The Romanesque crypt capitals of Canterbury Cathedral

THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS OF CANTERBURY CATHEDRAL RICHARD GAMESON Despite extensive rebuilding during the Gothic era, Canterbury Cathedral retains a modest wealth of Romanesque fabric and sculpture, which patently is or was of a very high quality. Probably the best known part of this material is the magnificent crypt, with the carved capitals therein being the most celebrated portion of all. The Romanesque sculpture of the cathedral has recently been examined in a handsome monograph, a large section of which is, appropriately, devoted to the crypt. 1 Here the famous column capitals are illustrated and authoritatively discussed both in their own right and in relation to a range of comparative material. Chief amongst the comparative material which the author cites are, reasonably enough, manuscript illuminations. Canterbury was an important centre of book production and decoration from the tenth century until well into the twelfth (as indeed earlier). There were two active scriptoria in the town, one associated with Christ Church (the cathedral) itself, the other with St. Augustine's Abbey, and, despite subsequent losses, many books which are decorated to a greater or lesser degree survive from the Anglo-Norman period. Given significant bodies of art-work in stone and manuscript which are firmly attributable to one centre during the early Romanesque period, it is clearly of great interest and importance to explore the interrelationship between work in the two media; and, as we have noted, the aforementioned monograph draws many parallels between the 1 D. Kahn, Canterbury Cathedral and its Romanesque Sculpture (London, 1991) (henceforth: Kahn, Sculpture) The crypt is discussed and illustrated on 35-79. For a further and more systematic selection of plates see (Ed.) G. Zarnecki, Canterbury: Romanesque Work(= Courtauld Institute Illustration Archives: Archive 1: Cathedrals and Monastic Buildings in the British Isles: Part 8; London, 1978). The latter also includes a plan on which the capitals are numbered, and its system of numbering has been followed here. 17 RICHARD GAMESON sculptural and manuscript material. However, the author's discussion proceeds from presuppositions about the relationship which, although occasionally apposite and sometimes arguable, are often demonstrably mistaken. Accordingly, it has seemed important to draw attention to the basic factual problems that are involved, and also to certain contingent issues of interpretation, lest contention and fallacy become orthodoxy by default and are repeated as such. In the first part of this paper we shall examine the chronology of the capitals and the manuscript art, and assess their relationship accordingly. In the second part we shall draw attention to various tangential issues which bear upon the interpretation of the carvings. THE CRYPT CAPITALS AND CANTERBURY MANUSCRIPT ART That there are striking correspondences between some of the designs which were carved on the crypt capitals and certain decorated initials that were drawn in Canterbury manuscripts has long been recognised. 2 The phenomenon is not of course restricted to Romanesque Canterbury: it can be paralleled elsewhere in England and on the Continent during this period (the case of certain Cluniac houses, for instance, was set out many years ago),3 and had more material survived, it would undoubtedly be more noticeable. Moreover, when the sculpture in question preserved the paint with which it was originally adorned, its visual similarity to manuscript art will have been significantly greater. 4 It is a commonplace amongst many (though by no means all) historians of Romanesque art and sculpture that manuscripts were, directly or indirectly, an important source of inspiration for carved compositions and ornaments on ecclesiastical buildings. 5 Manuscript decoration was predominantly a monastic preserve at this time. 2 See G. Zarnecki, English Romanesque Sculpture 1066-1140 (London, 1951), 22-3; T.S.R. Boase, English Art 1100-1216 (Oxford, 1953), 31-9; C.R. Dodwell, The Canterbury School of Illumination (Cambridge, 1954), 75-8; and L. Stone, Sculpture in Britain: the Middle Ages (2nd ed., Harmondsworth, 1972), 56-8. 3 J. Evans, Cluniac Art of the Romanesque Period (Cambridge, 1950). Much of the book stresses the parallels between manuscript art and sculpture, emphasising the dependence of the latter on the former; see 53-6 and 98 for general comments on the relationship between the two. 4 Pigment still survives on several of the Canterbury capitals, as is clearly visible in Kahn, Sculpture, Pls. I-III, VIII-IX. It is especially well preserved on no. 3 (Gabriel Chapel). 5 See, for example, E. Male, L'Art religieux du Xlle Siecle en France. Etude sur l'Origine de /'Iconographie du Mayen Age (Paris, 1922), available in translation as Religious Art in France. The Twelfth Century: a Study of the Origins of Medieval 18 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS Hence, it may be argued, it was the most immediate and personal vehicle of visual expression for a community's taste and beliefs, and thus represented precisely the ideas and forms that the community would most like to see translated to a larger scale, if the opportunity presented itself. Practised in a milieu where older artistic exemplars abounded (the book collection), manuscript decoration was also a medium in which new ideas and designs could be worked out relatively inexpensively. Manuscripts were portable, facilitating the transmission of any art-work contained within them, and durable, being less exposed to wear or the vagaries of fashion than architecture and wall-painting, and unlikely to be destroyed for their intrinsic material value like precious metal work. Furthermore, manuscript art flourished from the tenth century onwards whereas the 'revival' of stone sculpture is more a phenomenon of the eleventh century and its greatest achievements date from the twelfth.6 Because of these and Iconography, (Ed.) H. Bober (Princeton, 1978); Evans, Cluniac Art; and G.H. Crichton, Romanesque Sculpture in Italy (London, 1954). For more recent studies that explore the presumed influence of manuscripts see, inter alia, J. Gardelles, 'Recherches sur les Origines des Fa<;ades a Etages d' Arcatures des Eglises medievales', Bulletin Monumental, 136 (1978), 113-33; and G. Zarnecki, 'Como and the Book of Durrow', in (Ed.) E. Fernie and P. Crossley, Medieval Architecture and its Intellectual Context: Studies in Honour of Peter Kidson, (London, 1990), 35-45. A. Borg, Architectural Sculpture in Romanesque Provence (Oxford, 1972), 118, on the other hand, finds it 'difficult, if not impossible, to imagine a Romanesque sculptor borrowing the form of his capitals from a manuscript source; if it operated at all, the process must surely have been in reverse' while M. Bayle, Les Origines et les Premiers Developpements de la Sculpture Romane en Normandie (= Art de Basse-Normandie 100 bis, 1992), 94-6 (discussing Fecamp), favours the possibility that the sculptors and illuminators may have been the same people. For another very different approach see L. Seidel, Songs of Glory: the Romanesque Far;ades of Aquitaine (Chicago, 1981). 6 See, inter alia, M.F. Hearn, Romanesque Sculpture: the Revival of Monumental Stone Sculpture in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Oxford, 1981). The point can easily be over-stressed, however, not least because the early revival of manuscript art is predominantly a phenomenon of England and Germany, while the revival of sculpture is principally associated with France, Spain and Italy. Furthermore, although it is now poorly represented in surviving fabric, late Anglo-Saxon England certainly did not lack a tradition of stone sculpture in architectural settings: most of the remaining material is catalogued in H.M. and J. Taylor, 'Architectural Sculpture in pre-Norman England', J.B.A.A., 3rd ser., 29 (1966),4-51; while for a probable example of an elaborate scheme that has been entirely lost but is known from documentary sources see R.N. Quirk, 'Winchester New Minster and its Tenth Century Tower', J. B.A.A., 3rd ser., 28 (1965), 16-54. It is also difficult to assess the extent to which stucco work had in fact paved the way for architectural sculpture: the potential of the medium is dramatically attested by the miraculous survival at Santa Maria in Valle, Cividale (A. Haseloff, Pre-Romanesque Sculpture in Italy (Florence, 1930), Pls. 48-50), while mid-eleventh-century Romanesque capitals at St. Remi, Reims are in fact made of stucco (L. Grodecki, 'Les Chapiteaux en Stuc de Saint-Remi de Reims', Stucci e Mosaici alto medioevali: Atti dell' ottavo Congresso di Studi sull'Arte del/'alto Medioevo, I (Milan, 1962), 186-208). 19 RICHARD GAMESON similar factors it is attractive to suppose that manuscript art played a formative role in the development of the iconography and decorative vocabulary of some Romanesque sculpture. However, this is far from being an established general principle on the subject, and the whole issue deserves careful re-examination. Certainly there are no satisfactory reasons for assuming a priori that when, at the end of the eleventh century, sets of sculpture and manuscript decoration are related, the former necessarily derives from the latter.7 It has recently been claimed that 'there is abundant and compelling evidence that the imaginative and dynamic local initial style inspired the decoration of the [Canterbury] sculpture of this period. ' 8 Although similar thoughts may be found in the older literature on the subject, albeit in less elaborate form, the statement should nevertheless be regarded with caution: it is assertion, not fact. The starting point for a just assessment of the matter must be a careful investigation of the nature and relative chronology of the crypt capitals and the products of the scriptorium. It is to this that we should now address ourselves. The Romanesque building programmes of the cathedral are relatively well documented and have been analysed in detail by various modern scholars. 9 The crypt was part of the gigantic eastern extension 7 A point that is sometimes adduced to support this theory is the linear, twodimensional nature of the sculpture in question. However, there are other factors that better account for this. It could, for instance, be the result of adhering closely to the design sketch drawn on the surface of the stone. A Gardner, English Medieval Sculpture (2nd ed., Cambridge, 1951), 62-3, suggests that such simple treatment represents a logical development from flat surfaces that were decorated with paint. The Canterbury crypt masons took a 'graphic' approach to their work, as Kahn, Sculpture, 70, stresses. 8 Kahn, Sculpture, 50 (reiterated on 15, 23, 65, 87, etc). The statement is backed up by a reference to George Zarnecki's work of the 40s and 50s; however, she overlooks the fact that Zarnecki then dated the sculpture a generation later than is now believed to be the case (see n. 12 below). In a more recent allusion to the question ('Romanesque Sculpture in Normandy and England in the Eleventh Century', Proc. Battle Conference on Anglo-Norman Studies, I (1979), 168-89 at 184) Professor Zarnecki dates the initials to the 1090s onwards and the capitals to c. 1100; nevertheless, the initial he cites (British Library, Royal 5. B. xv, fol. lr: his pl. 27) certainly post-dates this point, and the manuscript comes from St. Augustine's, not Christ Church (see further n. 33 below). 9 See F. Woodman, The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral (London, 1981), 23-86, esp. 45-56; also R. Gem, 'The Significance of the Eleventh-Century Rebuilding of Christ Church and St. Augustine's, Canterbury, in the Development of Romanesque Architecture', Medieval Art and Architecture at Canterbury before 1220 (Brit. Arch. Assoc. Conference Trans. V; 1982), 1-19. The written source material is largely set out in R. Willis, The Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral (London, 1845). 20 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS that was added to Lanfranc's cathedral in Archbishop Anselm's time to meet the needs for additional devotional space and for privacy of a rapidly growing monastic community whose chapel was also a busy, 'public' cathedral church. This programme, 'Anselm's choir', was certainly begun by 1096 and had probably been planned and possibly started up to three years earlier ( the beginning of his archiepiscopate). Progress seems to have been rapid and, according to William of Malmesbury, the ceiling of the new choir was being painted in 1107. Since it was necessarily the first element of the structure to be built, the crypt may safely be dated c. 1096-c. 1100. Because two of the column capitals remain unfinished it used to be thought that the set must have been carved in situ, which would imply that this work could postdate the completion of the fabric by an uncertain period 10 ( although it would not inevitably follow that it did by very much). However, careful examination of the mode of carving, supported by the evidence of the method which was followed elsewhere in the Romanesque cathedral, strongly suggests that they were in fact carved ex situ and then inserted, the normal procedure and a far more convenient one. 11 (The unfinished capitals are assumed to have been incorporated in that state for reasons of speed and expediency, an interpretation which is supported by the fact that one impost and three bases are also uncompleted.) The capitals are thus most probably exactly contemporary with the rest of the crypt, and most recent writers have consequently dated them to c. 1096-1100 or thereabout.12 Although some of these capitals are individually very familiar, it is worth making a number of points about the group as a whole. First, 10 Thus Stone, Sculpture in Britain, 56 (citing Zarnecki's unpublished Ph.D. thesis). Interestingly, Boase, English Art 1100-1216, 37, was more circumspect. The relevant work is illustrated in Kahn, Sculpture, Ills. 33-8. 11 G. Zarnecki, 'The Romanesque Capitals in the South Transept of Worcester Cathedral', Medieval Art and Architecture at Worcester Cathedral (Brit. Arch. Assoc. Conference Trans. 1; 1978), 38-42 at 39; idem, 'A Romanesque Capital from Canterbury at Chartham', Arch. Cant., xcv (1979), 1-6 at 6; and Kahn, Sculpture, 40. 12 Thus (in addition to the works cited in n. 11 above): Zarnecki, Canterbury Cathedral: Romanesque Work, iii; and Woodman, Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, 55-6. A notable exception is P. Tudor-Craig, 'St. Bernard and the Canterbury Capitals', England in the Twelfth Century: Proceedings of the 1988 Harlaxton Symposium, (Ed.) D. Williams (Woodbridge, 1990), 205-17, who, because of her hypothesis that Canterbury ought to derive from Cluny, cites the latest conceivable date for carving ex situ (c. 1107) and would like (though does not defend) a later date altogether. Incidentally, it should be noted that part of her case is effectively pre-empted by Woodman, Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, 72-3; while another part is vigorously challenged by C. Rudolph, The 'Things of Greater Importance': Bernard of Clairvaux's Apologia and the Medieval Attitude Towards Art (Philadelphia, 1990). 21 RICHARD GAMESON by no means all of the capitals in the crypt are elaborately carved. The two free-standing columns in both the Gabriel Chapel and the Chapel of the Holy Innocents have motif-bearing capitals, as do half of those in the central bay of the main body of the crypt; but almost all of the remainder are topped by simple cushion or scalloped capitals. Secondly, although the ornament on each decorated capital has an internal coherence of its own, there does not appear to be any overall programme behind the set as a whole. Thirdly, while the basic sculptural treatment of the capitals is essentially the same throughout - they are all proficiently carved in a bas-relief style ( the effectiveness of which would originally have been enhanced by paint) - in all other respects they fall into distinct sub-groups. Because of the damaged condition of some of the surfaces it is not always possible to identify individual hands with certainty; nevertheless distinctions in choice of motif, in treatment and in finish clearly reveal several craftsmen to have been at work. 13 One sculptor, whose work appears in the Chapel of the Holy Innocents, is characterised by his use of tyBically Anglo-Saxon foliage motifs ( capital no. 1: see Plates I and II). 4 The same hand or a close colleague was responsible for the neighbouring capital (no. 2: see Plate 111), 15 which, interestingly, is the only one that bears designs which really parallel the early post-Conquest Christ Church initials, as we shall see. To a different craftsman, whose vocabulary was related but more progressive and who liked a 'soft' finish, may be attributed one of the capitals in the Gabriel Chapel (no. 3: see Plate IV). 16 His foliage forms and double-bodied dragon motif presage the vocabulary of certain twelfth-century initials. A significant amount of paint remains on the work of this 'transitional master', enabling us better to gauge its original effect: the background was coloured reddy-purple, the contours of the beasts were emphasised by a black outline, and at least some of the foliage was painted in ochre. All the carvings that have been mentioned so far share the fact that they preserve the basic cushion capital shape. None of the other sculpture, by contrast, does: elsewhere the entirety of each face is treated as a single field for design. This is the case, for example, on the other decorated capital in the Gabriel Chapel (no. 4: see Plates V and VI), 17 which displays the work of the most advanced artist, the 13 See also the brief discussion of Woodman, Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, 54-5, on this point. 14 Kahn, Sculpture, Ills. 55 and 109. 15 Ibid., Ills. 51-2. 16 Ibid., Ill. 43; Pls. VIII-IX. 17 Ibid., Ills. 66, 70, 77; Pls. I-IV (the last incorrectly labelled) and VI. 22 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS PLATE I (Photo: Courtauld Institute of Art) Canterbury Cathedral Crypt, Capital 1 (Holy Innocents' Chapel), east side. 23 RICHARD GAMESON PLATE II (Photo: Courtau/d Institute of Art) Capital 1 (Holy Innocents' Chapel), west side. 24 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS 􀀃 - - i:: - . 0 􀀉 N 􀀊 ·5."' u 25 RICHARD GAMESON 'Gabriel Chapel Master'. Apart from using the entire face as a single field, the Gabriel Chapel Master is distinguished from his neighbour (and from the other mason) by the harsher finish of his work and its bolder and more audacious design. From his hand sprang the famous cavorting animal musicians, and to him ( or a close follower) should probably be attributed most, if not all, of the decorated capitals within the main body of the crypt. These bear different though interrelated desi􀁆ns, most of them quite bizarre (nos. 7, 8, 11 and 12: see Plate VII) . 1 Finally, in another mode, though possibly in the same style (the damaged surface makes the finish difficult to assess) is capital 16, which has a single subject on each face. These are the only carvings in the crypt that could be construed as illustrative. 19 A definitive analysis of the various artistic personalities that are here provisionally identified is beyond the scope of this paper. Sufficient, however, has been said to draw attention to what is of special relevance in this context, namely the differences themselves, and, in particular, the striking contrast between the vocabulary of the first, retrospective, hand and that of his more progressive colleagues. Also significant is the fact that all the sculptors were skilled craftsmen in their own perfected vocabularies. The distinctions between their work clearly have nothing to do with technical proficiency, and must, therefore, be due to other factors, such as differences in taste, training, race or age. It is not impossible, for example, that the first mason belonged to an older generation than the others. These imponderables usefully remind us that we know nothing about the origins, training and previous experience of any of these masons. Turning to the Canterbury manuscripts of the early Romanesque period, we find that few of them may be precisely dated and that a degree of uncertainty, therefore, surrounds the chronological evolution of the two scriptoria in the half century after the Norman Conquest. Nevertheless, sufficient books are datable that, with analysis of the codicology and script of the corpus, the broad outlines of development are clear. 20 The relevant details may be summarised here. At Christ Church after the dual interruptions of the Conquest in 18 Ibid., Ills. 60, 62-3, 81-2 and 94-5; Pls. V and X. 19 Ibid., Ills. 90, and 92-3. Parallels from the Bestiary have been adduced for the animal on the south face (see Zarnecki, 'Romanesque Capital from Canterbury at Chartham, 4; reiterated by Kahn, Sculpture, 62). 20 The fundamental study is Dodwell, Canterbury School. This should be supplemented by C.M. Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts 1066-1190 (London, 1975), Cats. 6-8, 10, 17-22, 41-4; by A. Lawrence, 'Manuscripts of Early Anglo-Norman Canterbury', Medieval Art and Architecture at Canterbury before I220, 101-111 (whose 26 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS PLATE IV (Photo: Courcauld Institute of Art) Capital 3 (St. Gabriel's Chapel), south side. 27 RICHARD GAMESON PLATE V (Photo: Courtauld Institute of Art) Capital 4 (St. Gabriel's Chapel), west side: work of the Gabriel Chapel Master. 28 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS PLATE VI (Photo: Courtauld Institute of Art) Capital 4 (St. Gabriel's Chapel), north side: work of the Gabriel Chapel Master. 29 RICHARD GAMESON PLATE VII (Photo: Courtau/d Institute of Art) Capital 7 (main body of the crypt), south side: work of the Gabriel Chapel Master. 30 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS 1066 and then of the catastrophic fire in the following year, book production was enthusiastically undertaken and seems to have been prosecuted with considerable haste. Because of the new scholarly interests of the Norman ecclesiastics, most notably Archbishop Lanfranc himself, along with the loss of some part of the preConquest library in the conflagration of 1067, the emphasis was on copying key texts rapidly, and little attention was paid to 'frills' like decoration. The library books which were written during the generation after the Conquest are often holograph, they vary noticeably in format and preparation, and have minimal ornamentation, occasionally none at all.21 Such decoration as was supplied is very chronological framework is slightly hazy: most of the manuscripts discussed are of late eleventh-century date but towards the end some from the first quarter of the twelfth century are introduced without this being clearly signalled); and by my 'English Manuscript Art in the late Eleventh Century: Canterbury and its Context', in (Ed.) R. Eales and R. Sharpe Canterbury and the Norman Conquest: Churches, Saints and Scholars 1066-1109, (London, forthcoming). The great majority of the manuscripts which are reasonably ascribable to the late eleventh century as opposed to the twelfth may be found conveniently listed in H. Gneuss, 'A Preliminary List of Manuscripts Written or Owned in England up to 1100', Anglo-Saxon England, 9 (1981), 1-60. 21 Typical is Durham Cathedral Library, MS B. II. 10, which is datable to before 1096. This has but a single decorated initial which is nine lines high and is set within one column of a two-column page (R.A.B. Mynors, Durham Cathedral Manuscripts (Oxford, 1939), no. 38, Pl. 26; Lawrence, 'Manuscripts of Early Anglo-Norman Canterbury', Pl. XXXIIlc). Also from this generation and datable are: Durham B. IV. 24, (pre-1096), which is in part probably from Christ Church and has no decoration. Cambridge University Library, MS Kk. 1. 23 (probably pre-c. 1093) which has a single crudely-drawn decorated initial (see P.R. Robinson, Catalogue of Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 737-1600 in Cambridge Libraries 2 vols (Woodbridge, 1988), I, no. 63; II, Pl. 43). Cambridge University Library, MS Ii. 3. 33 (written between 1079 and 1101) (Ibid. I, 58; II, Pl. 32) which has three simple decorated initials on fol. Sr, and only arabesque initials thereafter. Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B. 3. 5 (probably pre-c. 1093) which has one very simple dragon initial (Ibid I, no. 91; II, Pl. 55). Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B. 5. 28 (probably pre-c. 1093) which has four decorated initials, two of which are of high quality (Ibid., I, no. 93; II, Pl. 56; see further n. 22 below). And from late in the period: Cambridge, Trinity College, MSS 0. 4. 34; 0. 10. 28; and 0. 10. 31, which share a scribe who wrote a charter of 1107. The first has three very feeble decorated initials; the second has one very crude historiated initial (by the same hand); the last has coloured initials alone. For further illustrations of initials from this period see Dodwell, Canterbury School, Pls. 10b and d; 11 b; 44a; and 45c. Manuscripts completely lacking decoration are Oxford, St John's College, MS 89; and Windsor, St George's Chapel Library, MS 5. Only three of Kahn's comparative illustrations (53-4 and 76) are from manuscripts of this period. 31 RICHARD GAMESON restricted both in size and amount, and consists of a few small decorated initials, sometimes no more than one. (Their scale is concealed when they are, as so often, reproduced out of context.) They vary noticeably in quality, and, with the exception of one artist whose surviving oeuvre consists merely of three initials,22 the hands responsible for these letters were not especially skilful. These unobtrusive letters are constructed of differing combinations of tubes and foliage, often with beasts and masks, and occasionally with human figures intertwined. The decorative vocabulary and the foliage forms of the best of these early initials are indeed quite closely comparable to those which were used on two faces of one of the less advanced crypt capitals ( cap. 2; Holy Innocents' Chapel: see Plate Ill, the left hand of the two sides shown). 23 It is not impossible that the latter derive directly from them, though an indirect relationship is more likely as we shall see. The designs on the third face of this capital and on two faces of the other capital in this chapel, it will be recalled, are more retrospective: they use foliage motifs that are archetypical of late Anglo-Saxon art (see Plates I and II, and III right-hand side).24 This, however, is all: the ornamental repertoire that adorns other capitals, those in the main body of the crypt and the Gabriel Chapel, is very different, and patently cannot have been inspired by the products of the late eleventh-century scriptorium, let alone by those of its pre-Conquest forerunner. As the extant Christ Church manuscripts from this period are almost all library volumes, not service books, it might reasonably be suggested that more adventurous decoration of a higher quality was originally supplied in the latter. The fortunate survival of two liturgical books - a gradual of late eleventh-century date now at Durham,25 and an early twelfth-century pontifical in Dublin26 - 22 Found in Cambridge University Library, MS Ff. 3. 9 (Dodwell, Canterbury School, Pl. llb) and Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B. 5. 28 (Ibid., Pl. 10d). 23 North side and south side: Kahn, Sculpture, Ills. 51-4. 24 Cap. 2, east side; cap. 1, east and west sides (Kahn, Sculpture, Ills. 39, 55, 104 and 109). See further G. Zarnecki, 'The Winchester Acanthus in Romanesque Sculpture', Wallraf-Richartz Jahrbuch, xvii (1955), 1-4. Numerous Anglo-Saxon manuscripts which have frames with such ornament are illustrated in E. Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts 900-1066 (London, 1976). Kahn, Sculpture, 51, on the other hand, 'thinks it unlikely that the artists were consciously reviving Anglo-Saxon designs' and believes them to be following manuscript art which was still current at Canterbury. This she 'supports' by reference to an initial in Durham Cathedral Library, MS A. II. 4, the second part of the famous two-volume Bible that was written in Normandy and given to Durham by William of St. Calais Carilef (Bishop of Durham 1080-96)! 25 Durham, University Library, MS Cosin V. v. 6. Folio 79r is reproduced in colour on a postcard available from the library. If it is indeed a Carilef book (to be identified with item 32 on the list of his donation), as seems likely, it is datable to pre-1096. On 32 ,. . --.- ·--􀀋-, THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS PLATE VIII . ___.,. _ v K,!.H • 􀀌 "" -r 11 ·􀀅P1.u:· p..l-:,":-1'-' 􀀅..:"'f-• J1􀀥t-..,cllt1Jt 1:,-·Pttit. tt􀀙tpn..· p.,-;,$W $􀀚f 1,'FS.A􀀛.ut 􀀜􀀝·· ,., tt. : 111111111 jlll l'"'I Ut. ll"lf•lYJJlf. ESTJJ 5 cv TIO (P7::ito: Courtauld /nstiture of Arc) . . . MS Harie 624 fol. 128v (detail). Passional produced at London, Bnnsh Library, 1􀁒25 s· e of complete page: 372 x 228 mm. Christ Church, Canterbury, c. · 12 33 RICHARD GAMESON enables us to see that this was not in fact the case. Although mutilated, the gradual still preserves three pages with decorated initials, and these, though visually engaging, are no bigger, bolder, or competently drawn than the best work in the contemporary library books. Their form reflects the same taste for simple, small-scale 'fantasy' initials: the S on fol. 79r, for example, is ornamented with beast head terminals, each spewing a human head, and has a dog and a griffin within its curves. Like their counterparts in lower-grade books, these provide a few general analogies for some of the motifs used in the crypt, but do not correspond with any specific carvings there and are unlikely to have served as their inspiration. The pontifical, a bishop's book, is a larger and more imposing volume; however, it is entirely without decoration. Its initials are all plain. It seems to have been at the end or around the turn of the century that the Christ Church scriptorium achieved a more consistent house style in lay-out, script and display script, and began to approach decorative maturity. Thereafter, in the early twelfth century, the number of talented artists can be seen to multiply. Their output is more extensive, more varied and more interesting than that of their predecessors. The famous manuscripts with the most striking decorated initials, certain of which have often been reproduced, are all products of this later period.27 The relative chronology of these manuscripts need not detain us here: it is sufficient in this context merely to underline the fact that the Christ Church books whose initials are generally comparable with the designs on the majority of the decorated capitals in the crypt (nos. 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 15 and 16) are largely products of the first three decades of the twelfth century and not of the last years of the eleventh (see Plate VIII). Most of the initials, which have recently been cited as the source of the carvings and illustrated alongside them, certainly or almost certainly postdate them, in some cases by more than two decades. the book see K.D. Hartzell, 'An unknown English Benedictine Gradual of the Eleventh Century', Anglo-Saxon England, 4 (1975), 131-44, and Pl. Illa. The most recent discussion of the Carilef donation is A.C. Browne, 'Bishop William of St. Carilef's Book Donations to Durham Cathedral Priory', Scriptorium, xiii (1988), 140-55. 26 Dublin, Trinity College, MS 98: M.L. Colker, Trinity College Library, Dublin: Descriptive Catalogue of the Medieval and Renaissance Latin Manuscripts, 2 vols. (London, 1991), I, 195-8. 27 E.g. Cambridge, St. John's College, MS A, 8; Cambridge, Trinity College, MS B. 2. 34; Canterbury Cathedral, MS Lit. E. 42 (probably early in the period); London, British Library, MSS Cotton Claudius E. V; and Harley 624, to mention the volumes that are cited and illustrated by Kahn. Crucial for the chronology of these is a sixth book, British Library, MS Cotton Cleopatra E. I, which is securely dated to 1120-21 34 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS Given the well-known rivalry between Christ Church and St. Augustine's after the Norman Conquest, and the contrast between the more Norman tone of the former and the pronounced Anglo-Saxon identity of the latter, it is of great interest to see what light artistic evidence may shed on the relationship between the two houses. Regrettably, only a few fragments of Anglo-Norman sculpture remain from St. Augustine's, which largely pre-empts comparison in this respect. Nevertheless, it is notable that the decorative repertoire of what survives is broadly comparable to that of the crypt capitals which are our primary interest here, and it is not impossible that the same workshop was responsible for both programmes. 28 St. Augustine's was rebuilt from c. 1073, the work continuing in stages until at least the end of the eleventh century; the date of completion is unknown. Although they may reasonably be associated with this period, the St. Augustine's fragments are ex situ, their original location is unknown and they cannot, therefore, be precisely dated. Consequently, the chronological relationship between the two sets of work is uncertain. The writer of the recent monograph believes that the St. Augustine's material is probably later than the Christ Church crypt capitals. 29 and whose decoration is closely related to that of Claudius E. V and Harley 624 (see Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts, Cat. 20; A. Watson, Dated and Datable Manuscripts c. 700-1600 in the Department of Manuscripts, The British Library, 2 vols. (London, 1979), I, no. 526). Moreover, Harley 624 (fols 84-143) is part of a now fragmentary passional of which more survives in Cotton Nero C. VII (fols 29-78) and Harley 315 (fols 1-39), and textual evidence indicates that much of the portion in the last volume was written after 1123 (see (Ed.) R.W. Southern, The Life of St. Anselm by Eadmer (London, 1962), xxii-xxiii; also idem, St. Anselm and his Biographer (Cambridge, 1963), 238, n. 2). For further discussion of other decorated Canterbury and Rochester books which are datable or assignable to c. 1120 see T.A. Heslop, "'Dunstanus Archiepiscopus" and Paintings in Kent around 1120', Burlington Magazine, cxxvi (1984), 195-204. The Rochester-Christ Church Bible (Baltimore, Walters Art Gallery, MS 18 and British Library, MS Royal I. C. vii) from which Kahn illustrates two initials (Ills. 65 and 112) is contemporary with these volumes. See further Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts, Cat. 45, where it is dated c. 1130, and M. P. Richards, Texts and Their Traditions in the Medieval Library of Rochester Cathedral Priory ( = Trans. of the American Philosophical Society 78/3; 1988), 78-82, where one volume is dated c. 1125, the other to an unspecified point slightly earlier. 28 See Kahn, Sculpture, 74-5; Pls. 114 and 116. Here again we are told that 'details from manuscripts were a stimulus for stone sculpture . . . The design is related to a detail in the initial T in a Passionate from St. Augustine's, and it confirms the link between manuscripts and sculpture'. In fact, the volume in question, Harley 624, is from Christ Church, not St. Augustine's. Furthermore, as it is unlikely to date from before the third decade of the twelfth century (see n. 27), any influence that might be posited is likely to run the other way around. 29 Ibid., 75. 35 RICHARD GAMESON The same commentator has implied that the manuscript art of St. Augustine's also exerted an influence on the sculpture at Christ Church. If true, this would provide a most interesting insight into the question of the cultural connections between the two houses. However, the claim rests on assumptions rather than on facts, and, once again, the evidence of the manuscript material suggests a rather different picture. The character and chronology of the manuscripts produced at St. Augustine's Abbey are, fortunately, better known than its sculpture. At St. Augustine's there was a stronger continuity with the Anglo-Saxon past, so much so indeed that tumultuous disagreements erupted between the community and its second Norman abbot, Wido, in 1088-89, which led to the expulsion of some of the brothers and their replacement with monks from the cathedral. This continuity is reflected in the production, script and decoration of many of its manuscripts until the early twelfth century. Unlike Christ Church, St. Augustine's did not lose part of its undoubtedly respectable pre-Conquest library, and so it started the Anglo-Norman phase of its history with a better than average book collection. Accordingly, manuscript production seems to have continued more sedately at the abbey than at the cathedral in the late eleventh century, and a smaller number of books of a predominantly higher quality were written. Several of the volumes are extensively ornamented with sets of fine decorated initials. Some of these letters are conceived in a calligraphic, multi-coloured pen-work style which has no relation whatsoever to any carvings. 30 Others are constructed from varying combinations of foliage, beasts and figures, and these are for the most part more imaginative, eye-catching and skilfully rendered than contemporary work of the Christ Church scriptorium, whilst remaining comparable in respect of their small scale. 31 Although the known implantation of the Christ Church monks in St. Augustine's at the end of the century might be cited as providing a possible context for the loan of manuscripts ( or of designs relating to them) from the abbey to serve as models for the decoration of the new crypt, it seems an unlikely performance, especially in view of the fact that feelings were running high between the two communities at the time (would Christ Church really have wanted to base its 30 E.g. in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 270, which is datable to between 1091 and 1100 (Lawrence, 'Manuscripts of Early Anglo-Norman Canterbury', Pl. X􀁓1 XIIc; Robinson, Dated and Datable . . . Cambridge, I, no. 148; II, pl. 34). E.g. Durham Cathedral Library, MS B. II. 16 (datable prc-1096; see Mynors, Durham Cathedral Manuscripts, no. 35, Pl. 24) and Cambridge, Trinity College, MS 0. 2. 51 (see Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts, Cat. 8). 36 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS sculpture on the ideas of its rival and subordinate?), and there is no evidence to suggest that it happened. Although a few letters in St. Augustine's books which are of late eleventh-century date present general analogies for the decorative language that was used on a few of the crypt capitals (notably no. 3, the work of the 'transitional master': see Plate IV), only one such initial has a specific resemblance to any of the carvings, and the nature of the motif in question, two interlockin§ curls of spindly foliage, is hardly such as to prove direct derivation. 2 Conversely, the two manuscripts whose initials provide several more interesting comparisons for certain of the capitals and which have recently been illustrated alongside them are of later date: one is reasonably ascribed to the beginning of the twelfth century, the other to the second or even third decade of it. 33 The key point to emphasise here is that, once again, we find that most of the letters which have been cited as the source for the carving in fact date from after, not before, its execution. If there were a connection between these two sets of work (which is by no means proven), the predominant influence must have run in the other direction. 4 To sum up our findings so far, we may fairly conclude that relatively few of the various initials that have recently been cited as the source of inspiration for the Romanesque motifs which were used on the crypt capitals can conceivably have fulfilled this role. The rest either simply cannot, or are very unlikely to have done so. Moreover, the diachronistic development which is clearly perceptible in the extant books from both houses forestalls the suggestion that the more spectacular and generally more relevant initials in later manuscripts show the same sort of decoration that was present in earlier volumes which have been lost. The thesis, with its sweeping characterisation, overlooks the variations in the material (both manuscript and sculptural), distorts the chronological realities of the situation, and relies 32 Trinity 0. 2. 51, fol. 34r: see Kahn, Sculpture, ills 57-8. The initials which provide general analogies for the vocabulary of cap. 3 are to be found in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 267; Canterbury Cathedral, MS Lit. A. 8; and London, British Library, MS Harley 652, They are probably all the work of one artist. 33 The first is London, British Library, MS Arundel 91 (Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts, Cat. 17), part of a large, seven-volume Passional. (Only one other volume survives, Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS Fell 2, and its decorated initials have been excised). The artist responsible reappears in a datable book, the calendar, Cotton Vitellius C. XII (Ibid., Cat. 18; Watson, Dated and Datable Manuscripts in the British Library, I, no. 577; II, Pl. 58), which was written during the first decade of the twelfth century. The second is Royal 5. B. xv, a composite volume of which fols 57-64 are probably of late eleventh-century date, the remainder (including the one decorated initial) from the twelfth century. 34 Christ Church influence can be perceived in the script of some St. Augustine's books from c. 1100 (e.g. Arundel 91, scribe i), 37 RICHARD GAMESON on unstated, questionable assumptions concerning both inter-house relations and the relationship between the masons and the cathedral community. Yet, a just analysis of the connections between all this material must turn on precisely these issues. The fourth pivotal point for its interpretation is the necessity of distinguishing carefully and clearly between a source and an analogue: something which is of undoubted significance as the latter is misleading when incautiously treated as the former. The fifth point is the importance of remembering that a vast amount of potentially relevant material has been lost, not least amongst which is, of course, most of Lanfranc's cathedral and its decoration, the immediate context and forerunner of Anselm's crypt. Although the surviving evidence is sufficient to reveal the evolution of style and taste, it is hardly a reliable guide to the full range of material and personalities that were originally involved in this complex process. Even given the limitations to which we have just alluded, the chronology and character of the extant material itself indicate that the interrelationship between sculpture and manuscript art was more subtle and variable than has been acknowledged. Had additional material in other media survived, it might well be apparent that it was also more indirect. Leaving this issue aside for the moment, the imperfect picture which the available evidence actually supports of artistic development at Christ Church after the Norman Conquest may be summarised as follows. Anglo-Saxon traditions of draughtsmanship seem to have continued only briefly at Christ Church after 1066. 35 The modest decorated initials that sparingly adorn the first generation of postConquest manuscripts do re-use a few motifs which were familiar from Anglo-Saxon contexts; nevertheless, they are formulated in accordance with a new aesthetic. These unimposing letters advertise the interest of the early Anglo-Norman community in Romanesque modes of decoration - styles which were being used in similar terms in other scriptoria in England at this time,36 not to mention in other media. The carved fragments bearing foliate motifs, back-biting animals and affronted beasts which were recently discovered in Canterbury and have been tentatively associated with Lanfranc's building programme belong to a comparable phase of development. 37 35 In London, British Library, MS Cotton Caligula A. XV (Temple, Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts, Cat. 106, ills 317-18) which is datable to c. 1073; and Harley 603 (artist G). 36 See, e.g., Kauffmann, Romanesque Manuscripts, Cats. 1, 4, and 13-14. 37 Kahn, Sculpture, 31-3, Ills, 25-9; eadem, 'Recently discovered eleventh-century reliefs from Canterbury', Gesta, 28 (1989), 53-60. The close parallels with the Bayeux Tapestry, whose associations are with St. Augustine's, might be taken as a factor pointing to a connection with that house rather than with the cathedral. 38 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS These early works, which are for the most part relatively tame essays in the Romanesque aesthetic, provide a partial context in which to understand the further development and more enthusiastic deployment of motifs of the same genre that was undertaken by certain of the sculptors who were responsible for the decoration of Anselm's crypt at the end of the century. At the same time, Anglo-Saxon traditions were still practised in this sculpture workshop, and they evidently continued to be acceptable to the community. As we noted earlier, the masons were a protean group and their work includes both revolutionary and reactionary elements. One capital, it will be recalled, bears Anglo-Saxon foliage motifs (see Plates I and II); another (possibly by the same hand) has designs which are related to the initials in the first generation of postConquest manuscripts (Plate III); a third is transitional in character (Plate IV); most of the others pioneer more daring and progressive types of decoration (Plates V-VII). Shortly thereafter, perhaps partly owing to the influence of the most skilful and dramatic carvings in the crypt, which revealed the full potential of the Romanesque style, the more avant-garde motifs began to be used with greater flair and determination in the scriptorium as well. Henceforth, in the early decades of the twelfth century, sculptors ( now employed on the arcades of the eastern transept)38 and illuminators seem to have been working at a similar stage of development. THE INTERPRETATION OF THE CRYPT CAPITALS Several issues concerning this material and its interpretation merit further comment. These are: the necessity for extreme caution before classifying objects which have related decoration in terms of source and derivative; the status of the Gabriel Chapel Master; the background to the development of Romanesque ornament at Christ Church in the late eleventh century; the relationship between the masons and the cathedral community; and the role of the carved capitals in the original scheme of the crypt as a whole. We can usefully start by considering the way in which the relationship between formally related ornament, whether or not in different media, may be approached and interpreted. If, as is often 38 Discussed and illustrated in Kahn, Sculpture, 79-87. Also assigned to this phase is the isolated capital that was found at Chartham and is now in the Canterbury Heritage Museum (Ibid., ill. 277; see further Zarnecki, 'Romanesque Capital from Canterbury'). 39 RICHARD GAMESON the case, the modern student is primarily concerned with discovering the 'origin' and reconstructing the steps in the transmission of a design, it is crucially important to assess carefully the degree of 'kinship' that the formal similarity implies (the issue of 'source or analogue') whilst being sensitive to the potential importance of material that has vanished. Confusion or incautious judgement over these points can result in misleading conclusions. Only if the visual parallels are overwhelming and the chronology is sufficiently clear, can the material confidently be interpreted in terms of source and influence. In the case which concerns us here, the evidence suggests, as we have seen, that most of the late eleventh-century Christ Church initials (and all of the contemporary St. Augustine's ones) are analogues, not sources for the capitals (and for just a few of them at that); while, conversely, the avant-garde capitals may have been an important source of inspiration for the creators of some of the early twelfth-century initials. The origins of Romanesque ornament at Canterbury were examined in detail some years ago in relation to the manuscript material alone, and a wide range of sources of inspiration, proximate and ultimate, were adduced. 39 Some of the motifs that came to be used in decorated initials were shown originally to have been part of illustrations in Classical and Carolingian books, while others were traced to Anglo-Saxon art, Antique sculpture or imported textiles, and so on. The relationship between the crypt capitals and the initials, which we have tried to clarify, throws two sidelights on this field. In the first place, it suggests that contemporary sculpture should perhaps be included among the immediate sources of inspiration for some of the twelfth-century initials. If, as is probable, the Canterbury masons were laymen, the scribes and illuminators mainly ecclesiastics,40 it would thereby simultaneously allude to the influence of secular artists on their monastic counterparts. Such interaction was, doubtless, not uncommon, but owing to the dearth of opportunity for comparing significant bodies of manuscript illumination and sculpture from the same centre in the late eleventh century and early twelfth, it is difficult to study it in England at this time. Secondly, it shows that the most progressive sculptor who 39 Dodwell, Canterbury School, Ch. VI. 40 We know from documentary sources that scribes were hired at St. Albans and Abingdon (see R.M. Thomson, Manuscripts from St. Albans Abbey 1066-1235, 2 vols (Woodbridge, 1982), I, 13), but there is nothing to indicate that this happened at Christ Church in the late eleventh century and the evidence of the surviving books suggests that it did not. Whether the situation changed there in the twelfth century with regard to illuminators at least is a moot point. 40 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS worked in the crypt, the Gabriel Chapel Master, cannot simply have adopted his repertoire wholesale from contemporary manuscript art as has been implied; his inspiration must have come from elsewhere. His hybrids, cavorting men and animal musicians, representing the height of current European fashion, seem to have been relatively novel at Christ Church c. 1100. He thus appears to hold an important place in the development of Romanesque ornament at this centre, and to him, it seems, should be credited the creation of the earliest extant fully-developed sculptural fantasy repertoire in England. He is, we suggest, a more innovative character than has previously been allowed, and his work would undoubtedly repay further study. If the work of the Gabriel Chapel Master seems more innovative now that it has been emancipated from slavish dependence upon subsequent manuscript art, it is by no means inexplicable, especially once its artistic contexts, both known and potential, are recognised. The vocabulary of ornament that is regarded as quintesse􀀼tially Romanesque appears at Canterbury, as in southern England as a whole, at the end of a century during which many of the basic motifs involved ( dragons, birds, beasts and foliage) had been in frequent use, albeit less prominently. 41 This repertoire had been deployed not only in manuscripts, but also in ivories and stone sculpture, as no doubt in the now-unrepresented media of wood carving,42 textiles, precious metalwork, wall-painting and possibly also stucco. Moreover, given Canterbury's cosmopolitan nature, especially after the Conquest, and the Norman penchant for importing materials and personnel, germane material from further afield is also potentially relevant. After all, as has been noted, we know nothing about the origin and previous career of the sculptor in question, and his oeuvre could reflect a foreign training or the influence of work seen abroad. Various Norman building programmes of eleventh-century date include architectural sculpture which adumbrates aspects of his basic approach and decorative repertoire. One thinks, for instance, of some of the decorated capitals produced at Bernay in the second quarter of the eleventh century, at Jumieges in the mid eleventh 41 Dragons, beasts and foliage had been the main ingredients of decorated initial design for much of the late Anglo-Saxon period, enjoying a renaissance in deluxe books in the mid eleventh century: see F. Wormald, 'Decorated initials in English Manuscripts A.O. 900-1100', Archaeologia, xci (1945), 107-36. 42 The considerable corpus of Romanesque wood carving that survives in Norway (see M. Blindheim, Norwegian Romanesque Decorative Sculpture 1090-1210 (London, 1965)) provides a vivid testimony to the quality of work that was possible in this medium. 41 RICHARD GAMESON century, at Bayeux in the third 􀁃uarter of the century, and at Cerisy-la-Foret in the last quarter.4 Detailed exploration of the various possibilities falls outside the scope of the present paper: the point we wish to make here is more general and fundamental, and concerns the nature rather than the location of the Gabriel Chapel Master's putative sources. If, for the sake of argument, we examine English ivory carvings alone, of which only a small sample survives, we find that dragon-head terminals and foliage with beasts in its tendrils appear on a tau cross in the British Museum, an openwork plaque in the Musee de Cluny, a reliquary cross in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and a pen case which is also in the British Museum - all items which have recently been dated to the early to mid eleventh century. 44 The same motifs are used in unequivocally Romanesque modes in other English ivories which are reasonably assigned to the late eleventh century. 45 Collectively the body of extant work attests to a tradition of such ornament in various media evolving throughout the century, and there is no reason to assume that developments in sculpture would lag behind those in manuscript art. Now irrespective of the relative chronology of the manuscripts and the sculpture, it is difficult to imagine that a mason would inevitably have relied on designs from books, when he could far more easily, and would as a matter of course, find inspiration in numerous other artefacts which were around him. The heraldic lion that was carved on two faces of capital 11 in the crypt may well look like the depiction of Leo in the calendar of a late Anglo-Saxon psalter,46 but is it not far more likely actually to descend from the 43 On which see now M. Bayle, Les Origines et les Premiers Developpements de la Sculpture Romane en Normandie, 58-80, 118-124, and 138-40; with Ills. 141-2, 161, 163, 167-8, 190-3, 195-206, 254-6, and 424-8. Looking further afield, one may point, for instance, to the eleventh-century capitals of the tower porch of Saint Benoit-surLoire (Hearn, Romanesque Sculpture, Ills. 25-6), a centre with which English churchmen had had frequent contacts in the late Anglo-Saxon period. 44 (Eds.) D.H. Turner, L. Webster andJ. Backhouse, The Golden Age of Anglo-Saxon Art (British Museum exhibition catalogue, 1984), Cats. 121, 131, 125 and 132 respectively. The proto-Romanesque character of the last of these items is underlined by the fact that it was claimed as late eleventh century in (Ed.) G. Zarnecki et al., English Romanesque Art 1066-1200 (Hayward Gallery exhibition catalogue, 1984), Cat. 185. 45 E.g. the 'John of Beverley' crosier, a comb, a tau cross, and a panel: (Ed.) Zarnecki et al., English Romanesque Art, Cats. 183-4, 188-9. Such works, it should be remembered, are generally dated by their parallels with manuscript art. 46 See Kahn, Sculpture, Ills. 81-3. The manuscript in question is Arundel 60. Contrary to her statements on 59-60, this is not a St. Augustine's book: it is from Winchester; nor has the lion 'lost all association with the zodiacal symbol Leo' appearing 'as mere decoration': it is lea in the cycle of the signs of the zodiac which accompanies the calendar of the manuscript. The volume is described in Kauffman, Romanesque Manuscripts, Cat. 1. 42 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS similar beasts depicted in originally more accessible (not to mention more striking) large-scale works, such as textiles like the Bayeux Tapestry and the sculptural fragments that have been tentatively associated with Lanfranc's cathedral and reasonably dated to c. 1080?47 The basic point is, we hope, clear. In essence it is the source and analogue issue once again. Manuscripts and especially local ones are now by far the most plentiful and prominent part of the artistic context of these capitals, but this is purely the accident of survival. Originally for a mason they were probably one of the least conspicuous elements, and other relevant sources of inspiration were readily available. 48 Furthermore, if he were not of local origin or had travelled during his career, the number and range of such nonmanuscript sources increase dramatically. These circumstances clearly deserve to be considered more carefully. This leads on to the next point: the nature of the relationship between the community of Christ Church and the sculptors. The claim that the work of the masons was derived from local manuscript art made and relied on certain unstated assumptions about this matter. First, it assumed that someone showed or transmitted the highlights of the scriptorium and the library to them; secondly, by implication, that the community wished to regulate the work of the masons down to the smallest decorative motif; and hence, thirdly, that the community specifically selected these particular designs for this purpose. It would be most interesting if this were all true; however, since the evidence does not support the underlying contention, correspondingly it provides no grounds for making these 47 See n. 37 above. The popularity and wide distribution of such motifs in sculpture in England around this time is clearly suggested by the surviving evidence. Similar beasts appear above the imposts of the tower arch in St. Benet's, Cambridge, a structure of late Anglo-Saxon workmanship (R. C. H. M. City of Cambridge, 2 vols. (London, 1959), II, Pl. 281); they decorate the capitals of the south transept of Ely Cathedral (see G. Zarnecki, The Early Sculpture of Ely Cathedral (London, 1958), Ill. 3) and the tympanum of the south doorway at Milborne Port, Somerset (idem, '1066 and Architectural Sculpture', Proc. British Academy, LII (1966), 89-104, Pl. xviiia), both assigned to c. 1090; and they reappear at a slightly later date on, for instance, a capital at Steyning, Sussex (ibid., Pl. xxiia), and a tympanum from Thetford in Norfolk (see R.B. Lockett, 'A Catalogue of Romanesque Sculpture from the Cluniac Houses in England', J.B.A.A., 3rd ser. xxxiv (1971), 43-61, pl. XIV(l)). 48 The amount of non-manuscript art work that has been lost from Anglo-Saxon England, including monumental effigies, is stressed and discussed by C.R. Dodwell, Anglo-Saxon Art: a New Perspective (Manchester, 1982). The potential relevance of geographically distant sources is underlined by the important role that the sculpture of the pilgrimage road seems to have played in the development of the 'Herefordshire school' of sculpture in the second quarter of the twelfth century: see G. Zarnecki, Later English Romanesque Sculpture 1140- 1210 (London, 1953), 9-15. 43 RICHARD GAMESON assumptions. The nature of the relationship between the masons and their patrons and, in particular, the extent to which their decorative designs were regulated are considerably less clear. Although we know that some of the actual designers and architects ( as opposed to the patrons) of eleventh-century ecclesiastical buildings were churchmen (the monks, Gunzo, formerly Abbot of Baume, and Hezelon, previously a canon of Liege, who were responsible for Cluny III are an outstanding example),49 it is uncertain how often this was true; and whatever the answer, the masons themselves are likely to have been secular workmen as we have noted. In the absence of written information, the work of the latter can only be assessed in terms of the visual evidence it presents. Now the theological sophistication of the great carved portals of French Romanesque abbeys, not to mention their general conspicuousness and importance, leaves little doubt that churchmen planned their iconography and oversaw their design;50 but whether the same applies to decorative capitals in places of lesser prominence is a different question. It is likely that the final decision to include elaborate, as opposed to plain, capitals was made, or at least ratified, by the community in question or its representatives, not least simply because extra cost was presumably involved;51 but can we go much beyond this? Many questions about taste, fashion and the influence of patrons on style during this period either cannot be answered or cannot be answered satisfactorilI owing to lack of evidence, and it is wise to recognise that this is so. 2 In this case, however, we have the advantage of a small range of relevant, albeit not unambiguous, data. 49 K.J. Conant, Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture 800-1200, 3rd ed. (Harmondsworth, 1973), 116. 50 See, for instance, A. Katzenellenbogen, 'The Central Tympanum at Vezelay', Art Bulletin, xxvi (1944), 141-51 (attributing that programme to Peter the Venerable); P. Kidson and U. Parisier, Sculpture at Chartres (London, 1958), 22-3, where it is tentatively suggested that Thierry of Chartres might have been the author of the Portail Royal; and C. Rudolph, Artistic Change at Saint Denis (Princeton, 1990), eh. 5, arguing that Hugh of St Victor influenced Suger's programme of portal sculpture. 51 The expense of elaborately carved capitals is the culminating point of St. Bernard's famous diatribe against them in his Apologia ad Guillelmum Abbatem, s. 29 (a critical edition of the text, with translation, is conveniently printed in Rudolph, Things of Greater Importance, Appendix 2). 52 For discussions of material from this period that address these issues see, inter alia, R. Stalley, 'A Twelfth-Century Patron of Architecture: A Study of the Buildings erected by Roger Bishop of Salisbury', J.B.A.A. 3rd ser., xxxiv (1971), 62-83; B. Abou-El-Haj, 'Bury St. Edmunds Abbey between 1070 and 1124: a History of Property, Privilege and Monastic Art Production', Art History, 6 (1983), 1-29; and several of the essays in (Eds.) S. Macready and F.H. Thompson, Art and Patronage in the English Romanesque (London, 1986). 44 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS One interpretation that would fit the few known facts is that the original impetus for decorated capitals came from the architect; the community, who already used comparable motifs in their books and were well aware that they were fashionable, were favourably predisposed towards Romanesque ornament and positively encouraged the scheme; but the final designs were largely the product of the individual masons responsible. The first part of this hypothesis rests on the circumstance that the carved capitals were designed to play a part in a grander architectural scheme of decoration (a point discussed below); the second on the artwork of the monks themselves, for had the community not appreciated such decoration, it would hardly have essayed the style in eleventh-century manuscripts, let alone developed it in twelfth-century ones; the third on the striking differences in the artistic treatment of the capitals both from one sculptor to another and from one capital to another, which surely attests to the autonomy of the individual masons. Our last general point concerns the place of these carvings in their architectural context as a whole. Having argued that most of these fascinating capitals, and especially those of the Gabriel Chapel Master, are more original than has previously been allowed, it is worth stressing, paradoxically, that it is easy to over-emphasise their importance in relation to their immediate setting. Fantastic decoration of this sort is endemic in Romanesque art, but it is generally confined to areas of secondary importance within a given structure. Rarely does it appear to be so prominent as in Anselm's crypt. Another recent commentator has stressed the abnormality of this occurrence and drawn tentative conclusions from the 'fact'. 53 However, this is arguably an erroneous perception. In the first place, it must be remembered that the number of relevant capitals amounts to a relatively small proportion of the whole: almost all the capitals in the aisles and half of those in the main body of the crypt are plain. 54 Next, there is the fact that such a decorative programme is not without precedent, even in eleventhcentury England. The earliest complete scheme of Anglo-Norman architectural sculpture still in situ is that in the chapel of Durham Hearn, Romanesque Sculpture, 52-4, argues eloquently that the patron was indeed 'the dominant force' in the design of Romanesque capitals; however, as his premises are partly supposition (and particularly suspect in the case of Canterbury), the conclusion is uncertain. For a sobering assessment of the likely input of the patron to Gothic architecture, see C. Wilson, The Gothic Cathedral (London, 1990), 10-11. 53 Tudor-Craig, 'St Bernard and the Canterbury Capitals'. 54 As may be readily appreciated from the two general views: Kahn, Sculpture, Ills. 31-2. The plain capitals may well have been painted. 45 RICHARD GAMESON Castle of c. 1072.55 The capitals of the six columns that support the vault of the chapel are all carved with simple but bold motifs, and only one of them is religious, while all the rest are decorative - beasts, caryatids, masks and so on. The principal difference in modern appreciation of the Durham chapel carvings and those in Canterbury Cathedral crypt arises from the fact that the vault of the former is relatively high, the carvings in question are simple and the chamber as a whole is dark: consequently, they intrude upon the beholder less forcibly than the virtuoso carvings just above head height, softly but distinctly lit, at Canterbury. Nonetheless, the precedent remains. Incidentally, narrative or 'historiated' capitals (as opposed to fantastic or decorative ones) were never favoured in England to the same extent as in France, and even there it is rare to find a set of sculpted capitals entirely devoted to narrative before the twelfth century. Then, there is the more important point that, striking though the motifs they bear are, the carved capitals at Canterbury are in fact but a minor element in the visual articulation of the crypt as a whole. They are subsumed within a more expansive architectural scheme of decoration. This centres on the design of the columns themselves, the shafts of which are alternately plain, or incised with spiralling patterns.56 The spiral motifs become more pronounced with proximity to the altar; and the overall effect must have been very striking when the patterns were accentuated with paint. 57 The scheme is further developed by a contrast of column and capital: the spiral columns have plain capitals; the plain ones have the carved capitals. The individual carved details are thus entirely subordinate to this grander and more prominent scheme, which is itself subsidiary to the predominant articulation of the space through the interaction of vault, bay, column and void.58 Furthermore, the capitals were similarly subsidiary to the painted decoration that was destined to cover the vaults and walls. The point can still be readily appreciated in the Gabriel Chapel where a si􀁄nificant portion of the twelfthcentury mural decoration survives. 9 The extant paintings are exclu- 55 Zarnecki, English Romanesque Sculpture 1066--J 140, 12-13, and 25-6; with Pls. I, and 3-9. 56 E. Fernie, 'St. Anselm's Crypt', Medieval Art and Architecture at Canterbury, 27-38; and Kahn, Sculpture, 77-9. 57 Paint remains on the spirals of column 3 (Gabriel Chapel). 58 The fact that a few capitals were incorporated unfinished and were allowed to remain so underlines the point. 59 E.W. Tristram, English Medieval Wall Painting 1: The Twelfth Century (Oxford, 1944), 15-21 and 101-5; Pls. 1-19 and supplementary Pls. 2-3; 0. Demus, Romanesque Mural Painting (London, 1970), 509, Ills. 234-7. 46 THE ROMANESQUE CRYPT CAPITALS sively religious in subject-matter (the best preserved elements, dominating the apse, include the naming of John the Baptist on the wall and the Lord in Majesty on the vault), they are of a larger scale, and of course cover a far greater area than the capitals. The carved capitals were a frame and foil to the architectural and painted schemes that defined and dominated the space: a point which is emphasised by the absence of any discernible programme in the sculptural decoration. They were minor decorative elements which contributed to the overall visual opulence of this sacred chamber and should be interpreted as such. 60 To conclude: our principal aim has been to set forth as clearly and succinctly as possible the true chronological relationship between the carvings in St. Anselm's crypt and the decorated initials of Canterbury's early Romanesque books. We have also attempted to draw attention to some of the problems and issues that pertain thereto. The nature of the relationship between formally akin decoration in different media is a fascinating issue, but, close attention to the dating of all the material involved is, without a doubt, the primary precondition of approaching it; the second is surely to maintain a clear distinction between sources and analogues, whilst remembering the imbalance of the surviving evidence. More generally, the case we have considered provides a cautionary tale of the dangers of unwarranted assumptions on the one hand, and of over-simplification on the other. The reality of the situation at early Anglo-Norman Christ Church has emerged as more complicated and fluid than recent discussions allow, and this was surely to be expected. There was an interdependence between the media, not a simple one-way traffic between two of them. Moreover, as the process almost certainly involved arts which are now poorly represented or not represented in the surviving material, it is to some extent irredeemably obscure, and this should be recognised, not simply ignored. In view of the restrictions of the evidence, it is doubtful whether all of the contingent problems can be satisfactorily resolved; and to those that can, we have here attempted no more than to sketch approaches which further work must test. However, as answers which are based on erroneous premises can hardly be considered answers, merely to set out the basic facts of the matter (in so far as the available evidence and work to date will allow) represents a positive step forward. It 6° For a verbal reconstruction of the original state and its effect see Woodman, Architectural History of Canterbury Cathedral, 52. The point may readily be appreciated by considering the overall impression of comparable structures that better preserve their covering of medieval paint, for instance the Mausoleum in S. Isidoro, Leon (G. Zarnecki, Romanesque (London, 1971), 111. 172). 47 RICHARD GAMESON will, we hope, encourage others to re-address certain basic questions pertaining to this material. At the heart of the matter is the fact that the masons responsible for carving the crypt capitals were individuals whose sources and achievements differ. Only the most conservative can credibly be thought to have been influenced by eleventh-century manuscripts, while the most progressive appears to have been a relatively innovative figure in English Romanesque art. His work, its sources and its significance have yet to be fairly assessed. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author is very grateful to the British Academy for the award of a research fellowship during the tenure of which this work was written; and to the Conway Library, Courtauld Institute of Art, for permission to reproduce the photographs. 48