Art and Symbolism, Schemes and Mind Maps of Art

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Art and Symbolism

ID (^) Medieval (^) Europe

Papers of the 'Medieval Europe Brugge 1997' Conference

Volume 5

edited by Guy De Boe & Frans Verhaeghe

I.A.P. Rapporten 5

Zellik

Art y

in Medieval

o lis

Europe

Papers of the 'Medieval Europe Brugge 1997' Conference

Volume 5

edited by Guy De Boe & Frans Verhaeghe

I.A.P. Rapporten 5

Zellik

Een uitgave van het Published by the

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did not submit a text in time for inclusion in the present volume while other colleagues could not attend and present their contribution. In addition, the diversity of the contributions All this explains why the general structure and the contents of the present volume do not conform in all details to the pro- gramme of the conference. The present volume has been organized keeping in mind both the complexity of the subject and the general lines ofthe structure of section 05 of the con- ference as originally proposed by the organizers. The high degree of diversity of subjects discussed by the authors and speakers made the task of grouping the contributions quite a difficult one, but taking into account a delicate balance between the main thrust of the individual papers and the type(s) of objects con- sidered, This means that the contributions in the present volume have more or less been grouped according to the following topics:

• a first series of papers concerns the secular use of art and includes contributions on the Bayeux Tapestry, aspects of the interior decoration of a French manor, aspect of profane culture in sculpture and a post- medieval garden.
• A number of contributions have been grouped under the general heading 'aspects of style' and con- sider broader issues such as the perception of early medieval art, several aspects (mainly early) medieval

decoration on metalwork and jewelry, and aspects of medieval sculpture.

• The role of symbolic meanings linked with art, buildings and decorated objects - generally within the framework of religion and belief- is emphasized in three papers brought together in a section titled 'symbols in action'.
• Finally, the papers related to pilgrim badges and presented within the context of the special workshop on these objects and their meanings are grouped under the heading 'sacred and profane badges', which was also the title of the workshop.

Of necessity, the papers are rather short and the volume of course does not do total justice to the many excavations and the wealth of other types of research work where art and symbolism constitute basic issues or are of direct or indirect importance. Nor does it provide a complete overview of the results attained and knowledge acquired. Nevertheless, the 20 papers included in the present volume provide a good idea of the potential of this particular field of research, em- phasizing at the same time the complexity of the subject. This is even more true when the volume is considered within the context of the other volumes in the present series and when the reader takes into account that art and symbolism are also very much present- directly or indirectly- in these other volumes.

Frans Verhaeghe & Guy De Boe

Art and Symbolism in Medieval Europe Papers of the 'Medieval Europe Brugge 1997' Conference- Volume 5

Cyril Hart

The Canterbury contribution to the Bayeux Tapestry

ADAM AND EVE IN THE GARDEN GENESIS Ill, 7· And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew they were naked. GENESIS Ill, 8: And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

BAYEUX TAPESTRY p. 73 (laJt ocene, lower border)

ERIDANUS BL MS Harleian 2506, fol. 42v

Fig.l.

For the bibliography to 1988, see S.A. BROWN & M. HER- REN, The Bayeux Tapestry: History and Bibliography, Wood- bridge, Suffolk, 1988. The edition used here is The Bayeux Tapestry, the Complete Tapestry in Colour, ed. D.M. WILSON, Phaidon Press, London, 1985, quoted by page number. (^2) A strong case for the creation of the Tapestry at St Augus- tine's Abbey, Canterbury in 1067 x 1082 was put by N.P. BROOKS, The Authority and Interpretation of the Bayeux Tapes- try, Anglo-Norman Studies 1, 1978, 1-34, but this was admitted- ly no more than a reasonable assumption at that time.

In spite of considerable research and a volum- inous international literature, there is still no general consensus as to the precise date and place of com- position of the Bayeux Tapestry. 1 I think that most scholars on both sides of the Channel would now agree that it was designed and executed between 1067 and 1082 somewhere in Southern England, under the patronage of Odo, bishop of Bayeux, who was given the earldom of Kent by his half-brother William the Conqueror soon after the battle of Hastings. 2 How- ever even this vague consensus is far from complete; for example, a recent claim locates the creation of the Tapestry at Bayeux itself. In this paper I put forward the view that the art- historical evidence for the design and manufacture of the Tapestry at St Augustine's Abbey, Canterbury is now so extensive and formidable that such a proven- ance should be taken as an established fact. The evid- ence accompanies my paper as a series of line draw- ings, in which motifs from surviving early illuminat- ed manuscripts are compared with corresponding scenes copied from the Tapestry. Since the Tapestry scenes undoubtedly originated as line drawings of some kind (possibly charcoal), this method of com- parison is more helpful than one using photographic facsimiles. I shall concentrate on those themes (sever- al of them newly-discovered) which are most useful for establishing my thesis, leaving the bulk of the identities found by previous scholars to speak for themselves in the line illustrations.

A book now selling world-wide in French, German and English carries the following foreword: 'The prevailing opinion has hitherto been that the Tapestry was made by an English workshop in conquered England. By meticulous and detailed scrutiny of the Tapestry itself, and by reassessing the entire historical and artistic context, Wolfgang Grape, a student of the famous scholars Otto Pacht and Otto Demus, has succeeded in revising this view. In a brilliantly argued exposition, as vivid as a historical novel, he establishes that the Bayeux Tapestry origin- ated in Bayeux itself.' W. GRAPE, The Bayeux Tapestry, Prestel- Verlag, Munich-New York, 1994.

The evidence is presented in three parts, each being derived from known Canterbury texts:

1. The Old English Illustrated Hexateuch. BL Cotton Claudius B. iv. 4

The Canterbury contribution to the Bayeux Tapestry

2. An Illustrated Anglo-Saxon Miscellany. BL Cot- ton Tiberius B.v. Part I,
3. Various other texts from both Canterbury houses (listed below).

Ed. C.R. DODWELL & P. CLEMOES, The Old English Illustrated Hexateuch. British Museum Cotton Claudius B. IV. Early English Manuscripts in Facsimile, Vol. XVIII, Copenhagen, 1974. Using a microfilm, I have embarked on a systematic search to

Fig. 4.

BT45 OE^ Hexateuch^ f.^ 29v

Fig. 5.

SLINGING

BT 11

Hexateuch fol. 26v

Fig. 6.

DECAPITATION

I OE HEXATEUCH 152 V. BT^70

Fig. 7.

~<

jr;}J ~ BL CotWn 1'iberius BL CotWo Vitellus B.v. fol. 80v A. xv. fol. lOlv

BT (^15) BT 14

CAMELS

HEXATEUCH fol. 48·

Fig. 8.

Hexateuch fol. 29v

TORCHES

BT 23

C. Hart

Fig. 9.

(^1) fol. llv Enoch'a wife

Sl!TTON HOO CAULDRON

Fig. 12. FIGUREHEADS ON BOATS

The Hexateuch

This is a copy of the earliest Anglo-Saxon trans- lation of the first six books of the Bible, made at St Augustine's Abbey towards the middle of the eleventh century, and kept there until the Reformation. Alto- gether there are over 550 contemporary pictorial illustrations, all by a single artist but many left un- finished. Professor Dodwell made the point that in each case 'the artist was composing his own picture to conform to the Old English text in front of him, complete with its own idiosyncracies'.^6 The collec- tion is therefore unique. As will be seen from Figures 1-14 below, the artist of the Bayeux Tapestry utilised many illustrations

from the Hexateuch, which was indeed his main ma-

nuscript source. I have time and space here to refer to only three examples. lbe first is the extraordinary scene of a naked man, hiding from the pursuing Nor- mans after the English defeat at Hastings (Fig. 1). This is undoubtedly based on the picture of Adam and Eve hiding their nakedness from God in the Gar-

den of Eden which appears on folio 7v of the Hexa-

teuch. Note in the Tapestry version the position of the

man's left hand. Note too the plant or branch of a tree held in his other hand. This was taken by the artist from a second exemplar, the figure of Eridanus, a river god in classical times, which illustrates a copy

ofCicero's Aratea known to have been made at Christ

Church, Canterbury c. 1050 (see below). I suggest that

C. Hart

Fig.17.

PISCES

BT 19

only Harleian 2506 has line running from mouth to mouth

BL Harleian 647 fol. 3r

Fig. 18.

BT 33

( Cott. Tib. C i, fol. 22r and Cott. Tib. B v are similar)

BT 20

BL MS Harleian 2506 fol. 43v

BT 26

BL 54

Fig.19.

Fig. 20.

Fig. 21. SIRIUS HUNTING~~,., (^) BL Cotton Tiberiua B v , (ol 42r ----------- I

BL Cottoft CMmila.rly, Till«iu.s Col. B.v. 47r) (ol. 42v ~r---

111'

BT 13 (lovnr border)^ BL^6

BLHa~

BL Harleian 2600 fol. 41v (^) LE PUS (11mlla..rly, rol. Hvl

if they are considered in isolation the drawings in

Figure 2 confirm beyond reasonable doubt that the

Tapestry was produced at St Augustine's, and that

one of its exemplars was the Old English Hexateuch,

Thirdly, the Master of the Bayeux Tapestry used

a number of Hexateuch illustrations of the deaths of

Old Testament monarchs to create his great deathbed

scene ofEdward the Confessor (Fig. 9). The Confes-

sor's trefoil crown copies that worn in death by

Pharoah; a retainer supports him on a cushion similar

to that of King Malaleel; his wife weeps at the foot of

the bed just as the wife of King Jared, using part of

her veil to wipe her eyes after the fashion of the wife

Both Canterbury scriptoria housed renowned schools of illumination, which reached their apogee around the end of the tenth century; see C.R. DODWELL, The Canterbury School of Illumination, Cambridge, 1954. The tradition of the St Augustine's school was the earlier. For the passage of books, scribes and illuminators between the libraries and scriptoria of Christ Church and St Augustine's, see a series of papers from

of Enoch. Edward 's shroud, leaving the head expos-

ed, is also copied from this series of illustrations. As

with the picture of the naked man in hiding (Fig. 1),

the Bayeux Tapestry Master often drew upon more

than one exemplar for each of his illustrations. All

were taken from codices kept in the monastic librar-

ies of Christ Church and St Augustine's. 7

The Canterbury Miscellany

This famous and very varied collection of texts

probably reached Canterbury from S.W. Wessex c.

1957-71 by T.A.M. Bishop listed in an extended study by R. GAMESON, Manuscript Art at Christ Church, Canterbury in the generation after St Dunstan, in: St Dunstan, his Life, Times and Cult, edd. N. RAMSAY, M. SPARKS & T. TATTON-BROWN, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1992, 187-220. Much work remains to be done before the relationship between the two centres may be fully appreciated.

990 and was acquired by Battle Abbey early in the twelfth century. While at Canterbury, three picture cycles of mid-eleventh century date were added to the Codex, turning it into one of the most lavishly illustrated of all secular manuscripts surviving from the early Middle Ages. All are by the same artist, working very probably at the scriptorium of Christ Church cathedral, where monks were then cloistered. They will now be described in turn.

A. The Calendar Series

A set of twelve elongated scenes, each heading a monthly calendar, represent the labours of the months and are mostly agricultural in content. There are twel- ve accompanying medallions showing the signs of

Fig. 22.

BEASTS FROM THE BAYEUX TAPESTRY

~~J1. .l^ •.(, :

/~

BL HARLEIAN 647

~ BL COTTON TIBERIUS C VI, f. 16

Fig. 23.

MS Oxford, Bodl. Tanner 10 fol. 54

A LOOK-OUT

tenth century fol. 115v BAYEUX TAPESTRY

The Canterbury contribution to the Bayeux Tapestry

the zodiac. The dependence on these illustrations by the Bayeux Tapestry Master appears in numerous scenes throughout the Tapestry, a few of which are shown in Figures 3, 10, 15 and 16 below. These examples are by no means exhaustive; in particular, the ploughing scene at p. 10 of the lower border of the Tapestry, and the wagon on the same page, are clear- ly derived from an exemplar close to the Christ Church calendar illustrations. Representations of trees throughout the calendar are copied very closely in the Tapestry, and one remarkable scene involving the use of a sieve as in the December calendar is discussed below.

B. The Marvels of the East

I have not found any example from this series of illustrations in Cotton Tiberius B. v. pt I being copied directly in the Tapestry. However the upper border of pp. 11-12 of the Tapestry shows two unique figures of centaurs with outstretched arms and long hair, which seem to be related icongraphically to a partic-

ular form of Homodubii appearing on fol. 102v of the

copy of the OE translation of the Marvels of the East

entered in Cotton Vitellius A. xv, the famous Beo-

HEXATEUCH foL ~7v

Fig. 30.

~ ~~/

J

1, I Ci~&.rpavWoo Harley Pu.Jt.6t" BL Canterbury, Harley (^603) c (ol. 1000 lv

;;d

BT o(B

BT 48

BT 11

upper border represent stars in the Aratus illustration of the constellation Ara. A great deal more research into these concordances is desirable.

Various other Canterbury Manuscripts

The Master of the Bayeux Tapestry owed contri- bution to several other Canterbury codices for his exemplars. I will mention only four of them. The representation of Odo blessing food at a meal before Hastings is likely to depend on the Last Supper scene in the St Augustine's Gospels (Fig. 29). 8 Bemstein drew attention to the appearance in the Tapestry of an exotic classical pavilion which seems to have been copied from the Harley Psalter (Fig. 30).^9 The Cred- mon Manuscript (Oxford, Junius 11 (5123)) shows on fol. 66r a figurehead on a boat with a peculiar upward extension sprouting from its nose, just as in the Tapestry (Fig. 12). Finally, the Cleopatra Pruden-

BROOKS, Authority, 16-17. D. BERNSTEIN, The Mystery of the Bayeux Tapestry, London, 1986, 42, 44. (^10) The Tapestry figure has been described mistakenly by previous commentators as carrying a coil of rope. Representations of standard motifs such as torches, figureheads on ships, and skirts hitched up to the waist, run throughout the

The Canterbury contribution to the Bayeux Tapestry

tius depicts an allegorical figure of 'Labour' carrying a burden which is misrepresented as a sieve in the Tapestry, influenced no doubt by the sieve used for winnowing in the calendar for December in the Canterbury Miscellany (Fig. 26). 10

Conclusion

From the time of Franc is Wormald 's 1954 paper which first suggested stylistic influences from Can- terbury manuscripts, 11 scholars have been rightly cautious in ascribing the design and execution of the Bayeux Tapestry to a Canterbury artist. Now, after nearly half a century of further research, the evidence for such an attribution is overwhelming. The quality of work of this anonymous illustrator is such that he may fairly be called the Master of the Bayeux Tapestry.

Dr. Cyril Hart Gold thorns Stilton, Peterborough PE7 3RH

UK

productions of both Canterbury houses and are reproduced at many places in the Tapestry (Figures 3, 8, 12). (^11) F. WORMALD, The Bayeux Tapestry: Style and Design, in: The Bayeux Tapestry, ed. F. STENTON, London, 1954, 25-36; repr. in F. Wormald, Collected Writings I. Studies in Medieval Art from the Sixth to the Twelfth Centuries, ed. J.J.G. ALEXANDER, T. BROWN & J. GIBBS, Oxford, 1984, 139-152.