The World of Romance: being Contributions to The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, 1856Morris, William
Science
The World of Romance: being Contributions to The Oxford and Cambridge Magazine, 1856
Morris, William
Middle Ages -- Fiction; Tales
In the triangular space at the top of the arch is a representation of our
Lord on the cross; St. Mary and St. John standing on either side of him,
and, kneeling on one knee under the sloping sides of the arch, two
angels, one on each side. I very much wish I could say something more
about this piece of carving than I can do, because it seems to me that
the French thirteenth century sculptors failed less in their
representations of the crucifixion than almost any set of artists; though
it was certainly an easier thing to do in stone than on canvas,
especially in such a case as this where the representation is so highly
abstract; nevertheless, I wish I could say something more about it;
failing which, I will say something about my photograph of it.
I cannot see the Virgin's face at all, it is in the shade so much; St.
John's I cannot see very well; I do not think it is a remarkable face,
though there is sweet expression in it; our Lord's face is very grand and
solemn, as fine as I remember seeing it anywhere in sculpture. The
shadow of the body hanging on the cross there, falls strangely and
weirdly on the stone behind--both the kneeling angels (who, by the way,
are holding censers), are beautiful. Did I say above that one of the
faces of the twelve Apostles was the most beautiful in the tympanum? if I
did, I retract that saying, certainly, looking on the westernmost of
these two angels. I keep using the word beautiful so often that I feel
half inclined to apologise for it; but I cannot help it, though it is
often quite inadequate to express the loveliness of some of the figures
carved here; and so it happens surely with the face of this angel. The
face is not of a man, I should think; it is rather like a very fair
woman's face; but fairer than any woman's face I ever saw or thought of:
it is in profile and easy to be seen in the photograph, though somewhat
in the shade. I am utterly at a loss how to describe it, or to give any
idea of the exquisite lines of the cheek and the rippled hair sweeping
back from it, just faintly touched by the light from the south-east. I
cannot say more about it. So I have gone through the carvings in the
lower part of this doorway, and those of the tympanum. Now, besides
these, all the arching-over of the door is filled with figures under
canopies, about which I can say little, partly from want of adequate
photographs, partly from ignorance of their import.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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