RENAISSANCE STALLWORK
Thus far the stallwork has been wholly of Gothic design, or nearly so. We
now come to the great change of style, the reversion to the Classic art of
ancient Rome, which goes by the name of the Renaissance. Of this the chief
representatives left to us are the stalls of Christchurch, Hants; King's
College, Cambridge; and Cartmel, Lancashire. The stalls and misericords of
Christchurch, as we see them now, are a patchwork of portions of work of
several periods framed together at some more or less recent epoch; there
are at least two styles of Renaissance work, and three or more of Gothic.
The earlier Renaissance work, which is seen in most of the misericords and
on the stall backs is that of William Eyre who was Prior from 1502 to 1520
(2). There are fifty-eight stalls; of the misericords twenty-six have been
stolen or destroyed. The early date of this work makes it of exceptional
importance in the history of the introduction of Renaissance art into
England. One special feature of the work is the portrait panels. These also
occur in a cupboard preserved in Louth church, Lincolnshire, where the
panels have what look very much like portraits of Henry VII. and his queen,
Elizabeth of York. It goes by the name of the "Sudbury hutch" and was the
gift of Thomas Sudbury, who was vicar from 1461 to 1504: it is therefore of
the time of Henry VII. These "portrait cabinets" had a great vogue in the
reign of Henry VIII., and throughout the sixteenth century. Then come three
important tombs by Torrigiano, executed between 1509 and 1518, that of
Henry VII. and his Queen and that of Margaret Beaufort at Westminster and
that of Dr Young in the Rolls chapel. Almost as early, if not quite so, is
Prior Eyre's work at Christchurch. Then comes Cardinal Wolsey's work at
Hampton Court, 1515 to 1525; the beautiful Marney tomb at Layer Marney,
Essex, 1523; the mortuary chests in the cathedral, and the screen work both
in the cathedral and in St Cross, Winchester, _c._ 1525; the chantry chapel
of Prior Draper at Christchurch, 1529, and that of Lady Salisbury, which
may be a year or two earlier; and the screen at Swine church, Yorkshire,
dated 1531. Then follow Henry VIII.'s hall at Hampton Court, 1534; and the
screen at King's College, Cambridge, 1533.
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[Illustration: Christchurch]
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[Illustration: Christchurch]
So that the Christchurch work stands very high on the list and deserves
much more attention than it has received. The general outline of the stalls
themselves is Gothic, the chief divergency being in the supports of the
elbow rests and seats. Among the shafts are examples of the honeycomb form
which is almost the only bit of Renaissance detail in the canopies of the
Westminster stalls. At the back of the stalls are very vigorous carvings of
classical dragons, serpents, hounds and human faces (76). To these last
fanciful attributions have been made; _e.g._, one has been imagined to
represent Catharine of Arragon between Cardinal Wolsey and Cardinal
Campeggio (77). These portrait busts have a wide distribution; they occur
in wood, stone and terra cotta. Noble examples are those in terra cotta at
Hampton Court, which were undoubtedly imported by Cardinal Wolsey direct
from Italy.[37] Others no doubt are the work of Italians resident in
England in the first half of the sixteenth century, when Italian art and
Italian literature were equally the fashion with the cognoscenti led by
Henry VIII. and Wolsey; _e.g._, the fine bust of Sir Thomas Lovell by
Torrigiano, now in Westminster Abbey.[38] These portrait busts have a wide
range--from Essex westward to Somerset, Devon and Cornwall; _e.g._, North
Cadbury, Somerset; Lapford, Devon, and Talland, Cornwall; several also
occur at Hemingborough, Yorkshire. The probability is that the Italian
artists entered the kingdom at Southampton; and that a few found work at
Christchurch and in the south-west, but that the main body proceeded
eastward to Winchester, Basing, London and Layer Marney; they have left one
memorial at Oxford beneath a window at Christ Church.[39] {78}
[Illustration: King's College, Cambridge]
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Next come the famous screen and stalls of King's College, Cambridge--"the
finest woodwork this side of the Alps." Harmonious as is the general effect
of the stallwork, it was executed at three different periods. The stalls
were ordered to be made by Henry VI. in his will, but were not put up till
much later. About 1515 an estimate was obtained for 130 stalls, which it
was found would cost about £12,000 of our money, _i.e._, about £92 each. On
the screen, which is part of the same work, are the arms, badge and
initials of Anne Boleyn, who was at the height of her influence between
1531 and 1535; the stallwork may be ascribed to the same period, but as yet
the stalls had plain backs. In 1633 Mr Thomas Weaver presented the large
coats of arms which are seen on the backs of the stalls (78). The cresting
was made between 1675 and 1678 by Thomas Austin, following more or less the
style of the work below.[40] The screen is more completely Italian in
treatment than any other work of the time, all the moldings being Classic;
it is practically certain that the general design and most of the work must
have been done by Italians. The design of screen and stalls alike is to be
regarded as an isolated example, complete in itself. It did not grow out of
anything that went before it in England, nor did it develop into anything
else in England afterwards.[41]
More Classical still in design--an entablature with architrave, frieze and
cornice superseding the semicircular arches of the Cambridge stalls--is the
superb woodwork at Cartmel, Lancashire. From the Dissolution up to 1620,
the choir of Cartmel priory church was roofless; the canopies of the stalls
must have perished; the stalls themselves remain, bearing the mark of long
exposure to the weather. In 1620 it is recorded[42] that George Preston of
Holker, who died in 1640, not only reroofed the chancel, "but decorated the
quire and chancel with a profusion of curiously and elaborately carved
woodwork" (80). {80}
[Illustration: Cartmel]
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[Illustration: Cartmel]
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Cartmel was a priory church of Austin Priors, with an income at the
Dissolution of £90, say £1,000. There are twenty-six stalls; above the
doorways are inscriptions in gold letters from the Psalms. The architrave
is supported by shafts which have Corinthian capitals, round which cling in
delightful fashion delicate tendrils and fruit of the vine. On the shafts
also are emblems of the Passion; in the illustrations may be recognised the
cross, the ladder, the buffet, the pillar of scourging, the hammer and the
nails. At the back is delicate tracery work, reminding one of the Gothic
tracery of the screen of St Catharine's chapel in Carlisle cathedral. The
whole design is full of grace and charm; above all in the delicate tendrils
of the vine coiling round the shafts; one's first thought is to class it
with the exquisite scrollwork of the churches of S. Maria dei Miracoli at
Brescia and Venice, and with the work of the Italian artists in England in
the time of Henry VIII. For as a rule, says Mr Gotch,[43] "with the close
of the first half of the sixteenth century we come to the end of pronounced
Italian detail such as pervades the tiles at Lacock abbey and characterises
other isolated features in different parts of the country. The nature of
the detail in the second half of the sixteenth century," and in the
seventeenth century, "is different; it no longer comprises the dainty
cherubs, the elegant balusters" (_cf._ the King's College stalls) "vases
and candelabra, the buoyant dolphins and delicately modelled foliage which
are associated with Italian and French Renaissance work, but indulges
freely in strapwork curled and interlaced, in fruit and foliage, in
cartouches and in caryatides, half human beings, half pedestals, such as
were the delight of the Dutchmen" who had superseded the Italian artists.
In the Cartmel stalls the one feature which is pre-eminently Jacobean is to
be seen in the character of the busts in the frieze; if they are compared
with those at Christchurch (77), they are seen at once to be of seventeenth
and not of sixteenth century design. Setting those aside, the design is
purely that of the Early English Renaissance, as practised by Italian
artists. It is one of the most remarkable examples of "survival" in design
in the range of English art, and as beautiful as it is belated--a whole
century behind the times. {83}
[Illustration: St Paul's Cathedral]
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In 1697 the choir of St Paul's cathedral was opened for public worship. The
stalls differ considerably in type from those of Pre-Reformation days, as
it was necessary to provide seats for the Lord Mayor and Corporation of
London as well as closets at the back to accommodate the wives and families
of the canons. By the removal of the western screen in the time of Dean
Melvill, appointed 1856, the appearance of the choir has been completely
changed. The exquisite carvings of Grinling Gibbons, says Dean Milman,[44]
are not merely admirable in themselves, but in perfect harmony with the
character of the architecture. He even goes so far as to say that they
rival, if they do not surpass, all mediæval works of their class in grace,
variety and richness; and keep up an inimitable unison of the lines of the
building and the decoration. In the words of Horace Walpole, "there is no
instance of a man before Gibbons who gave to wood the loose and airy
lightness of flowers, and changed together the various productions of the
elements with a fine disorder natural to each species." It is doubtful
whether Grinling Gibbons was of Dutch or English birth. He was discovered
by Evelyn in a poor solitary thatched house near Sayes Court carving a
Crucifixion after Tintoretto. In this piece more than a hundred figures
were introduced; "nor was there anything in nature so tender and delicate
as the flowers and festoons about it; and yet the work was strong." He
asked Evelyn £100 for it. The frame, says Evelyn, was worth as much. Evelyn
introduced "the incomparable young man" to the King and to Wren, and his
fortune was made. Malcolm in his _Londinium Redivivum_ calculates that the
payments made to Gibbons for his work in St Paul's amounted altogether to
£1,337. 7s. 5d.[45]
Space fails to tell of many noble examples of eighteenth century
stallwork.[46] In spite of an enormous amount of destruction, _e.g._, by
the vandals in charge of Canterbury cathedral, much still remains and
awaits the historian. A fine drawing of the stallwork put up in 1704 in
Canterbury choir will be found in Dart's _Canterbury_. The throne, carved
by Grinling Gibbons, was given by Archbishop Tenison; the pulpit, two of
the stalls and other fittings by Queen Mary II.;[47] all this has been
swept away, except some pieces worked into the return stalls, to make way
for stalls of the usual brand of Victorian Gothic.
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