Early Renaissance Architecture in England: A Historical & Descriptive Account of the Tudor, Elizabethan, & Jacobean Periods, 1500-1625Gotch, J. Alfred (John Alfred)
History
Early Renaissance Architecture in England: A Historical & Descriptive Account of the Tudor, Elizabethan, & Jacobean Periods, 1500-1625
In the Countess of Salisbury's chantry at Christchurch it is much
easier to imagine the Italian carver following the English mason, and
adding his ornament to the other's work, for nearly all of it lies
in sunk panels, the highest parts of the carving being on the same
face as the surrounding margin: that is to say, the Italian found
plain surfaces between the moulded members left for him to carve, and
one set of these plain surfaces, on the side next to the choir, he
did not carve--they still remain bare. Take away the ornament, and
the chantry in general design and treatment is Late English-Gothic
(Fig. 14), such as no Italian would have produced, if we except the
topmost stage on the choir side, where there are two domed pinnacles
of rather clumsy and unintelligible design (Plate V.). One of these
has a curious feature--the somewhat vulgar product of the later
Italian carvers--namely, the lower drapery and the feet of a figure
ascending into clouds, all executed in complete relief. On the north
side, next to the aisle, are some shields in the spandrils between
the niches (Plate VI.), carved in the Italian spirit, and these can
hardly have been added afterwards, but must have been an integral
part of the design. The arabesques on the vertical shafts and in the
horizontal bands might very well have been carved by a man put on for
that purpose only (Fig. 15). Altogether, it is difficult to adjust
with any accuracy the claims of the English and Italian workmen; it
would almost seem as though they worked together, or at any rate with a
cordial understanding between them. The same may be said of the screen
to Prior Draper's chantry (dated 1529) in the same church. The general
design is Gothic, and while the arabesque enrichments may have been
added afterwards, and the spandrils of the flat-pointed door, the same
can hardly be said of the corbels to the niches over it (Fig. 16). The
cresting along the top of this screen exactly resembles that over the
screens at the sides of the choir at Winchester Cathedral, except
that the latter has not a battlemented finish (Fig. 20).
[Illustration: PLATE VI.
THE SALISBURY CHANTRY, CHRISTCHURCH.
DETAIL OF NICHES ON NORTH SIDE.]
Although it is not difficult to imagine an Italian carving this
stonework at Christchurch, it is not quite so easy to attribute the
interesting choir-stalls to him or a compatriot, for the Gothic feeling
is too pronounced, and the angel and cherubs are not lissom and
graceful enough to have descended from an Italian sky.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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