but we recognise Art, with a pair of compasses, Charity, with babes, and Wisdom, with serpents. The pedestal is formed by a portion of the altar in the church of Or San Michele, Florence, by Andrea Orcagna, one Andrea of the most beautiful examples of Italian Gothic existing. Orcagna. The remainder of the pedestal is formed by a beautiful series of bas-reliefs from Rouen Cathedral; of the best period of the French Gothic style. Giovanni was son of the great Nicolo Pisano, whose Notice of fame he worthily sustained, though inclining in his pjgjno? 1 manner to the Gothic or sentimental style, rather than to works; the revived Antique, as commenced by his father : he was born about the year 1240. Among his numerous productions are to be particularly noted the fountain at Perugia (1280) ; a pulpit in St. Andrew’s Church, Pistoia (1301) ; and another in Pisa Cathedral (1320). The Campo Santo at'Pisa was designed by him, and he was honourably buried there in the same grave with his father, a.d. 1320. Andrea di Cione, generally called Orcagna, was bom at of Andrea Florence, a.d. 1329 ; he is celebrated both as a painter, 0rcaglia > architect, and sculptor, in which characters, his master¬ pieces are—the frescoes in the Campo Santo, Pisa ; the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence ; and the High Altar of Or his High San Michele, Florence, from whence the present example p^ence is taken. He died in 1389. This High Altar is chiefly composed of white marble, richly decorated with bronze and mosaic work, inlay of glass, and excellent sculptures by Orcagna himself; his name is engraved on it with the date 1359. No cement was used on this work ; the marble slabs being joined together with bronze rivets, and on the nicety with which they fitted Orcagna particu¬ larly prided himself. It is still in excellent preservation, and is certainly one of the richest examples of orna¬ mental Mediaeval art in Italy. Looking towards the gallery, are a statue of St. Genevieve, the patron saint of Paris, and another of the Virgin, from Notre Dame, Paris. 120 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. Monument of a lady, from Chi¬ chester ; her effigy described; admired by Flaxman. COURT OF MONUMENTS OF CHRISTIAN ART. The first example of Mediaeval Art on tlie extreme left —entering from the Nave—is a beautiful monument from Chichester Cathedral, called that of the Lady Abbess, which appears to belong to the close of the fourteenth, or beginning of the fifteenth century. The recumbent effigy represents a female in the dress of the period, her head being supported by two angels in graceful attitudes. The face is young and pleasing ; her bare hands are joined in prayer, and her feet rest on two dogs ; the drapery of this figure is particularly worthy of notice for its excellent arrangement. The sides of the tomb are filled in with quatrefoils, alternately containing mourners, and plain shields supported by bits of foliage, among which we remark the holly and oak as beautifully executed. The upper interspaces are filled in with angels’ heads, and the lower ones with natural ornament, among which the ivy and woodbine are exceedingly well rendered. The figures and drapery of the mourners are of an excellence which merits particular notice ; and the whole monument was preferred by Flaxman to any other in the kingdom. It has been suggested that this effigy represents a Lady Arundel. Cantilupe, Bishop of Hereford, in whose honour the noble shrine which meets the spectator’s eye, on entering this Court on the left from the Nave, was erected, died in Italy, a.d. 1282, and was canonised in 1310. The shrine is composed of freestone ; under its cinquefoiled arches are seated knights with their feet resting on dragons and lions ; they are all in chain-mail, with surcoats, and the face exposed; the ornament of the spandrels, partly natural and partly conventional, is exceedingly weU arranged and executed. From the absence of any statue on this monument, from its peculiar composition and flat roof, it would .appear not improbable that this COURT OF CHRISTIAN ART MONUMENTS. 121 so-called tomb served only to sustain a reliquary or chasse, containing the bones of the saint; and this sup¬ position is strengthened by the great number of miraculous cures said to have been effected on worshippers who implored the saint’s aid, at his Shrine. The next monument, on the right of the one last Edward hi. described, is that of Edward III., from Westminster mi^terT^ Abbey. Professor Donaldson, in an interesting paper on a proposed restoration of the tombs in Westminster Abbey, delivered at the Royal Institute of Architects, in 1852, thus describes this beautiful monument (the lower portion of which, as it has but one side, it has not been attempted to restore) :— 4 4 This is a magnificent memorial, consisting of a lower monument pedestal, 4 ft. high,, divided into four quatrefoiled panels professor by with highly elaborated tracery, having central metal Donaldson, shields, exquisitely enamelled and emblazoned with the arms of England and France. This pedestal is sur¬ mounted by the altar or pedestal tomb (here reproduced), Monument which has on each side six canopied niches ; to these are ^om Heref 6 still attached the bronze figures, 18 inches high, richly ford; enamelled on the surface. The tomb is of Petworth marble, and though the architectural enrichments are generally decayed, enough remains to supply authorities for every portion. The venerable figure is of brass, of noble features, with a flowing beard; the ensigns of royalty—two sceptres denoting his double kingdom— which the hands once held —have been destroyed. The figure is surrounded by a recumbent bronze tabernacle of elaborate tracery, with numerous figures beautifully cast and wrought, and although many portions are deficient, yet they exist in other parts, and might, with little expence, be replaced. There is, above the tomb, a richly probably worked oak canopy, almost entire, and wanting little to s rm ’ restore it to its original splendour. Yet scanty as the sum would be to render this tomb as perfect as when it was first put up, the spirit.is wanting to render this tribute to the conqueror of Cressy, the father of the Black Prince, to him who won the field of Poitiers, who founded the Order of the Garter, and erected Windsor Castle. On the margin of the table the aged monarch is described as 4 the glory of England, the flower of past 122 THE MEDIEVAL COURT. Beverley Minster. kings, the type for future ones, a clement king, the peace giver to his people. ’ ” # The Percy On the extreme right is the richly-worked monument Priest, from from Beverley Minster, usually known as that of a priest of the Percy family, and ascribed, in the Glossary of Archi¬ tecture, to about the year 1350. This ecclesiastic is clad in very ornamental vestments ; his uncovered head is within a cowl, and rests on a cushion with an angel on each side of it; his hands are joined in prayer, and his feet rest on a lion. The sides of the tomb form a small building in miniature, with traceried windows separated from each other by buttresses. Mr. Williams, in a letter dated from Northumberland House, has kindly furnished us with extracts from the family pedigree, from which it would appeal; that this monument commemorates George Percy, a grandson of Harry Percy, so well known as Harry Hotspur, and son of Henry second Earl of Northumberland, who was a prebend of St. John’s, Beverley, about the year 1450— 1460 ; the date, however, appears rather too late to agree with the style of this particular monument. The two large statues of the Virgin, on each side as we proceed onwards, are interesting examples of early French Gothic sculpture (thirteenth century), from the celebrated cathedral of Chartres. Advancing into the Court, the first monument in the centre, to the left, is that of Bishop Bridport, from Salisbury Cathedral, an exquisite example of the Early English period, remarkable for the beauty and chasteness of its foliated ornament. Egidius or Giles de Bridport died in December, 1262. Under this prelate the great work of Salisbury Cathedral was brought to completion. The tomb is altar-shaped, and supports the effigy of the deceased, cut in alabaster, and clad “ in pontificalibus.” The sculptures between the arches represent various passages in the bishop’s life, his birth, education, preferments, &c. To the right of it is placed the very elaborate monu¬ ment of Abbot Wakeman, from Tewkesbury, a fine example of the Perpendicular period. Somewhat inaptly, since his reign is marked by a continued series of warlike expeditions. Statues from Chartres. Monument of Bishop Bridport, from Salis¬ bury ; date of his death ; sculptures on it. Monument of Bishop Wakeman, from Tewkesbury, COURT OF CHRISTIAN ART MONUMENTS. 123 Wakeman was the last of the Tewkesbury Abbots, Wakeman, and on the confiscation of the Abbey and its domains by last Abbot 5 Henry VIII., became chaplain to the monarch. He was instituted first Bishop of Gloucester after the date of his Reformation, and died a.d. 1549. death ‘ The two colossal statues beyond these monuments are Colossal^ from the upper tier of sculpture on the facade of Peter- p e ter- S r ° m borough Cathedral, and represent St. Andrew and St. borou g b Philip, two of the saints in honour of whom the church was dedicated. St. Andrew is hooded, and holds the peculiar cross which derives its name from him. The date of their execution appears to have been the early part of the thirteenth century. Head of the Lady Abbess, from Chichester Cathedral. BRADBURY AND EVANS, PRINTERS, WHITEFRIARS. 1 ftiace Arthur's door from Worcester 2 Compartment from VWndhe star reredos 3 Ernjits from Easter Sepulchre. Lincoln 4- Part of Bishop Alcock's monument 5 Nirhe & Statue from York Minster 6 Armagh figures .Winchester spandrils and Seated Ehgftan Lincoln. I Hawton Sepulchre 8 Compartments from the Arcadh^. of the 9 Chapter House Ely 1J3 Hnmphrey de Bohnn. 11. Armagh figures Winchester spandrils and Seated King from Lincoln . 12 S l MaryMassdelened Canopy from Wesumnstei 13 Boy Bishop 14 Litchfield door. 13 Armagh figures and ScreeD work from. Bishop Jocelyns Chantry. Wells 16 Queen Eleanor. 17. Edward 2^ 16 Niche from Beverley 19 William of Wykeham 20 Edwaid the Black Prince 21. Niche from. Beverley 22 Henry 4* 23 Arcade and Bas-releifs from the choir of Notre Dame. Paris 24 Bishop Conrad of Weinsbuig 25 Richard ?“ and Anne of Bohemia 26 Westminster Chapter House Centre Pier 27 C omnaJnm of the Virgin Wells 28 JohnafHtham 29 Eng Ina A Queen Ethelburga Wells 30 Joanoflfavarre Queen of Henrv 44' 31 Depositions from Mayance 32. SirGiles Dauheny 33 Walsingham Font 34 Pedestal formed, from a. Capital from Wmchester Cathedral THE RENAISSANCE COURT IN THE CRYSTAL TALACE. DESCRIBED BY M. DIGBY WYATT and J. B. WABING. CRYSTAL PALACE LIBRARY; AND BRADBURY & EVANS, 11, BOUVERIE STREET, LONDON. 1854.