Further Notes on English Alabaster Carvings

W. L. Hildburgh

doi:10.1017/S0003581500010015

Further Notes on English Alabaster Carvings

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 January 2012

W. L. Hildburgh

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The Musée du Louvre has lately received as a gift from the City of Paris–in whose historical museum, the Carnavalet, they had been preserved–five English alabaster reliefs: a ‘Betrayal’, complete, but with a weathered surface; a fine ‘Christ led to Judgement’; a fragmentary ‘Christ before Pilate’; a ‘Naming of St. John’; and a ‘St. Michael and the Blessed Virgin’.

Type: Research Article
Information: The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , January 1930 , pp. 34 - 45

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003581500010015 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1930

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^{page 34 note 1} Negative Archives Photographiques, Paris, by courtesy of the Musée du Louvre.

^{page 34 note 2} See, for some of these , Illustrated Cat. Exhibition English Medieval Alabaster Work, London, 1913, nos. 61, 63, 66Google Scholar.

^{page 34 note 3} A fragmentary Naming of St. John, at Mulbarton, differing in the disposition of its figures from both the Versailles example and the Louvre one, has recently been published by Nelson, , in Archaeol. Journ., lxxxii, 36Google Scholarseqq. and pl. 11.

^{page 35 note 1} Cf. Nelson, , ‘Some unusual English Alabaster Panels’, in Trans. Hist. Soc. Lancs, and Ches., 1917, pl. iv and pp. 85Google Scholarseq.

^{page 35 note 2} Shrouds similarly tied above the head may be seen represented in contemporary English brasses.

^{page 35 note 3} For a valuable and well-illustrated paper on representations of the weighing of the soul, or of a person's good and bad deeds, see Perry, Mary Phillips, ‘On the Psychostasis in Christian Art’, Burlington Mag., xxii, 94Google Scholarseqq., 209 seqq.

^{page 36 note 1} Cf. Archaeol. Journ., i, 270, and ii, 73.

^{page 36 note 2} Cf. Rock, D., The Church of our Fathers, London, 1852, iiiGoogle Scholar , part 1, 196 (1905 edit., iii, 160).

^{page 36 note 3} Cf. a line-drawing given by Borenius, T. and Tristram, E. W., English Medieval Painting, Florence and Paris, 1927, 38Google Scholar ; the drawing does not make quite clear whether the rosary is upon, or only near to, the balance.

^{page 36 note 4} Cf. Perry, , op. cit., pl. 11Google Scholar , D; Bond, F., Dedications of English Churches, 1914, 35Google Scholar ; Nelson, , ‘Some unusual … Panels’, pl. vGoogle Scholar.

^{page 36 note 5} Nelson, , ‘Some unusual … Panels’, pl. v and p. 86.Google Scholar

^{page 36 note 6} Cf. The Golden Legend's storyin the chapter on ‘The Assumption of our Lady’.

^{page 36 note 7} Perry, , in speaking (pp. cit., 215)Google Scholar of the South Leigh painting (in which the rosary now appears just behind the beam, cf. supra), says that the rosary is held toward the soul in the balance ‘as if to show that through the use of the devotions of the rosary the good outweighed the evil’.

^{page 36 note 8} Rock, , op. cit., 198Google Scholar (1905 edit., 161 seqq.).

^{page 37 note 1} Cf. Perdrizet, Paul, La Fierge de la Misécorde, Paris, 1908, 94Google Scholar (in chap, on ‘La Vierge et les Confréries du Rosaire’).

^{page 37 note 2} Cf. ibid., chap, on ‘La Vierge au Manteau et les Confréries’.

^{page 37 note 3} Cf. Hirn, Yrjö, The Sacred Shrine, London, 1912, 465.Google Scholar

^{page 37 note 4} e. g. on the edge of her mantle, within which souls are sheltering, in a painting in the Servite Church at Sienna ; cf. Perdrizet, , op. cit., pl. vGoogle Scholar.

^{page 37 note 5} Cf. ibid., 93.

^{page 37 note 6} Photo (neg. no. C 36869) of Arxiv ‘Mas’, Barcelona.

^{page 37 note 7} It should be recalled, in this connexion, that this figure appears to have been brought to Paris from somewhere in Spain.

^{page 37 note 8} Although I have not seen the object itself, I suspect that some small alterations (or ‘restorations’) were made before it was photographed. It seems to be a product of the same school as the fine St. George group, described by Nelson, in Archaeol. Journ., lxxxiii, 44Google Scholar (with pl. ix), said (see Oppenheim's, BenoitOriginalbildwerke in Holz. Stein Elfenbein usw. aus der Sammlung Benoit Oppenheim Berlin, Supp., Leipzig, 1911, pl. 79)Google Scholar to have come from a church at Quejano, Province of Bilbao.

^{page 38 note 1} A similar cast is in the Barcelona Municipal Museum.

^{page 38 note 2} Cf. Nelson, , ‘English Alabasters of the Embattled Type’, in Archaeol. Journ., lxxv (1918), 316Google Scholar and pl. III.

^{page 38 note 3} Cf. Ill. Cat. cit., 29 seqq.

^{page 38 note 4} Ibid., 26 seqq.

^{page 38 note 5} Cf. Nelson, , ‘Earliest Type of English Alabaster Panel Carvings’, in Archaeol. Journ., lxxvi (1919), pl. 1 and pp. 85seq.Google Scholar

^{page 38 note 6} Cf., for an example, the table at Kermaria (Calvados), given by Prior, and Gardner, , Medieval Figure-Sculpture in England, Cambridge, 1912, fig. 579Google Scholar.

^{page 39} The Coronation, in the Virgin retable, at Montréal (cf. ibid., fig. 536; Ill. Cat. … Alabaster Work, pl. VII ; Biver, , ‘Some Examples of English Alabaster Tables in France’, in Archaeol. Journ., lxvii [1910], pl. 1)Google Scholar , and the one of the church of Tervueren (Brabant), (cf. Destrée's, J. ‘Sculptures en albâtre de Nottingham’, in Ann. de la Soc. d'Archéol. de Bruxelles, xxiii [1909], fig. 8)Google Scholar , although they show all Three Persons in human form, lack the angels of the present example.

^{page 39 note 1} The upper left-hand corner, including the handle of the scourge and the hands, has been restored in plaster.

^{page 39 note 2} In order to permit this the better to be examined, the paint covering it has been removed, as may be seen in the photograph.

^{page 39 note 3} Dispersed (auction, Frederik Müller & Co.) at Amsterdam, in May 1928. The St. Catherine was no. 148 of the Sale Catalogue.

^{page 39 note 4} Cf. Nelson, , ‘English Medieval Alabaster Carvings in Iceland and Denmark’, in Archaeol. Journ., lxxvii, pl. 11.Google Scholar

^{page 39 note 5} Reproduced by courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum.

^{page 39 note 6} Cf. the account in Caxton's The Golden Legend, ‘Of S. Laurence the glorious Martyr’.

^{page 39 note 7} The lower part of a panel, similarly indicating–by a detail probably borrowed from some mystery-play–what thirsty work was that of his executioners, in the church at Llanteglos-by-Fowey ; cf. Nelson, in Archaeol. Journ., lxxxiii, 43Google Scholar and pl. VII.

^{page 40 note 1} Cf. footnote 6 on p. 38 supra.

^{page 40 note 2} Cf. Catholic Encyclo., s.v. ‘Philip, Saint, Apostle’.

^{page 40 note 3} A tall panel of St. Sebastian with a saint in armour (called St. Adrian) is in the Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris.

^{page 40 note 4} Cf. Ant. Journ., vi, 307.

^{page 41 note 1} Ibid., ii, 147.

^{page 41 note 2} Cf. Biver, , op. cit., pls. III, iv.Google Scholar

^{page 41 note 3} Cf. Nelson, , ‘A Doom Reredos’, in Trans. Hist. Soc. Lanes, and Ches., 1918, 67seqq.Google Scholar

^{page 41 note 4} Cf. Nelson, , Archaeol. Journ., lxxxii, 37Google Scholar , and pl. xii.

^{page 42 note 1} Reproduced from Cat. of the Coll. de Feu Cloud Massot, sold March 12th and 13th, 1929; see no. 160 and pl. xxiii. Size given as 55 cms. by 28 cms.

^{page 42 note 2} The three tables have been the subject of an article in The Grimsby News of 1st 02 1929Google Scholar , accompanied by reproductions of photographs of them and (on a larger scale) of the Annunciation alone. Later, the tables and all the fragments recovered were sent to the Victoria and Albert Museum for reconstruction, so far as possible, and their study resulted in the discovery of the subjects of the other four panels.

^{page 43 note 1} Cf. Lüthgen, E., Rheinische Kunst des Mittelalters aus Kölner Privatbesitz, Bonn and Leipzig, 1921, pl. 55.Google Scholar

^{page 43 note 2} Cf. Ludorff, A., Bau- und Kunstdenkmäler von Westfalen: Kreis Soest, Münster i. W., 1905, pl. 100 and p. 130.Google Scholar Unfortunately, neither the picture nor the text make clear that this is not a detached image (to which alone the above measurements apply) set below a canopy, but analogous objects make me fairly certain that we have here to do with a panel.

^{page 43 note 3} It should be observed that Nelson, in his ‘English Alabasters of the Embattled Type’, does not mention any embattled Trinity tables.

^{page 43 note 4} Cf. Sprinz, H., Die Bildwerke der fürstlich Hohenzollernschen Sammlung Sigmaringen, Stuttgart and Zurich, 1925, no. 20.Google Scholar

^{page 43 note 5} The greater part of a somewhat similar panel, in the Museum at Orléans, has been published by Nelson, in Archaeol. Journ., lxxxii, pl. 1, and p. 33.Google Scholar

^{page 43 note 6} Cf. Baum, J., Die Sammlung Hubert Wilm in München, Leipzig, 1929, no. 27Google Scholar ; also in Cicerone, 1927, 758, fig. 10.

^{page 43 note 7} Cf. Helbig, J., La sculpture et les arts plastiques au pays de Liége, 2nd edit., Bruges, 1890, pl. xvii, p. 119Google Scholar ; Destrée, J., Ann. Soc. d'Archéol. de Bruxelles, xxiii (1909), 452Google Scholar ; Baum, J., in P. Clemen's Belgische Kunstdenkmäler, i, 1922, fig. 153Google Scholar.

^{page 44 note 1} Cf. Ant. Journ., viii, 58.

^{page 44 note 2} Cf. Nelson, , ‘English Medieval Alabaster Carvings in Iceland and Denmark’, in Archaeol. Journ., lxxvii (1920), pl. vii, and p. 199.Google Scholar

^{page 44 note 3} Reported by Mr. C. C. Oman. The St. John's Head is described in Gibert's, H.Le Musée d'Aix, part 1, Aix, 1882, under no. 605Google Scholar.

^{page 44 note 4} Reported by Mr. Oman.

^{page 44 note 5} Cf. Gruyer, P., Les Saints Bretons (in series ‘Les Visites d'Art’), Paris, 1923, 36. On pp. 28Google Scholarseq. of this book are excellent photographs of the panels representing the Annunciation and Adoration of the Kings, of the set at Roscoff Church, Finistère.

^{page 44 note 6} Of these, the Adoration and one of the tables of the Resurrection are cited (nos. 38 and 39 respectively) in the Catalogue of the ‘Donation Ozenfant’, Lille, 1894.

^{page 44 note 7} Cf. Ant. Journ., iii, 35 seqq.

^{page 44 note 8} As on the tables representing the Baptist Preaching and the Burial of the Baptist's Head, in the Marienkirche, Danzig ; cf. Nelson, , ‘English Alabasters of the Embattled Type’, pls. xxviii, xxGoogle Scholar.

^{page 44 note 9} Nos. 159–67 inclusive, in , Dréneuc's, P. Lisle de large Catalogue du Musée Dobrée, Nantes, 1906Google Scholar.

^{page 45 note 1} A note accompanying the list of tables cites a considerable number of other similar alabasters (some of which are referred to in these present notes), and gives references to accounts of others in France.

^{page 45 note 2} Cf. Cat… Dobrée, nos. 168–70 inclusive.

^{page 45 note 3} Cat. of Musée Archéologique Nantes, 1907, no. 471.

^{page 45 note 4} Cf. footnote 6 on p. 38 supra. Another Mass of St. Gregory is in the church at Sideville ; cf. Rostand, A., ‘Les albatres anglais du xv^e siècle en Basse-Normandie’, in Bull, monumental, lxxxvii (1928), 282Google Scholar.

^{page 45 note 5} Cf. Vittorino, P., Antonio di Padova, Milan, 1925, 15.Google Scholar

^{page 45 note 6} Cf. reproduction of a photograph, in the Libre d'or del Rosari a Catalunya, by Boldú, V. Serra i and Oliva, V., Barcelona, , 1925, pl. opp. p. 9Google Scholar ; or photo, no. 320, of the Vich Museum series, issued by Thomas, of Barcelona.

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