The dual purpose of architectural ornament both to enrich visually and to enhance spirituality was well understood in England and exploited in medieval churches in a number of different ways, variations depending on current taste and on particular local historical circumstances. In its simplest and least symbolically charged form, geometric carving was abundant in the twelfth century, as architectural embellishment around arches and on piers, notably at Durham both in the church and the castle, and in the nave arcades at Gloucester. At Durham cathedral (begun 1093), linear pattern is used as a means of integrating mouldings and geometric ornament into the elevation designs as an enlivening device, and is one of the features that led scholars to attribute its building to an English rather than a Norman designer.28 Another aspect of the ornament adds to the symbolic meaning of the church. Decorated piers at both Durham and Norwich cathedral priory (begun 1096) are arranged around the high altars, it has been suggested, as a deliberate feature to enhance the holiness of the space (plate 24.1).29
Figurative carvings and painted images appeared at strategic points such as entrances, chapel and choir screens, furnishings and altars throughout churches, and especially during the twelfth century reinforced the idea of the Incarnation and other important aspects of Christian teachings. Historiated capitals were used as devices to introduce narrative and to enhance symbolism. At Southwell minster, high up over the crossing piers, capitals (c.1100) were almost invisibly sited, yet their carvings define very explicitly the function and symbolism of the choir in the space beyond, depicting the entry of Christ into Jerusalem, the Last Supper and a priest celebrating high mass. Occasionally an example survives of very close correlation between writings on church symbolism and an incidence of figure sculpture. The carvings on the three tympana of the south porch of the abbey of Malmesbury (c.1160) show the twelve apostles on either side to east and west, and Christ in majesty over the doorway (plate 24.2). The imagery perfectly illustrates a statement by St Augustine (quoted by Durandus, bishop of Mende, in his work on the symbolism of churches) saying that: ‘The apostles and the prophets are the foundations and the portals. We go through them to the kingdom of God and when we go in them we go in through Christ, because he is the very door’.30 By virtue of its corporeality, figure sculpture could give vivid illustration to stories which assisted Christian understanding and faith. But this strategic use of narrative sculpture was part of a changing fashion. For
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Plate 24.2 Christ in majesty, tympanum over the south porch entrance, Malmesbury abbey, Wilts., c.1120. (Photo: A. F. Kersting) example, reliefs from the former screen divisions under the central crossing tower and choir aisles at Chichester cathedral (c.1108-23) depict a scene of Christ performing the miracle of the raising of Lazarus in front of his weeping relatives who believed him to be dead. However, by the early fourteenth century these reliefs were already hidden behind the newer wooden choir stalls.31 The stalls performed a different function as seats for the choir, so they not only represented a practical change but also marked a strong change in aesthetic attitudes, being decorated with foliate ornament and blind tracery with no narrative content.
Following its pioneering appearance at Westminster, architectural polychromy became fairly widespread in England in the later thirteenth century: the cathedrals of Lincoln and Salisbury and St Mary’s church at Beverley are prime examples. It was as much evident through contrasting colours of masonry, black marbles being used alongside light grey limestones, as it was through paintings and glass. The effect is a bit like the flickering of light and shade and in each case we find lavish use of foliate decoration on mouldings and capitals evocative of organic growth. From the thirteenth century there was an increasing interest in accurate portrayal of elements of the landscape, seen, for example, in the famous capitals of the chapter house of Southwell minster (c.1290) whose leaves are clearly observed from nature.
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Plate 24.3 Matthew Paris, Map of Britain, c.1255. BL. Cotton Claudius D VI, f. 12v. (By permission of the British Library)
The phenomenon has never been fully explained but may have been related to growing widespread influence of the natural philosophy of Aristotle, whose works became disseminated in the universities around the middle of the thirteenth century, or it may have reflected what Alexander Murray has described more generally as the regularizing effect of the impact of science and mathematics on the study of nature.32
World History
