EARLY CHRISTIAN ART 



South Face. — Above, a scroll of foliage interlaced with intersecting semi-circular arched bands ; 

 and below in the centre, a device made by interlacing two oval rings with each other, having on 

 either side of it ears of wheat (?) tied together in bunches of three.' 



The figure subjects sculptured on the Norman fonts of Norfolk are as 

 follows : — 



The Temptation of Adam and Eve (Fincham). 



The Nativity of Christ (Fincham). 



The Adoration of the Magi (Fincham and Sculthorpe). 



The Baptism of Christ (Fincham). 



The Labours of the Months (Burnham Deepdale). 



All of these subjects are Scriptural, except the last. The first is taken 

 from the opening chapters of the book of Genesis, and the next three from 

 the life of Christ as related in the four Gospels. The Temptation of Adam 

 and Eve is not infrequently represented on Norman fonts, there being other 

 examples at Herringswell (Sussex), East Meon (Hants), Kirkby and Walton 

 on the Hill (Lanes.), and Cowlam and Gotham (Yorks.). The symbolism is 

 clearly explained by the text, ' For as in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all 

 be made alive' (i Corinthians xv. 22). The subject of the Temptation of 

 Adam and Eve w^as introduced into Christian art at the earliest period, as it is 

 found on the paintings in the Roman catacombs of the third and fourth 

 centuries, on the sculptured sarcophagi in Italy of the fifth and sixth cen- 

 turies, and on the Irish crosses of the ninth and tenth centuries.** Curiously 

 enough it is one of the few symbolical representations which survived after the 

 Reformation in England and Scotland upon tombstones of the eighteenth and 

 nineteenth centuries.' The chief peculiarities of the Temptation of Adam 

 and Eve on the Fincham font are the realistic treatment of the Tree of Life,* 

 and the indicating of the eyes of the figures by means of drilled holes.^ 



The Nativity of Christ is a comparatively rare subject on Norman fonts, 

 the only other case where it occurs being at West Haddon, Northampton- 

 shire. It first appears in Christian art on the sculptured sarcophagi of the 

 fifth century. On the Fincham font the manger with the infant Saviour, 

 the heads of the ox and the ass, and the star of Bethlehem are reduced 

 to their simplest elements so as to form a sort of hieroglyph suggesting the 

 mediaeval Latin couplet. 



The Adoration of the Magi is rather more common on Norman fonts 

 than the Nativity, and there are other examples at Cowlam* and Ingleton, 

 Yorks. Perhaps the earliest sculpture of this subject is upon the sarcophagus 

 of Isaac the Exarch (a.d. 644) in the church of San Vitale at Ravenna,^ and 

 there are later representations of it upon the crosses at Monasterboice and 

 Clones in Ireland,* and on the rune-inscribed Franks Casket in the British 

 Museum.* 



It would have been thought that the Baptism of Christ would have been 

 chosen by the Norman sculptor for the decoration of the fonts in our churches 



' The Sculthorpe font has been described and illustrated by Mr. H. Jones in Proc. Norf. and Norw. Arch. 

 Soc. vii (1872) 321. 



- J. R. Allen, Early Christian Symbolism, 185. ' Ibid. 



* The tree is usually very highly conventionalized, especially on the Irish crosses and on the fonts at Cotham 

 and Cowlam. 



' Similar holes for eyes occur on one of the broken cross-shafts at Dewsbury (Yorks.), and on the coffin- 

 lid at Wirksworth, Derbyshire, but they are most unusual in Norman work. 



' J. R. Allen, Early Christian Symbolism, 194. ' J. W. Appell, Monuments of Early Christian Art, 27. 



^ Early Christian Symbolism, \<)6. ' Ibid. 198. 



2 561 71 



