The cathedral of S. Bavon has two projections of a similar description,
leaving the space open in the centre for an entrance to the choir. These
form lofts at top, and are ascended by staircases. On Sundays and
festivals, I regret to add, they are filled with _fiddlers_! Were they
joined at top, this would form a regular rood loft, but as it stands at
present, it is a most anomalous pile of marble-work, effectually
shutting out half the choir, without any attempt at beauty or symbolism.
The old Dominican church has a remarkable screen of the seventeenth
century; it is overloaded with sculpture and ornament of a very bad
period; but it has a rood and loft, and it separates the choir from the
nave of the church, which, like the usual Dominican churches, consists
of a long parallelogram, with side chapels, gained out of the projection
of the buttresses. The building itself is of the fine, severe Pointed
style that prevailed in the fourteenth century; but all the fittings,
erected probably at the same time as the screen, are of very debased
character. It may be proper to remark that all the side chapels of the
great Belgian churches are enclosed by marble screens, intermixed with
perforated brass-work. These are mostly the work of the early part of
the seventeenth century, and no doubt replaced the more ancient oak and
metal screens that were mutilated or destroyed by the Calvinists in the
devastating religious wars of the Low Countries. They are an existing
proof that the traditional principles of enclosure and reverence
outlived the change of style of architecture; for, although all these
are of debased Italian design, they are constructed principally on the
old arrangement, and are usually surmounted by standards for tapers.
The custom of screening off these side chapels was universal. We find
them in Italy at a very early period (see Bologna), and many beautiful
pointed examples, both in wood and stone, exist in Germany, France, and
England; they are subsequently found of every date and style. In the
eighteenth century they were usually constructed with elaborate
wrought-iron-work, and in our time of a simple form in the same
material; but the principle still remains in every part of Christendom,
excepting some of the most modern Italian churches, where all tradition
seems to have been lost, or abandoned by their artists and architects.
This account of screens in Germany and Flanders is necessarily very
incomplete; but it is sufficient to illustrate the intention of the
work, and anything like a complete list would be both too voluminous and
tedious to the reader.
Chancel screens appear to be very general in the old timber churches of
Norway, and I have figured one in the church of Urnes, near Bergen,
which is exceedingly interesting; and though it is by no means easy to
affix dates to these rude productions, there is every reason to suppose
this to be a work of considerable antiquity. This church is now used for
Lutheran worship, but, like every ancient edifice erected for Catholic
rites, it bears indelible evidence of the enclosure of the chancel and
the erection of the rood.
[11] I have been informed, from good authority, that one of the churches
in Amsterdam has preserved its brass screen-work, but I am not able to
supply the name.
[12] The screen across the Bootmakers' Chapel, in the north transept of
this church, is of a great antiquity, probably of the middle of the
fourteenth century. It is executed entirely in oak, most beautifully
carved; and skilfully framed in the rails of the doors are bas-reliefs
of angels bearing the cognizance of the confraternity of bootmakers, at
whose cost this chapel was erected and founded. There are other oak
screens in the south transept of a later date,—fifteenth century, and
the choir and lateral chapels are all arched, with marble screens,
filled with perforated brass-work.
[Plate V:
_Rood Screen of the Marienkirche, Lubeck._
_Rood Loft, Cathedral, Munster._]
[Plate VI:
_Screen in the Dom Kirke, Lubeck._
_Screen & Rood Loft, Hospital, Lubeck._]
[Plate VII:
_Screen & rood Loft Dom, Hildesheim._
_Rood Loft Sᵗ Katherine's church, Lubeck._]
[Plate VIII:
_Choir; Gelnhausen._
_Choir; Sᵗ Elisabeth's Church at Marburg._]
[Plate IX:
_Screen at Oberwesel._
_Plan of the Jubé. Cathedral, Metz._
_Plan of the Jubé. Cathedral, Toul._
_Screen of Sᵗ Nicholas church, Lorraine._]
[Plate X:
_From an Old Picture by Peter Neefs._
_The Rood Screen, Cathedral, Antwerp. 17 Century._
_One of the Altars, erected against the nave Pillars, with its Brass
Screen work._]