English Medieval Misericords: The Margins of Meaning (Boydell Studies in Medieval Art and Architecture)

202 Pages·2011·63.205 MB·English

by  Hardwick, Paul

E
RELATED TITLES
n CONTENTS
g
The Art of Anglo-Saxon England
l Introduction: What Lies Beneath
i
CATHERINE E. KARKOV s
Two particular perspectives inform this wide-ranging Misericord carvings present a fascinating h 1 A Fair Field of Folk
and richly illustrated survey of the art produced in corpus of medieval art which, in turn, 2 Doctrine and Debate
England, or by English arists, between c.600 and M
complements our knowledge of life and 3 Influence and Invention
c.1100. Firstly, from a post-colonial angle, it examines
the way art works both to create and to narrate belief in the late middle ages. Subjects range from e 4 Masculinity and Power
national and cultural identity over the centuries during
the sacred to the profane and from the fantastic d
5 Exemplary Animals
which England was coming into being, moving from
Romano-Britain to Anglo-Saxon England to Anglo- to the everyday, seemingly giving equal weight to ie 6 The Monsters at the Margins
Scandinavian England to Anglo-Norman England. the scatological and the spiritual alike. Focusing
v
wSeocroknsd tlhy,a itt htarevaet sb oAtnhg alon- Saaexstohne taicr ta ansd w aonr ekms ooft ioarnta,l specifically on England – though with cognisance a Conclusion: Looking Both Ways
value, rather than as simply passive historical or of broader European contexts – this volume offers l
archaeological objects. This double focus on art as an Gazetteer
an analysis of misericords in relation to other M
aesthetic vehicle and art as an active political force Bibliography
allows us to ask questions not only about what makes cultural artefacts of the period. Through a series of
something a work of art, but what makes it endure themed ‘case studies’, the book places misericords i Index
s
as such, as well as questions about the work that art
firmly within the doctrinal and devotional milieu e
does in the creation of peoples, cultures, nations
and histories. in which they were created and sited, arguing that r
i
even the apparently coarse images to be found c
Medieval Wall Paintings
beneath choir stalls are intimately linked to the o
ROGER ROSEWELL devotional life of the medieval English Church. r
d
Now available in paperback The analysis is complemented by a gazetteer of the
s
Praise for Hardback edition: most notable surviving examples.
A well-written and handsomely presented book, certain
DR PAUL HARDWICK is Reader in English, Leeds
to appeal to a wide readership. ... The great strength of
P
the book is in its wonderful colour pictures: of both Trinity University College.
A
familiar and unexpected subjects, and usually of higher
quality than published before. BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE Jacket illustration: St Mary, Swine misericord. Photograph by U
A splendid book ... Mr Rosewell knows what he is Elaine C. Block, ©Misericordia International. L
talking about, and explains how the paintings were
made, what they mean, who paid for them, and how H
they’ve fared since. CHRISTOPHER HOWSE,
A
DAILY TELEGRAPH
My Easter book of the year ... a magisterial R
compendium of this most elusive English vernacular
D
form. SIMON JENKINS, THE GUARDIAN English Medieval
BOYDELL STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL W
The Madonna of Humility ART AND ARCHITECTURE
I
BETH WILLIAMSON C
[A] substantial and meticulously researched study. ... K Misericords
Far from closing debates on the Madonna of Humility,
Beth Williamson has opened up the reading of the
image type in its devotional context in a stylish,
beautifully written and thought-provoking study.
THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW
THE MARGINS OF MEANING
an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk IP12 3DF and
668 Mt Hope Ave, Rochester NY 14620, USA PAUL HARDWICK
www.boydellandbrewer.com
Eng Medieval Misericords prelims_Med Art & Architecture series 10/04/2011 15:00 Page 1
ENGLISH MEDIEVAL MISERICORDS
The Margins of Meaning
Eng Medieval Misericords prelims_Med Art & Architecture series 10/04/2011 15:00 Page 2
BOYDELL STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL ART AND ARCHITECTURE
ISSN 2045-4902
Aims
This series aims to provide a forum for debate on the art and architecture of
the Middle Ages. It will cover all media, from manuscript illuminations to
maps, tapestries, carvings, wall-paintings and stained glass, and all periods
and regions, including Byzantine art. Both traditional and more theoretical
approaches to the subject are welcome.
Proposals or queries should be sent in the first instance to the editors or to
the publisher, at the addresses given below.
Dr Julian Luxford, School of Art History, University of St Andrews,
79 North Street, St Andrews, Fife, KY16 9AL, UK
Dr Asa Simon Mittman, Department of Art and Art History, California State
University at Chico, Chico, CA 95929-0820, USA
Boydell & Brewer, PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 3DF, UK
ALREADY PUBLISHED
The Art of Anglo-Saxon England
Catherine E. Karkov
Eng Medieval Misericords prelims_Med Art & Architecture series 10/04/2011 15:00 Page 3
E N G L I S H
M E D I E VA L
M I S E R I C O R D S
The Margins of Meaning
Paul Hardwick
THE BOYDELL PRESS
Eng Medieval Misericords prelims_Med Art & Architecture series 10/04/2011 15:00 Page 4
© Paul Hardwick 2011
All Rights Reserved.Except as permitted under current legislation
no part of this work may be photocopied, stored in a retrieval system,
published, performed in public, adapted, broadcast,
transmitted, recorded or reproduced in any form or by any means,
without the prior permission of the copyright owner
The right of Paul Hardwick to be identified as
the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1998
First published 2011
The Boydell Press, Woodbridge
ISBN 978 1 84383 659 9
The Boydell Press is an imprint of Boydell & Brewer Ltd
PO Box 9, Woodbridge, Suffolk, IP12 3DF, UK
and of Boydell & Brewer Inc.
668 Mount Hope Ave, Rochester, NY 14620, USA
website: www.boydellandbrewer.com
The publisher has no responsibility for the continued existence or accuracy of URLs
for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this book, and does not
guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library
Papers used by Boydell & Brewer Ltd are natural, recyclable products
made from wood grown in sustainable forests
Designed and typeset by Tina Ranft, Woodbridge, Suffolk
Printed in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
Eng Medieval Misericords prelims_Med Art & Architecture series 10/04/2011 15:00 Page 5
CONTENTS
List of Figures 6
Acknowledgements 7
INTRODUCTION: WHAT LIES BENEATH 1
A FAIR FIELD OF FOLK 18
DOCTRINE AND DEBATE 44
INFLUENCE AND INVENTION 66
MASCULINITY AND POWER 85
EXEMPLARY ANIMALS 110
THE MONSTERS AT THE MARGINS 135
CONCLUSION: LOOKING BOTH WAYS 154
GAZETTEER 156
Bibliography 168
Index 183
Eng Medieval Misericords prelims_Med Art & Architecture series 10/04/2011 15:00 Page 6
LIST OF FIGURES
Fig. 1. Lincoln Cathedral misericord. 13
Fig. 2. St Lawrence, Ludlow misericord. 19
Fig. 3. Chichester Cathedral misericord. 21
Fig. 4. St Mary, Whalley misericord. 23
Fig. 5. Christchurch Priory misericord. 24
Fig. 6. Beverley Minster misericord. 26
Fig. 7. Manchester Cathedral misericord. 28
Fig. 8. St Lawrence, Ludlow misericord. 30
Fig. 9. Lincoln Cathedral misericord. 34
Fig. 10. St George’s Chapel, Windsor misericord. 47
Fig. 11. St Mary’s, Blackburn misericord. 51
Fig. 12. St Mary’s, Beverley misericord. 56
Fig. 13. Bishop Tunstall’s Chapel, Durham Castle misericord. 71
Fig. 14. Beverley Minster misericord. 73
Fig. 15. Beverley Minster misericord. 74
Fig. 16. Manchester Cathedral misericord. 80
Fig. 17. All Saints, North Street misericord. 81
Fig. 18. Limerick Cathedral misericord. 83
Fig. 19. Ripon Minster canopy detail. Illustration by Sibylle Zipperer. 86
Fig. 20. Great Malvern Priory misericord. 88
Fig. 21. St Mary, Nantwich misericord. 90
Fig. 22. Carlisle Cathedral misericord. 93
Fig. 23. Ely Cathedral misericord. 94
Fig. 24. St Mary, Minster-in-Thanet misericord. 98
Fig. 25. St Mary, Fairford misericord supporter. 101
Fig. 26. Bristol Cathedral supporter. 107
Fig. 27. Saint-Maurille, Ponts-de-Cé misericord. 108
Fig. 28. St Helen, Abbotsham bench-end. Photograph by Paul Hardwick. 119
Fig. 29. Ely Cathedral misericord. 127
Fig. 30. St Andrew, Norton misericord. 136
Fig. 31. Limerick Cathedral misericord. 144
Fig. 32. Limerick Cathedral misericord. 152
Unless otherwise stated, all photographs are by Elaine C. Block
and are © Misericordia International.
Eng Medieval Misericords prelims_Med Art & Architecture series 10/04/2011 15:00 Page 7
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
t is customary to conclude the acknowledgements to books such as this
by thanking the countless vicars, vergers, key-holders, caretakers and
cleaners who have facilitated access to the material under discussion.
Bucking this trend, I would like to place these people at the top of my list.
However this present book may fare in contributing to the study of English
misericords, it is the often voluntary custodians of our medieval churches
who, through their dedication and willingness to share their time,
knowledge and, on occasions, bafflement, will both preserve these fragile
wonders and continue to connect the curious to this direct line to the world
of our ancestors. Very many thanks.
The road from my unimpressive and best forgotten encounter with
Chaucer at school to this present book has been long, winding and largely
unmapped. The guides have been many, but I should single out a number
from my extended association with the University of York for particular
thanks: Erica Davies and Karen Hodder, along with The Lords of Misrule,
for revealing the beauty and vigour of medieval literature; Philip Lindley,
Christopher Norton and Richard Marks for converting my enthusiasm for
the medieval visual arts into something like scholarship (and managing to
increase that enthusiasm on the way); and Nick Havely for exemplary
postgraduate supervision. My own teaching is always approached in hope
that I may be able to inspire my students in the same way.
Particular thanks are owed to the late Elaine C. Block, whose expressions
of enthusiasm for my early forays into the study of misericords amounted
to a particularly charming form of press-ganging. The unstinting nature of
this enthusiasm and support was such that it remains undimmed by her
passing. Under her captaincy, I have certainly seen the world – or, at least,
the undersides of its choir stalls – for which I am immeasurably grateful.
Fellow crew members (to stretch the metaphor) have been a constant
inspiration, always stimulating in conversation and unfailingly generous
with their knowledge. Whilst the roll-call of shipmates is too long for
rehearsal here, special thanks go to Sylvie Bethmont-Gallerand, Frédéric
Eng Medieval Misericords prelims_Med Art & Architecture series 10/04/2011 15:00 Page 8
viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Billiet, Luuk Houwen, Naomi Kline, Adrian Tudor and Kenneth Varty,
although countless colleagues encountered through the colloquia of
Misericordia International and the International Reynard Society could
extend this list. I know that I am far from alone in owing a great debt to the
late Christa Grössinger and Brian J. Levy: along with Elaine, they were both
inspiring scholars and wonderful people who are very much missed. My
thanks go both to Elaine for allowing me to use her photographs, and to
Welleda Muller for scouring Elaine’s archives for errant images. In preparing
the final draft of this book, I am particularly grateful to Katie Lister, whose
assistance has been invaluable.
Away from the close-knit though far-flung community of misericordians,
that I have been able to keep this book more or less on track is due in no
small part to both the scholarship and friendship of Meredith Clermont-
Ferrand, which has helped to keep meon track. At Leeds Trinity University
College, the support of colleagues, in particular Joyce Simpson, has been
invaluable in so many ways. The institution has also provided a period of
Research Leave and a number of travel grants without which this book could
not have been written. I have also benefited from a British Academy
Overseas Conference Grant. At Boydell & Brewer I would like to thank
Caroline Palmer for her enthusiasm for this project and her support during
periods of temporary derailment.
I am extremely fortunate in being blessed with an exceptionally
supportive family. Thanks to Fred and Joan Hardwick, without whom …,
and to Ruth, Roger and their ever-expanding dynasty. Finally, although she
doesn’t exactly share my enthusiasm for crawling on the floors of ancient
buildings, I would like to thank the most recent recruit to the clan – my wife,
Sue – for displaying a reasonable degree of magnanimity regarding the
lengthy periods I have spent locked away finishing this off.
Part of chapter 1 has previously appeared in La Nature, rythme et danse
des saisons dans les stalles médiévales, ed. Frédéric Billiet and Welleda Muller
(Turnhout: Brepols, 2009); part of chapter 2 in Bible de bois du Moyen-Age:
Bible et liturgie dans les stalles médiévales, ed. Frédéric Billiet (Angers: UCO,
2003); part of chapter 3 in Profane Images in Marginal Arts of the Middle
Ages, ed. Elaine C. Block with Frédéric Billiet, Sylvie Bethmont-Gallerand
and Paul Hardwick (Turnhout: Brepols, 2008); and parts of chapter 5 in
Reinardus 15 (2002) and 17 (2004).
Eng Medieval Misericords txt2_Med Art & Architecture series 10/04/2011 14:58 Page 1
INTRODUCTION:
WHAT LIES BENEATH
Early in the twentieth century, Francis Bond devoted the first of his
volumes on English ecclesiastical wood carvings to misericords,
recognising their value in illuminating ‘a History of Social Life in England
in the fourteenth, fifteenth and sixteenth centuries as it was lived by
common folk’.1Whilst, as we shall see in the course of the present volume,
this is one valuable aspect of misericord carvings for the modern viewer,
Bond’s analysis – seminal though it is for subsequent studies – is restricted
by the then current view of misericords which placed them very much in
the category of ‘folk art’.2In consequence, Bond’s chapter dealing with the
symbolism to be found on misericord carvings begins with the assertion
that ‘[s]ymbolism is conspicuously rare on the misericords; they were carved
by simple folk for simple folk’, and concludes its discussion a mere twenty-
one lines later.3This view has gradually been superseded, particularly in the
past twenty years. Books by Michael Camille, Christa Grössinger and
Malcolm Jones, along with the journal Profane Arts of the Middle Ages, have
been supplemented by a growing number of essay collections and discrete
articles to reveal the rich symbolism to be found on choir stalls and, indeed,
across the marginal arts of the later Middle Ages.4 The present book
inevitably owes an immense debt to these studies. Where this study differs,
however, is that rather than seeing the vigorous carvings to be found
1Francis Bond, Wood Carvings in English Churches 1: Misericords (London: Oxford
University Press, 1910), p. vii.
2What constitutes folk art – or, indeed, folk anything – has itself become a contentious
issue in recent years. For an interesting synoptic study of the debates on contemporary folk
practices, which nonetheless has implications for the discussion of historical folk art and
culture, see Bob Trubshaw, Explore Folklore(Loughborough: Heart of Albion Press, 2002).
3Bond, Wood Carvings in English Churches 1, pp. 157–8.
4Michael Camille, Image on the Edge: The Margins of Medieval Art(London: Reaktion
Books, 1992); Christa Grössinger, The World Upside-Down: English Misericords(London:
Harvey Miller Publishers, 1997); Malcolm Jones, The Secret Middle Ages: Discovering the
Real Medieval World(Stroud: Sutton Publishing, 2002). Profane Arts of the Middle Ages,
under the editorship of Elaine C. Block, was first published in 1993 by Misericordia
International, details of which may be found at
web.leedstrinity.ac.uk/english/misericordia_international/index.htm.