Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Showing posts with label Rouen Cathedral. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rouen Cathedral. Show all posts

Sunday, 6 December 2015

St Nicholas


To mark St Nicholas' day John Dillon posted the following piece on the Medieval religion discussion group, into which I have pasted Gordon Plumb's post of stained glass representations of the saint


Virtually nothing is known about the historical Nicholas of Myra (d. earlier 4th cent. ?). What gives him a question mark after "4th cent." instead of the "supposedly" one would use for, e.g., the likewise at least very largely legendary St. Panteleimon / Pantaleon of Nicomedia and St. Blasius / Blaise of Sebaste is the presence of bishop Nicholas of Myra in the longer lists of participants in the First Ecumenical Council. Were it certain that Nicholas was among those at Nicaea in 325, as opposed to having been added later when legend had made him a contemporary of St. Constantine I, one could dispense with the question mark altogether. But that would still leave us with a dearth of reliable information about this person's earthly life. While the earliest testimonies both for the existence of his cult at Myra and elsewhere and for his popular construction as a holy man and thaumaturge come from the sixth century, his earliest comprehensive Bios (BHG 1348) and earliest Vita (BHL 6104-6109) seemingly appear only the ninth century (some would date BHG 1348 to the eighth century). These, though they depend ultimately on a source with some knowledge of late antique Myra, are already very largely legendary in character, including such well-known tales as the saving of three condemned soldiers, the providing of dowries for three destitute daughters, and the saving of storm-tossed seamen.

In the tenth century Nicholas' Bios by St. Symeon Metaphrastes (BHG 1349) added other matter, including miracles drawn from the Bios of the earlier sixth-century St. Nicholas of Sion. At this point Nicholas' cult was widespread both in the Greek-speaking world and in places importantly influenced from it. Seemingly new legends continued to spring up: three that are thought to be of "Western" origin are those of the barbarian (later, the Jew) with an icon of Nicholas, of Nicholas reviving three pickled students, and of Nicholas and the boy with the golden cup. In lands that were liturgically Latin Nicholas' cult was to varying degrees already established before his translation to Bari in 1087. But the latter certainly brought him a considerable increase in popularity. In short order he was one of the great saints of Christianity in general.

An illustrated, English-language page on Nicholas' relics:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/relics/
An illustrated, English-language page on the examinations in the 1950s of the relics at Bari believed to be those of Nicholas:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/Brix?pageID=943

By way of supplement to Gordon Plumb's posts of earlier today of medieval stained glass depictions:

York Minster, SXXVIII, panel of miracle of St Nicholas, c.1180:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3052665759

Chartres, Cathédrale Notre Dame, Bay 39, Life of St Nicholas, a set of images, c.1210-15:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/albums/72157606508944155

Bourges, Cathédrale Saint-Étienne, Bay 19, St Nicholas window, a set of images, c.1210-15:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/albums/72157623037192023

Rouen, Cathédrale Notre Dame, Bay 51, a few Nicholas images amongst others, c. 1200-1210:
Birth of Nicholas:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15099582913
infant Nicholas refuses breast of mother:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15099014864
Nicholas consecrated bishop:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15533551768
butcher welcomes three young men:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15533791827
butcher murders three young men:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15718986445
Jew entrusts his treasure into protection of Nicholas:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15534129220
Jew beats statue of Nicholas after treasure stolen:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15533547388

Lincoln Cathedral, sXXIX, three scenes from miracles of Nicholas, c.1230:
sXXIX.2, Nicholas stilling storm:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/5458681395
sXXIX.4, miracle of butcher and the three boys brought back to life:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/5459294976
sXXIX.5, story of boy with the golden cup:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/5459297610

Sées Cathedral, St Nicholas Chapel, Bay 13, Nicholas scenes, glass of 1270-80:
St Nicholas provides gold to save three girls from prostitution:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4056609262
and detail of Nicholas:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4056617082
Butcher kills the three boys, illuminated by wife with candle:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4055830710


Chetwode, St Mary and St Nicholas, Buckinghamshire, sII, 1c, 14thC:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/8040506444

Yarnton, St Bartholomew, Oxfordshire, nIV, A3, c.1400-1420:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/2967285936

Saint Nicholas-de-Port, Lorraine, Bay 101 1a-4a, by workshop of George le Verrier, c.1508-10:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15012189374

Hillesden, All Saints, Buckinghamshire, sIV, a set of images of the window showing early 16th century scenes from the life of St Nicholas displaying Flemish influence:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/albums/72157604761597066

John Dillon continues herewith links to further period-pertinent images of St. Nicolas of Myra, some probably familiar, others perhaps not:

a) as depicted (at lower left; at lower right, St. John Chrysostom) on a pair of leaves from a seventh-century encaustic triptych in the Holy Monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai, St. Catherine (South Sinai governorate):

[7thSinaiTripWings.jpg]


b) as depicted in a tenth-century glazed ceramic icon of Byzantine origin in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore:
http://tinyurl.com/a3cmubb

c) as depicted in the earlier eleventh-century mosaics (restored between 1953 and 1962) in the katholikon of the monastery of Hosios Loukas near Distomo in Phokis:
http://tinyurl.com/d7r8kjz

d) as depicted (at left) in an eleventh- or twelfth-century fresco in the church of the rupestrian Eski Gümüs monastery near Gümüs in Turkey's Niğde province:
http://tinyurl.com/728zxto

e) as depicted in a twelfth-century fresco in the patron niche of the church of Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis at Kakopetria (Nicosia prefecture) in the Republic of Cyprus:
http://www.mlahanas.de/Cyprus/Geo/AgiosNikolaosStegis01.jpg

f) as portrayed (three scenes from his Vita) around the curving head of the mid- or later twelfth-century ivory St. Nicholas crozier (c. 1150-1170) of French or English manufacture in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London:

Staff head - The St Nicholas Crozier



St Nicholas Crozier
Winchester, England (probably)
1150 - 1170
Carved ivory
Width 11 cm x height 12 cm
Museum No. 218-1865

 This crozier shows scenes relating to Jesus Christ and St Nicholas. At the end of the volute (or scroll) an angel supports the Lamb of God, a symbolic image of Christ. Its head is now missing. On the other side is the Nativity (or birth) of Christ. Angels appear to shepherds and announce Christ's birth on one side of the shaft.
The rest of the crozier shows three scenes from the Life of St Nicholas. The first scene depicts his birth. The choice of scenes suggests that the crozier was made for a bishop or abbot who was either named after the saint or in charge of a foundation dedicated to him. This crozier is one of the finest achievements of the ivory carver's art.

g) as depicted in the later twelfth-century frescoes (1164) in the church of St. Panteleimon at Gorno Nerezi (Skopje municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/hvjr5yy
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/op3slhf

h) as depicted, in the patron niche, in the later twelfth-century frescoes (betw. 1160 and 1190) of the church of St. Nicholas Kasnitzes in Kastoria in northwestern Greece:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/millinerd/2672308962/in/photostream/lightbox/
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/35q6wod

i) as depicted in the later twelfth-century frescoes (c. 1180) of the church of Agioi Anargyroi in Kastoria in northwestern Greece:
http://tinyurl.com/aag4ff7

j) as depicted (at right; at left, St. Achilles / Achillius) in the late twelfth-century frescoes (ca. 1191) in the church of St. George at Kurbinovo (Resen municipality) in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/paehsta
Detail view (Nicholas):
http://tinyurl.com/hw3vfr8

k) as depicted in a twelfth- or thirteenth-century fresco in the church of St. Peter (and Paul) at Stari Ras (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/7kjy66l

l) as depicted (with scenes from his Bios) in a late twelfth- or early thirteenth-century icon in the Holy Monastery of the God-trodden Mount Sinai, St. Catherine (South Sinai governorate):
http://tinyurl.com/aear2s2

m) as depicted (at left; at centre, St. Barbara; at right, St. Panteleimon) in a thirteenth-century fresco in the rupestrian chiesa di San Nicola dei Greci in Matera:



Detail view (Nicholas):



n) as depicted (at centre; below and to the right, St. Lawrence of Rome) in a thirteenth-century wall painting in Hejdeby kyrka in Hejdeby (Gotlands län):



o) Nicholas as in the earlier thirteenth-century frescoes (1230s) in the narthex of the church of the Ascension in the Mileševa monastery near Prijepolje (Zlatibor dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/bx4cm3f
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/a37kwwr

p) as depicted on a seemingly earlier to mid-thirteenth-century map of the Mediterranean (c. 1234-1266; Lyon, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 175, sheet 8):



q) as depicted (fifteen miracle scenes) in the earlier to mid-thirteenth-century St. Eligius and St. Nicholas window (w. 18; c. 1235-1250) in the cathédrale Saint-Étienne in Auxerre:
http://therosewindow.com/pilot/Auxerre/w18.htm

r) as depicted (reviving the three pickled students) in a mid-thirteenth-century psalter for the Use of Reims (Carpentras, Bibliothèque municipale Inguimbertine, ms. 77, fol. 176v):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht4/IRHT_073118-p.jpg

s) as depicted in a mid-thirteenth-century Novgorod School now in the State Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg:
http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=446

t) Nicholas as depicted in the mid-thirteenth-century frescoes (1259) in the church of Sts. Nicholas and Panteleimon at Boyana near the Bulgarian capital of Sofia:
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0015.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/d5sdgmf
This fresco's position in the church:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/vintagedept/4967294741/lightbox/
Another portrait of Nicholas and scenes from his Bios in the same mid-thirteenth-century frescoes in this church:
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0011a.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0011b.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0012.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0012a.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0012b.jpg [the idol is that of Artemis / Diana]
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0013.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0013a.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0013b.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0014c.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0014.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0011.jpg
http://galenf.com/Bulgaria/36/bu_0014b.jpg

u) as depicted in a later thirteenth-century fresco (between c. 1263 and 1270 or slightly later) in the chapel of St. Symeon Nemanja in the monastery church of the Holy Trinity at Sopoćani (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/cergvfa

v) as depicted (lower register) in a later thirteenth-century fresco (between 1263 and 1270 or slightly later) in the chapel of St. George in the monastery church of the Holy Trinity at Sopoćani (Raška dist.) in Serbia:
http://tinyurl.com/6lpm895

w) as depicted (standing, with scenes from his Bios) in a late thirteenth-century icon from the church of Agios Nikolaos tis Stegis at Kakopetria in the Republic of Cyprus, now in the Byzantine Museum of the Archbishop Makarios III Foundation, Nicosia:
http://www.noteartistiche.it/traduzioni/files/nicola_kacopedia.jpg

x) as depicted (reviving the three pickled students) in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of the Legenda aurea (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol.1r:
http://digitalassets.lib.berkeley.edu/ds/huntington/images//000849A.jpg

y) as depicted (providing dowries for the three destitute daughters) in the late thirteenth-century Livre d'images de Madame Marie (ca. 1285-1290; Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 16251, fol. 90v):
http://tinyurl.com/262f2jt

z) as depicted in a late thirteenth-century icon (1294; from the church of St. Nicholas on Lipnya in Veliky Novgorod) in the Novgorod State United Museum:
http://tinyurl.com/28wxm65

aa) as depicted in the late thirteenth-century frescoes (c. 1295) by Eutychios and Michael Astrapas in the church of the Peribleptos (now Sv. Kliment Ohridski) in Ohrid:
http://tinyurl.com/7ar7xzb
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/na282ae

bb) as depicted in a late thirteenth- or very early fourteenth-century fresco in the church of the Holy Apostles in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/y8wqrl7

cc) as depicted in a late thirteenth or very early fourteenth-century fresco, attributed to Manuel Panselinos, in the bema of the Protaton church on Mt. Athos:
https://www.stnicholascenter.org/galleries/gallery/5657/

dd) as depicted (three scenes from his Vita) in the very late thirteenth- or very early fourteenth-century frescoes (c. 1300-1301), attributed to Guido di Palmerino, in the cappella di San Nicola in the lower church of the basilica di San Francesco in Assisi:
1) providing dowries for the three destitute daughters:


2) halting the execution of the three soldiers:


3) forgiving the corrupt magistrate at Myra:



ee) as portrayed (standing, plus scenes from his Vita) on a fourteenth century relief mounted on the exterior of the basilica di San Nicola in Bari:
http://tinyurl.com/jnolx59

ff) as depicted (at left) in an early fourteenth-century fresco in the apse of the right transept of the basilica di San Nicola in Bari:

La basilique San Nicola

http://www.pbase.com/querido/image/50660484

gg) as depicted (with the boy with the golden cup) in an early fourteenth-century fresco in the rupestrian chiesa di Santa Maria delle Grotte in Rocchetta a Volturno (IS) in Molise:



Detail view (Nicholas):



hh) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (between c. 1308 and c. 1320) by Michael Astrapas and Eutychios in the church of St. Nicetas the Goth (Sv. Nikita) at Čučer in today's Čučer-Sandevo in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/hwmgp8d
Detail view:
https://plus.google.com/photos/110067756467697073060/album/5245719451287580257/5245728971001399346

ii) as depicted (scenes from his Bios) in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (between c. 1311 and c. 1322) in the church of St. Nicholas Orphanos in Thessaloniki:
http://tinyurl.com/6veqz5c
http://tinyurl.com/74xgadu
http://tinyurl.com/7lnggfe
http://tinyurl.com/bw7r4n8
http://tinyurl.com/cwkvo8h
http://tinyurl.com/czvqzta
http://tinyurl.com/7becpxb
http://tinyurl.com/7r75n56
Nicholas' badly degraded portrait next to the door below those frescoes:
http://tinyurl.com/7svfqqb

jj) as depicted (at lower right) by Simone Martini in an earlier fourteenth-century polyptych (betw. 1320 and 1320) in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge:



Detail view (Nicholas):



kk) as depicted (providing dowries for the three destitute daughters) in an earlier fourteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (c. 1326-1350; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 185, fol. 143r):
http://tinyurl.com/2bovzh4

ll) as depicted in an earlier fourteenth-century icon donated to the church of St. Nicholas in Bari by the Serbian Tsar Stefan Uroš IV Dušan in 1327:

With silver riza, right, and without

On the left is the icon, and on the right it is shown with its silver riza

Detail view:



mm) as depicted (his birth) in an earlier fourteenth-century French-language legendary of Parisian origin with illuminations attributed to the Fauvel Master (c. 1327; Paris, BnF, ms. Français 183, fol. 141v):
http://tinyurl.com/2fnf2zx

nn) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (1330s) in the apse of the church of the Hodegetria in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/yzb6xly

oo) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the nave of the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/2a4j82d
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/2bcl6qc

pp) as depicted (at right; at left, St. Sabas of Jerusalem) in a December calendar composition in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (between 1335 and 1350) in the narthex of the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending upon one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija:
http://tinyurl.com/bszau2d

qq) as depicted (scenes from his Bios) as depicted in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) of the parecclesion of St. Nicholas in the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija (three pages beginning here):
http://tinyurl.com/39ajslh

rr) as depicted in the mid-fourteenth-century frescoes of the monastery church of St. Michael the Archangel at Lesnovo in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/nksu8vp
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/pbx9hv8

ss) as depicted (with scenes from his biographies) in a later fourteenth-century Moscow School icon in the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow:
http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=443

tt) as portrayed by Frà Giovanni di Bartolomeo (a.k.a. the Master of the Magi of Fabriano) in a later fourteenth-century polychromed wooden statue in the chiesa di San Niccolò in Fabriano:




uu) as depicted (two scenes from his Bios) in the later fourteenth-century frescoes (1360s and 1370s; restored in 1968-1970) in the church of St. Demetrius in Marko's Monastery at Markova Sušica (Studeničani municipality) in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
1) three innocent generals condemned by Constantine appeal to him:


2) his dormition:



vv) as depicted in a later fourteenth-century fresco (c. 1372) in the church of St. Michael the Archangel in the Varoš monastery in Prilep in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:
http://tinyurl.com/z6yqnut

ww) as depicted (reviving the three pickled students) in a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century copy of the Legenda aurea in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Rennes, Bibliothèque de Rennes Métropole, ms. 266, fol. 12v):
http://tinyurl.com/pentlf6

xx) as depicted by Gentile da Fabriano (at left, flanking the BVM and Christ Child; at right, St. Catherine of Alexandria) in a late fourteenth- or early fifteenth-century panel painting (c. 1395-1400 or c. 1405) in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin:



yy) as depicted in a fifteenth-century Novgorod School icon in the Karelian Fine Arts Museum in Petrozavodsk:
http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=2770

zz) as depicted (second from left) by Gentile da Fabriano in his dismembered earlier fifteenth-century Quaratesi polyptych (c. 1425):

1) second from left in a panel from the main structure in Galleria degli Uffizi in Florence :


2) four predella panels (scenes) in the Pinacoteca Vaticana:
Overview:
http://mv.vatican.va/3_EN/pages/PIN/PIN_Sala02_02.html

Dowries for the three destitute daughters:



Saving storm-tossed seamen:



Reviving the three pickled students:



aaa) as depicted by Beato Angelico in an earlier fifteenth-century panel painting (c. 1425-1430) in the Arp Museum Bahnhof Rolandseck, Remagen:



bbb) as depicted (reviving the three pickled students) in the earlier fifteenth-century Hours of Marguerite d'Orléans (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 1156 B, fol. 172r):
http://tinyurl.com/3322ur8

ccc) as depicted (two scenes from his Vita) by Johann of Laibach the son of Friedrich of Villach in the mid-fifteenth-century frescoes (1443) in the cerkev sv. Nikolaja in Visoko pod Kureščkom, Slovenia:
1) halting the execution of the three soldiers:


2) saving storm-tossed seamen:



ddd) as depicted (at right; at left, St. Ulrich) by the Master of Liefering in a later fifteenth-century panel painting (c. 1460-1470; from a dismembered altarpiece) in the Pfarrkirche Liefering (Heilige Petrus und Paulus) in Salzburg-Liefering:



eee) as depicted (scenes from his Vita) in a later fifteenth-century copy (1463) of Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum historiale in its French-language version by Jean de Vignay (Paris, BnF, ms. Français 51, fols. 117v, 118r, 119r, 121r, 122r):
http://tinyurl.com/36fgjjt
http://tinyurl.com/37wdb45
http://tinyurl.com/2vbe4gt
http://tinyurl.com/3y37c7a
http://tinyurl.com/32v9g3b

fff) as depicted by Benozzo Gozzoli in a later fifteenth-century fresco (1465) in the apsidal chapel of the chiesa di Sant'Agostino in San Gimignano:




ggg) as portrayed (reviving the three pickled students) in a late fifteenth- or very early sixteenth-century wooden statue of southern Netherlandish origin now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York:



hhh) as depicted in an earlier sixteenth-century Ukrainian icon from the village of Sushystya the Great (Lviv oblast):



iii) as depicted (conch portrait and scenes from his Bios) by Dionisy and sons in the early sixteenth-century frescoes (1502) in the Virgin Nativity cathedral of the St. Ferapont Belozero (Ferapontov Belozersky) monastery at Ferapontovo in Russia's Vologda oblast (expandable images on these pages):
http://www.dionisy.com/eng/museum/1195/
http://www.dionisy.com/eng/museum/1214/?frag
http://www.dionisy.com/eng/museum/1278/?frag

jjj) as depicted by Dionisy in an early sixteenth-century icon (c. 1502) in the icon museum of the Kirillo-Belozersky monastery at Goritsy in Russia's Vologda oblast:
http://tinyurl.com/cm2kpeh
Detail view:
http://tinyurl.com/dxqmhyy

kkk) as portrayed by the Master of the Altötting Doors in an earlier sixteenth-century wooden statue (c. 1520-30; formerly polychromed) in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, München:



lll) as depicted by Theofanis Strelitzas-Bathas (a.k.a. Theophanes the Cretan) in the earlier sixteenth-century frescoes (1527) in the katholikon of the monastery of St. Nicholas Anapafsas in Kalambaka (Trikala regional unit) in northern Greece:
http://tinyurl.com/7sswsf6


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Saturday, 29 August 2015

The Beheading of St John the Baptist in popular medieval art


There are many images of the death of St John the Baptist - some of which I have posted in previous years. From his photo-archive Gordon Plumb has posted on the Medieval Religion discussion group some images in stained glass and one mural painting of the beheading of St John the Baptist:

Rouen Cathedral, Bay 53, early 13thC.:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15081555403

Bourges, Cathédrale St Étienne, Bay 20, c.1210-15:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/4279131415

Wickhambreux, St Andrew, Kent, south aisle, east window, very late 14thC.:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3894491654
and detail:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3894495614

York Minster, nXXII, (glass originally in St John the Evangelist Micklegate):
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3217764487

Gresford, All Saints, Trevor Chapel, East window, 3a, c.1498:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15236211207

and amongst surviving wall paintings there is

Pickering, St Peter and St Paul, south nave arcade, wall painting, 15thC.:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/9578703780





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Friday, 27 March 2015

Another spectacular tower in Normandy


Further to my post about the Tour de Beurre at Rouen Simon Cotton in Birmingham has very kindly sent me a link to a not dissimilar and very spectacular parish church tower at the church of la Madeleine at Verneuil-sur-Avre (Eure), not so far from Rouen. There is an illustrated online account of the church in French here.

Verneuil sur Avre

The tower at Verneuil-sur-Avre

Image:magix.info

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The Tour de Beurre


The Tour de Beurre is not a new name for the old EU butter mountain but rather that, as I am sure all discerning readers (and all my readers are, obviously, discerning) will know, of the south-west tower of Rouen Cathedral.

There is a good introduction to the history of the cathedral and its architecture on the French Wikipedia website at Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Rouen.

File:Rouen Cathedral as seen from Gros Horloge 140215 4.jpg

Rouen Cathedral

Image:Wikipedia


One explanation of the name of the tower is that, unlike the rest of the cathedral which is built of local white stone from Caumont, it is built of a more yellow stone from Saint-Maximin in the valley of the Oise. This it is suggested led to the idea that it looked as if it was constructed of butter. The other explanation (and the two need not be exclusive) is that the tower was funded by the money given for licences, costing 6 deniers Tournois, to eat butter during Lent by the inhabitants of Rouen

Until I started researching this post I had assumed tht the Tour de Beurre was a rebuilding of an earlier structure, but I now understand that until the late fifteenth century the west front of the cathedral had only the northern Tour St Romain, built circa 1145.

Considerable building works going on in and around the cathedral in the late fifteenth century. Guillaume Pontifs, who became Master of Works of the cathedral in 1462 completed the Tour Saint-Romain by the addition of its uppermost stage and pitched roof in 1468-78. This became the principal bell tower, with nine bells, in addition to those already there in 1467,the Marie d’Estouteville and in 1470 the Guillaume. As a result this became known as the tour aux onze cloches.

Between 1477 and 1484 work was carried out on the cathedral library, but then attention turned again to the west front, and was lop-sided in appearance and so the canons, in the archiepiscopate of Robert de Croismare commissioned Guillaume Pontifs in 1485 to build the southern tower.

This was carried on after 1496 by Jacques Le Roux, who completed the tower in 1506save for the finish of the top - the Canons debated as to whether to have a spire or a lantern. The parish church of Saint-Étienne la Grande Eglise was established at the base of the tower in February 1497.

The design skillfully follows and complements the same set of stages and fenestration and other principal features in the much older Tour Saint-Romain whilst being very much awork of its own time. It culminates in the octagonal lantern - the Master of Works appears to have wanted to complete the tower with a stone spire but tha canons, who appear to have been divided over the issue, and worried by the cost, settled instead on the idea of the pierced parapet.

The statuary on the tower is important, notably that on the east face, which was inspired by the legend of the Ara Coeli.



The West Front of Rouen Cathedral

Image: hotel-licorne.com

The completion of the tower led to fissures appearing in the central rose window of 1370 by Jean Périer, and as a result the central portal was reconstructed by Roulland Le Roux between 1508 and 1511, the decoration of the doorway and its tympanum being the work of Pierre des Aubeaux.

With acknowledgements to Wikipedia and rouen-histoire.com 

Image agrandie numéro 6
Image:4.culture.fr/patrmoines/ 

The nearby abbey of St Ouen has a central tower of similar date with a very similar profile. Both are discussed in detail with splendid illustrations in the article at Le beurre et la couronne

There are a fine set of expandable photographs of the cathedral here.

The result both with the tower and the renovated and enhanced west front is one of the most impressive pieces in the Flamboyant style. This is often contrasted to English Perpendicular, but that I think is to over- simplify. Both styles have a strong vertical emphasis, both combine that overall scheme with the use of sculpture and buy the time off the work at Rouen English builders at, for example, King Henry VII's chapel at Westminster were experimenting with canted angles and fluid plans. The French retained much more of the curvilinear tradition in window tracery, but the overall similarities are strong - as indeed thay are with Castilian work such a sthe tower of Salamanca and the extensions to and completion of Burgos cathedral.

One is tempted to wonder if Boston stump in Lincolnshire, itself being completed at the same time as the Tout de Beurre is in any way linked to it, or if two architects came up with similar spectacular but unrelated designs.



The upper part of the west front of Rouen Cathedral

Image: businesspme.com 

At Bourges Cathedral the north tower of the west front is also known as the Tour de Beurre. It collapsed in 1506, and was rebuilt in the period 1508-42. Tradition has it that this too was funded in part by the revenue from licences to eat butter in Lent.

File:Tour cathedrale bourges.JPG

The north tower of Bourges Cathedral

Image: Wikimedia commons 

All of which goes to show that either giving something up in Lent or substituting something for the fast can bring considerable benefits in the here and now, let alone any spiritual gains.


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Tuesday, 11 June 2013

The Young King


Today is the 830th anniversary of the death at Martel near Limoges of Henry the Young King, the eldest of the sons of King Henry II and Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine to reach maturity. Their second son he was born on February 28th 1155, just after his father's accession and coronation. He himself was crowned in his father's lifetime as King in 1170 - an action which enraged St Thomas of Canterbury as the coronation, a privilege of his see, was performed by Archbishop Roger Pont L'Evêque of York - but died in 1183, six years before his father. As a result he has tended to disappear from regnal lists, and indeed he has no numeral indicator; maybe we should follow the German practice and designate him King Henry (III), but that would cause confusion. Still it should be remembered that there have been nine, not merely eight, crowned English Kings called Henry - and if you are Jacobite in sympathies, then there is also Cardinal York...

One attempt to draw attention to his life is a blog Henry the Young King which offers interesting posts about him.

There is an online account of him here, which cites this description of him :  

A Latin poem by a court official written to commemorate the coronation hints at the charisma of this young prince. There he is described as a charming youth of striking beauty, tall but well proportioned, broad-shouldered with a long and elegant neck, pale and freckled skin, bright and wide blue eyes, with a thick mop of the reddish-gold hair characteristic of his dynasty.


Henry the Young King.jpg

The Coronation of Young King Henry

Image; Wikipedia
As that online account and Elizabeth Hallam's life of him in the Oxford DNB, which can be read here, show he was not universally popular with his contemporaries. This aspect is discussed in the post
A Lovely Place of Sin from the blog about his life.


Given little real authority by his father he spent much of his time jousting. A popular and affable young man, but perhaps not the strongest character - Gerald of Wales wrote of him and his brother Richard that they were "both tall in stature, rather above the middle size, and of commanding aspect. In courage and magnanimity they were nearly equal; but in the character of their virtues there was great disparity... [Henry] was admirable for gentleness and liberality...had a commendable suavity... commended for his easy temper... remarkable for his clemency... the vile and undeserving found their refuge in [Henry]... was the shield of bad men... was bent on martial sports... bestowed his favours on foreigners... [Henry's] ambition magnanimously compassed the world." 

His father's reported statement about him has genuine pathos - "He cost me much, but I wish he had lived to cost me more."


http://theplantagenets.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Yungking.jpg 

The head of the effigy of theYoung King in Rouen cathedral

Image: the plantagenets.com

His Queen was Margaret of France, daughter of King Louis VII and his second wife Constance of Castile; Margaret's elder half sisters, being the daughters of Queen Eleanor from her first marriage, were thus the Young King's half sisters as well. They had a son William who lived for three days in 1177. Following Henry's death she returned to the French court and married secondly King Béla III of Hungary  - thus becoming the only Queen of both England and Hungary.


Henry the Young King

The effigy in the choir ambulatory at Rouen cathedral

Image:professor-moriarty.com


Henry the Young King

A close-up of the face

Image:professor-moriarty.com


One consequence of his death was that when his brother Richard succeeded their father as King in 1189 there was not a division of the Angevin empire within France, as might have happened if the Young King and lived and Ricahrd had been left as Duke of Aquitaine. As it was the Duchy remained linked to the English crown until 1453.
 
In the weeks before his death the Young King had been plundering shrines such as St Martial at Limoges and Roqueamadour to fund a campaign against his father; struck down by dysentery he spent his last days, as is recounted in the Wikipedia article cited above, in penitence and seeking forgiveness. This, and doubtless the reaction to the death of a handsome young ruler who had a considerable following, led to an attempt to present him as a potential saint. As a result his body, on its journey for interment was Rouen as he had requested, was seized for burial at Le Mans by the Bishop before being recovered by the Dean of Rouen and taken to the cathedral there, where it was finally buried on July 22nd. The effigy over his tomb appears similar to that over the heart burial of his brother King Richard I which is also in the choir, and probably dates from the years after 1200.

 
The seal of Henry the Young King

Image; Henry the Young King blogspot


 

 
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Saturday, 2 March 2013

The heart of King Richard I


After King Richard III's skeleton and King Richard II's skull I began to wonder when a body part of King Richard I would put in an appearance, and now it has. It is his heart - appropriately enough for the Lionheart.



French scientists have revealed the results of a nine-month study on the heart of King Richard I.
The  heart was rediscovered in a lead box beneath the choir in Rouen cathedral in 1838. It now consists of granules, a few of which have  been analysed using the latest forensic techniques. These confirmed the date, matching the date of the King's death on April 6  1199.

There is are illustrated online reports on the investigation here and another, from the BBC, here. This has a link to a more specialised scientific paper The embalmed heart of Richard the Lionheart (1199 A.D.): a biological and anthropological analysis.


Tomb of Richard I

The effigy of King Richard I designed to mark his heart burial in  Rouen Cathedral
This effigy is much less well known than that at Fontevrault

Image: Philippe Charlier/BBC

Detail of the effigy of  King Richard I in Rouen Cathedral
Unlike the tomb effigy at Fontevrault this shows the King as clean shaven

Image: BBC

 
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Tuesday, 23 October 2012

St Romanus of Rouen


Today is the feast of St. Romanus  or Romain, the former chancellor of  King Clotaire II who was subsequently made Bishop of Rouen from 631until 641. As the online life of him in the link shows he is at the centre of many legends.

The most famous of these that sprang up around his name e name of St Romanus, relates how he delivered the country around Rouen from a monster called Gargouille or Goji. La Gargouille is said to have been the typical dragon with batlike wings, a long neck, and the ability to breathe fire from its mouth. There are multiple versions of the story, either that St. Romanus subdued the creature with a crucifix, or he captured the creature with the help of the only volunteer, a condemned man. In each, the monster is led back, lassoed by the episcopal stole to Rouen and burned, but its head and neck would not burn due to being tempered by its own fiery breath. The head was then mounted on the walls of the newly built church to scare off evil spirits, and used for protection.
In commemoration of St. Romain, the Archbishops of Rouen were granted the right to set a prisoner free on the day that the reliquary of the saint was carried in procession on Ascension Day.

- adapted from the Wikipedia article "Gargoyle" 

A similar story is told of the Welsh born St Armel,  who died c.570 as a bishop in Brittany.

There is more about the legend and its background in Ernest Ingersoll Dragons and dragon lore , published in 1928, which can be accessed online.




St Romanus, La Gargouille and the condemned man
Image: de.drachen.wikia
Romanus' cult was not confined to France, as can be seen in this painting from fourteenth century Bohemia:

Link to larger image in new window

St Romanus and La Gargouille
 Theodoric of Prague and his workshop 1357-67
Holy Cross Chapel in Karlstein Castle, Bohemia

Image: arthistory.wisc.edu

In the church of St Godard in Rouen is this window, given in 1540, which tells the story of the mirtacles of St Romanus:
Legend of Saint Romain - St Godard Rouen

Image:professor-moriarty.com

There are some fine photographs of the individual panels with explanatory notes here.

The tradition that arose of commemorating St Romanus' deliverance of his people from La Gargouille with the assistance of a condemned man led to the Privilege of St Romain, which lasted from 1156 until 1790.
By this the chapter of Rouen, which consisted of  the Archbishop, the Dean, fifty canons, and ten prebendaries, and was one of the wealthiest ecclesiastical corporations in western Christendom, had from the year 1156,  the annual privilege of pardoning, on Ascension Day, some individual confined within the jurisdiction of the city for murder.

On the morning of Ascension Day, the chapter, having heard many examinations and confessions read, proceeded to the election of the criminal who was to be pardoned; and, the choice being made, his name was transmitted in writing to the Parlement, which assembled on that day at the palace. The Parlement then walked in procession to the Great Chamber, where the prisoner was brought before them in irons, and placed on a stool; he was informed that the choice had fallen upon him, and that he was entitled to the Privilege of St Romain. 

After these preliminaries, he was delivered into the hands of the chaplain, who, accompanied by fifty armed men, conveyed him to a chamber, where the chains were taken from his legs and bound about his arms; and in this condition he was conducted to a place named the Old Tower, where he awaited the coming of the procession.

After some little time had elapsed, the procession set out from the cathedral; two of the canons bearing the shrine in which the relics of St. Romain were presumed to be preserved. When they had arrived at the Old Tower, the shrine was placed in the chapel, opposite to the criminal, who appeared kneeling, with the chains on his arms. Then one of the canons, having made him repeat the confession, said the prayers usual at the time of giving absolution; after which the prisoner still kneeling, lifted up the shrine three times, amid the acclamations of the people assembled to behold the ceremony.

The procession then returned to the cathedral, followed by the criminal, wearing a chaplet of flowers on his head, and carrying the shrine of the saint. After Mass had been celebrated, he had a very serious exhortation addressed to him by a monk; and, lastly, he was conducted to an apartment near the cathedral, and was supplied with refreshments and a bed for that night. In the morning he was dismissed.

The Privilege was abolished in 1790 in the early stages of the French revolution.

-adapted from the Wikipedia article "Privilege of St Romain".


The oldest part of the present cathedral in Rouen is the north-west tower, built about 1160, and named in honour of St Romain. There is an online article about the cathedral here, and a set of fine photographs of it here.
I think Rouen appeals to me as one of my favourites amongst French cathedrals not only because of the historic links between the cathedral and the history of the Anglo-Norman world, but because more than any other French cathedral it satisfies the English love of great central towers and spires and a west front with tall, commanding towers.



Fichier:Tour Saint Romain.JPG

The Tour St Romain of Rouen Cathedral

The photograph was taken following the collapse during a storm of one of the pinnacles on the central tower a few years ago

Image: fr.wikipedia.com

Tourstromain

The Tour St Romain from the north
Image: chocolatechipcookies.blog.com

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