As foliage sculpture is mostly concentrated on capitals, and sculpture
to some extent is modified by the shapes of the surfaces which it
ornaments, it will be well before going into sculptural details to note
that English capitals are of four descriptions: (i) cushion, (ii)
scalloped, (iii) bell, and (iv) cup-or bowl-shaped (Pl. 1).
Norman are mostly cushion or scalloped, but those of the French
Corinthian type are bells. Early English are mostly bells. Decorated
sometimes revert not to the cushion, but to a modification of it, which
we have called cup-shaped, the abacus being no longer square but
circular, or octagonal (Pl. 71).
The cushion is a cube with the lower corners chamfered off in such a
manner as to make the four sides semi-circular, the diameter being at
the top. Below the semi-circles the chamfers slope in to the necking of
the shaft.
The bell is the shape of a bell or trumpet-mouth. The profile of the
capital is concave from the necking up to the larger diameter of the top
adjoining the abacus.
In scalloped capitals the four sides of the capital, if square, or the
circumference if round, are subdivided into a series of semi-circles,
instead of having one on each face as in the cushions.
Cup-shaped capitals are the opposite of bells, having a convex instead
of a concave profile, say the shape of a tea-cup or bowl.
When Norman capitals are sculptured, whether with figure or foliage
sculpture, the character of the sculpture is Lombardic or Romanesque.
There is nothing especially English about it. The schools of carving
being mostly either in or under the control of the monasteries, and the
monasteries being cosmopolitan, the carving was so also, and followed
traditions which were mostly Classical in origin, but modified by
suggestions from painted illuminations, needlework, wicker-work,
wood-carving, and metal-work, both in iron and precious metals. Through
what are called the Dark Ages this type of carving had been kept up
chiefly on sarcophagi and ivory crosses and caskets, upon which the best
work is found.
Some cushion capitals at Christchurch have the Greek anthemion (Pl. 5)
and others the profile leaf, carved quite after the Greek manner.
The chancel arch respond at Hemel Hempstead has strands coming out of
the mouth of a human face, with similar profile leaves, beaded (Pl. 6).
At Hereford Cathedral there are interlaced spiral strands (beaded) mixed
up with animals and Greek anthemia. At Durham the capitals of a doorway
in the south aisle show winged monsters with long necks (beaded)
intertwined with foliage, while on the abacus is a row of anthemia. The
carving on the capitals is suggestive of Norse wood-carving. The same
character belongs to some capitals from the ruins of Reading Abbey. A
cushion capital at St Peter’s, Northampton, shows somewhat similar
characteristics, but some of the sprays end in triplets of profile
leaves (Pl. 7). Other capitals in the same church show animals mixed
with the sprays which are sometimes bound together by what look like
iron bands. Similar features appear on the base of the font at Aylesbury
(Pl. 8). We might multiply instances of this class of foliage to almost
any extent, but it does not lead us on to any further development. It
consists merely of variations of the old tradition derived from
Lombardic sources and exhibits no sign of vitality. We will therefore
content ourselves with showing one more rather remarkable specimen from
Oxford Cathedral. It puzzled antiquaries for a time, as it was thought
to be pre-Conquest in date, and yet it appears on the capital of a
rather late Norman column, thus illustrating the continuance or revival
of traditions in spite of the Conquest (Pl. 9).
The ornament on a doorway at Malmesbury consists of profile half-opened
leaves just like those on the Christchurch capitals, but, arranged as
they are here, back to back, they look more like halves of a Greek
anthemion or palmette.
Fonts sometimes show foliage sculpture. At Deerhurst is a font usually
considered Anglo-Saxon, on which the main part of the bowl is ornamented
with spirals without any leafage, but the borders, above and below, have
graceful sprays with leaves and flowers (Pl. 10). The type is
interesting, especially as a thirteenth-century capital in the same
church is evidently copied from it (Pl. 11).
Somewhat similar, but more clumsy, sprays occur on fonts at St
Stephen’s, Launceston, and Sidlington. In the Library of Durham
Cathedral there are some fragments containing conventional
representations of trees, which are a mixture of beaded straps and
leaves, some attempts at naturalism, others conventional palmettes or
“acanthus” leaves (Pl. 12).
A variety that stands by itself is seen at King’s Walden. It is
sometimes called water-leaf (Pl. 13). It also occurs under slightly
different arrangement at Fountains, and at Oxford Cathedral it is
combined with other experimental sprays.
These experiments at Oxford (Pl. 14) mark an important stage. Hitherto
we have come across nothing in the way of novelty. All the designs have
been copies--mostly debased copies--of Classical conventional forms. The
masons at Oxford were tired of this and attempted something different.
Their attempts were not altogether successful and did not lead to any
further development; the only feature that survived or was afterwards
revived was the rising of stalks from the necking.
During the same period the re-building of Canterbury choir took place
after the disastrous fire of 1174. The monks of Canterbury belonged to
the Traditional rather than the Progressive school, and they entrusted
the work to a French master-mason, William of Sens, instead of to
English masons who were feeling their way to such work as within a few
years is found fully developed in St Hugh’s choir at Lincoln. Up to this
time the French masons had adopted the Roman Corinthian type of capital.
This admits of considerable variety of details, and, after the middle of
the twelfth century, the French introduced not only Roman conventional
foliage, but also foliage of a more naturalistic kind. The capitals in
the Choir (Pl. 15) and especially in Trinity Chapel at Canterbury
contain much of both kinds, well executed and highly finished. This
Romanesque work is very beautiful, but it is not English, and has no
place in the continuous development of English foliage.
The French Corinthian type never made much progress in England. It
requires the square abacus to be effective, and the square abacus was
almost entirely abandoned here in favour of the round by the beginning
of the thirteenth century. A rather good example occurs at Ducklington,
Oxon, and an interesting juxtaposition of the Saxon type and the French
Corinthian is to be seen at Broadwater, Sussex (Pl. 16). Before passing
on to follow up the development of the stiff-leaf convention, it may be
interesting to note some early attempts to copy Corinthian. On a respond
of the tower arch at Sompting Church is a curious instance of this,
probably pre-Norman in date. It consists of a triple row of crockets,
apparently intended to copy acanthus, while the volutes resemble ram’s
horns, perhaps placed upside down, with clusters of grapes encircled in
them (Pl. 17). At Southrop, Glos, is a very primitive sort of capital
with volutes rising from a central stem, and below parallel leaves
rising from the necking. In Canterbury crypt there are several such
capitals (Pl. 18), some better and some worse executed. They appear to
have been carved _in situ_ on capitals that were originally cushions.
The feature that is of most interest in all these early attempts is the
parallel leaves rising from the necking. There is nothing new about this
arrangement. It is, in fact, precisely similar to that on the Lysicrates
monument at Athens, but it seems to have some affinity both to scallops
and stiff-leaf stems.
The scalloped form of capital is an English type. It is formed by
dividing each semi-circular face of the cushion capital into two or more
semi-circles, and carrying the channel between each semi-circle down to
the necking, so that each convexity is a half-cone. A very simple
example is a scalloped capital at the Tower of London, in which each
face is bisected. The capitals illustrated in Pl. 1 and Pls. 19, 20, 21,
22, 23 will show the shape better than any amount of description. The
nave capitals at Hemel Hempstead show the effect of scallops on large
square capitals. In this case variety is given by cutting out the
corners. The great round capitals at Malmesbury have scallops with the
semi-circles moulded. At Black Bourton, Oxon (Pl. 19), the scallops are
curved and the semi-circles made circular and ornamented with
quatrefoils. At Kimpton not only are the semi-circles moulded but the
scallops themselves have great leaves cut upon them (Pl. 20). At King’s
Walden, close by, spiked leaves rise from the necking between the
scallops (Pl. 21). At Romsey there are some very richly carved scalloped
capitals, with faces in the semi-circles and foliage all over the
scallops (Pl. 22). At Cuddington a round capital has curved scallops,
the semi-circles ornamented with a round hole, and plain sharply-pointed
leaves rising from the necking between the scallops (Pl. 23).
The chief significance of scalloping in connexion with the development
of stiff-leaf is the rising of straight lines from the necking. We have
already mentioned the Oxford experiments in which this feature is
prominent.