The Grotesque in Church Art :: Satires without Satan.

Satires without Satan.

T
THE SLUMBERING PRIEST,
NEW COLLEGE,
OXFORD.here are numbers of grotesques which are satires evidently aimed at sins, but which have not the visible attendance of the evil one himself.

Among these must be included a curious carving from Swine, in Holderness. The priory of Swine was a Cistercian nunnery of fifteen sisters and a prioress. Mr. Thomas Blashill states, “There were, however, two canons at least, to assist in the offices of religion, who did not refrain from meddling in secular affairs.”[5] There was also a small community of lay-brethren.

The female in the centre of the carving is a nun; her hood is drawn partly over her face, so that only one eye is fully visible, but with the other eye she is executing a well-known movement of but momentary duration. The two ugly animals between which she peers are intended for hares, a symbol of libidinousness, as well as of timidity.

THE WINKING NUN, SWINE, YORKSHIRE.

Another carving in the same chancel may be in derision of some official of the papal court, which, in the thirteenth century, on an occasion of the contumacy of the nuns in refusing to pay certain tithes, caused the church, with that adjoining, of the lay brethren, to be closed. The nuns defied all authority, broke open the chapels, and in general during the long contest acted in a curiously ungovernable, irresponsible manner.

A PAPAL MONSTER, SWINE, YORKSHIRE.

IMPUDENCE, BISHOP’S STORTFORD,
HERTFORDSHIRE.

At Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire, are some misericordes, which, says Miss Phipson, are stated to have originally belonged to Old St. Paul’s. Among them is the annexed subject. The wicked expression of the face, and the general incorrectness of the composition, are a historical evidence of indecorum akin to the gestures of the Beverley carvers.

From the fine choir carvings of Westminster Abbey yet another example is given. It is one in which the spirit of the old Comptes a Plaisance is well illustrated. A well-clad man, suggesting Falstaff in his prime, is seated with a lady among luxurious foliage. His arm is right round his companion’s waist, while his left hand dips into his capacious and apparently well-lined pouch, or gipciere. He has been styled a merchant. He is manifestly making a bargain. The lady is evidently a daughter of the hireling (hirudo!), and is crying, “Give, give.” In spite of this being the work of an Italian artist, the artistic feeling about it would seem to recall slightly the lines of Holbein.

A QUESTION OF PRICE, WESTMINSTER ABBEY.

The small carving to the right of the above is a highly-elate pig, playing the pipe. This is shewn in a short chapter hereafter given on Animal Musicians. The initial at the head of this chapter is illustrated with the “slumbering priest,” the carving of whom is at the right of that of the ‘Unseen Witness,’ drawn on page 85. This doubtless implies that some portion of the sin of the people was to be attributed to the indifference of the clergy. Balancing this, there is in the original carving an aged person kneeling, and, supported by a crutch, counting her beads.

In a subsequent chapter (on Compound Forms in Gothic) the harpy is mentioned, and shewn to be a not uncommon subject of church art, either as from the malignant classic form which symbolized fierce bad weather, or as the more beneficient though not unsimilar figure which was the symbol of Athor, the Egyptian Venus. A Winchester example which might seem in place among the remarks on the Compounds, is included here, as it is evidently intended to embody a sin. It serves to show that a modern use of the word harpy was well understood in mediÆval times. The design is simple, the vulture wings being made to take the position of the hair of the woman head. She lies in wait spider-wise, her great claws in readiness for the prey; and is evidently a character-sketch of a coarse, insatiable daughter of the horse-leech.

THE HARPY IN WAIT, WINCHESTER.

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