A Treatise on Chancel Screens and Rood Lofts: Their Antiquity, Use, and Symbolic SignificationPugin, Augustus Welby Northmore
History
A Treatise on Chancel Screens and Rood Lofts: Their Antiquity, Use, and Symbolic Signification
Pugin, Augustus Welby Northmore
Screens (Church decoration)
A huge rood screen of black and white marble, erected in the seventeenth
century, surmounted by a crucifix, and decorated with sculptures.
Although erected at a very debased period, it still retains all the old
traditional arrangements.
BRUGES.
S. Salvator's.—A black and white marble screen and loft of the
seventeenth century. It is divided into three arched compartments, but
without altars; the side spaces are filled with open brass-work, and the
choir gates, or holy doors, are of the same material.[12]
Notre Dame.—A screen of a very similar description, only of a plainer
character. It is remarkable for having the altar erected in the centre
of the loft, out of which grows the great rood, supporting the crucifix.
S. Giles's church has a very curious screen of the seventeenth century,
exceedingly rich in carving, and supporting a rood loft. It is designed
in perfect conformity to the ancient traditions, although the detail is
necessarily of a debased period.
THE CHURCH OF HAL, NEAR BRUSSELS.
Must have had a very fine rood loft originally, but being a place of
pilgrimage, it became most unfortunately very rich from offerings, which
were employed (with the best possible intention) to destroy the ancient
furniture of the church; the great rood itself, elaborately carved,
hangs up on the south side of the great tower, and is a fine specimen of
what the beauty of the loft must have been in the old time.
ANTWERP.
This great cathedral was completely sacked by the Calvinists, in the
latter part of the sixteenth century, previous to which its fittings
were in perfect unison with the edifice. But, unfortunately, when it was
restored to Catholic worship, the spirit of Paganism had entered into
the arts, and the new furniture exhibited all the marks of debasement.
However, the old traditions still ruled the mind as regarded principles,
and it will be seen, by reference to the plate, that the screens were
conceived in the old spirit; and although the introduction of altars
against the nave pillars was a great and distressing innovation, yet
they were still protected by elevated screen-work, and not left open for
profanation. There is a most striking correspondence between this
screen-work and that round the altar of S. Michele, at Florence. The
whole of these fittings have disappeared, partly during the occupation
of the French, and partly by injudicious repairs. The choir is now being
lined with stalls, some of the details of which are deserving of great
commendation, but they have been designed in utter contradiction to
ecclesiastical tradition. If this is to be made a cathedral church, the
choir should be enclosed; but if it is to serve a parochial purpose,
instead of the lofty canopies, and solid back, the choir should have
been enclosed with open metal screens, like those at Lubeck, and an open
rood loft across the choir; at present it is neither one thing nor the
other. The whole entrance of the choir is open to the public, who crowd
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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