Sixteenth-Century East Anglian Parish Churches Are Their Open Timber Roofs with Angelic Carvings
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Abstract Amongst the most distinctive features of some late-fourteenth-century to mid- sixteenth-century East Anglian parish churches are their open timber roofs with angelic carvings. The relationship between the earliest and most prestigious angel roof at Westminster Hall (c. 1393-9) and these church roofs with carved angels is not straightforward, in terms of either structure or image. Different structural roof types and varied carved angelic representations were concurrent throughout the period, rather than following patterns of linear development. The research has identified connections between patronage and craftsmanship in urban centres and their rural hinterlands. These roofs present a substantial body of previously neglected visual material for investigating the significance of angelic imagery, the liturgy and lay piety in comprehensive representational schemes, often covering the entire nave. Carved angels form, or are attached to, the beam ends or principal timbers, at prayer, or carrying musical instruments, symbols of Christ’s Passion, implements of the Mass or heraldic devices. The distribution of angels had a significant connection to spatial organisation and patterns of activity at ground level. Diverse patterns of attributes were deliberately arranged to guide and affirm multi-sensory lay experience beneath in the nave, their iconography intended as a unified focus for a diverse lay audience, whose participation in the Mass was distinctive and socially important. The research also explores the visual relationships that would have existed between angelic roof programmes and other church art. It has established that there was a deliberate association between nave roof and Rood imagery in a significant group of churches where angels are vested as acolytes. The sacrificial imagery of the Rood is echoed by their Passion symbols or implements of the Mass. Supported by representations of saintly intercessors on chancel screens and on wall-posts, the angelic throng framed the Rood in a redemptive hierarchical ensemble. Thesis submitted to the Department of Art History and World Art Studies, University of East Anglia, for the degree of PhD, December 2018 Structure and Image in Late Medieval East Anglian Angel Roofs Sarah Cassell Volume 1: Text This copy of the thesis has been supplied on the condition that anyone who consults it is understood to recognise that its copyright rests with the author and that use of any information derived therefrom must be in accordance with current UK Copyright Law. In addition, any quotation or extract must include full attribution. Name: Sarah Jane Cassell Reg. no: 6356524 School: AMA Thesis title: Structure and Image in Late Medieval East Anglian Angel Roofs I certify that the total word count in this thesis (including bibliography and footnotes but excluding appendices) is 97209 words Acknowledgements For my parents I am indebted to my supervisors, Sandy Heslop and Helen Lunnon, for their invaluable guidance and insightful feedback, endless patience and kindness. As my second supervisor, Helen went well beyond the extra mile. John Mitchell has offered tremendous help and encouragement throughout. Lucy Wrapson, Zach Stewart, Sarah Blick and others have been really generous and supportive. I am extremely grateful to my husband Dave, for his forbearance and support, and to Anna and Colin, Dave and Jen for being there for me. I could not have completed this thesis without the outstanding support of Bea Leal, of Ana Moskvina, who has shared the journey with me, Jina, Sue, Alan and Ian, who have been my companions throughout. I am indebted to the CHASE consortium, to the British Archaeological Association and to the Jane Thistlethwaite Travel Grant for financial support. List of contents Volume 1 Acknowledgements List of contents List of abbreviations Introduction…………………………………………………………....….1 Chapter one: Courtly angels: Westminster Hall and Norwich St Giles …………………………………………………………………………...….24 Chapter two: Heavenly angels: King’s Lynn St Nicholas Chapel and the early development of East Anglian angel roofs……………………48 Chapter three: Structure and image: late medieval angel roofs in Norwich and Ipswich……………………………………………………92 Chapter four: The iconography of angel roofs…………………….131 Chapter five: Towards a typology of angel roofs: single frame to double hammer-beam…………………………………………………………...190 Conclusion……………………………………………………………….256 Bibliography……………………………………………………………..262 Volume 2 Title page List of illustrations Illustrations……………………………………………………………1 Appendix 1: Roof types………………………………………..…119 Appendix 2: Roof list………………………………………………121 Appendix 3: Gazetteer…………………………………………….123 List of abbreviations Add. – Additional BAA – British Archaeological Association BL – British Library CPAT – Clwyd-Powys Archaeological Trust DCN – Dean and Chapter of Norwich DN – Diocese of Norwich ERO – Essex Record Office FCB – Faculty books Fol. – Folio HEA – Historic England Archive HD – Private records, artificial and miscellaneous IPMA – Ipswich, Suffolk: Church of St Matthew KL – King’s Lynn Borough Archives KN – Knapton, Norfolk: Church of St Peter MMA – Museum of Modern Art, New York MS – Manuscripts NCH – Norwich NFK – Norfolk NHER – Norfolk Historic Environment Record NRO – Norfolk Record Office NWHCM – Norwich Castle Museum RIBA – Royal Institute of British Architecture SC – George Gilbert Scott Junior, series 1 office papers SROB – Suffolk Record Office (Bury St Edmunds) SROI – Suffolk Record Office (Ipswich) Structure and Image in Late Medieval East Anglian Angel Roofs Introduction Context Roofs with carved angels exemplify the peak of refinement and intricacy reached in late-fourteenth-century English structural and ornamental roof carpentry, across a variety of roof types. Unlike fragments of glazing or individual font carvings, these roofs present a unique opportunity to examine the significance of angelic imagery in comprehensive representational schemes, often spanning the entire nave. This thesis Begins to address the surprising lack of their in-depth comparative study to date. There is yet to Be a detailed national survey of medieval angel roofs Built in England, marrying analysis of extant material with documentary sources. My research has shown that to state that ‘over 170’ of these roofs survive (in varying states of repair) is an underestimation.1 Counting roofs is fraught with pitfalls; some are inaccurately dated or omitted By certain sources, and those located in church aisles in particular are easily overlooked.2 Notwithstanding these issues, carved angels seem to have prevailed especially in medieval East Anglia, rather than in other similarly wealthy areas, where some equally sophisticated churches were also Built (Fig.1). This Bias cannot Be explained 1 Rimmer 2015, p. 1. Rimmer made the first serious and valuable attempt at plotting their distribution. 2 Beech 2015, pp. 225-228; Haward 1999, pp. 170-172. Beech identified errors in Haward’s map of national distribution of medieval hammer-beam roofs, due to Haward’s apparent reliance upon a single source, which recorded some post-medieval non-East Anglian roofs as medieval; however, Beech and other sources cite Hitcham as ‘clearly post-medieval’, and it certainly includes Jacobean details, but there are late medieval elements, as noted in chapter four. My gazetteer was compiled using a range of written and photographic sources in addition to site surveys; where unable to undertake direct material study, I was sometimes unable to make a firm judgement because of gaps or contradictions in those sources. 1 simply By the concentration of extant medieval churches in the region.3 The catalyst for the emergence of these parochial angel roofs was the royal roof at Westminster Hall (c. 1393-c. 1399), as discussed in chapter one. Elite East Anglian witnesses to its unveiling, such as Michael de la Pole and Bishop Despenser of Norwich, appear to have introduced a particular patronal taste for angelic roof imagery to the region, which was often adapted to specific circumstances By inventive local craftsmen, across a range of roof types. There are notaBle exceptions to this general rule. The hammer-beam angel roof at Exeter Law LiBrary (c. 1425), possiBly a canon’s residence in the fifteenth century, is a refined response to the Westminster design in form and iconography, with richly moulded timBers, pierced spandrel tracery and angels carved into the Beams, Bearing painted heraldic shields.4 Other aspects of the roof are characteristic of local Devon carpentry, found in other hall roofs in the vicinity, particularly the coved sector at its apex, and varied Boss imagery.5 A contrasting approach is taken at York All Saints, North Street, where the boarded chancel and adjacent north and south chapel roofs (mid fifteenth century) are adorned with angels on the undersides of unBraced Beams, or planks, recalling the construction, if not the carving, of the angelic Beams at King’s Lynn St Nicholas Chapel (c. 1401-1419). They are finely carved demi-angels, emerging from cloud. Those in the chancel have Been Brightly painted, unlike the Bare wood of the chapel roofs, But the carvings and roof form are the work of the same craftsmen. Their attriButes encompass musical instruments, implements of the Mass, crowns and scrolls; there are Blank shields in the south aisle, alongside these other symBols. The ecclesiastical emphasis extends to most of the angels’ attire, although some are feathered, including an energetic full figure, Bearing a scroll, in a feathered