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Germanic Animal Motifs in Romanesque Sculpture Author(S): George Zarnecki Source: Artibus Et Historiae, Vol

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Germanic Animal Motifs in Romanesque Sculpture Author(S): George Zarnecki Source: Artibus Et Historiae, Vol Germanic Animal Motifs in Romanesque Sculpture Author(s): George Zarnecki Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 11, No. 22 (1990), pp. 189-203 Published by: IRSA s.c. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1483405 . Accessed: 02/08/2013 17:24 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. IRSA s.c. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Artibus et Historiae. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 192.215.101.254 on Fri, 2 Aug 2013 17:24:36 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions GEORGEZARNECKI Germanic Animal Motifs in Romanesque Sculpture In memory of my dear friend Jan Bialostocki A very fine chalice-shaped Romanesque font in St. Cassi- ing similar motifs and a fairly similar style within the two dio- an's church at Chaddesley Corbett, Worcestershire, is decorated ceses of Hereford and Worcester between c. 1130 and c. 1160. with a variety of interlace ornament carved in horizontal bands In my doctoral thesis of 1950, I suggested that the building of along the rim, the nodus, and the base [Fig. 1]. Below the rim, Shobdon Priory provided an opportunity for a pilgrimage by the there are four fierce monsters shown in profile, baring their sharp principal sculptor to Santiago de Compostela, and that the jour- teeth and with one leg up and the other down, to imply the crea- ney through Aquitaine was particularly fruitful for the decoration tures' rapid movement. The animals have no hind legs and their of Shobdon, which is indebted to the iconography and style of bodies continue as two-stranded tails, disappearing in the jaws such churches as, for example, Parthenay-le-Vieux and Aulnay.3 of the monster behind. These tails are echoed by entwining The team of sculptors from Shobdon went on to decorate other bands, each making two loops round the tails and one strangling churches in the region, the best preserved of which are the each of the beasts. Thus, the decoration of the bowl matches church of St. Mary and St. David at Kilpeck [Fig. 2] and Leomin- very well the interlacing bands above and below, but in addition, ster Priory. It can be assumed that some of the sculptors left the it is endowed with a dynamic energy and ferocious power. If any team and started to work on their own.4 meaning was intended for this sculpture beyond mere decora- Aquitaine was not the only source of inspiration for the tion, these monsters surely represent the evil of original sin sculptors of the Herefordshire School. Pevsner claimed northern which the sacrament of Baptism redeems. Italian connections for the chancel arch at Kilpeck, though this The Chaddesley Corbett font is recognized as the work of is open to dispute.5 Raspi Serra links the school with the Como- the so-called Herefordshire School of sculpture,1 active in the Pavia style,6 and Meredith also sees connections between cer- second quarter of the twelfth century in Herefordshire and the tain works of the Herefordshire School and Lombardy.7All these adjoining counties of Worcestershire, Shropshire, Gloucester- assertions are to some extent justified, though Raspi Serra's shire, and Monmouthshire. In one instance, works by a sculptor dogmatic views tend to overstress the Italian element and of the school are found even in a church in Warwickshire.2 neglect the strong local artistic tradition. The term "school" as employed in this article should be un- In the case of the font at Chaddesley Corbett, it is undenia- derstood as referring to the activities of a number of sculptors us- ble that the heads of the monsters, with the double outlines of 189 This content downloaded from 192.215.101.254 on Fri, 2 Aug 2013 17:24:36 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions GEORGE ZARNECKI 1) Font, church of St. Cassian, Chaddesley Corbett, Worcestershire. the mouth, upturned snouts, and large triangular teeth, closely gled by its own tail, for he repeated it on a number of plaques at resemble the head of a monster on the celebrated pulpit in the Alveley in Shropshire,9 leaving out the ferocious teeth and sub- abbey of San Giulio on the island of San Giulio in Lake Orta, in stituting protruding tongues [Fig. 4]. What was, at Chaddesley Piedmont, the work of a sculptor from Como, dating from c. 1120 Corbett, in part an Italian motif, at Alveley became entirely in- [Fig. 3].8 But the intertwining tails and the strangling loops on digenous, retaining the interlace and the strangling loop, the two the English font have no parallels in Italian art. The sculptor of the elements which are demonstrably of very ancient origin, not font was clearly well-pleased with the motif of the dragon stran- Italian but Germanic. 190 This content downloaded from 192.215.101.254 on Fri, 2 Aug 2013 17:24:36 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions GERMANIC ANIMAL MOTIFS i?'--.Z ,.. -;4L' ?-I'?h -?- LC .a- --c-?c-~?i--,"ra J-r C .? L;c- L.- -L4ih I: L ; C-X -e?'_ibe ? -=:. h cc ...?c. ,.-LiciY??iC :I*+ r"?h ?. ????? :*?-.??(*'?4$6 *?r' r* . ?r-;-??- ?; cP". : ?; r ?F? ;?-; -t 1?ur I ? ;r -r ---Ficieih - , CI --- -- ea1131h719E'Y': :-c??? .;. L: C7? ?. *.? . .';s? t*. :--i? 1C;r. --w- *rrr "? 2* -- 4'C'?C31 c ?- ? r. .*,.. r -.j 7*.1 c-"- 1 ?"-** ? u ?r* r. .EL c;;9i3iM*iI 41F;ICrPI; c ;? u i qLiC?r---: ,-???:;;i"7f?"" . ' 'llE3 ??.,siFYs*I cr ?;? .- huiJ SPp ?- 2) South doorway, church of St. Mary and St. David, Kilpeck, Herefordshire. 191 This content downloaded from 192.215.101.254 on Fri, 2 Aug 2013 17:24:36 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions GEORGE ZARNECKI , ?: . _ . l A lllr| ' o ... .~ r ,. ' . o ? ~~?I.-?~, ~Wh.... ~8.,, ~. = -. .E... ,.,..,... .,,..~.......~~:,. ...??*il ...*Btl. f.....r ~t:~?! ~ , ~ . .. X . .... ? 6, . 3) Animals on a pulpit, abbey of San Giulio, Isola di San Giulio. 4) Plaque, Old Bell Inn, originally church at Alveley, Shropshire. These elements occur in profusion in both Styles I and II formed by limbs, tails, ears, and tongues of single animals, of described by Salin in his justly famous book. 10 These Germanic pairs, and even groups of three or more. The advent of Carolin- animal styles were brought to England in the years of the Saxon gian art gradually put a stop to this type of decoration on the settlement and were at first, as in Germanic lands, restricted to Continent but in England it continued to flourish, and its most metalwork. But with the advent of Christianity, this intricate but vigorous examples are found in the territories settled by the Vi- barbaric animal ornament invaded illuminated manuscripts and kings, e.g., in Yorkshire [Fig. 7].13 sculpture. The motif of a beast entwined and strangled by an in- How is it possible to be sure that the motif on the Chaddes- terlace which is often part of its own body, became common- ley Corbett font was derived from these ancient sources reach- place in Anglo-Saxon and Irish art [Fig. 5],11 and was rein- ing back to pagan times, and not simply invented by the troduced to the Continent in the eight and ninth centuries. It is Herefordshire sculptor? As it happens, there is yet another motif found, for instance, on the Tassilo Chalice [Fig. 6], a work made used by the same sculptor in a different context and place, which under a strong insular influence but executed perhaps in Salz- points to a similar ancient Germanic source. The place is the burg between 777 and 788 at the order of Tassilo, Duke of Bavar- church of St. Peter and St. Paul at Rock in Worcestershire, to ia, for his newly founded abbey of Kremsmuinster, where the which I shall return later. The motif to which I am referring is even chalice still is.12 On this splendid object the interlaces are more savage, and involves a form that is pierced and penetrated 192 This content downloaded from 192.215.101.254 on Fri, 2 Aug 2013 17:24:36 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions GERMANIC ANIMAL MOTIFS 5) Folio 192v in Ms. 57 (The Book of Durrow), detail, Trinity College Library, Dublin. 6) Animal on the Tassilo Chalice. From Gunther Haseloff, Der 7) Animal on a grave slab in York Minster. From lan R. Pattison, Tassilokelch. "...Anglo-Danish Sculpture in York." by another. It can be an animal, bird, monster, plant, or interlace. rupeds are penetrated by their own tails and limbs; in one case, On the back cover of the Lindau Gospels [Fig. 8],14 the fields a single body is pierced four times in an act of self-inflicted between the arms of the cross are filled with an intricate interlac- cruelty. ing pattern in which snake-like creatures are pierced by sinuous, Both the chalice and the book cover were influenced by Anglo- almost leafless stalks, which enter the bodies and reemerge. The Saxon art, so it comes as no surprise to find that a similar motif idea most likely originated in needlework, where the thread can of the penetration of animal bodies by ribbons or tails, is found be used in this way more logically than in metalwork.
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