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Bradford-196 ENGLAND SAXON PERIOD [CH. xxvia rood or crucifixion, on each side of which they mighthave been fitted. Doubt has been thrown on theantiquity of these figures, and Rivoira thinks, they arenot coeval with the church but date from the i3th century.But there certainly was a school of sculpture in Saxonworkmen who wereEngland, influenced by the foreign introduced by Biscop and Wilfrid. Wilfrid's church atHexham was painted and carved with histories andimages in the 7th century. These figures at Bradfordhave a very Byzantine look, and have nothing of thegrotesque which came in with northern Teutonic influences.Somewhat similar figures of angels with theirhands similarly draped with napkins occur in the I2thcentury mosaics at the Martorana, Palermo, where theyare proved to be of Byzantine origin by their Greeklegends 1 . Four of them flyround the figure of Christ inthe dome, but a pair are placed face to face like these atBradford, ready to receive the soul of the Virgin whichthe Saviour isoffering them. These figures howeverare in a much later style than those at Bradford.Noith- The latter were no doubt copied from some ivory orwoven stuff of Eastern looms, and so acquired a characterschoofofsculpturean(j gt yj e jn acjvance of English art before the conquest.The same thing has been observed in other instances :itexplains the excellence of the figureson the stonecrosses at Ruthwell and Bewcastle, far beyond the ordinarystandard of British art at the end of the 7th century.Crosses at The date of the Bewcastle cross is fixed by an inscriptioneand that of Ruthwell is coevalcasan