Stained glass of the middle ages in England and FranceArnold, Hugh
History
Stained glass of the middle ages in England and France
Arnold, Hugh
Art, Medieval; Glass painting and staining -- England; Glass painting and staining -- France
The windows in the Trinity Chapel itself are all devoted to the tale
of the posthumous miracles of the Blessed St. Thomas as related in the
Chronicle of Prior Benedict, which affords a key to the pictures. The
Chronicle is fascinating reading for the homely light it throws upon
everyday life in England at the end of the twelfth century. By its
means we can trace in the glass the story of the little boy who fell
in the Medway while throwing stones at frogs, three of which, very
large and green, are shown in the glass; of the workman William, who
was overwhelmed by a fall of earth while digging a conduit near
Gloucester; of the physician of Perigord and many others, who were one
and all restored to life and health through prayer to the Blessed
Martyr. There, too, is the tale of Eilward, whose eyes were put out by
the magistrate for having, when drunk, broken into the house of Fulk
(with whom he had quarrelled over a debt) and taken a pair of hedger's
gloves and a whetstone; to whom St. Thomas, who seems to have thought
the sentence excessive, appeared in a vision, and with a touch
restored his eyesight. Here, too, we see the awful vengeance of the
saint on the knight, Jordan Fitzeisulf, who, when his son was restored
to life, meanly neglected to make the offering he had vowed at the
Martyr's tomb.
Three of the windows on the north side are fairly perfect, and two on
the south side contain many of their original medallions. Of those on
the north, one, the sixth from the west, is the best, and might be by
the same hand as the east window. An interesting point about it is the
border, of which the design is identical with that of a window at Sens
which also deals with the history of St. Thomas à Becket. As this
window contains the story of Jordan Fitzeisulf, I shall refer to it,
if I have to do so again, as the Jordan Fitzeisulf window.
The other two, the fourth and fifth from the west, are, I think, by an
inferior hand, and contain, as I have said, certain features not found
in the other windows, but common in later glass of the thirteenth
century. One of them, the fifth from the west, is divided by the
iron-work into four great circles, each of which contains four
pear-shaped medallions, their points meeting in the middle. The
spandrils between them are filled with scroll work on a ruby ground,
not quite so good as those in the east window; but outside the large
circles--and this is the important point--the ground is filled in with
a regular mosaic of little pieces forming a repeat pattern as shown in
Plate VIII. This is the only instance at Canterbury of this "mosaic
diaper," as it is called, which is so common in glass a little later,
and which from the fact that it could be done "by the yard," and if
necessary by an apprentice, was a much cheaper method of filling in a
background than by scroll work, which it soon completely superseded.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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