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
The divisions between the miserere seats (Fig. 17) are thoroughly
Gothic in general treatment and in their mouldings, but in the
carving the Italian hand shows itself, although subdued to the Gothic
surroundings in which it worked. Some of the desk ends are traceried
and cusped, and some have vases and foliage after the Italian
manner. But here again the two _putti_ which turn their backs in so
unceremonious a way (Fig. 18) can hardly be the work of Italian chisels.
[Illustration: 18.--CHRISTCHURCH, HAMPSHIRE. BENCH-END IN CHOIR.]
It is equally difficult to assign the beautiful panelling in the long
gallery at the Vyne to a foreigner (Fig. 19); there is so much English
feeling about it. The work conveys the impression that the carver was
more at home with his linen panels than with the Italian flourishes
with which he supplemented them; but the single panel over the door
is evidently the work of a hand thoroughly familiar with the Italian
method. We see the same mixed character wherever we look; we can point
to no work--not even Henry VII.'s tomb--and say, "This is wholly
Italian." There is always a strong English feeling, and sometimes it is
only a touch here and there which shows the foreign influence.
[Illustration: 19.--DOORWAY AND PANELLING IN THE GALLERY AT THE
VYNE, HAMPSHIRE (BEFORE 1530).]
[Illustration: 20.--SCREEN ON NORTH SIDE OF CHOIR, WINCHESTER
CATHEDRAL (WITH MORTUARY CHEST), 1525.]
The same remark applies to the stone screens at the sides of the choir
at Winchester (Fig. 20). They are Gothic in general treatment, but a
little Italian carving is introduced in the cresting along the top.
They were the work of Bishop Fox in 1525, who evidently had a hankering
after the foreign ornament in his life, although his own chantry,
in which he lies buried, is free from it; for in the neighbouring
church at St. Cross are the fragments of some very beautiful screens
containing charming Italian work (Plate VII.). The history of these
fragments is not known, but from the occurrence in them of the pelican,
which was Bishop Fox's badge, they seem to be due to him, and they
may possibly have come from the cathedral itself. They do not belong
to their present situation, and one of the main posts is worked with
a return at a very obtuse angle, indicating some such polygonal
disposition as the east end of the cathedral has. On the top of the
choir-screens in the cathedral are placed six oak chests, called
mortuary chests, procured by Fox, in which are deposited the bones of
various benefactors. They are of Italian workmanship (except two which
replaced the old ones in the seventeenth century), and are suggestive
as being one of the sources of inspiration to native carvers. One of
them is shown in Fig. 20, and just behind it can be seen the cornice
of the chantry of Bishop Gardiner, who died in 1555. The portion
visible is of well-developed classic character, and indicates how the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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