Stones of the Temple; Or, Lessons from the Fabric and Furniture of the ChurchField, Walter
Religion
Stones of the Temple; Or, Lessons from the Fabric and Furniture of the Church
Field, Walter
Christian art and symbolism; Church architecture; Symbolism in architecture
"I quite agree with you. But this was made at a time when sepulchral
monuments were frequently of a very debased character. At this period
the brasses underwent a great change. They began to rise from their
humble position on the pavement, and the figures were occasionally made
without their devotional posture, which up to this date had been almost
universal. They were then placed on the church walls, on tablets, or on
the top and at the back of altar-tombs, and this led the way for the
erection of a large number of monuments in stone of similar design, but
more cumbrous and inconvenient. Inferior workmen also were evidently
employed at this time to engrave the brasses, and they became more and
more debased, till they reached the lowest point of all, a hundred years
ago, and soon after their manufacture altogether ceased. It was near the
time when this brass was put up to the old park-keeper, that that ugly
monument in memory of Sir John York, with its four heathen obelisks, and
its four disconsolate Cupids, was put up in our chancel, covering so
much of the floor as to deprive at least twenty persons of their right
to a place in God's House. About this time, too, that uncomfortable
looking effigy of Lady Lancaster was put upon its massive altar-tomb. To
judge from the position of her Ladyship, and hundreds of other similar
monuments, represented as reclining and resting the face upon the hand,
we might imagine that a large proportion of the population in those days
died of the toothache. However, the attitude of prayer was that most
commonly adopted, as well in stone as brass effigies, till long after
this period.
"If any thing more than the figure, canopy, inscription, and shield is
represented on a brass, it is commonly a sacred symbol, a trade mark, or
some badge of rank or profession. To this there are but a few
exceptions, besides the brass of John Selwyn. At Lynn, in Norfolk, on
one brass is a hunting scene, on another a harvest-home, such as it was
in the year 1349, and on another a peacock feast, the date of which is
1364. Founders of churches frequently hold in their hands the model of a
church. The emblem of undying love we find in the heart, either alone or
held by both hands of the effigy. A long epitaph was often avoided by
the simple representation of a chalice, a sword, an ink-horn, a
wool-sack, a barrel, shears, or some such trade or professional emblem.
Some--comparatively few--of the inscriptions on brasses are, however,
profusely long, and sometimes, but very rarely, ridiculous.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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