Chapter IX: Part III: Decorated

=The Vestibule=.[27]--Passing through the beautiful doorway in the north aisle of the choir we enter the long passage, fifty-four feet by ten, leading to the chapter-house. This passage, although built in Decorated times, presents certain features in common with the Early English of the choir; and represents a transitional stage between the two styles. This is particularly marked in the southern part adjoining the choir. The roof clearly points out where the two parts join. At the choir end opposite the court, this is of wood and modern, but facing the chapter-house at the far end, it is a plain quadripartite vaulting, and low as this first part is, it would seem to have been raised; for the wall above the double arcading looking into the court, with its uninteresting square-headed windows, is evidently an after-addition. The point of junction of the two pieces of work on the west side is the second buttress of the north transept chapel, and on the east side the middle of one of the arches a little nearer the door. By some the earlier part is called the cloister, and the northern and after-part the vestibule; but as they both form part of the same passage, it is simpler to give one name to the whole. The unfoliated arcading overlooking the court is double, forming an inner and outer with a distance between of rather less than a foot. The arches are lancet-shaped, and joined by transoms or cross lintels at the capitals, both transoms and capitals being ornamented with natural foliage. The hood-moulding above is continuous, and at each base we come across the first of the carved figures.

ARCADING OF THE VESTIBULE.]

The archway nearest to the choir has been converted into a door leading into the court; and the shaft to the left is partly cut away. On the under side of the doorway arch, between the inner and outer arches, is diaper work, but with the remainder this is quite plain. Unfortunately, to keep out the cold and wet, the lower part of the space between the double arches has been built up with stone; and in consequence the effect of the double pillars and arches is in a great measure lost. It is also to be regretted that, owing to the dampness of the hemmed-in and almost sunless courtyard, the outer arcading, which faces due east, has suffered from the action of the climate, and been repaired. The upper part of the spaces has been filled with glass on the outside. The usual cloister bench supports the interior arcading, and the mouldings of the bases are hollow of the Early English style. On the opposite or west side, adjoining the north transept chapel, the blank arcading is single, and broken by the buttresses of the chapel, and the arches trefoiled. Coming to the northern part opposite to the entrance of the chapter-house the arcading is still lancet-shaped: the window arches of three lancets moulded with a filleted kidney-shaped round, less elaborate altogether than in the chapter-house. The small doorway on the right opens on a circular staircase leading to a small room above the vestibule. Anywhere else the end of this passage would attract the notice its intrinsic merits call for. The graceful lines and curves of the roof vaulting; the two windows, each with its tracery of trefoiled circles with pierced cuspings above the three lights; the arcading with the simple cusped trefoiling of the arches; the foliage and the figure carving: all this forms a combination which for tasteful variety leaves little to be desired. As it is, it is passed over for the chapter-house doorway.

At the point of junction on the east side is a curious figure of a man astride some nameless animal. The mouldings of a half-arch, constructed or altered in order to join the new work to the older, terminate partly on the man, partly on the beast. The string course from the choir terminates in a bunch of foliage and fruit, which the beast appears to be gnawing, and that from the far end on the man’s head. The shafts of the arch between the wooden roof and quadripartite vaulting both terminate in the mouth of a head which forms the lower part of the capital.

In this cloister-vestibule the idea of the architect would seem to have been to form a gradual connection between the pure Early English of the choir and the pure Geometrical and Decorated of the chapter-house. Not only does his work partake of both styles; but that nearer to the choir has more of the Early English, and that nearer to the chapter-house more of the Decorated. It is best to look at the two parts as the work of one man, the second erected slightly after the completion of the first, and both as forming one conception with the chapter-house itself. “In some cases,” wrote Mr Louis Petit, “the architect’s intention seems to have been to make the transition as gradual, in others as startling as possible.” Here from the commencement of the cloister part of the vestibule, with its lancet arches of one style finished off with the carving of another, the idea was to prepare us by degrees for the more elaborate and artistic workmanship of a date and style later than that of the chapter-house.

=The Chapter-House=.--“In design and execution alike, in its general proportions and in its minutest details, it is impossible to conceive anything more beautiful. It is the most perfect work of the most perfect style of Gothic architecture.”--A. F. LEACH.

“What either Cologne Cathedral or Ratisbon or Weisen Kirche are to Germany, Amiens Cathedral or the Sainte Chapelle are to France, the Scalegere in Verona to Italy, are the choir of Westminster and the chapter-house at Southwell to England.”--G. E. STREET, R.A.

DOORWAY TO CHAPTER-HOUSE.]

=The Doorway=.--The archway is of five orders, and is divided by a clustered shaft in the centre into two smaller arches with a quatrefoiled circle above. There are no doors. The outside member of the main arch, which carries the hood, stands apart against the wall; the others are against the main jamb, of which the mouldings are visible underneath. The four outer shafts of Purbeck marble are detached, a somewhat unusual arrangement in Decorated work, though usual in Early English. The innermost shafts are not detached, and have neither base nor capital; and from them spring both the corresponding order of the arch as well as the outer limb of the two subordinate archways. Above the plinth the bases of the detached shafts are octagonal, with round mouldings. On the north side, between the two outer shafts, a band of foliage is worked upon the edge of the wall. An additional is made by two small arches on the face of the wall resting on the outside capitals. All the capitals are foliaged. Of the five orders, the outer or hood has foliage upon a deep hollow; the third or central, two strings of leaves worked upon hollows which are separated by a round; the second and fourth are moulded with rounds and hollows, and so is the fifth or innermost, with which is combined the two subordinate arches and the tracery above. In the third order more especially, so painstaking and elaborate is the tool work that it is difficult to see how the artist could make the mouldings underneath the foliage. But for the evidence of the stone itself, the presumption would be that the foliage was worked on separate material and afterwards placed in position. The slender clustered shaft in the centre of the doorway has base and capitals similar; and the two subordinate arches have filleted round mouldings with foliage. They are trefoiled, and the circle above quatrefoiled; and in arches and circle the cusping is moulded with the fillet and pierced.

Such is a plain account of the main features; but it is impossible to give any accurate idea of the impression it makes. The mingled grandeur and delicacy of the workmanship is enhanced by the background of the chapter-house, and by the particular effect caused by the light streaming down from the windows within. “One of the most beautiful specimens,” wrote Mr Louis Petit, “within the range of Gothic art.” “Faerial” is the particular word suggested looking through the archway; but “faerial” does not adequately represent the scale of workmanship. Amongst the numerous artists and architects the minster has attracted is Mr Ruskin; and Mr Ruskin alone could have worthily depicted the effect produced.

=The Interior=.--It has been said that there is a difference of opinion as to whether York or Southwell is the older; but, according to Professor Willis, York must be the copy of Southwell. The two certainly have a great deal in common; for not only are both octagonal and placed in the same position, but both lack the central pillar, which in all the remaining chapter-houses in the country supports the vaulting of the roof. While York is by far the larger, there is universal agreement that Southwell excels it, as all others, in beauty.

CHAPTER-HOUSE--CANOPIES OF STALLS.]

The diameter is somewhat less than 30 feet, and each side of the octagon is about 12 feet. The side due west is occupied by the archway, and that immediately to the south of it by a wall, behind which is the circular newel staircase. This--the south-west wall--as well as the west, has a blank arch, resembling but not quite so lofty as the window arches, and the space above is ornamented with the universal foliage. The remaining six sides are pierced with the broad Decorated windows; and of these, that in the south wall overlooks the courtyard. Round all the seven sides not occupied by the doorway runs a low stone bench, and above the bench the stalls, five for each side: each series separated by a vaulting shaft reaching down to the bench and engaged. The shafts of the stalls are circular and detached, their bases variously moulded and their capitals of foliage. The arches are simple trefoils--not merely trefoiled underneath, as in the vestibule--and moulded with filleted rounds and hollows. Above there are acute-shaped canopies with corbels carved with both foliage and figures, the sides relieved by crockets which bear no resemblance to crooks, and finials which pass through the string course and terminate below the windows. The woodwork and nomenclature of the stalls are a recent addition, added for the use of the modern canons.

DETAILS OF DOORWAY, CHAPTER-HOUSE.]

The spandrels between the canopies are similarly ornamented, making the whole wall space below the windows a mass of sculpture in endless variety. The window arches are of two orders only, one less than the exterior, and the capitals are of foliage instead of the plain mouldings of the exterior. The lower parts of the engaged vaulting shafts from the bench to the corbels of the canopies are combined with the stall shafts in either side. Rising through the string course they then pass upwards in the angles of the wall between the window shafts, and the group of three shafts terminate together in united capitals of foliage at the spring of the arch. From the capital a groin rib reaches to the boss of foliage in the centre of the roof; two wall ribs form an arch over each window, and from the apex of the windows project horizontal ribs to the large central boss. The moulding of the ribs is the deep hollow; and at every point of intersection occasion is taken to introduce a subordinate boss.

CHAPTER-HOUSE--CAPITAL.]

The glass has suffered by time and neglect, and probably from wanton damage; before this the interior must have presented an appearance even more striking. A few scattered fragments, however, still remain, some of it collected from other windows. In the border of one of the northern lights are depicted the yellow castles of Castile. They are the arms of Eleanor of Castile, the first wife of Edward I. and mother of the unhappy Edward II. As she died in 1290, and as her arms would not have been inserted any length of time after her death, we have an interesting corroboration of the date of the building. In the same border is a white lion rampant on a red field: according to Mr Winston, of the same date; but according to Mr Planché, the arms of John Mowbray, Earl of Nottingham, and somewhat later. In one of the trefoiled tracery lights of the south window is a small medallion of white glass, on which is a knight, with spear under arm, tilting. He wears a long surcoat with hauberk and chausses of mail, and helmet with crest resembling a bird’s wing. There are also imitations of the crockets and finials of the stalls, and of the brass represented in the carving of one of the capitals.

CHAPTER-HOUSE--CAPITAL.]

It is interesting to observe how this earlier Decorated workmanship availed itself of some of the Early English ideas, and how readily the two combined. The deeply-cut hollow moulding, for instance, is adhered to in the arches and groin ribs; and in spite of the great variety of more elaborate carving, room is still found for the conventional triple-lobed leaf in a few of the capitals. In this respect Southwell conforms with the general rule, as the rounds and hollows continued to prevail until long after the chapter-house was completed. On the other hand, the scroll or roll moulding--a round with one half smaller than the other, and with a sharp edge--extensively used in the arches, is characteristic of the Decorated, and must have been used at Southwell almost as soon as anywhere.

CHAPTER-HOUSE--CAPITAL.]

Other chapter-houses may have proportions and symmetry of a like elegance; none have the wealth and luxuriance of carving to be found here. The artist’s tool is used everywhere possible, right up to the roof; and the quantity is too great to admit of the accepted tradition that all is the work of one and the same hand. There is, it is true, every mark of one general conception; but more than one sculptor must have been employed, each a man of such taste and skill that, had he lived in our day, he would have earned both name and competence. As it is, we know not to whom we are indebted. Discarding all accepted conventionalities, the foliage is natural to a degree, largely undercut and standing boldly forward. Bryony and ivy; the vine leaf, the fig leaf, and the hop; the white thorn and the rose, the oak and the maple are among the plants faithfully portrayed, and this part has been compared to the delicate lace pattern of Chinese work. There are also human heads, as above the stall now marked “Alto Pecco,” with two stems issuing from the mouth, and others from the head-dress, or the bare-headed one to the left of the doorway, both with a life-like expression. Again, there are animals, birds of various kinds, lizards, boars, and the rest. “No two capitals or bosses or spandrels can be found alike, no wearisome repetition of beautiful parts tires the eye, but everywhere we meet, in ever-changing and ever-charming variety, with some fresh object of interest and admiration.... A man reclines beneath a tree, puffing lustily away at a horn, or a goat is gnawing the leaves, or a bird pecking the berries, or a pair of pigs are grubbing up the acorns, or a brace of hounds just grabbing a hare.... Of very much of it, it is not too much to say, that it is the work of no mere chiseller of stone, but of a consummate artist; than whom it may well be doubted whether any sculptor, of any age or country, ever produced anything more life-like and exquisitely graceful.”

CARVING ABOVE STALL, NOW CALLED “ALTO PECCO”]

Unhappily there is a certain amount of injury for which, without authority, the Roundheads have been blamed. They may have broken the stained glass; but there is no authenticated instance of their interference with work of this kind. Images of saints, inscriptions implying the doctrine of purgatory or prayers for the dead, are the kinds of carving that excited their abhorrence. Here the sculpture is so secular that Bishop Christopher Wordsworth said of it upon the spot: “Perhaps even the beautiful sculptured foliage in some of the ornamental work of this fair chapter-house might be referred to as showing that reverence for holy things and holy places was not a characteristic of some who had chief authority.” As indeed there was not; for while a regular and a secular priest are both represented, they are engaged, not at prayer, but as tussling with one another, the secular of course having the best of it. The dilapidations have been caused by broken windows and a neglected roof, and by the allowing of unskilful hands to take casts.[28]

ROOD SCREEN FROM THE NAVE.]

=The Rood Screen=.--This, the latest piece of the work, dating some forty years after the chapter-house, is under the eastern arch of the central tower, and on the western side presents a picturesque insertion of Decorated architecture in the midst of Norman surroundings. Marks in the stonework show that it replaced an earlier one, coeval with the choir. The great cross or holy rood itself must have been a striking feature, looking from the west door or the chancel: the organ merely blocks up the way. It was probably removed in the reign of Edward VI., and the like fate awaited the statues which adorned the western face.

The screen opens into the nave with three canopied arches. The base mouldings overlap the plinth, and the pillars are of four graceful clustered shafts. The inner arches are cinque-foil, with pierced cusps, and those above ornamented with crockets. The foliage of the capitals clings closely, more so than in the chapter-house, and shows the advance in the style.

The parapet also is typical of the style: the leading line of the stonework is pierced so as to form a continuous undulation; and the openings are foliated. The flat stone roof is supported by flying ribs, and in the spandrels between these and the corresponding ribs of the roof above are trefoiled circles, and the points of intersection are worked with bosses. On either side is a staircase leading to the organ gallery above. The side walls are richly ornamented with flowing tracery. On the eastern face besides the ogee shape of the arches, the main feature of interest is the profuse introduction of carved heads, at the outer angles of the cusps, in the spandrels, and on the capitals. Some are angels, others ecclesiastics, and others like those in the chapter-house, have a life-like expression. Above the central arch is a figure of the Virgin and Child. Edward Cludd, when the minster was threatened, used his influence with the Protector in time to save the screen, which, possessing so many religious emblems, would otherwise have been speedily demolished. The ball flower is used above the canopies of the stalls. There are three stalls on either side, and the back of the first to the south, in olden times the archbishop’s throne, is decorated with diaper work, each square with a different flower pattern. The seats are fixed with hinges, and make regular misereres, so that when turned up the prebendaries would be able to rest against them while standing or kneeling. The wood carving is chiefly of foliage.

The rood screen, with its profuse elaboration of ornament forming an integral part of the structure, and with its characteristic base mouldings, capitals, and parapet, is as fine a specimen of the full maturity of the Decorated style, as is the chapter-house of the earlier or Geometrical stage.

CHOIR, LOOKING WEST, AND SHOWING ROOD SCREEN.]