The Decorative Sculpture : Vines 291 



Two shafts from the ruined eighth-century church of Aurona at 

 Milan, which are now in the Brera museum, have oval scrolls con- 

 taining leaf-ornaments, the tendrils ending in vine-leaves, grapes, etc. 

 They have not birds and animals in them, but in one case there is 

 a single bird at the top, and in the other case a single quadruped.^ 

 We need not dwell upon the peacock-screen of the museum of Brescia, 

 said to have come from the eighth-century church of San Salvatore, 

 and containing a kind of vine-pattern. ^ 



The baptistery of Calixtus, at Cividale in Friuli, belongs to the 

 first half of the 8th century. On the archivolts are vines, with birds 

 pecking at the grapes.^ A vine-scroll, with grapes but no birds, 

 executed in stucco, ornaments the arch over a door in the church 

 of Santa Maria in Valle, also at Cividale (762- 776) .* 



The iconoclasts (8th and 9th centuries) are credited with a pre- 

 dilection for this species of ornament.^ 



A piece of ornament from the church of St. Samson-sur-Rille 

 (Eure) exhibits a vine with grapes and fruit. This dates from before 

 the end of the 9th century, at latest.^ 



The jamb of the north opening into Britford church (Wiltshire) is 

 decorated with a vine of rather rude workmanship, which Rivoira 

 would date anywhere from the 8th to the 10th century ' ; the trees 



inclined to assume a connection. For example, he says : ' It seems to me that 

 Wilfrid was the originator of the beautiful forms that appear at Hexham and 

 other places, and which overran Northumbria.' 



For other Hexham work of this general character, see Stuart, Sculpt. Stones 

 of Scotland 2, PI. 88, 94 ; Rivoira 2. 142-4 ; Michel 2. 200 ; Greenwell, Cata- 

 logue, pp. 59 ff. 



^ Browne, Conv. of Hept., p. 225; Cattaneo, Architecture in Italy, pp. 138, 

 140. 



2 Figured in Michel P. 390; cf. Browne, Conv. of Hept., p. 222; Venturi 

 2. 134; Cattaneo, p. 151. 



^ Dartein, Etudes sur V Architecture Lombarde, p. 20, and pp. 11, 12, 13; 

 cf. Michel 1'. 386 ff. 



« Dartein, pp. 31, 33; Rivoira 1. 97-9; Venturi 2. 127, 129. Carotti 

 {Hist. Art 2^. 173) is sure that this is after 1000, ' being altogether in the 

 style of the Byzantine Renaissance.' 



5 See Michel l^. 152-3. 



® Caumont, Abecedaire d' Archeologie 1. 26; cf. p. 8. See also the design 

 on p. 86. Note the example from Coire (BurK Mag. 21. 195). 



' Lomb. Arch. 2. 180 ; see also Greenwell, Catalogue, p. 49 ; Browne, 

 Theodore and Wilfrith, pp. 291-2; Michel 1^ 120. 



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