EARLY CHRISTIAN ART AND INSCRIPTIONS 



South Transept Arch, West Side. — Centre Capital, two men armed with shields and clubs 

 fit'hting, and a woman weeping in the background ; i Right Capital, foliage ; Left Capital, ditto. 



Two of the capitals at Wakerley " are decorated with interlacing foliage, 

 and one of them has sculptured upon it a knight on horseback with another 

 figure behind him pointing upwards with the index finger of the right hand. 

 In the background on each side are domed buildings of the usual Byzantine 

 type.' 



where the vine leaves .ind bunches of grapes are exactly copied from nature. The vintage combined with a 

 pair of peacocks occurs on a sculptured stone in Rous Lench Church near Evesham, Worcestershire. The 

 vine was adopted as a symbol of Christ from the earliest period. 



1 The representation of the two men fighting with clubs is a very curious one. It has already been 

 pointed out that the same scene occurs on the font at Wansford, but without the female spectator in the back- 

 ground. The clubs have a round knob at the end. The shields are rounded at the top and pointed at the 

 bottom, and there is a boss near the top. The Lidy is evidently an interested spectator of the combat, and 

 m.iy even have been the cause of a dispute which has led to a mortal duel. At all events, there is no necessity 

 here to say ' Cherchez la femme.' The lady is shown clearly enough evincing her grief by tears. She is 

 fashionably attired with the inordinately long sleeves of the period, seen from the front instead of sidew^ays, a 

 most unusual feature. Perhaps the scene may have been taken from one of the mediaeval romances or some 

 other literary source familiar to the Norman ecclesiastics. It suggests a moral which the celibate monks were 

 never tired of dwelling upon, namely, that in order to live happily in this world and the next it was essential 

 to avoid the society of women, and thus escape all the evils they have brought on mankind. 



- Illustrated in Journ. Brit. Arck. Ass. new ser. i. 319. 



3 Mr. J. T. Irvine, in the paper just referred to, conjectures that these buildings are intended for the 

 churches of S. Sophia at Constantinople and of the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. He thinks that the scene 

 represents a knight on his way to the Crusades bidding farewell to his lady beneath the walls of Byzantium, 

 whilst she lifts her hand heavenwards to imply that she commits her lord to the protection of the Almighty 

 during the remainder of his journey. Representations of domed buildings are not very common in Norman 

 sculpture, but there are other instances on the font at Lenton (Notts), on the capitals beneath the central 

 tower of Southwell Minster, in the same county, and on a capital from Lewes Priory, now in the British 

 Museum (see J. R. Allen, E/:fly Christian Symbolism, 298 ; Assoc. Ankit. Soc. Rep. xix. ; and Proc. Soe. Antij. 

 ser. z, vol. xv. 199). 



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