figures help to enrich the general effect. Examples of Gothic sounding
boards are very rare; that, together with the pulpit, in the choir
of Winchester is of the time of Prior Silkstede (1520), and is carved
with his rebus, a skein of twisted silk.
The usual form of font cover during the hundred years before the
Reformation was pyramidal, the ribs of the salient angles being
straight and cusped (Frindsbury, Kent) or of curved outline
and cusped (St Mildred, Canterbury). There is a very
charming one of this form at Colebrook, Devon. It is
quite plain but for a little angel kneeling on the top, with its hands
Font
covers.
clasped in prayer. But the most beautiful form is the massed
collection of pinnacles and canopy work, of which there is such a fine
example at Sudbury, Suffolk. It was not uncommon to carve a dove
on the topmost pinnacle (Castleacre, Norfolk), in allusion to the
descent of the Holy Spirit. The finest font in England is
undoubtedly that of Ufford, Suffolk. It rises some 20 ft. in height, and
when the panels were painted with saints and the exquisite tabernacle
work coloured and gilded, must have been a masterpiece of
Gothic craftsmanship. A cord connecting the tops of these covers
with the roof or with a carved beam standing out from the wall,
something like a crane (Salle, Norfolk), was used to remove the cover
on the occasion of baptism.
Many lecterns of the Gothic period do not exist to-day. They usually had a double sloping desk which revolved round a central moulded post. The lectern at Swanscombe, Kent, has a circle of good foliage ornamenting each face of the book rest, and some tracery work at either end. The box form is more common in France than in England, the pedestal of such a lectern being surrounded by a casing of three or more sides. A good example with six sides is in the church of Vance (France), and one of triangular form in the Musée of Bourges, while a four-sided box lectern is still in use in the church of Lenham, Kent. The Gothic prayer desk, used for private devotional purposes, is hardly known in England, but is not uncommon on the Continent. There is a beautiful specimen in the Musée, Bourges; the front and sides of the part for kneeling are carved with that small tracery of flowing character so common in France and Belgium during the latter part of the 15th century, and the back, which rises to a height of 6 ft., contains a little crucifix with traceries decoration above and below.
A word should be said about the ciboria, so often found on the continent of Europe. In tapering arrangement of tabernacle work they rival the English font covers in delicacy of outline (Musée, Rouen).Ciboria.
Numbers of doors are to be met with not only in churches but also in private houses. Lavenham, Suffolk, is rich in work of this latter class. In England the general custom was to carve the head of the door only with tracery (East Brent, Somerset), but in the Tudor period doors were sometimes covered entirely with “linenfold” panelling (St Albans Abbey). This form of decoration Doors. was exceedingly common on the Continent as well as in England. In France the doors towards the latter part of the 15th century were often square-headed, or perhaps had the corners rounded. These doors were usually divided into some six or eight oblong panels of more or less equal size. One of the doors of Bourges Cathedral is treated thus, the panels being filled in with very good tracery enriched with crockets and coats of arms. But a more restrained form of treatment is constantly employed, as at the church of St Godard, Rouen, where the upper panels only are carved with tracery and coats of arms and the lower adorned with simple linen fold design.
To Spain and the Teutonic countries of Europe we look for the most important object of church decoration, the retable; the Reformation accounting for the absence in England of any work of this kind. The magnificent altar-piece in Schleswig cathedral was carved by Hans Bruggerman, and consists, like many Altar-pieces. others, of a number of panels filled with figures standing some four or five deep. The figures in the foremost rows are carved entirely separate, and stand out by themselves, while the background is composed of figure work and architecture, &c., in diminishing perspective. The panels are grouped together under canopy work forming one harmonious whole. The genius of this great carver shows itself in the large variety of the facial expression of those wonderful figures all instinct with life and movement. In France few retables exist outside the museums. In the little church of Marissel, not far from Beauvais, there is a retable consisting of eleven panels, the crucifixion being, of course, the principal subject. And there is a beautiful example from Antwerp in the Musée Cluny, Paris; the pierced tracery work which decorates the upper part being a good example of the style composed of interlacing segments of circles so common on the Continent during late Gothic times and but seldom practised in England. In Spain the cathedral of Valladolid was famous for its retable, and Alonso Cano and other sculptors frequently used wood for large statuary, which was painted in a very realistic way with the most startlingly lifelike effect. Denmark also possessed a school of able wood-carvers who imitated the great altar-pieces of Germany. A very large and well-carved example still exists in the cathedral of Roskilde. But besides these great altarpieces tiny little models were carved on a scale the minuteness of which staggers the beholder. Triptychs and shrines, &c., measuring but a few inches were filled in with tracery and figures that excite the utmost wonder. In the British Museum there is such a triptych (Flemish, 1511); the centre panel, measuring an inch or two square, is crowded with figures in full relief and in diminishing perspective, after the custom of this period. This rests on a semicircular base which is carved with the Lord’s Supper, and is further ornamented with figures and animals. The whole thing inclusive measures about 9 in. high, and, with the triptych wings open, 5 in. wide. The extraordinary delicacy and minuteness of detail of this microscopic work baffle description. There is another such a piece, also Flemish, in the Wallace collection which rivals that just referred to in misapplied talent. For, marvellous as these works of art are, they fail to satisfy. They make one’s eyes ache, they worry one as to how the result could ever have been obtained, and after the first astonishment one must ever feel that the same work of art on a scale large enough for a cathedral could have been carved with half the labour.
With regard to panelling generally, there were, during the last fifty years of the period now under review, three styles of design followed by most European carvers, each of which attained great notoriety. Firstly, a developed form of small tracery which was very common in France and the Netherlands. A square-headed panel would be filled in with small detail of Panelling. flamboyant character, the perpendicular line or mullion being always subordinate, as in the German chasse (Musée Cluny), and in some cases absent, as the screen work of Evreux cathedral shows us. Secondly, the “linenfold” design. The great majority of examples are of a very conventional form, but at Bere Regis, Dorsetshire, the designs with tassels, and at St Sauvéur, Caen, those with fringe work, readily justify the universal title applied to this very decorative treatment of large surfaces. At the beginning of the 16th century yet another pattern became the fashion. The main lines of the design consisted of flat hollow mouldings sometimes in the form of interlacing circles (Gallon, Surrey), at other times chiefly straight (Rochester cathedral), and the intervening spaces would be filled in with cusps or sprigs of foliage. It marks the last struggle of this great school of design to withstand the oncoming flood of the new art—the great Renaissance. From this time onward Gothic work, in spite of various attempts, has never again taken a place in domestic decoration. The lines of the tracery style, the pinnacle, and the crocket—unequalled as they have always been in devotional expression—are universally considered unsuited for decoration in the ordinary dwelling-house.
But little reference can be made to the domestic side of the period which ended with the dawn of the 16th century, because so few remains exist. On the Continent we have a certain proportion of timbered houses, the feature of which is the sculpture. At Bayeux, Bourges, Reims and pre-eminently Rouen, we see by the figures of saints, bishops or virgins, how much Domestic work. the religious feeling of the middle ages entered into the domestic life. In England the carved corner post (which generally carried a bracket at the top to support the overhanging storey) calls for comment. In Ipswich there are several such posts. On one house near the river, that celebrated subject, the fox preaching to geese, is carved in graphic allusion to the dissemination of false doctrine.
Of mantelpieces there is a good example in the Rouen Museum. The overhanging corners are supported by dragons and the plain mouldings have little bunches of foliage carved at either end, a custom as common in France during the 15th century as it was in England a century earlier; the screen beam at Eastbourne parish church, for example.
As a rule, cabinets of the 15th century were rectangular in plan. In Germany and Austria the lower part was often enclosed, as well as the upper; the top, middle and lower rails being carved with geometrical design or with bands of foliage (Museum, Vienna). But it was also the custom to make these cupboards with the corners cut off, thus giving five sides to the piece of furniture. A very pretty instance, which is greatly enhanced by the metal work of the lock plates and hinges, is in the Musée Cluny, and there are other good specimens with the lower part open in the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington.
The chest was a very important piece of furniture, and is often to be met with covered with the most elaborate carving (Orleans Museum). There is a splendid chest (14th century) in the Cluny Museum; the front is carved with twelve knights in armour standing under as many arches, and the spandrels are filled in with faces, dragons and so on. But it is to the 15th century that we look for the best work of this class; there is no finer example than that in the Kunstgewerbe Museum, Berlin (Plate III. fig. 6). The front is a very animated hunting scene most decoratively arranged in a scheme of foliage, and the top bears two coats of arms with helms, crests and mantling. But the more general custom in chest decoration was to employ tracery with or without figure work; Avignon Museum contains some typical examples of the latter class.
A certain number of seats used for domestic purposes are of great interest. A good example of the long bench placed against the wall, with lofty panelled back and canopy over, is in the Musée Cluny, Paris. In the Museum at Rouen is a long seat of a movable kind with a low panelled back of pierced tracery, and in the Dijon Museum there is a good example of the typical chair of the period, with arms and high panelled and traceries back. There was a style of design admirably suited to the decoration of furniture when made of softwood such as pine. It somewhat resembled the excellent Scandinavian
