Derbyshire (England) -- Antiquities; Derbyshire (England) -- History
And now to describe the sculptured figure work at Chesterfield in
detail, beginning at the north end of it, and proceeding from left to
right. First, then, is an eagle; and next, a composite beast, having
the head and horns of an antelope, the snout of a boar, and a chain
round the neck, clawed feet, and the body and tail of an ox. Although,
therefore, the one represents St. John, it is out of the question that
the other can ever have been intended for an evangelistic symbol,
notwithstanding they are both accompanied by scrolls. Then succeed
six demi-angels, clothed in albs, and issuant from conventional
cloud-wreaths; their wings pointing downwards in an oblique direction,
with the ends of the feathers crossed in saltire, every one’s over his
neighbour’s. Each angel bears one or more emblems or instruments of
the Passion: the first, the crown of thorns; the second, the cross;
the third, the seamless coat, together with the dice; the fourth, a
shield displaying the five sacred wounds; the fifth, the lance and
three nails; the sixth, the scourge and hammer. That this series was
originally longer is evident from the abruptly mutilated feather-tips
of another angel’s wing upon the southern or right hand extremity. He
would, doubtless, have held the ladder and pincers; but even thus, the
usual tale of emblems would scarcely be complete without the reed and
sponge, the thirty pieces of silver, or the cock that crew thrice.
How many, then, altogether of the angel figures are missing it is
impossible to tell. Moreover, it seems probable enough that there would
also have been animals with scrolls to balance those at the opposite
end. A detail of the rood-screen and of the sculpture above it, is
shown in the accompanying illustration.
[Illustration: Chesterfield Church: Detail of Screen in the North
Transept, formerly the Rood-Screen.]
The date of the angel ornament appears to be somewhere between 1465
and 1480. What remains of it now measures in length 14 ft. 6 in. by
one foot in height; the figures being carved out of the solid, and
occupying, in ordered row, the concave space of a band sunk between
two beads. That this is no rood-beam, but a superficial ornament for
the breast-summer, I can vouch, for two reasons; firstly, because the
timber itself is a mere board, not exceeding four inches in thickness
at the top, the thickest part of it; and secondly, because at the back
are unmistakable traces of mortice holes for the joists that were fixed
at right angles to it to carry the rood-loft floor. I know nothing that
so much resembles this admirably appropriate ornament as that in a
corresponding position in the stone pulpitum at Canterbury Cathedral;
and in a wooden parclose at Hitchin, in Hertfordshire. And yet I have
no hesitation in pronouncing that the Chesterfield example surpasses
the others in beauty and variety of design. It is, in a word, a very
model of its kind.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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