![]() It would be surprising if it was intended to represent a specific plant at this date: naturalistic foliage did not begin to appear in Europe until the well into the 13th century at Reims and Naumburg. The idea that the motif is derived from the lotus seems unlikely since that plant is native to southern Asia and was introduced to Europe in 1787 as a stove house water lily by Joseph Banks. Waterleaf capitals have a simple elegance that marks a break from the rich complexity of forms that had gone before. ![]() The waterleaf font at St Nicholas, Great Wilbraham (Cambridgeshire)īy 1200 the waterleaf had more or less died out, to be replaced by crocket and stiff-leaf forms, hence its presence suggests a date of c.1175-1200, and it is a useful diagnostic indicator for dating. A couple of examples might provide a taster of this aesthetic. ![]() The dating of this is disputed, but the best guess is that the building was completed before 1169, the latest date for the death of Archdeacon William who was carried there a few days before he died. ![]() One of the most fruitful sites for the student of Romanesque Mannerism is the Infirmary Hall at Ely Cathedral. Which is why I label this exciting phase Romanesque Mannerism, and the opportunities for transgression offered by the logic of the scallop capital provided a rich field for this kind of experimentation. But in the third quarter of the 12th century there are indications that some of the most accomplished sculptors – those working on important sites for wealthy patrons – began to pervert and play with the logic in a way that has parallels with the games that architects like Giulio Romano played with the classical elements at the Palazzo del Te. Each shaft of a multi-order doorway has its own capital and archivolt each cone of a multi-scallop capital carries its own shield. Whether we look at a nave elevation, a chancel arch, a doorway or a capital, each element stands in a logical relation to its neighbours. Romanesque architecture and sculpture is above all a rational system. To take a random example, the chancel arch at St Peter, Rowlestone (Herefordshire) is lavishly decorated on the nave side, while the chancel face is quite plain.Ĭapital of the south doorway of All Saints, Pitsford (Northants) This was achieved by the use of multiple decorated orders on the west face only, so that the chancel arch almost operated like a picture frame and in one direction only. The clergy had a different view – of an arch that was almost or entirely plain. For the laity the chancel arch was, especially in the twelfth and early-thirteenth centuries, an elaborate frame for the sacred ritual. What is striking about the structure of the chancel arch, however, is that there is a clear tendency for its two faces – the western public face and the eastern clergy face – to be very different. Roods and screens are very much secondary elements in church building added after the architecture and its sculpture defined its spaces, and arguably always seen as subject to change. At St James, Hanslope grooves have been hacked out of the Romanesque capitals and impost blocks to house a later screen.
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