The Figure-Sculpture: Archer 273 



as the devil ; and the archer must accordingly represent an agent 

 of good, engaged in slaying the power of evil. 



One of the capitals of the narthex of the Benedictine abbey church 

 of St. Benoit-sur-Loire, or Fleury, exhibits an archer riding on a 

 horse, and bending his bow at the figure of a man. This is inter- 

 preted by Crosnier^ as referring to Rev. 6. 2 : ' And I saw, and behold 

 a white horse : and he that sat on him had a bow ; and a crown was 

 given unto him : and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.' 

 This archer, again, must be conceived as an agent of good. According 

 to Marignan, this is proved to be of the second half of the 12th cen- 

 tury by the form of the bow. 



Puis, ce sont des chapiteaux ou se trouvent des cavaliers : Tun 

 d'eux tient a la main un arc dont la forme, ainsi que celle de I'epee 

 de ses compagnons, correspond a la meme epoque.^ 



In the tympanum of the north doorway of Ribbesford Church, 

 Worcestershire, is ' an archer shooting an arrow at a monster from 

 which a fawn is escaping.' ^ Finally, there is an archer, a youthful, 

 naked figure, on a wall-slab from Hexham, which Greenwell thinks^ 

 ' may possibly have proceeded from the artists whose handicraft or 

 influence is shown on the Ruth well and Bewcastle crosses.' 



^ Bull. Moil. 22 (1856). 123-5; see the engraving on p. 123, and Caumont, 

 Ahecedaire d' Archeologie 1. 177. 



2 Marignan, in Revue de VArt Chretien 45 (1902). 300. Marignan maintains 

 that no part of the narthex can be of the 11th century, and that the evidence 

 points to the second half of the 12th century. Thus he argues that the 

 costume (' cotte courte descendant jusqu'aux genoux, serree a la taille par une 

 ceinture,' p. 295) points to this epoch. Then the monks wear a tunic and a 

 mantle provided with a hood, the priests are clad as in the seals of the period, 

 a knight is dressed as on the Bayeux tapestry (p. 295). The same is true 

 of the costume of the Virgin in the Annunciation and the Visitation of the 

 pillar on the left as you leave the narthex for the church. That in the 

 Visitation resembles those worn by the women of the nobihty on seals of 

 the second half of the 12th century (p. 297). One pillar, the next to the 

 left-hand corner on the western face, bears the inscription : Umbertus me 

 fecit ; this is another important indication of the date, since such signatures 

 belong only to the period mentioned, as witness the fagade of St. Giles, 

 the chapter-house door {parte capitulaire) of St. Stephen at Toulouse, etc. 

 Still another indication is the inclusion of scenes from everyday life, in place 

 of confining the representations to purely rehgious subjects (pp. 303, 305). 

 Everything, according to Marignan, points to a date not far from 1170. 



^ Keyser, List of Norman Tympana, p. 37 ; cf. p. XLIII, and Fig. 68. 



* Catalogue, p. 46, note 1 ; p. 64. 



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