The Decorative Sculpture : Vines 287 



The tomb of Theodota, about 720 (Museum of Pavia) has grace- 

 ful vine-sprays ; ^ cf. the tomb of Theodechildis (d. 660), at 

 Jouarre. 



The Hexham cross, generally regarded as the headstone for the 

 grave of Bishop Acca, who died in 740, now exists in four pieces in 

 the Library of Durham Cathedral. It lacks almost all the head and 

 a portion of the shaft %. feet high, and was nearly 14 feet high when 

 complete. The base is 14 inches by 11, and the top 11 inches by 

 71, this piece being 11 feet high. ' The design upon one face con- 

 sists of two vine plants, to a great extent naturally treated, inter- 

 twining, forming nine sHghtly-pointed oval panels, filled with varied 

 combinations of grape bunches, vine leaves and tendrils, in which 

 the grapes predominate.' ^ 



In the attribution of these fragments to the memorial of Acca, 

 the chief weight attaches to a passage from Pseudo-Simeon of Dur- 

 ham : ' Corpus vero ejus ad orientalem plagam extra parietem ec- 

 clesiae Haugustaldensis [Hexham] . . sepultum est. Duaeque cruces 

 lapidea mirabih caelatura decoratae positae sunt, una ad caput, alia ad 

 pedes ejus.' ^ The largest of the fragments remaining ' was found in the 

 earth ' ' while making the chancel of the present church, in the position 

 that the memorial must have originally occupied.'* Of the inscription, 

 which originally filled the whole of one face of the cross, very little 

 remains. ' The commencing letter is certainly A, and at the end 

 of the line are some remains which may be resolved into il, in which 

 case the inscription would begin with Alpha and Omega, not an un- 

 hkely heading. The name ACCA has, however, been suggested, and 

 some traces of the last three letters of the name have been thought 

 to be still visible. The second line commences mth SC, and nothing 

 more can be made out until about the middle of the shaft, where the 

 words VNIGENITO FILIO DEO, from the Nicene Creed, can be 

 read with almost absolute certainty.'^ However, the authorities 

 seem to be agreed that the fragments belong to Acca's cross — the 



^ Rivoira, Burlington Magazine., April 15, 1912, p. 25. 



2 Greenwell, Catalogue, p. 53, where three plates are given. Other de- 

 scriptions, with illustrations, are in Raine, Priory of Hexham 1. xxxiv; Stuart, 

 Sculptured Stones of Scotland 2. 47, 48, plates xcii, xciii ; Browne, Theodore 

 and Wilfrith, pp. 257-261 ; History of N orthumherland 3. 181 ; Rivoira 2. 143. 

 Enlart (Michel, Hist, de VArt 2. 200) regards the decoration of the Acca cross 

 as strikingly similar to that of the throne of Maximian. 



3 Raine 1. 204. 



* Ihid. 1. xxxiv; cf. Greenwell, Catalogue, pp. 57-8. 

 ^ Oroenwell, p. 57. 



1 75) 



