Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 134, May 22, 1852: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc. — John Shaqi
Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 134, May 22, 1852: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.Various
History
Notes and Queries, Vol. V, Number 134, May 22, 1852: A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc.
Various
Questions and answers -- Periodicals
E. A. H. L. asks if there is any known representation of St. Christopher
in painted glass. There is one in All Saints, York, engraved in Weale's
_Papers_; and there is a small one on a brass in Tattershall Church.
C. T.
For information on this subject, I would refer E. A. H. L. to Warton,
_Poetry_, vol. i. p. 451.; Coryatt's _Crudities_, vol. i. p. 29.;
Rudder's _Gloucestershire_, p. 286.; Gage's _Hengrave_, p. 64.;
_Winckelm. Stosch_, ch. i. n. 103.
On a loose print of "Painted Glass at Leicester," Throsby del. 1788, now
before me, is a representation of him who was once Psychicus the savage,
but now the holy Saint Christopher, figured, as usual, under the
likeness of a man of gigantic stature, carrying on his shoulder the
little child Jesus, through the broad and deep waters of a turbulent
river, and steadying his steps with an uprooted palm-tree laden with
fruit, which he bears in his hands by way of staff. He is here exhibited
in more seemly habiliments, and as a personage of much more dignified
and venerable appearance, than in the well-known picture on the walls of
Wotton Church. The latter, however, is a portraiture of superior
antiquarian interest, on account of its accessories, wherein St.
Christopher's especial office, as patron of field sports, is, with much
rudeness it is true, but most efficiently and fully illustrated.
In the extract given by J. EASTWOOD from _Sacred and Legendary Art_, we
have merely the supposititious conclusions of an ingenious imagination,
introduced to supply a void which the accomplished writer was unable
otherwise to fill up. There is a pretty little work published by Burns,
and entitled _St. Christopher; a Painting in Fordholme Church_, which
contains, much too much, however, in the suspicious form of a modern
religious allegory, what professes to be the authentic "Legend" of this
saint.
COWGILL.
E. A. H. L. makes the inquiry whether "there are any known
representations of St. Christopher in _painted glass_; if so, where?"
This I am unable to answer; but your learned correspondent JARLTZBERG
having sent you one version of the legend attached to this saint, may I
venture to remind you of another? This is the one attached to the
celebrated picture, "The Descent from the Cross," by Rubens, in the
cathedral of Antwerp, in which the painter, adopting the Greek
derivation of the name as given by JARLTZBERG, represents the saint
supporting Christ on his removal from the crucifix. The picture was
painted for the Arquebusiers of Antwerp, whose patron was St.
Christopher; but they were dissatisfied with it, and refused Rubens his
promised reward, a piece of land in their possession contiguous to his
own, for which he had accomplished this, certainly one of his most
beautiful paintings.
T. W. P.
GENERAL PARDONS--SIR JOHN TRENCHARD.
(Vol. iii., p. 279.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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