A romanesque Capital from Canterbury at Chartham

A ROMANESQUE CAPITAL FROM CANTERBURY AT CHARTHAM GEORGE ZARNECKI A freestanding Romanesque capital, which was re-used in the nineteenth century to support a sun-dial in the garden of Deanery Farm at Chartham near Canterbury, has recently been correctly identified by Mr. Tim Tatton-Brown of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust. F-le very generously invited me to write the present note, and for this, I am most grateful to him. I am also indebted to the owners of Deanery Farm, Mr. and Mrs. D. G. Day, who allowed me to inspect and photograph the capital. The drawings reproduced here as Fig. l , a-d, were made by Mr. David Gilbert, of the Canterbury Archaeological Trust, to whom my thanks are due for permission to publish them. The capital is fairly large, each face measuring 58 cm. at the top; the present height is 33 cm. but, originally, it was some 5 cm. or more taller, before the bottom portion, including the necking, was cut away. The carved decoration is well preserved on two of the adjoining sides (faces no. l and no. 4, Fig. l a and d, Pls. I-IV), but the weathering of the other two sides, particularly of face no. 3 (Fig. le, Pl. III) is well advanced. The motifs used for the decoration are well-known in Romanesque art in all media. On face no. 1 (Fig. la & Pl. I), two addorsed birds turn their heads inwards, preening their wings. Birds and animals in Romanesque art are seldom sufficiently individualized for their species to be satisfactorily identified. 1 The birds on the Chartham capital have the appearance often given by Romanesque artists to eagles, and yet the closest parallel for them is provided by a relief from Reading 1 An interesting recent study by C. Dauphin, 'Byzantine Pattern Books' (Art History, i (1978), no. 4, 400 ff.) deals with the identiification of animals, birds, fish, insects etc. on mosaic pavements of the fourth to seventh centuries. For a brief discussion of the same problem in Romanesque art, see my paper 'Late Romanesque Fountain from Campania', The Minneapolis Institute of Arts Bulletin, Ix (1971-3), 7-17. N Fig. I. Romanesque Capital from Chartham (Scale: 1/5) ROMANESQUE CAPITAL FROM CANTERBURY Abbey, fonnerly in the Victoria and Albert Museum, but now in the museum at Reading (Pl. V), which, in all probability, is a "pelican in its piety". According to medieval bestiaries, the pelican fed its young with its own blood from a self-inflicted wound, thus symbolizing Christ's love for the Church.2 In a late twelfth-century bestiary from Revesby Abbey in Lincolnshire, there is a representation of fulica, the coot, preening its wing (Fig. 2).3 The Chartham representation uses a very similar design, merely adding one more bird in a mirror-image composition. Such doubling of representations of birds and animals in bestiaries is quite frequent, and undoubtedly the result of influences exercised by oriental textiles on Romanesque art.4 Whether the Chartham birds are derived from bestiaries cannot be proved. There is still a bestiary preserved in the Cathedral Library at Canterbury, but it is of a late thirteenth-century date. 5 The earliest (c. 1120) surviving bestiary (as distinct from the Physiologus, from which the medieval 4umti'PPt-􀀄 deut􀀩mo 􀀪-:-􀀫􀀬tede􀀭 'P;. 􀀃􀀄􀀅!=􀀆􀀇1\w. ,. .. . pmdnm«unu auuiw,tafli. _ ; · ,_. 􀀂non utfcro.u41umdt'􀀈u //1/JNll'l' \\t' oou,m;.f; utUUO IOCl\ 􀀈t-) 􀀍mautc ufqnnhutm "'110\.dcam tuA ',, 1,􀀮-,ttqdac. s',cg-omtt􀀊