download

498
MEDIEVAL ENGLAND
head on its engraved cushions is formalized, with probably no
attempt at natural likeness, and the hair is set in regular curves;
but this severity is counteracted by the flow of the drapery,
which has a suavity of line that had not yet been achieved in
English stonexcarving (PL 99 &). These bronze figures introx
duce a notable line oftomb effigies which continue throughout
the later middle ages to represent much that is best in English
craftsmanship. Purbeck marble was in the thirteenth century
the fashionable material for the major tombs, and here the
hardness ofthe material resulted in a simplified treatment ofthe
features and a stiff rigidity ofthe drapery; both qualities can be
seen in one of the finest examples, the tomb of King John at
Worcester, probably about 1230. The sculptor of another
splendid monument, the effigy of Archbishop de Gray at York,
was more subtle in the use ofhis tools, more able to suggest the
forms below the drapery. The archbishop lies beneath a pin'
nacled canopy, also of Purbeck marble, and these canopied
tombs, ever increasing in elaboration till they come to enclose a
complete chapel, were to provide some of the happiest express
sions of English plastic sense.
As compared with these tombs, but little religious sculpture
has survived. The great doorway ofthe north transept at West'
minster was rich in statuary but nothing now remains of it.
The Virgin and the Angel of the Annunciation from the
chapter/house show us the Wells tradition meeting with a new
French civility, a subtlety in the sense ofgesture, a modishness
in the gathering ofthe drapery, which are outside the range of
the provincial schools. But it is the angels of the transept
spandrels that reveal Westminster sculpture at its best. Carved
in such high relief as to be almost free standing, they have a
liveliness ofmovement, a sureness ofmodelling, and a vigorous
charm that can hold their own against any angelic rivalry.
Hard to see from floor level, they remain, preserved from icomv
clasm by their remoteness, one of the greatest treasures of our
medieval inheritance (PL 100 a).
Beside them the angels of the choir at Lincoln are heavy,
boorish/looking creatures, their robes treated in flat planes with